U.S. patent application number 13/453192 was filed with the patent office on 2012-08-16 for image processing system, image processor and image processing program.
This patent application is currently assigned to Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.. Invention is credited to Kazuo Matoba, Tomo TSUBOI.
Application Number | 20120206768 13/453192 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 36315972 |
Filed Date | 2012-08-16 |
United States Patent
Application |
20120206768 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
TSUBOI; Tomo ; et
al. |
August 16, 2012 |
IMAGE PROCESSING SYSTEM, IMAGE PROCESSOR AND IMAGE PROCESSING
PROGRAM
Abstract
To provide a system in which image data created in an image
processor is processed in association with an application activated
on a user terminal. The system includes an image processor, and a
user terminal connected with the image processor over a network.
The image processor includes: an activated application identifying
unit for obtaining information about an application activated on
the user terminal; a one-touch key generating unit for generating a
one-touch key including information for processing image data by
the application activated on the user terminal; and a transmission
unit for transmitting the image data to the user terminal. The user
terminal includes: a receiving unit for receiving the image data
from the image processor; and a one-touch key processing unit for
processing the image data by the application activated on the user
terminal, based on the information of the one-touch key.
Inventors: |
TSUBOI; Tomo; (Itami-shi,
JP) ; Matoba; Kazuo; (Akashi-shi, JP) |
Assignee: |
Konica Minolta Business
Technologies, Inc.
Tokyo
JP
|
Family ID: |
36315972 |
Appl. No.: |
13/453192 |
Filed: |
April 23, 2012 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
11019248 |
Dec 23, 2004 |
8179544 |
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13453192 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
358/1.15 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 3/1253 20130101;
G06F 3/1222 20130101; G06F 3/1206 20130101; G06F 3/1288 20130101;
G06F 3/1238 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
358/1.15 |
International
Class: |
G06F 15/00 20060101
G06F015/00 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Nov 9, 2004 |
JP |
2004-325215 |
Claims
1. A user terminal connected with a multi function peripherals,
comprising: a receiving unit for receiving, from the multi function
peripherals, an image data and information of a one-touch key
including information for processing the image data by a software
on the user terminal; and a processing unit for processing the
image data by the software on the user terminal based on the
information of the one-touch key.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a divisional application of U.S. Ser.
No. 11/019,248, filed on Dec. 23, 2004, and claims priority from
Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-325215, filed in Japan on Nov.
9, 2004, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by
reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention relates to an image processing system
including an image processor and user terminals connected over a
network, an image processor, and an image processing program.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] As an image processor, a multiple function peripherals
(MFP), for example, including a scanning function for loading
scanned image data as an image file in addition to a printing
function, has been used recently. Each image processor is not
connected with one user terminal only, but connected with a
network. In such a case, one image processor is connected with a
plurality of user terminals over a network, and image data scanned
and loaded by the image processor is transmitted to a desired user
terminal.
[0004] Examples of such a device are as follows. An image processor
described in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2003-46700
(Patent Document 1) converts image information, which has been
read, into a PDF file format, and then transmits it to a personal
computer designated by an operation unit. The personal computer
which received the image information automatically activates the
Acrobat, a software, so as to display the image information in a
PDF file format on the screen. A scanner device described in
Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2002-77504 (Patent
Document 2) forms a scanned script as an attachment file of an
e-mail. A facsimile device described in Japanese Patent Laid-open
Publication No. 2003-32423 (Patent Document 3) additionally
transmits e-mail text for decoding the attached file. An e-mail
system described in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No.
2003-324574 (Patent Document 4) stores the e-mail title, text and
comment corresponding to a destination in advance, and transmits
scanned image data to the destination as an attachment file. In a
scanned mail transmission system described in Japanese Patent
Laid-open Publication No. 2004-88613 (Patent Document 5), a user
prepares and registers, in advance, the e-mail destination, text
and subject which are to be accessed at the time of scanning, and
transmits image data as an attachment file.
[0005] However, a user must return to a user terminal after
transmitting image data from an image processor to the user
terminal of oneself, and process the image data on the user
terminal side. For example, after receiving the image data, the
user must prepares the text and the subject of an e-mail on the
user terminal side, and transmit the received image data by
attaching it to the e-mail, or the user must attach the received
image data to a document which has been prepared.
[0006] Each of the aforementioned Patent Documents also has a
problem similar to that described above as for the related art. For
example, the image processor of Patent Document 1 does not obtain
information for an application activated on a user terminal, but
only displays it on the screen. The push-type scanner device of
Patent Document 2 just transmits image data as an attachment file
of an e-mail, so the subject and the text of the e-mail cannot be
set. The facsimile device of Patent Document 3 only has a feature
that information for decoding the attachment file is made as e-mail
text, and arbitrary editing is not possible. The e-mail system of
Patent Document 4 only has a feature of accessing data registered
in advance. The data cannot be changed as needed. In the scanned
mail transmission system of Patent Document 5, scanned mail
information must be set before using the system. Further, the
system only accesses the information which has been prepared before
using it, and the information cannot be changed as needed.
[0007] As described above, a user, after creating image data in an
image processor and transmitting it to a user terminal of oneself,
must return to the user terminal and process the received image
data by using an application.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] It is therefore an object of the present invention to
provide a system for processing image data created in an image
processor by associating it with an application activated on a user
terminal.
[0009] An image processing system according to the present
invention comprises, an image processor, and user terminals
connected with the image processor over a network. The image
processor includes: an activated application identifying unit for
obtaining information about an application activated on the user
terminal; a one-touch key generating unit for generating a
one-touch key including information for processing image data by
the application activated on the user terminal; and a transmission
unit for transmitting the image data to the user terminal. The user
terminal includes: a receiving unit for receiving the image data
from the image processor; and a one-touch key processing unit for
processing the image data by the application activated on the user
terminal, based on the information of the one-touch key.
[0010] According to the image processing system of the present
invention, a one-touch key including information for processing
image data, created in the image processor, by an application
activated on a user terminal is generated, and based on the
information of the one-touch key, the image data can be processed
by the application activated on the user terminal. Thereby, the
user can process, on the image processor side, the image data in
association with the application activated on the user terminal,
without returning to the user terminal.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] The present invention will become readily understood from
the following description of preferred embodiments thereof made
with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like parts
are designated by like reference numeral and in which:
[0012] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of
an image processing system according to an embodiment 1 of the
present invention;
[0013] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an
image processor and a user terminal in FIG. 1;
[0014] FIG. 3 is a timing chart of the image processing system
according to the embodiment 1 of the present invention;
[0015] FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an image processing method in
the image processor according to the embodiment 1 of the present
invention;
[0016] FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the details of step S03 of
FIG. 4;
[0017] FIG. 6 shows a login screen in the image processor;
[0018] FIG. 7 shows a screen displaying a one-touch key on the
image processor;
[0019] FIG. 8 shows an ordinary display screen in the image
processor;
[0020] FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a method for executing a
one-touch key function by a resident application on the user
terminal;
[0021] FIG. 10 shows an exemplary e-mail prepared on the user
terminal; and
[0022] FIG. 11 shows an example in which image data received from
the image processor is attached to the e-mail prepared on the user
terminal.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0023] An image processing system, an image processor and an image
processing program according to an embodiment of the present
invention will be described by using the accompanying drawings. In
the drawings, substantially same members are denoted by the same
reference numerals.
[0024] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of
an image processing system including an image processor according
to an embodiment 1 of the present invention. The image processing
system 100 includes three sites A, B and C connected with a wide
area network 70 such as the Internet. A LAN 21 in the site A is
connected with a firewall 23, a router 22, an image processor 20,
and a mail server 24. A LAN 41 in the site B is connected with a
firewall 43, a router 42, a user terminal 50, and a mail server 44.
A LAN 61 in the site C is connected with a firewall 63, a router
62, a client terminal 60 which is the destination of an e-mail, and
a mail server 64. The firewalls are set to allow SMTP (Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol) packets, that is, e-mails, to pass through.
Equipment connected with the LAN 21, 41 or 61 in each site
transmits and receives e-mails via the mail server 24, 44 or 64
connected with the same LAN. In a case of attaching image data to
an e-mail, the system complies with RFC2301 to RFC2306 and ITU-T
Recommendation T.37. The mail servers 24, 44 and 64 support an SMTP
extension function (RFC1891: STMP Service Extension for Delivery
Status Notifications), enhanced status codes (RFC1893: Enhanced
Mail System Status Codes), and MIME media type (RFC1892: The
Multipart/Report Content Type for the Reporting of Mail System
Administrative Messages, RFC1894: An Extensive Message Format for
Delivery Status Notifications).
[0025] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the
image processor 20 and the user terminal 50 in the image processing
system of FIG. 1. In addition to the image processor 20, the user
terminal 50 and the mail destination client 60, an LDAP server 80
is also included in FIG. 2. The image processor 20 includes, a CPU
1, a RAM 2, a ROM 3, a user authentication unit 4, an activated
application identifying unit 5, a printing unit 6, a user terminal
searching unit 7, a scanner unit 8, an image memory 9, an image
processing unit 10, an operation panel 11, an e-mail preparing unit
12, a communication unit 13, and a one-touch key generating unit
14. The image processor 20 is connected with a network by the
communication unit 13. In FIG. 2, a plurality of networks existing
between one another are shown in a simplified manner. The image
processor 20 generates a one-touch key for instructing to process
image data transmitted from the image processor 20 by an
application activated on the user terminal, as shown in FIG. 7.
Based on information of the one-touch key, the image data
transmitted from the image processor 20 can be processed by an
application activated on the user terminal 50, by a one-touch key
processing software activated on the user terminal 50. Thereby, the
user can perform processing in association with the application
activated on the user terminal 50 by using the one-touch key
displayed on the operation panel 11 of the image processor 20,
without returning to the user terminal 50.
[0026] The user terminal 50 includes a CPU 31, a RAM 32, a ROM 33,
a user authentication unit 34 for performing user authentication at
the time of login, an operation unit 35, an application program
activating unit 36, an application program storing unit 37, and a
communication unit 40. The application program storing unit 37
stores, for example, an e-mail application 38 and a document
preparation application 39.
[0027] The LDAP server 80 notifies the image processor 20 of user
terminal information for specifying the user terminal 50,
responding to an inquiry from the image processor 20.
[0028] FIG. 3 is a time chart of the image processing system
according to the embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a
flowchart showing an image processing method in the image processor
according to the embodiment 1 of the present invention. In the
image processing system, a user logs in to the user terminal 50
with an authentication by the user authentication unit 34,
activates an application, and sets conditions for the application,
in advance, as shown in FIG. 3.
[0029] Then, the user moves from the user terminal 50 side to the
image processor 20 side, and directly operates the image processor
20. First, the user logs in to the image processor 20 with an
authentication by the user authentication unit 4. The subsequent
image processing method in the image processor 20 will be described
by using FIG. 4.
[0030] (a) The image processor 20 displays a login screen as shown
in FIG. 6 and accepts a login by the user (S01).
[0031] (b) The image processor 20 obtains information about the
login user of the image processor 20 (S02).
[0032] (c) The user terminal searching unit 7 searches for a user
terminal which is logged in by the same user as the login user of
the image processor 20 (503). The detailed description of step S03
will be described later in accordance with a flowchart shown in
FIG. 5.
[0033] (d) The image processor 20 determines whether or not the
user terminal 50, which is logged in by the same user as the login
user of the image processor 20, exists (S04).
[0034] (e) An inquiry is made to the specified user terminal 50
(S05).
[0035] (f) The image processor 20 determines whether or not an
application is activated on the user terminal 50 (S06).
Specifically, the activated application identifying unit 5 obtains
activated application information from the user terminal 50
(S07).
[0036] (g) The activated application identifying unit 5 obtains
information about an application activated on the user terminal 50
(S07).
[0037] (h) The image processor 20 accepts a selection of
application by the user (S08). [0038] i) If the user selected an
e-mail application 38 (S09), the one-touch key generating unit 14
generates a one-touch key 26 for transmitting an e-mail, to which
image data is attached, by the e-mail application 38 on the user
terminal 50, and displays it (S10), as shown in FIG. 7. [0039] ii)
If the user selected a document preparation application 39 (S11),
the one-touch key generating unit 14 generates a one-touch key 28
for preparing a document including image data by the document
preparation application 39 on the user terminal 50, and displays it
(S12), as shown in FIG. 7.
[0040] If a one-touch key cannot be generated or displayed, a
screen shown in FIG. 8, for example, will be displayed.
[0041] (k) The image processor 20 confirms whether to start
scanning (S13).
[0042] (l) Image data is created through scanning performed by the
scanner unit 8 (S14).
[0043] (m) In accordance with the one-touch key, the image data is
transmitted to the user terminal 50 so as to be processed by the
selected application (S15).
[0044] With these steps, the image data created in the image
processor 20 can be processed by the application activated on the
user terminal 50.
[0045] FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the details of the step S03 of
searching the user terminal by the user terminal searching unit 7
in FIG. 4.
[0046] (a) The user terminal searching unit 7 transmits information
about a user logged in to the image processor 20 to the LDAP server
80 so as to make an inquiry to the LDAP server 80 for information
about the user terminal 50 which is logged in by the same user
(S21).
[0047] (b) The user terminal searching unit 7 determines whether or
not the LDAP server 80 replied (S22). If the LDAP server 80
replied, the user terminal searching unit 7 moves to step S23, but
if the LDAP server did not reply, repeats step S22.
[0048] (c) The user terminal searching unit 7 searches for the user
terminal 50 based on the received information about the user
terminal 50, and specifies it (S23).
[0049] With these steps, the user terminal 50 which is logged in by
the same user as the login user of the image processor 20 can be
specified.
[0050] In this way, it is possible to process, on the image
processor 20 side, the created image data in association with the
activated application on the user terminal 50 in accordance with
information of the one-touch key generated on the image processor
20. Note that the image processing method performed on the image
processor 20 side may be performed as an image processing program.
Further, the image processing program on the image processor 20
side may be stored on a recording medium readable by a computer.
Thereby, it is possible to realize the aforementioned functions as
an image processor connected with a network, by reading and
executing the image processing program from the recording medium in
the computer at any desired time.
[0051] FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the image processing method
for processing image data received from the image processor 20, on
the user terminal 50 side by the selected application in accordance
with the information of the one-touch key generated on the image
processor 20.
[0052] (a) The user terminal 50 checks whether a user logged in to
the user terminal 50 or not (S31). If no user logged in, the user
terminal 50 repeats the same step S31.
[0053] (b) The user terminal 50 obtains information about the login
user of the user terminal 50 (S32). If plural users use the
terminal 50, one user is specified by the login user
information.
[0054] (c) The user terminal 50 obtains information about whether
or not any application is activated on the user terminal 50
(S33).
[0055] (d) The user terminal 50 obtains the kind information about
the application activated on the user terminal 50 (S34).
[0056] (e) The user terminal 50 checks whether it received an
inquiry from the image processor 20 (S35). If no inquiry has been
received, it goes back to step S31.
[0057] (f) The user terminal 50 obtains login user information of
the image processor 20 (S36).
[0058] (g) The user terminal 50 determines whether or not the login
user of the image processor 20 and the application activation user
of the user terminal 50, that is, the login user of the user
terminal 50, are the same (S37). The determination of the user
identity is performed by comparing respective pieces of login user
information. If the pieces of information coincide with each other,
the users are determined as identical, then moves to step S38, and
if they do not coincide with each other, the users are determined
as different, and the processing ends (END).
[0059] (h) The user terminal 50 transmits activation information of
the application and the kind information of the activated
application to the image processor 20 (S38).
[0060] (i) The user terminal 50 receives information about a
one-touch key generated, from the image processor 20 (S39).
[0061] (j) The user terminal 50 receives image data from the image
processor 20 via the communication unit 40 (S40).
[0062] (k) In accordance with the information of the one-touch key,
the received image data is processed by the selected application
(S41). A method for processing image data by operating another
application with a resident program, as described above, can be
realized by a method described in, for example, Japanese Patent
Application Laid-open No. 2004-110842.
[0063] For example, when an e-mail application is selected, an
e-mail to which image data is attached is transmitted by the e-mail
application 38 on the user terminal 50, as shown in FIGS. 10 and
11. FIG. 10 is an example of an e-mail prepared on the user
terminal 50. FIG. 11 is an example of an e-mail to which image data
is attached, the image data having been transmitted from the image
processor 20 by a program for performing one-touch key processing
on the user terminal 50 (image processing program on the user
terminal 50 side) based on the information of the one-touch key
generated on the image processor 20. After the image data
transmitted from the image processor 20 being attached
automatically to the e-mail, the e-mail may be transmitted to the
destination automatically, or may be transmitted according to an
transmission instruction of the user. Although an example in which
the destination, subject and text of the e-mail have been prepared
on the user terminal 50 side is shown here, the present invention
is not limited to this configuration. The destination, subject and
text of the e-mail may be prepared or added by remotely operating
the e-mail application 38 activated on the user terminal 50 from
the image processor 20.
[0064] On the other hand, if the document preparation application
39 is selected, a document including image data is prepared by the
document preparation application 39 on the user terminal 50. In
this case, the format (frame, forms, size, paragraphs, layout,
etc.) or the like of the document may be prepared beforehand on the
user terminal 50 and then the document including image data is
prepared. Alternatively, the document may be prepared by setting
the format or the like of the document, by remotely operating the
document preparation application 39 activated on the user terminal
50 from the image processor 20. Further, the image data may be
loaded as a document by performing a character recognition with an
OCR or the like, for example.
[0065] As described above, it is possible to process, on the user
terminal 50 side, image data received from the image processor 20
in association with an application selected from the applications
activated on the user terminal 50, in accordance with information
of the one-touch key generated on the image processor 20. Note that
in the image processing method performed on the user terminal 50
side, it is preferable that the image processing program be
executed as a resident program on the user terminal 50. However,
the image processing program is not limited to the example of the
resident program. It may be activated on the user terminal 50 from
the image processor 20 as needed. Further, the image processing
program on the user terminal may be stored on a recording medium
readable by a computer. Thereby, it is possible to realize the
aforementioned functions as the user terminal 50 connected with a
network, by reading and executing the image processing program from
the recording medium in the computer as desired.
[0066] The present invention can apply to, an image processing
system in which an image processor and user terminals are connected
over a network, an image processor, and an image processing
program.
[0067] Although the present invention has been described in
connection with the preferred embodiments thereof with reference to
the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that various changes
and modifications are apparent to those skilled in the art. Such
changes and modifications are to be understood as included within
the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended
claims, unless they depart therefrom.
* * * * *