JP2005088244A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance security of an image forming apparatus. <P>SOLUTION: This image forming apparatus with an IC card reader comprises a storage means for storing image data as a file which is encrypted by a processing key, and an output means for outputting the image data, stored by the storage means, to an output medium. The image forming apparatus can output the image data decoded by the processing key by inserting an IC card into the IC card reader when the image data are outputted to the output means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to security management of personal information when an MFP (multifunction printer) is used.

  Conventionally, there is a configuration in which encryption is performed between client PCs to ensure security, but there is no mechanism for performing encryption inside the MFP.

  However, in recent years, personal and corporate interests regarding confidentiality are very high, and security measures are indispensable.

  To achieve the above object, according to the present invention, in an image forming apparatus having an IC card reader, storage means for storing image data which is a file encrypted with a processing key, and image data stored by the storage means are stored. Output means for outputting to an output medium, and when outputting to the output means, it is possible to output image data decrypted from the processing key by inserting an IC card into the IC card reader An image forming apparatus is provided.

  As described above, by having an IC card reader connected to the MFP, a mechanism for simple encryption can be attached, and higher security can be ensured.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the configuration of an image forming apparatus 800 showing an embodiment of the present invention.
The image forming apparatus 800 includes a scanner 10, a printer 11, and a controller 12.

First, the configuration of the scanner 10 will be described. On the platen glass 101, the documents fed from the automatic document feeder 142 are sequentially placed at predetermined positions.
The document placed on the document table glass 101 is exposed by a document illumination lamp 102 composed of, for example, a halogen lamp.

Scanning mirrors 103, 104, and 105 are accommodated in the optical scanning unit 147, and guide reflected light from the document to the CCD unit 106 while reciprocating.
The CCD unit 106 includes an imaging lens 107 that forms an image of reflected light from a document on a CCD, an image sensor 108 formed of, for example, a CCD, a drive CCD driver 109, and the like. The CCD unit 106 is controlled by a reader controller 147.

  As a result, the image signal output from the image sensor 108 is converted into, for example, 8-bit digital data, subjected to shading correction, and then input to the controller 12 for various image processing.

  Although details of the controller 12 will be described later, there is a screen for inputting a password for personal authentication at the operation unit 140, in this embodiment, the operation unit. A reader control unit 147 and a printer control unit 146 are connected, and an image forming operation is performed by controlling the scanner 10 and the printer 11 in accordance with an instruction from the operation unit. It also communicates with external I / F.

Next, the configuration of the printer 11 will be described.
Reference numeral 110 denotes a photosensitive drum, which is discharged by a pre-exposure lamp 112 in preparation for image formation. A cleaner 111 cleans the surface of the photosensitive drum 110. A primary charger 113 uniformly charges the photosensitive drum 110.

  Reference numeral 117 denotes a laser unit as exposure means. The laser unit 117 is composed of, for example, a semiconductor laser, and exposes the photosensitive drum 110 based on the image data processed by the controller unit 12 that performs image processing and overall control of the apparatus, thereby forming an electrostatic latent image. . Reference numeral 118 denotes a developing device that contains a black developer (toner). Reference numeral 119 denotes a pre-transfer charger. A high voltage is applied before the toner image developed on the photosensitive drum 110 is transferred to a sheet.

  In addition, 120, 122, and 124 in the figure are paper feeding units. By driving the paper feeding rollers 121, 123, and 125, transfer paper is fed into the apparatus, and temporarily stops at the position where the registration roller 126 is disposed. The timing of writing with the image formed on the photosensitive drum 110 is taken and the paper is fed again.

  A transfer charger 127 transfers the toner image developed on the photosensitive drum 110 onto a transfer sheet to be fed. Reference numeral 128 denotes a separation charger, which separates the transfer sheet on which the transfer operation has been completed by the photosensitive drum 110. The toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 110 without being transferred is collected by the cleaner 111.

  Reference numeral 129 denotes a conveyor belt, which transfers the transfer sheet on which the transfer process has been completed to the fixing device 130, and is fixed by heat, for example. 131 is a flapper that controls the transfer path of the transfer sheet after the fixing process to one of the arrangement directions of the staple sorter 132 and the intermediate tray 137.

  The sheets discharged to the staple sorter 132 are sorted into bins, and the staple unit 141 performs stapling according to instructions from the controller unit 139. Reference numerals 133 to 136 denote feeding rollers that feed the transfer paper once the fixing process is completed to the intermediate tray 137 by being reversed (multiple) or non-reversed (both sides). Reference numeral 138 denotes a refeed roller, which again conveys the transfer paper placed on the intermediate tray 137 to the position where the registration roller 126 is disposed.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the reader 10.
A CPU 24 controls the entire reader unit, and sequentially reads and executes programs from a read-only memory 26 (ROM) that stores control programs. The address bus and data bus of the CPU 24 are connected to each load via a circuit 25 including a bus driver and an address decoder. In addition, it communicates with the CPU 53 of the controller 12 to share device control.

  Reference numeral 27 denotes a random access memory (RAM) as a main storage device used for storing input data, a working storage area, and the like. Reference numeral 28 denotes an I / O interface, which includes devices such as a motor 29 for driving a paper feed system, a transport system, and an optical system, a clutch 30 and a paper detection sensor 31 for detecting a transported paper. Connected to each load.

  An image control unit 32 composed of 108, 21, 22, and 23 performs correction, control, and transfer of image signals. The video signal control 23 controls the timing of each function and controls image transfer to the controller unit.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the controller 12.
A core IC 53 with a built-in CPU controls the controller 12 and the entire apparatus in an integrated manner. It has various external I / Fs and also has an image compression / decompression unit.

  First, the program is sequentially read from the read-only memory (ROM-DIMM) 51 storing the control procedure (control program) and executed. In addition, an I / O controller 60 is connected to the CPU 53 via a PCI bus. The program executed between each load connected to the I / O controller and the CPU 53, the PCI bus is changed to an I / F corresponding to each load.

  The I / O controller 60 is directly connected to an HD 307, an EEPROM 65, an operation unit 140, and an RTC (real time clock) 59. An image processing unit 55, a mask ROM 56, an SRAM 57, and an LCD controller 58 are connected via a data bus and an address bus.

  The HD 307 is a hard disk having a memory capacity of about 10 GB, and is divided into an area where a control program is stored and an area used for storing images. The control program is also stored in ROM-DIMM51, but it has a small capacity and is used only at startup. After being activated by the ROM-DIMM 51 program, the program stored in the HD 307 is transferred to the SDRAM-DIMM 52 via the PCI bus, and the device is controlled according to the program.

When updating the device control program, the PC is connected via IEEE1284 (54), or the program is downloaded to the HD307 from the PC connected via the 10 / 100BASE-T connector 62.
The EEPROM 65 is an EEPROM connected to the I / O controller, and information on the specifications of the image forming apparatus, such as reading speed, print speed, and language used, is written in advance.

RTC59 is a real-time clock and indicates time. It is always backed up by a battery (not shown).
The operation unit 140 performs serial communication with the I / O controller 60 and detects that a key of the operation unit is pressed. Display data to the operation unit is written to the LCD controller 58 via the external bus, and the data is transferred to the operation unit 140.

  The IC card reader 141 is connected to the I / O controller 60 via a USB I / F. By inserting an IC card (smart card), a processing key, a password for personal authentication, and the like are transmitted through the I / O controller 60. Transferred to the CPU.

The mask ROM 56 is a mask chrome in which font data is stored, and is used for displaying an operation unit, outputting characters on paper, and the like.
The SRAM 57 is backed up by a battery (not shown) and stores various data.

  The image processing unit 55 performs image processing on the image signal. Consists of reader-type image processing for images input from the reader I / F63 and printer-type image processing before image transfer to the printer I / F64, scaling processing, density conversion, binarization processing, encryption To make it.

Furthermore, the CPU 53 is connected to the LAN via the 10 / 100BASE-T connector 62 via the ETHERNET (R) I / F61, and can send and receive data to and from an external PC, etc., and send the scanner image via the network. Or print.
IEEE1284 (54) is a so-called Centronics I / F, which is connected in parallel with a PC and can send and receive data to and from the PC.

  The flow of the image will be briefly described. Various images are processed by the image processing unit 55 through the reader I / F 63, and encryption is performed in this block when encryption is performed. The data is input to the SDRAM-DIMM 52 via the CPU 53. Once the image is stored in the SDRAM-DIMM 52, it is read again by the CPU 53, and the image processing unit 55 performs image processing via the CPU 53. Is done.

  When a plurality of copies are to be created, the input image is stored in the HD 307 and read out from the HD 307 each time one copy is created. More specifically, the image once stored in the SDRAM-DIMM 52 is read by the CPU 53, compressed by the image compression unit inside the CPU 53, and written to another area of the SDRAM-DIMM 53.

Next, the compressed image is stored in the HD 307 via the CPU 53, the PCI bus, and the I / O controller 60.
At the time of image formation, the compressed image read from the HD 307 is written to the SDRAM-DIMM 52 via the I / O controller 60, PCI bus, and CPU 53. The image read from the SDRAM-DIMM 52 is decompressed by the image decompression unit inside the CPU 53 and is written again in another area of the SDRAM-DIMM 52.

  As described above, the expanded image is transferred to the image processing unit 55 via the CPU 53, and the encrypted image signal is decrypted in this block and then transferred to the printer unit.

FIG. 4 shows the configuration of the printer 11.
Reference numeral 70 denotes a CPU that controls the printer 11, and sequentially reads and executes the program from the ROM 72 that stores the control procedure (control program) of the printer 11.

  The address bus and data bus of the CPU 70 are connected to each load via a circuit 71 including a bus driver and an address decoder. In addition, it is connected to the CPU 53 of the controller 12 via the printer I / F to perform communication.

  Reference numeral 73 denotes a random access memory (RAM) as a main storage device used as a storage area for input data or a working storage area. Further, all or a part of the RAM 73 is backed up by a battery or the like, and the contents of the memory are retained even when the main body is turned off.

  Reference numeral 74 denotes an I / O interface. Motors 76, clutches 77, solenoids 78 for driving the paper feed system, transport system, and optical system, and paper detection sensors 80 for detecting the transported paper. The high voltage control 81 for image formation is connected to each load. Further, the laser beam oscillated from the laser unit 117 is connected to the laser unit 117 and irradiates and exposes the photosensitive drum 110, and in the non-image area, the beam detection sensor 82 (light receiving sensor) emits the laser light and the beam position. Is detected. The detection signal is input to the video signal controller / timing generator 75 to form a timing synchronization signal.

  The generated timing synchronization signal is output to the controller unit, and in response to this signal, the controller transfers the image data to the printer unit. The image data transferred from the controller is input to the laser unit 117 via the video signal controller / timing generator 75, and image formation is performed.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the flow of image data.
The 8-bit image signal converted into an electrical signal by the CCD 108 in the reader 10 is converted from analog data to digital data by the A / D converter 21.
Next, after the shading correction unit 301 corrects the variation between pixels, the correction is input to the image processing unit 55 of the controller. The image processing unit 55 includes reader-type image processing and printer-type image processing.

  Image data from the reader 10 is input to the reduction / enlargement unit 90. Image data is thinned out during reduced copy, and image data interpolation is performed during enlarged copy.

  Next, in the edge enhancement unit 91, for example, secondary differentiation is performed in a window of 5 × 5 (5 lines × 5 pixels), thereby enhancing the edge of the image. The LUT 92 is a luminance density conversion unit that converts the luminance signal read by the CCD 108 into density data for output to the printer by table search. The density is also adjusted using this conversion table.

  Reference numeral 93 denotes a binarization processing unit that binarizes input multi-bit (for example, 8 bits) image data. This is to reduce the image size and reduce the memory capacity when storing in the subsequent memory.

  The binarized image data is encrypted by encryption at a predetermined operation time 96. The encrypted image data is temporarily stored in the image memory 52 (SDRAM-DIMM) via the CPU 53. The CPU 53 controls the image memory 52, receives image data from the scanner, stores it in the image memory 52, reads out the image stored in the image memory 52, and performs printer-type image processing as necessary.

  If it is encrypted with 96 in the decryption of 97, it is decrypted. In 94, binary data enlargement / reduction processing is performed, and in 95, binary data density conversion is performed. These processes are mainly used as image processing for print processing from a PC.

The decrypted image data is sent to the laser unit 117 via the printer controller unit 146, and an image is formed on a sheet.
The image stored in the image memory 52 is compressed by an image data compression unit in the CPU 53.

  The compressed image is stored in the HD 307 via the I / O controller 60. HD307 has a capacity of about 10 GB and can store thousands of pages of image data. When printing the image stored in the HD 307, it is restored to the original data by the image data expansion unit in the CPU 53 and output to the print unit. Details regarding image transfer between the image memory 52 and the HD 307 will be described later.

  Further, the image data once stored in the image memory (SDRAM-DIMM 52) is output to the LAN 310 via the Ethernet (R) I / F 61. Data is transmitted and received by connecting to an external personal computer or printer via the LAN 310 via a network.

Next, the encryption mechanism in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
First, when extracting and outputting the image data stored in the HD 603 of the MFP main body, the IC card 606 is inserted into an IC card reader (not shown). It is assumed that information such as a password and a processing key necessary for encryption is embedded in this IC card reader.

Next, in 605, a password for personal authentication is input through an operation unit (not shown).
In addition to the password, any means can be used as long as it can identify an individual using biometric authentication such as fingerprint authentication.

  If the CPU (not shown) determines that the person is authenticated in 604, access to the encrypted file is permitted. If permitted, the encrypted file stored in 603 is transferred to the encryption / decryption block 602. The transferred data is decrypted using the processing key information obtained from the IC card 606 and output to a printer (not shown) at 607.

The features of the present invention are described below.
(Appendix 1) In an image forming apparatus having an IC card reader, storage means for storing image data which is a file encrypted with a processing key, and output means for outputting the image data stored by the storage means to an output medium And when outputting to the output means, it is possible to output image data decrypted from a processing key by inserting an IC card into the IC card reader. apparatus.

(Supplementary note 2) The image forming apparatus according to supplementary note 1, wherein the image processing for output is performed after the encrypted data stored by the storage means is decrypted.

(Supplementary note 3) The image forming apparatus according to supplementary note 1, comprising an image scanning unit and an image forming unit, and is not limited to monochrome or color.

(Supplementary note 4) The image forming apparatus according to supplementary note 1, wherein the encryption method is a common key method.

(Appendix 5) Image forming apparatus having IC card reader, user authentication input means for inputting user authentication, and storage means for storing image data in which stored image data is a file encrypted by a processing key And output means for outputting the image data stored by the storage means to an output medium, and when outputting to the output means, by inserting an IC card into the IC card reader, the user authentication input An image forming apparatus, wherein the personal information input by the means is output, and if the information on the IC card matches, the image data decrypted by the processing key is output.

(Appendix 6) The image forming apparatus according to appendix 5, wherein the personal information input by the user authentication input means may be a password or bio authentication (fingerprint authentication or the like), and any means may be used.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the controller of this invention. It is a figure explaining the image forming system comprised by this Embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a scanner. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer. It is a block diagram which shows the flow of image data. It is a block diagram showing the feature of this embodiment

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Scanner 11 Printer 12 Controller 101 Original plate glass 102 Original illumination lamp 103 Scanning mirror 106 CCD unit 107 Imaging lens 108 Imaging element 109 Drive CCD driver 110 Photosensitive drum 111 Cleaner 112 Pre-exposure lamp 113 Primary charger 117 Laser unit 118 Development 119 Charger before transfer 120 Paper feed unit 121 Paper feed roller

Claims (1)

In an image forming apparatus having an IC card reader,
Storage means for storing image data which is a file encrypted with a processing key;
Output means for outputting the image data stored by the storage means to an output medium,
An image forming apparatus characterized in that, when outputting to the output means, it is possible to output image data decrypted by the processing key by inserting an IC card into the IC card reader.

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