JP2003091404A - Printing system and print output billing system - Google Patents

Abstract

Abstract: PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing system for printing out information and the like that can be browsed from an information providing server by a portable telephone by using a printing device connected to the Internet, and a print output charging system suitable for charging for print output. I will provide a. SOLUTION: An information providing server 104 which accesses a mobile phone and provides information to the mobile phone,
A printing system including an information providing server and an Internet facsimile apparatus 101 connected via the Internet 100, wherein the information providing server 104
A print request for predetermined information and information for specifying the address of the printing apparatus are obtained from the portable telephone 102, and the Internet facsimile apparatus 101 of the address is obtained.
Transmitting the information relating to the print request to print the predetermined information.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing system for printing out information, etc., that a portable telephone can browse from an information providing server by a printing device connected to the Internet, and a printout suitable for billing the printout. Regarding charging system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A mobile phone user can obtain various information such as maps, various battery tickets, electronic coupons, etc. by accessing the information providing server connected to the Internet using the mobile phone. The information obtained by the mobile phone user can be stored in the memory of the mobile phone and recalled to the display when necessary. In addition, data stored in a mobile phone is transferred to an application server such as a computer by mail, and the application server prints out the mail.

For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-339237.
In the technique disclosed in the publication, the application server converts the mail into print data by the printer adapter and sends it to the printer, and the printer prints the received print data.

[0004]

However, when the user of the mobile phone has a large amount of information acquired from the information providing server, the information is transiently displayed on the display of the mobile phone. However, in some cases, it cannot be stored in the memory of the mobile phone (that is, overflows from the memory). In such cases,
Even if the acquired information is transmitted to an application server such as a computer, there is a problem that only a part of the information can be printed.

Further, conventionally, when a mobile phone user accesses the information providing server while he is out, since the display of the mobile phone is small, he / she can print the provided information immediately by printing. Can not. Of course, if you always carry a small printer,
Although printing is possible, this type of printer is not small and lightweight and is not suitable for carrying.

An object of the present invention is to provide a printing system in which a portable telephone can print out information and the like that can be browsed from an information providing server by a printing device connected to the Internet. Another object of the present invention is to provide a print output billing system suitable for billing for print output.

[0007]

A printing system of the present invention comprises means for providing image information to a display of a portable telephone, means for obtaining a print request for predetermined image information from the portable telephone, Means for obtaining information for specifying an address on the Internet of the printing apparatus, transmitting the information relating to the print request to the printing apparatus of the address connected via the Internet, and causing the printing of the predetermined information. It is characterized by including and.
Here, "means for providing image information to the display of a mobile phone". It is a means included in an ordinary information providing server described later. Here, the image information is characters,
It means visual information such as figures and photographs. The information providing server
It has means for receiving instruction information (for example, next page load instruction code, menu selection instruction code) from the mobile phone, and the means for receiving this instruction information is the above-mentioned "means for obtaining a print request". Equivalent to. The "means for printing information" includes, for example, means for transmitting image information to the printing apparatus, and instruction information issuing means for causing the printing apparatus to print the image information.

The printing system of the present invention is a printing system including an information providing server for providing information to a mobile phone and a printing device connected to the information providing server via the Internet, The information providing server acquires, from the mobile phone, a print request for predetermined information and information for specifying an address of the printing device, and transmits the information related to the print request to the printing device at the address. Then, the printing apparatus is caused to print the predetermined information.

According to the present invention, the printing information is transmitted from the information providing server to the printing device without being transmitted from the portable telephone to the printing device. Therefore, even if the amount of information concerning the print request is large, such as an image, there is no inconvenience that the network traffic increases or the communication time increases. In the present invention, the mobile phone includes so-called “mobile phone” and “PHS”, and the printing device is a device with a printer function having an address connected to the Internet, such as an internet facsimile device.

Further, in the printing system of the present invention, the printing device receives the information received from the information providing server,
When printing is requested by the user of the mobile phone, the user can check the password with the password to be given from the information providing server.

Since the user does not print out until the individual password corresponding to the information to be printed is input to the printing apparatus, a document etc. printed out from the printing apparatus can be instructed to be printed by another user. The inconvenience of being confused with printed documents does not occur.

Further, in the printing system of the present invention, the password is created by the printing device and transmitted to the information providing server, and the information providing server can transmit the password to the portable telephone.

In the present invention, the portable telephone can obtain the address of the printing device via a wireless interface and / or send the password to the printing device via a wireless interface.
As a wireless interface, for example, Bluetooth
th (Bluetooth Special Inte
The communication standard developed and studied by the rest Group (SIG) can be adopted. As a result, it is possible to obtain the mail address of the Internet facsimile machine near the user of the portable telephone and send the mail address without manually inputting it to the information providing server. Further, the password acquired from the information providing server can be transmitted without manually inputting the password to the printing device near the user of the mobile phone.

The print output billing system of the present invention uses the above-mentioned print system, and bills the user of the portable telephone for the print output of the information by the printing device. To do.

In the print output billing system of the present invention, the information relating to the print request is not transmitted from the portable telephone to the printing device, but the information is sent from the information providing server to the printing device. Therefore, the information providing server can efficiently manage billing. Further, by collating the above-mentioned password, the user of the mobile phone can be appropriately charged.

[0016]

1 is a schematic view showing an embodiment of a printing system of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the printing system 1 includes an Internet facsimile apparatus 101, a mobile phone 102, a mobile phone communication system 103,
It is configured by the information providing server 104.

Internet facsimile machine 101
Is connected to the Internet 100. An "Internet facsimile machine" is a network-compatible facsimile machine that can send and receive electronic mail. There are various ways to connect to the Internet. For example, a dial-up connection type internet facsimile machine may be connected to a provider with a fixed monthly charge for constant connection, and a LAN connection type internet facsimile machine may be connected to a LAN by a dedicated line.

The mobile phone 102 can make a normal call through the mobile phone communication system 103 and can be connected to the information providing server 104. Note that the mobile phone 102 and the Internet facsimile machine 101 can send and receive data via a wireless interface such as Bluetooth.

The portable telephone communication system 103 includes a large number of base stations 1031 and a gateway 1032, which are interconnected by a portable telephone line network 1033. The information providing server 104 is the Internet 100.
It is a WEB site (application service provider) provided above for providing various services. In the present embodiment, the information providing server 104 can transmit the print-requested information to the Internet facsimile machine on the Internet 100 (or a device with a print function equivalent to this) in response to the user's request. .

Although the information providing server 104 is connected to the Internet 100 in FIG. 1, it may be an information site in a portable telephone network which is not connected to the Internet 100.

An example of the entire sequence of the printing system 1 shown in FIG. 1 will be described in time sequence with reference to FIG. First,
It is assumed that the user uses the mobile phone 102 to access the information providing server 104 on the Internet 100 to browse appropriate information (F101). Transmission and reception of information between the mobile phone 102 and the information providing server 104 is performed by packets.

The information providing server 104 is the portable telephone 1
When there is access from 02 (that is, from the user),
A print menu can be displayed on the display of the mobile phone 102 (FIG. 3A). The print menu can be displayed all the time or only when specific information (for example, a large amount of information) is displayed. The print menu may be soft buttons. In this case, an item may be selected by operating a seesaw key, for example. Further, the print menu may be designated by a numeric keypad, or may be designated by a key assigned to a key other than the numeric keypad.

In FIG. 2, when the user of the mobile phone 102 operates a print request, the print request information is transmitted to the information providing server 104 via the gateway 1032 (F102). Upon receiving the print request information, the information providing server 104 causes the display of the mobile phone 102 to display the address input menu of the Internet facsimile apparatus. In this menu, the address of the nearby Internet facsimile machine 101 can be acquired by performing an automatic address acquisition operation using a wireless interface such as Bluetooth (see FIG. 3B) (F103). Of course, the user can directly input the address of the Internet facsimile machine 101 (see FIG. 3C).

As a result, the address of the Internet facsimile machine 100 is transmitted to the information providing server 104 (F104). Even if the mobile phone 102 does not obtain the address of the Internet facsimile machine 101 via the wireless interface, for example, even if it calls a phone number registered in advance in the mobile phone and sends it to the information providing server 104. Good. In addition, the information (for example, station name, store number, address) of the place where the mobile phone 102 exists is sent to the information providing server 104,
The information providing server 104 may search for a nearby installation location of the Internet facsimile machine 101 and transmit the installation location information (information such as a map) to the mobile phone 102. Also in this case, the user of the mobile phone 102 designates the setting place information (for example, designates a store in which the internet facsimile device 101 is installed), and thus the internet facsimile device 1
01 is specified. In this case, the mobile phone 102
Does not send the address of the Internet facsimile machine 101 to the information providing server.

Upon receiving the print request information, the information providing server 104 converts the print requested information into a file format that can be output by the Internet facsimile machine 101 based on the print request information, and sends it to the Internet facsimile machine 101 by mail. (F105).

The information providing server 104 has a database in which information (address, location, printable format of printable image files, etc.) of the Internet facsimile machine 101 installed in each store is registered. There is. For example, the computer of each store can be connected to a registration site prepared for the administrator, and the Internet facsimile machine 1 can be connected here.
Various information of 01 is registered in advance.

The information providing server 104 returns an error mail to the user when a print request is made by the user and an address other than the pre-registered address is designated. Further, the information providing server 104 may convert the file format of the information requested to be printed and create the print data each time, but prepare data of higher image quality and data suitable for printing in advance. You may make it mail-transmit to the internet facsimile apparatus 101.

Internet facsimile machine 101
When receiving the mail including the print information from the information providing server 104, the server expands the print information and temporarily stores it in the memory. This expansion information includes image information or mail information before expansion. The identification of the mail containing the print information is
For example, "P written in the Subject part of the mail
This is performed by extracting a keyword such as "print Request".

Internet facsimile machine 101
Creates a password at random and stores it in the memory together with print information. The Internet facsimile machine 101 uses the created password for the information providing server 10
4 (F106).

At this time, the Internet facsimile machine 101 notifies the information providing server 104 of the correspondence between the print information and the password by transmitting the password as a reply mail of the mail received as the print information.
For example, "Re: Print Request: xxx
Reply by email with a SUBJECT part of "x".
The Internet facsimile machine 101 waits until the next print information mail is received or the user inputs a password.

The information providing server 101 sends the reply mail containing the password to the Internet facsimile machine 10.
It is possible to confirm whether or not the Internet facsimile machine is operating normally by receiving the data from No. 1. When the Internet facsimile machine 101 is operating normally, the mail with the password is transferred to the user's mobile phone 102 corresponding to the received reply mail (F107).

When the information providing server 104 receives the above-mentioned error mail from the Internet facsimile machine 101, the information providing server 104 sends a mail to the user's portable telephone 102 indicating that the Internet facsimile machine 101 cannot print. The user who receives the e-mail containing the password by the mobile phone 102 inputs the password into the Internet facsimile machine 101 through the wireless interface or manually (F
108).

Internet facsimile machine 101
If the password is correct, prints out the information requested to be printed (F109). After printing is completed, the billing information is displayed on the display of the Internet facsimile machine 101. Further, the mail including the billing information is transmitted to the information providing server 104 (F110). The information providing server 104 accumulates the billing information for each user, and separately bills the user for the usage fee (F111). The information providing server 104 may cooperate with a telecommunications carrier to charge a communication usage fee for the mobile phone 102 and a usage fee for the Internet facsimile machine 101 at the same time, or may cooperate with a credit card company to use the card. The fee may be charged in the form of withdrawal from a bank account.

3A to 3C show a portable telephone 10.
The example of a screen displayed on the display D of 2 is shown.
The user instructs printing from the print menu (display of "print" in FIG. 3A) while displaying the information to be printed out on the screen. The screen of the display D is switched to the screen showing the input form of the address of the Internet facsimile machine 101 which is desired to print out the information instructed to be printed (FIG. 3 (B)).

When "direct input" is selected in FIG. 3 (B), the screen is switched to a screen including an input field (FIG. 3 (C)) and the user is prompted to input a direct address. Although not shown, if “select from list” is selected, a screen for selecting the Internet facsimile machine 101 to be designated (for example, by tracing the location address (for example, prefectures → administrative districts → towns)) (for example, XX Station center exit YY
Switch to the store, inside the ZZ station south exit). When the Internet facsimile machine is selected, its address is displayed in the input field. Similarly, although not shown in the figure, if "acquire by Bluetooth" is selected, the nearest Internet facsimile machine is searched to automatically establish a link and acquire an address, and the address is entered in the address column.

FIG. 4 shows a processing flow in the information providing server 104. The information providing server 104 waits for a print request (that is, a print request by selecting “print” in FIG. 3A) transmitted from the user's mobile phone 102 (S101), and when the print request is received. Transmits the display information of the screen (see FIG. 3B) for selecting the input method of the address of the Internet facsimile apparatus and the display information of the input screen of the address (see FIG. 3C) to the mobile phone 102. Then, these are displayed on the display of the mobile phone 102 (S102). Then, it waits for the input of the address of the Internet facsimile machine from the mobile phone 102 (S103).

When the address of the Internet facsimile machine is received, it is confirmed whether or not there is image information prepared in advance for print output for the information requested to be printed (S10).
4) If there is image information for the print output, read out image information suitable for printing prepared in advance from the memory (S105), and send an e-mail including the image information (for example, attach the image information). A file) is created and mail is transmitted to the designated Internet facsimile machine (S107). Image information suitable for printing is image information that meets the requirements such as high density, conformity to paper size, and format that can be received and printed out by the Internet facsimile machine. .

In S104, if there is no image information prepared in advance for print output for the information requested to be printed, the image information displayed on the portable telephone can be received and printed out by the Internet facsimile apparatus. It is converted to a format (S106) and mail is sent to the designated Internet facsimile machine (S1).
07).

FIG. 5 shows the Internet facsimile machine 1.
01 shows a flow of processing when print information is received from the information providing server 104 by mail.

The Internet facsimile machine 101 is waiting for a mail from a user designated in advance (S2
01), when the mail is received, it is confirmed whether or not the mail is a mail from the information provision server 104 designated in advance (S202), and the received mail is a mail from the information provision server designated in advance. Is the print information (the received mail itself or the TIFF extracted from the received mail
Image information such as files) is stored in the memory (S20
3). In S202, if the received mail is not a mail from the information provision server designated in advance, the process returns to S201. At this time, although not shown in FIG. 5, the mail may be discarded.

The above-mentioned S202 is a confirmation (filtering) step for printing out only the mail from the designated address. By this step, it is possible to prevent unauthorized use of the Internet facsimile machine 101 by a third party. However, when expanding the present embodiment to a system that is open to the public and allows print output from an unspecified number of information providing servers 104, it is not realistic to filter by the transmission source, and thus S105 is omitted. To be done.

Next, the Internet facsimile machine 1
01 randomly creates a necessary password to print out the print information stored in the memory, and
The print information is stored in the memory in association with the stored print information (S2
05). Then, an email containing the password (for example, an email in which the password is written in the main body (BODY)) is transmitted to the information providing server 104 (S20).
6).

The mail including the password is transferred from the information providing server 104 to the user. Information providing server 1
By way of 04, the information providing server 104 can know whether the Internet facsimile machine is operating normally. If the status of the Internet facsimile machine 101 is monitored by another method (for example,
In a case of notifying the information provider only when an error occurs or in the case of periodic diagnosis), an email containing a password may be directly sent to the user.

FIG. 6 shows the flow of print processing in the Internet facsimile machine 101. The internet facsimile apparatus 101 waits for the input of the password from the user (S301), and when the input is made, it confirms whether or not the password is correct (S302). S30
When the password is not input by the user at 1, the password input is awaited. If the password is incorrect in S302, the process returns to S301.

The password is input by the user from the operation unit of the Internet facsimile machine 101 or by using a wireless interface such as Bluetooth. When inputting from the wireless interface, it is desirable to use a procedure in which the input operation is completed in combination with the button operation of the operation unit so that inputs from a plurality of users are not made simultaneously. In addition, it is desirable to perform control so that another password is not input until the print output is completely completed.

There are various methods of inputting a password from the user's portable telephone 102 using Bluetooth, and the method is not limited to a particular method. For example, simply selecting the password portion written in the mail body automatically It is desirable that the password be transferred to the Internet facsimile machine 101 using Bluetooth.

In S302, the input password is compared with the password stored in the memory, and if there is no match with the password stored in the memory, the process returns to S301 as described above. If there is a match, the input of another password is prohibited (S303), and the print information stored in association with the input password is printed out (S304). In this case, although not shown, the print information is deleted from the memory when the print output is completed. After this, allow input of password,
The process returns to step S301.

[0048]

According to the printing system of the present invention, information that can be browsed from the information providing server by the portable telephone can be printed out by a printing device connected to the Internet. Moreover, the information related to printing is transmitted from the information providing server to the printing device without being transmitted from the mobile phone to the printing device. Therefore, even if the amount of information concerning the print request is large, such as an image, there is no inconvenience that the network traffic increases or the communication time increases.

Further, in the print output billing system of the present invention, the information relating to the print request is not transmitted from the portable telephone to the printing apparatus, but the information is transmitted from the information providing server to the printing apparatus. did. Therefore, the information providing server can efficiently manage billing, and by collating the password as described above, the user of the mobile phone can be billed appropriately.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of a printing system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a time-series explanatory diagram showing an example of an overall sequence of the printing system in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed on a display of a mobile phone, (A) shows a print menu, (B) shows a screen showing an input form of an address, and (C) shows a screen including an input field. It is a figure.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a flow of processing in the information providing server.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flow of processing when the Internet facsimile apparatus receives print information from the information providing server by mail.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a flow of print processing in the Internet facsimile apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 printing system 100 Internet 101 Internet facsimile machine 102 mobile phone 103 mobile phone communication system 104 Information providing server 1031 Base station 1032 gateway 1033 Mobile phone network

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Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A means for providing image information to a display of a mobile phone, a means for obtaining a print request for predetermined image information from the mobile phone, and specifying an address on the Internet of the printing device. For acquiring the information for transmitting the information related to the print request to the printing apparatus of the address connected via the Internet and printing the predetermined information. system. 2. A printing system comprising: an information providing server for providing information to a mobile phone; and a printing device connected to the information providing server via the Internet, wherein the information providing server comprises: A print request for predetermined information and information for specifying the address of the printing device are acquired from the mobile phone, and the information related to the print request is transmitted to the printing device having the address to print the predetermined information. A printing system characterized by: 3. The printing device, when printing the information received from the information providing server in response to a request from the user of the mobile phone, compares the information with a password to be given from the information providing server. The printing system according to claim 2, wherein the printing system is performed. 4. The password is created by the printing device and transmitted to the information providing server, and the information providing server transmits the password to the mobile phone. The printing system described. 5. The mobile phone obtains the address of the printing device via a wireless interface and / or sends the password to the printing device via a wireless interface. The printing system according to any one of 2 to 4. 6. A print output charging system using the print system according to claim 1, wherein a print output of the information by the printing device is given to a user of the mobile phone. A print output charging system characterized by charging.