JP2008094045A - Image forming apparatus, server, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide an image forming apparatus, a server, and a program for merging advertisement data that matches a user's preference with print data in order to further enhance the advertisement effect.
An image forming apparatus is connected to an advertisement server through a network, notifies the advertisement server of identification information of an advertisement category, and transmits advertisement data corresponding to the identification information to the advertisement. Advertisement data acquisition means acquired from the server 130 and advertisement data merge means for merging the advertisement data acquired from the advertisement server 130 with print data.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for merging and printing different images, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus, a server, and a program for printing advertisement data merged with print data.

  2. Description of the Related Art Currently, an advertisement printing system is known that prints on paper by merging advertisement data provided by an advertisement server with print data that a user intends to print using an image forming apparatus such as a printer. In the advertisement printing system, the advertisement data to be merged with the print data is randomly selected in the advertisement server. Therefore, the conventional advertisement printing system has a problem that there is no guarantee that advertisement data matching the user's preference is merged, and the advertisement effect is not always sufficient.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-288531 discloses a printer server having a merging means for merging user print data output from application software and advertisement data acquired from an advertisement database, and a user recording area in a recording material. There is disclosed a printing system that includes an image forming apparatus that forms an image based on print data of the user and forms an image based on the advertisement data in an advertisement use area in a recording material.
JP 2002-288531 A

  An object of the present invention is to make it possible to merge advertisement data that matches a user's preference with print data in order to further improve the advertisement effect.

  In the present invention, the user selects the category (type) of advertisement data to be merged with the print data, and the advertisement data corresponding to the advertisement category selected by the user is merged with the print data. As a result, an advertisement that matches each user's preference can be provided to each user, and the advertising effect can be further enhanced.

  If the user has not selected an advertisement category, the print data is analyzed, a specific keyword determined in advance is searched, the advertisement category is determined based on the detected keyword, and the determined advertisement is determined. The advertisement data corresponding to the category is merged with the print data. As a result, it becomes possible to provide each user with an advertisement according to the contents of the print data, and the advertisement effect can be further enhanced.

That is, according to the present invention,
An image forming apparatus connected to an advertisement server via a network,
Advertisement category registration means for acquiring and registering identification information of the advertisement category;
Advertising data acquisition means for notifying the advertisement server of the identification information and acquiring advertisement data corresponding to the identification information from the advertisement server;
There is provided an image forming apparatus comprising: advertisement data merging means for merging advertisement data acquired from the advertisement server with print data.

  In the present invention, the advertisement category registration means can receive the advertisement category identification information together with the print data from an information processing apparatus connected via the network. The image forming apparatus according to the present invention may further include an advertisement category selection unit for allowing a user to select the advertisement category, and the advertisement category registration unit may register the advertisement category selected by the advertisement category selection unit. it can. The present invention may further include an advertisement category determination unit that determines the advertisement category in response to the print data. In the present invention, the advertisement data merge command means is provided, and the merge processing of the advertisement data and the print data can be executed in response to a command from the merge command means. The image forming apparatus of the present invention includes a print range setting unit that sets a print range of the advertisement data, and can print the advertisement data in the print range from the print range setting unit.

According to the present invention,
A server connected to an image forming apparatus via a network and transmitting advertisement data to the image forming apparatus;
Ad data management means for managing ad categories and ad data in association with each other;
Advertisement data that receives identification information of the advertisement category from the image forming apparatus via the network, acquires advertisement data corresponding to the identification information using the identification information as a search key, and transmits the advertisement data to the image forming apparatus Transmission means;
A server comprising: a print number management unit that manages, for each image forming apparatus, the number of printed advertisements printed with advertisement notified from the image forming apparatus and the point calculated based on the number of printed advertisements Is provided.

  In the present invention, the advertisement data management means can manage the number of transmissions of the advertisement data transmitted to each image forming apparatus. In the present invention, the advertisement data management means manages the number of transmissions of the advertisement data transmitted to the image forming apparatus for each image forming apparatus, determines the number of transmissions of the advertisement data, and transmits it to each image forming apparatus. The advertisement data to be selected can be selected. In the present invention, the advertisement data management means can independently manage the number of transmissions of the advertisement data for monochrome printing and the number of transmissions of the advertisement data for color printing.

Furthermore, according to the present invention,
An apparatus executable program that provides a printed matter obtained by merging advertisement data via a network, the program being provided to an image forming apparatus
Advertisement category registration means for acquiring and registering identification information of the advertisement category;
Advertising data acquisition means for notifying the advertisement server of the identification information and acquiring advertisement data corresponding to the identification information from the advertisement server;
An apparatus-executable program is provided that realizes advertisement data merging means for merging the advertisement data acquired from the advertisement server with print data.

  In the present invention, the advertisement category registration means can receive the advertisement category identification information together with the print data from an information processing apparatus connected via the network. The program of the present invention realizes an advertisement category selection unit for causing the user to select the advertisement category in the image forming apparatus, and the advertisement category registration unit selects the advertisement category selected by the advertisement category selection unit. You can register. The program according to the present invention can further realize an advertisement category determining unit that determines the advertisement category in response to the print data in the image forming apparatus. The program of the present invention realizes a merge command unit for the advertisement data in the image forming apparatus, and the merge command unit executes a merge process of the advertisement data and the print data in response to a command from a user. be able to.

Moreover, according to the present invention,
A program connected to an image forming apparatus via a network and controlling the apparatus as a server for transmitting advertisement data to the image forming apparatus, the program
Ad data management means for managing ad categories and ad data in association with each other;
Advertisement that receives identification information of the advertisement category from the image forming apparatus via the network, acquires the advertisement data corresponding to the identification information using the identification information as a search key, and transmits the advertisement data to the image forming apparatus Data transmission means;
Print number management means for managing, for each image forming apparatus, the number of printed advertisements printed with advertisement notified from the image forming apparatus and the point calculated based on the number of printed advertisements. The server manages the number of transmissions of the advertisement data transmitted to the image forming apparatus for each image forming apparatus, determines the number of transmissions of the advertisement data, and transmits the advertisement data to be transmitted to each image forming apparatus. A program to select can be provided.

  The advertisement data management means of the present invention can independently manage the number of transmissions of the advertisement data for monochrome printing and the number of transmissions of the advertisement data for color printing.

  The present invention will be described below with reference to embodiments shown in the drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described below.

  FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of an advertisement printing system capable of outputting print data and advertisement data.

  An advertisement printing system 100 shown in FIG. 1 includes a plurality of personal computers (hereinafter referred to as PCs) 110, a plurality of printers, an image forming apparatus 120 such as an MFP (Multi Function Peripheral), an advertisement server 130, And a print number management server 140. The PC 110, the image forming apparatus 120, the advertisement server 130, and the print number management server 140 are interconnected via a network 150 such as a local area network (LAN) or the Internet.

  The PC 110 generates print data for each image forming apparatus 120 and transmits it to each image forming apparatus 120 in order to create an electronic document to be printed in the advertisement printing system 100 and print the created electronic document. To do. The PC 110 is configured as, for example, a normal PC or a computer such as a workstation, and includes a central processing unit (CPU), a main storage device, an auxiliary storage device (for example, a hard disk device), and an interface unit (for example, a network interface unit). , A display device (for example, CRT or LCD), an input device (for example, a keyboard or a mouse), and the like.

  Further, the PC 110 provides an advertisement category selection means for selecting an advertisement category added to the print result to the user as a graphical user interface (GUI). For example, in a GUI display provided by a printer driver operating on the PC 110, the user can select a category of advertisement data to be added to print data.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a GUI display provided by a printer driver operating on the PC 110. A GUI display 112 shown in FIG. 2 is displayed to make various settings for advertisement printing.

  As shown in FIG. 2, in the GUI display (printer properties dialog box) 112, a UI component (check box) 114 for specifying whether or not to perform advertisement printing, and a UI for selecting an advertisement category. A component (radio button) 116 is displayed. In addition, a UI component (list box) 118 for selecting a range for printing an advertisement is also displayed.

  In the GUI display 112 shown in FIG. 2, the user selects any one of “housing”, “restaurant”, “sports”, “entertainment”, “money”, and the like as an advertisement category added to the print result. Can be done. In the advertisement printing system 100, a unique category ID is assigned to each advertisement category as identification information (ID) for identifying each advertisement category.

  The image forming apparatus 120 is an image forming apparatus that performs output on paper in accordance with print data sent from the PC 110. The image forming apparatus 120 includes, for example, a CPU, a storage device (for example, a ROM or a RAM), an interface unit (for example, a network interface unit), an electrophotographic system, or the like, as in a normal network-compatible laser printer or inkjet printer It has an inkjet printer engine.

  When the image forming apparatus 120 receives a print instruction from the PC 110, the image forming apparatus 120 adds (merges) the advertisement data acquired from the advertisement server 130 to the print data received from the PC 110 and prints in response to the user command. Function (advertising print function). Details of the function will be described later. In the advertisement printing system 100, a unique device ID is assigned to each image forming device 120 as device identification information (ID) for identifying each image forming device 120. The device ID is stored in a nonvolatile storage device such as NVRAM or ROM provided in each image forming device 120, for example.

  The advertisement server 130 is a server that manages advertisement data to be added to print data. In response to an advertisement data request from the image forming apparatus 120, the advertisement server 130 selects advertisement data and transmits it to the image forming apparatus 120. Therefore, the advertisement server 130 stores advertisement data in the database 132 that is managed. The advertisement data is managed by an advertisement data identification value, a time stamp, or the like to which an incremented value is assigned in the order added to the database in response to a request or designation from the advertiser. When receiving the advertisement data request, the advertisement server 130 reads out the advertisement data in the order of the advertisement data identification value or the newest time stamp and creates a response packet.

  The image forming apparatus 120 includes an advertisement category registration unit that receives the advertisement category specified by the PC 110 or stores the advertisement category specified by the advertisement category selection unit of the image forming apparatus 120. On the other hand, an advertisement data request including an advertisement ID specifying its own device ID, advertisement category and advertisement data is created as a packet, and the advertisement data request is sent to the URL address or IP address of the advertisement server 130.

  Upon receiving the advertisement data request, the advertisement server 130 analyzes the received packet and acquires data such as a device ID and an advertisement category. The advertisement server 130 retrieves advertisement data using the acquired advertisement category value as a search key, encapsulates the retrieved advertisement data in a response packet to the advertisement data request, and transmits the encapsulated advertisement data to the image forming apparatus 120 that is the transmission source. The advertisement server 130 can be configured using a personal computer, a server, or the like, like the PC 110, and can be implemented as a web server, an FTP server, an LDAP server, or the like.

  The print number management server 140 is a server that manages the number of print results with an advertisement printed by the image forming apparatus 120. The print number management server 140 receives the value of the number of sheets to be printed by adding an advertisement from the image forming apparatus 120, and individually counts and manages the number of prints corresponding to the apparatus ID of each image forming apparatus 120. . For this reason, the print count management server includes a database 142. The database 142 stores a print number management table for registering the number of prints corresponding to the device ID, and the cumulative number of advertisement data printed by the image forming apparatus 120 is output from each of the image forming apparatuses 120 and 120. It is updated to distinguish whether the printed is black and white or color.

  Further, the print number management server 140 calculates points according to the number of prints. The points are added according to the number of printed sheets, and the user can receive various services (for example, discount of consumables such as paper) according to the accumulated number of points. Similar to the PC 110, the print number management server 140 can be configured by a computer such as a PC, a workstation, or a server. In another embodiment, the advertisement server 130 and the print number management server 140 can also constitute an advertisement server as a unit.

  Hereinafter, processing of the advertisement printing system 100 having the above-described configuration will be described. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a processing sequence of the advertisement printing system 100. As shown in FIG. 3, when the user instructs printing of an electronic document or the like from application software running on the PC 110, the PC 110 generates print data from the electronic document or the like instructed for printing in step S301, and forms an image. To device 120. At this time, if the user has selected to perform advertisement printing according to settings via the printer driver, the PC 110 requests advertisement printing from the image forming apparatus 120, and information indicating that advertisement printing is performed. Information (category ID) indicating the advertisement category selected by the user is included in the transmission data and transmitted to the image forming apparatus 120.

  Upon receiving print data from the PC 110, the image forming apparatus 120 analyzes the received data in step S302. In the analysis of the received data, the image forming apparatus 120 inspects the received data, determines whether or not the received data includes a value instructing to perform the advertisement printing, and is instructed to print the advertisement. In the case, it is further checked whether information (category ID) indicating the advertisement category is included. If it is determined that the information indicating the advertisement category is not included in the analysis process, the advertisement category is determined according to the content of the print data. Details of this processing will be described later.

  In step S303, when the image forming apparatus 120 is instructed to perform advertisement printing as a result of the analysis of the received data, the image forming apparatus 120 issues an advertisement data request to the advertisement server 130 in step S303. At this time, the image forming apparatus 120 notifies the advertisement server 130 of the advertisement ID created based on its own apparatus ID and the category ID of the advertisement category. The advertisement ID is used in the advertisement server 130 to select advertisement data.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a method for creating an advertisement ID. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, description will be made assuming that each of the device ID and the category ID is 6-bit data. As shown in FIG. 4, the advertisement ID 126 is created by combining the device ID 122 and the category ID 124. That is, a 12-bit advertisement ID 126 is created from the 6-bit device ID and the 6-bit category ID, with the upper 6 bits as the device ID and the lower 6 bits as the category ID.

  As will be described later, a plurality of category IDs may be specified. In this case, a plurality of different advertisement IDs 126 are generated by combining the same device ID with each category ID. That is, a plurality of advertisement IDs 126 that have the same upper 6 bits and differ only in the lower 6 bits are created. In another embodiment of the present invention, the advertisement ID 126 can be created with the upper 6 bits as the category ID 124 and the lower 6 bits as the device ID 122.

  In the described embodiment of the present invention, the advertisement server 130 analyzes the value of the advertisement ID, determines the entry address corresponding to the device ID in each table from the upper 6 bits, and selects the advertisement category from the lower 6 bits. Select the category ID to be selected.

  Returning to FIG. 3 again, the processing sequence will be described. When the advertisement data request is received from the image forming apparatus 120, the advertisement server 130 selects advertisement data using the advertisement ID notified from the image forming apparatus 120 in step S304. In step S305, the advertisement server 130 searches for advertisement data corresponding to the advertisement ID notified from the image forming apparatus 120, describes the searched advertisement data (image data) in the payload of the response packet, and corresponds to the apparatus ID. The network address to be described is described in the destination address of the IP header and sent to the network.

  Upon receiving the advertisement data transmitted from the advertisement server 130, the image forming apparatus 120 merges the advertisement data received in step S306 with the print data and outputs the merged data to the paper. In addition, when the output of the print data ends normally, the image forming apparatus 120 notifies the print number management server 140 of the value of the number of sheets printed with the advertisement in step S307. At this time, the image forming apparatus 120 also notifies the print number management server 140 of whether the number of sheets is the number of sheets printed in color or the number of sheets printed in monochrome.

  In step S308, upon receiving a notification of the number of printed sheets from the image forming apparatus 120, the printed number management server 140 uses the notified number of printed advertisements and uses the notified number of printed sheets, among the entry items of the record of the corresponding apparatus ID. Alternatively, a value obtained by adding the point value calculated from the newly received sheet number value to the point value registered before that of the entry item for which the monochrome print sheet number is designated is entered. The advertisement print number value notified from each image forming apparatus 120 and the calculated total number of points are managed by a print number management table held by the print number management server 140.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of category ID determination processing executed by the image forming apparatus 120 will be described. FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an embodiment of category ID determination processing.

  As shown in FIG. 5, when the image forming apparatus 120 receives a print request from the PC 110 in step S501, it first determines whether or not advertisement printing is selected by the user. As a result of the determination in step S501, if the user has not selected to perform advertisement printing (No), the process is terminated as it is and a conventional printing process is executed.

  On the other hand, if the user has selected to perform advertisement printing in the determination of step S501 (Yes), the process branches to step S502 to determine whether the user has selected an advertisement category. The determination process in step S502 is executed by determining whether the category ID is included in the print data sent from the image forming apparatus 120. If it is determined in step S502 that the user has selected an advertisement category (Yes) and the category ID is included in the received data from the image forming apparatus 120 (Yes), the process proceeds to step S509. And the process is branched, and the category ID is determined as a category ID used in the subsequent processes.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S502 that the user has not selected an advertisement category (No), that is, if the category ID is not included in the received data from the image forming apparatus 120, the print data is determined in step S503. The print data is analyzed to determine the advertisement category according to the content. Specifically, in step S503, the image forming apparatus 120 uses text data included in the print data, for example, a specific keyword (hereinafter referred to as a keyword) predetermined for each advertisement category using, for example, a text parser. , Which is referred to as a registered keyword). Whenever the registered keyword is detected, the image forming apparatus 120 counts up the number of registered keywords detected for each advertisement category. The detected number counted up enters a registered keyword for each advertisement category, is entered in the detected number field of the advertisement category selection table, and is used for the advertisement category determination process thereafter.

  FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of an advertisement category selection table 600 used for processing for determining an advertisement category by analyzing print data. The advertisement category selection table 600 can be held in a storage device such as NVRAM, ROM, or hard disk device provided in the image forming apparatus 120, for example.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the advertisement category selection table 600 includes a field 602 for registering each advertisement category, a field 604 for registering a registered keyword for each advertisement category, and a detected number indicating the cumulative number of registered keywords detected. And a field 606 for entering. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the advertisement category selection table 600 includes, for example, a category ID of the advertisement category, a registered keyword, and the number of detections forming a record, and is managed in association with each advertisement category. Has been.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, for example, keywords such as “real estate”, “land”, “apartment”, “rent” are registered for the category “house”. For the category “restaurant”, keywords such as “beer”, “sake”, “nabe”, “meat”, “fish”, “vegetables”, and “restaurant” are registered.

  When the registered keyword is detected in the print data (text data), the image forming apparatus 120 counts up the value of the corresponding detection number. For example, in the state shown in FIG. 6, when the character string “beer” is detected in the print data, the number of detections corresponding to the category “restaurant” is counted up from “0” to “1”.

  5 will be described again. The image forming apparatus 120 that has finished the analysis of the print data determines whether or not the registered keyword is included in the print data in step S504. If it is determined in step S504 that the registered keyword cannot be detected as in the case where the print data is generated based on the image file, for example, No) indicates that the category ID is indefinite in step S505. The value is set to “****”, and the category ID “******” is determined as a category ID used in the subsequent processing in step S509.

  On the other hand, if the registered keyword has been detected in step S504 (Yes), it is determined whether one or more registered keywords detected in step S506 belong to a single advertisement category or a plurality of advertisement categories. . If it is determined in step S506 that the detected one or more registered keywords belong to a single advertisement category (Yes), the category ID of the advertisement category corresponding to the registered keyword detected in step S508 is acquired. The category ID is determined as the category ID used in the subsequent processing.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S506 that the detected plurality of registered keywords belong to a plurality of advertisement categories (No), the number of detected keyword of each advertisement category is compared in step S507, and the advertisement category having the maximum number of detections. And the category ID of the advertisement category selected in step S508 is acquired. Thereafter, in step S509, the category ID is determined as a category ID used in the subsequent processing. If there are a plurality of advertisement categories with the maximum number of registered keywords detected, the advertisement category is not limited to one, and a plurality of category IDs corresponding to the plurality of advertisement categories are acquired in step S508, The plurality of category IDs are determined as category IDs used in the subsequent processing.

  When the image forming apparatus 120 determines the category ID as described above, the image forming apparatus 120 reads and combines the category ID and its own apparatus ID to create an advertisement ID. The created advertisement ID is encapsulated in a request packet together with the network address or URL address of the advertisement server 130 and the network address of the image forming apparatus 120, and then sent to the advertisement server 130 via the network. When a plurality of category IDs are selected, as described above, a plurality of advertisement IDs are created, encapsulated in a request packet, and notified to the advertisement server 130 as an advertisement data request.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of advertisement data selection processing by the advertisement server 130 that has received an advertisement data request including an advertisement ID from the image forming apparatus 120 will be described.
The advertisement server 130 manages the database 132, and configures an advertisement data management table used in the advertisement data selection process in the database 132. FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of the advertisement data management table.

  The advertisement data management table 700 shown in FIG. 7 is held in, for example, a storage device included in the advertisement server 130 and includes fields 704 and 706 for entering the number of distributions distributed for each advertisement category for each distributed advertisement data. And a field 702 for identifying each image forming apparatus 120 using an apparatus ID or the like as index data. The advertisement data management table 700 manages the number of distributed advertisement data for each image forming apparatus.

  Each advertisement category has a plurality of advertisement data (for example, corresponding to a plurality of advertisers), and the field 704 and the field 706 manage the number of distributions for each advertisement data (image data). . Further, here, each image forming apparatus 120 can perform both monochrome printing and color printing, and the field 704 and the field 706 of the advertisement data management table 700 manage the number of distributions separately for each monochrome printing and color printing. is doing. The advertisement data management table 700 is further provided with an option field 708 in order to correspond to an arbitrarily set advertisement category, and increase the number of advertisement categories that can be distributed in response to an advertiser request. It can be configured.

  The advertisement server 130 counts up the count value corresponding to the field 704 or the field 706 every time the advertisement data is distributed in response to the request from the image forming apparatus 120. For example, in the state shown in FIG. 7, when the color advertisement data (aaa.bmp) of “A real estate” of the category “house” is distributed to the device A, the number of corresponding distributions is counted from “9” to “10”. Up. The advertisement data of the advertisement category distributed in response to a predetermined advertisement data request is selected in time series depending on whether the advertisement data identification value has the maximum value or the latest time stamp is given. The selection of advertisement data to be distributed for each advertiser distributed within the same advertisement category is determined at random by means of random number generation means, etc., and is determined according to the advertising fee and other factors such as campaigns. An expected value is assigned, and advertisement data to be distributed can be selected and distributed to the image forming apparatus 120 so as to be the expected value.

  As will be described later, the advertisement server 130 receives a plurality of advertisement IDs from the image forming apparatus 120, or the category ID included in the notified advertisement ID is indefinite (“******”). If it is, the advertisement data management table 700 is referred to, and an advertisement category to be distributed is randomly determined so as to satisfy a predetermined expected value. In another embodiment, when the category ID included in the notified advertisement ID is indefinite (“******”), the advertisement data specifically assigned to the category ID is selected and distributed. You can also Further, the advertisement server 130 refers to the advertisement data management table 700 and distributes the advertisement data when selecting one advertisement data to be transmitted to the image forming apparatus 120 from a plurality of advertisement data corresponding to the selected advertisement category. Select the advertisement data to be used.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart of an embodiment of advertisement data selection processing. The process shown in FIG. 8 starts from step S800. Upon receiving an advertisement data request from the image forming apparatus 120, the advertisement server 130 first determines in step S801 whether the advertisement ID notified from the image forming apparatus 120 is singular. Determine whether there are multiple. If the result of determination in step S801 is singular (Yes), it is determined in step S802 whether the category ID included in the advertisement ID is a value “******” indicating indefinite.

  If the category ID is “****” as a result of the determination in step S802 (Yes), the advertisement server 130 has notified the advertisement ID with reference to the advertisement data management table 700 in step S803. The total number of advertisement data distributed to the image forming apparatus 120 so far is calculated for each advertisement category, and the advertisement category with the smallest distribution number is selected for the corresponding image forming apparatus 120 in step S804. .

  Similarly, when there are a plurality of advertisement IDs notified from the image forming apparatus 120 in the determination in step S801 (No), the advertisement server 130 refers to the advertisement data management table 700 and sets the advertisement ID in step S803. The total number of distributions of advertisement data distributed so far to the notified image forming apparatus 120 is calculated for each advertisement category corresponding to each of a plurality of advertisement IDs (category ID portions) notified from the image forming apparatus 120. To do. Thereafter, the advertisement server 130 selects an advertisement category with the smallest number of distributions to the corresponding image forming apparatus 120 in step S804.

  On the other hand, when the advertisement ID notified from the image forming apparatus 120 in step S802 is singular and the category ID including the advertisement ID is not “******” (No), That is, when a single category ID is determined from the notified advertisement ID, the advertisement category corresponding to the category ID is selected as the advertisement category of the advertisement distributed to the image forming apparatus 120 in step S804.

  When an advertisement category is selected as described above, advertisement data corresponding to the advertisement category is selected in step S805. That is, when each advertisement category has a plurality of advertisement data, the advertisement server 130 refers to the advertisement data management table 700 and selects the corresponding image forming apparatus among the advertisement data belonging to the selected advertisement category. For 120, the advertisement data with the smallest number of distributions is selected as the advertisement data to be distributed this time. In addition, when there are a plurality of advertisement data with the smallest number of distributions, an expected value determined according to a predetermined rule (for example, as described above, in the order of early registration, late order, or advertising fee) To select the advertising data.

  The advertisement data selected as described above is described in the payload portion of the response packet, the network address of the image forming apparatus 120 and the network address of the advertisement server 130 are described in the IP header, and the HTTP response or the FTP response. The port number for designating is described in the TCP header and transmitted to the image forming apparatus 120 of the advertisement data request source via the network and merged with the print data.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of merge processing of print data and advertisement data executed by the image forming apparatus 120 will be described. FIG. 9 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a process for merging print data and advertisement data.

  As shown in FIG. 9, in step S <b> 901, the image forming apparatus 120 first determines whether the print data fits in the default print area. If it is determined in step S901 that the print data is within the predetermined print area (Yes), the print data is merged with the advertisement data in step S903, and output is performed on the paper in step S904.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S901 that the print data does not fit within the default print area (No), the print data is reduced without changing the aspect ratio so as to fit in the predetermined print area in step S902. Thereafter, the print data reduced in step S903 is merged with the advertisement data, output to the paper in step S904, and the process ends in step S905.

  In the merging process, first, raster data formed from print data is set to a reduction ratio specified in response to a processing request. Thereafter, the printer driver acquires advertisement data in an image format such as bitmap, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, JPEG2000, JBIG, PNG received from the advertisement server 130, and raster data having an image size corresponding to the print request. And the position coordinates of each raster data are assigned to the area corresponding to the printing paper. Thereafter, the printer driver can execute by combining raster data and text data and generating print data described in PDL (Page Description Language) such as Postscript (registered trademark).

  FIG. 10 shows an embodiment of the print result when the advertisement data is not merged and when the advertisement data is merged. FIG. 10A shows a normal print result in which the advertisement data is not merged, and FIG. 10B shows the print result when the advertisement data is merged with the same print data as in FIG. An embodiment is shown.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 10B, the advertisement data is printed on the upper end portion of the sheet, the size is reduced, and the advertisement data is printed on the area secured by the reduction. For this reason, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 10B, the print data is reduced so as to fit in the print area smaller than that in FIG. 10A, and is arranged below the advertisement portion. If the print data can be printed without reducing the advertisement data by comparison with the printing paper, the print data need not be reduced.

  The printer driver of the PC 110 or the user interface (UI) function unit of the image forming apparatus 120 how to display the advertisement data on the printing paper to display or select the entire layout when the advertisement data is included. A preview display can be performed to inform the user as to whether or not to place them.

  FIG. 11 shows an embodiment of a print preview screen provided by the advertisement printing system 100. As shown in FIG. 11, on the print preview screen 102, an image of the print result with the advertisement data added is displayed, and it is possible to confirm how much the print data is reduced when the advertisement data is added. it can.

  In another embodiment of the advertisement printing system 100, an advertisement print area setting unit can be provided to appropriately select a range (area) for printing advertisement data. In a specific embodiment, the advertisement print area setting unit can be formed as a GUI display provided by a printer driver that operates on the PC 110 and can be arranged along with the print preview screen 102.

  FIG. 12 shows an embodiment of a GUI display 104 for setting an advertisement print range in the advertisement printing system 100. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 12, the advertisement print range is given as four default settings, and the advertisement print space indicated by hatching is “small” (a), “medium” (b), “large” ( c) and “extra large” (d) are displayed on the GUI 102, and one of them can be selected in response to the user selection.

  FIG. 12A shows an embodiment of a preview display of a print result image when “small” is selected as the advertisement print range. As shown in FIG. 12A, when “small” is selected as the advertisement print range, the advertisement data is printed on the upper end of the paper, and the print data is reduced to about 90%, Printed on.

  FIG. 12B shows an embodiment of preview display of a print result image when “medium” is selected as the advertisement print range. As shown in FIG. 12B, when “medium” is selected as the advertisement print range, the advertisement data is printed on the upper end and right end of the paper, and the print data is reduced to about 80%, Printed at the bottom left of the data.

  FIG. 12C shows an embodiment of preview display of a print result image when “Large” is selected as the advertisement print range. As shown in FIG. 12C, when “Large” is selected as the advertisement print range, printing is performed using an integrated print function for printing two pages of print data on one sheet, and one page is printed. The advertisement data is printed in the print area for printing, and the print data is printed in the print area for other pages. Note that the order in which the print pages are assigned to the advertisement data may be printed on the previous page or on the subsequent page.

  FIG. 12D shows an embodiment of a preview display of a print result image when “extra large” is selected as the advertisement print range. As shown in FIG. 12D, when “extra large” is selected as the advertisement print range, printing using the duplex printing function is performed, and the advertisement data is printed on one side (for example, the back side) of the paper, Print data is printed on the other side (for example, the front side) of the paper.

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 12, if the user does not like the print result image confirmed on the print preview screen, the user can change the setting of the advertisement print range appropriately through the UI screen provided by the printer driver to obtain a desired image. Printing results can be obtained.

  In the following, an embodiment of processing using points using a print number management table held by the print number management server 140 will be described. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of the print number management table. For example, the print number management table is held in a storage device included in the print number management server 140.

  A print number management table 1300 shown in FIG. 13 is configured in a database 142 managed by the print number management server 140. For each image forming apparatus 120, a field 1302 for registering a monochrome advertisement print number, a color advertisement print number, and the like. A field 1304 to be registered and a field 1306 to register the total points are entry items. The print number management server 140 accumulates and manages the total points every time there is a request from the image forming apparatus 120.

  The number of monochrome advertisement prints and the number of color advertisement prints indicate the total number of advertisement prints requested by each image forming apparatus 120 and output up to that point. Each time the number of printed monochrome advertisements or the number of printed color advertisements is notified from each image forming apparatus 120, the print number management server 140 adds the newly notified value to the previously held value and accumulates it. calculate.

  The total point is calculated based on the number of printed monochrome advertisements and the number of printed color advertisements, and is updated every time the number of printed monochrome advertisements and the number of printed color advertisements are updated. The reason why the number of printed monochrome advertisements and the number of printed color advertisements are managed separately in this embodiment is that there is a difference in the number of points generated depending on whether they are monochrome advertisements or color printing. The user can receive a predetermined service (for example, a reduction in the purchase price of consumables such as paper and toner according to the number of points) according to the total number of points accumulated by performing the advertisement printing.

  As described above, according to the above-described embodiment, the user selects the advertisement data category (type) to be merged with the print data on the UI screen provided by the printer driver, and the advertisement category selected by the user himself / herself. Therefore, the advertisement data corresponding to each user can be merged with the print data, so that an advertisement that matches each user's preference can be provided to each user, and the advertisement effect in the advertisement printing system can be further enhanced.

  In addition, when the user does not select an advertisement category, the print data is analyzed, the advertisement category is determined based on the detected keyword, and the advertisement data corresponding to the determined advertisement category is merged with the print data. Therefore, an advertisement according to the contents of the print data can be provided to each user, and the advertisement effect in the advertisement printing system can be further enhanced.

  In the above-described embodiment, various settings for advertisement printing can be performed via the UI screen provided by the printer driver operating on the PC 110. However, the image forming apparatus 120 has a Web server function. In the Web interface screen provided by the Web server function, various settings for advertisement printing, that is, whether or not to perform printing with the addition of an advertisement, designation of a range for printing an advertisement, and addition It may be possible to select an advertisement category. FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a Web interface screen for performing various settings for advertisement printing.

  As shown in FIG. 14, a GUI display similar to that shown in FIG. 2 is provided on the display device such as the CRT or LCD of the PC 110, and the user instructs whether or not to perform advertisement printing and advertisement range selection. A list box for performing an advertisement and a radio button for setting an advertisement category are provided as a menu display screen. The user performs various settings using each UI component displayed on the display device of the PC 110, and creates and transmits an advertisement data request to the advertisement server 130. FIG. 14 shows that a table 1404 for registering the device ID 1402 and the category ID corresponding to the advertisement category is held. The PC 110 makes a request to the advertisement server 130 using the GUI display and data structure shown in FIG.

  In another embodiment, the image forming apparatus 120 displays various types of advertisement printing by displaying GUIs such as an advertisement category selection unit and an advertisement print area setting unit on the screen of the operation panel included in the image formation apparatus 120. It is also possible to make settings possible. FIG. 15 shows an embodiment of a setting screen displayed on the operation panel of the image forming apparatus 120 in order to make various settings for advertisement printing. Also for the GUI display 1500 shown in FIG. 15, a list box for selecting an advertisement range, a radio button for setting an advertisement category, and the like are provided as a menu display screen.

  The embodiment shown in FIG. 15 is an embodiment in which various settings can be performed off-line, instead of performing settings while connecting to the advertisement server using a connection protocol such as PPP. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 15, after the setting is completed, the user can connect to the advertisement server 130 and download the advertisement data by touching and pushing the “online” field or pressing the send button. Communication cost can be reduced.

  The functions of the above-described embodiments are as follows: assembly language, C, Visual C, C ++, Visual C ++, Java (registered trademark), Java (registered trademark) Beans, Java (registered trademark) Applet, Java (registered trademark) Script, Perl , Ruby, etc., can be realized by a device-executable program written in a legacy programming language, an object-oriented programming language, or the like, and can be stored and distributed in a device-readable recording medium.

  Although the present invention has been described with the embodiments shown in the drawings, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments shown in the drawings, and other embodiments, additions, modifications, deletions, and the like can be performed by those skilled in the art. It can be changed within the range that can be conceived, and any aspect is included in the scope of the present invention as long as the effects and effects of the present invention are exhibited.

The figure which showed embodiment of the advertisement printing system by which embodiment of this invention is utilized. 5 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a user interface screen provided by a printer driver operating on the PC 110. FIG. 4 is a timing chart of an embodiment of processing of the advertisement printing system 100. The figure which showed embodiment of the production method of advertisement ID. The flowchart of embodiment of the determination process of category ID. The figure which showed embodiment of the advertisement category selection table utilized for the analysis of print data. The figure which showed embodiment of the advertisement data management table utilized for selection processing of advertisement data. The flowchart of embodiment of selection processing of advertisement data. The flowchart of embodiment of the process which merges print data and advertisement data. The figure which compared and showed the embodiment of the printing result when not merging advertisement data and when merging. It is a figure which shows the example of a print preview screen. The figure which showed embodiment of the GUI display which selects the advertisement printing range which can be selected in an advertisement printing system. The figure which showed embodiment of the printing number management table. The figure which showed embodiment of the web interface screen for performing various settings about advertisement printing. The figure which showed embodiment of the setting screen displayed on the operation panel of an image forming apparatus in order to perform various settings about advertisement printing.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Advertisement printing system, 110 ... Personal computer (PC), 120 ... Image forming apparatus, 130 ... Advertisement server, 140 ... Print number management server, 150 ... Network, 600 ... Advertisement category selection table, 700 ... Advertisement data management table 1300 ... Number of printed sheets management table

Claims (17)

An image forming apparatus connected to an advertisement server via a network,
Advertisement category registration means for acquiring and registering identification information of the advertisement category;
Advertising data acquisition means for notifying the advertisement server of the identification information and acquiring advertisement data corresponding to the identification information from the advertisement server;
An image forming apparatus comprising: advertisement data merging means for merging advertisement data acquired from the advertisement server with print data.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the advertisement category registration unit receives identification information of the advertisement category together with the print data from an information processing apparatus connected via the network.   2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an advertisement category selection unit that allows a user to select the advertisement category, wherein the advertisement category registration unit registers the advertisement category selected by the advertisement category selection unit. The image forming apparatus described.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an advertisement category determining unit that determines the advertisement category in response to the print data.   5. The image formation according to claim 1, further comprising a merge command unit for the advertisement data, wherein the merge process of the advertisement data and the print data is executed in response to a command from the merge command unit. apparatus.   6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a print range setting unit that sets a print range of the advertisement data, and printing the advertisement data in the print range from the print range setting unit. The image forming apparatus described in 1. A server connected to an image forming apparatus via a network and transmitting advertisement data to the image forming apparatus;
Ad data management means for managing ad categories and ad data in association with each other;
Advertisement data that receives identification information of the advertisement category from the image forming apparatus via the network, acquires advertisement data corresponding to the identification information using the identification information as a search key, and transmits the advertisement data to the image forming apparatus Transmission means;
A server comprising: a print number management unit that manages, for each image forming apparatus, the number of printed advertisements printed with advertisement notified from the image forming apparatus and the point calculated based on the number of printed advertisements .   The server according to claim 7, wherein the advertisement data management unit manages the number of transmissions of the advertisement data transmitted to the image forming apparatus for each image forming apparatus.   The advertisement data management means manages the number of transmissions of the advertisement data transmitted to the image forming apparatus for each of the advertisement data, determines the number of transmissions of the advertisement data, and selects advertisement data to be transmitted to the image forming apparatus The server according to claim 8.   The server according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the advertisement data management unit independently manages the number of transmissions of the advertisement data for monochrome printing and the number of transmissions of the advertisement data for color printing. An apparatus executable program that provides a printed matter obtained by merging advertisement data via a network, the program being provided to an image forming apparatus
Advertisement category registration means for acquiring and registering identification information of the advertisement category;
Advertising data acquisition means for notifying the advertisement server of the identification information and acquiring advertisement data corresponding to the identification information from the advertisement server;
An apparatus-executable program for realizing advertisement data merging means for merging the advertisement data acquired from the advertisement server with print data.   The program according to claim 11, wherein the advertisement category registration unit receives identification information of the advertisement category together with the print data from an information processing apparatus connected via the network.   The program realizes advertisement category selection means for allowing the user to select the advertisement category in the image forming apparatus, and the advertisement category registration means registers the advertisement category selected by the advertisement category selection means. The program according to claim 11 or 12.   The program according to any one of claims 11 to 13, wherein the program further realizes an advertisement category determining unit that determines the advertisement category in response to the print data in the image forming apparatus.   The said program implement | achieves the merge command means of the said advertisement data in the said image forming apparatus, The said merge command means performs the merge process of the said advertisement data and the said print data in response to the command from a user. The program according to any one of 11 to 14. A program connected to an image forming apparatus via a network and controlling the apparatus as a server for transmitting advertisement data to the image forming apparatus, the program
Ad data management means for managing ad categories and ad data in association with each other;
Advertisement that receives identification information of the advertisement category from the image forming apparatus via the network, acquires the advertisement data corresponding to the identification information using the identification information as a search key, and transmits the advertisement data to the image forming apparatus Data transmission means;
Print number management means for managing, for each image forming apparatus, the number of printed advertisements printed with advertisement notified from the image forming apparatus and the point calculated based on the number of printed advertisements. The server manages the number of transmissions of the advertisement data transmitted to the image forming apparatus for each of the advertisement data, determines the number of transmissions of the advertisement data, and selects the advertisement data to be transmitted to the image forming apparatus Program.   The program according to claim 16, wherein the advertisement data management unit independently manages the number of transmissions of the advertisement data for monochrome printing and the number of transmissions of the advertisement data for color printing.

Images