JP2008142909A - Image forming apparatus, apparatus information collecting system, and apparatus information collecting method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus which can easily acquire apparatus information, and to provide an apparatus information collecting system and an apparatus information collecting method. <P>SOLUTION: The apparatus information related to the image forming apparatus 1 is turned to a two-dimensional code and displayed at a display part 61. A reading device 100 collects the apparatus information related to the image forming apparatus 1 by reading the two-dimensional code displayed at the display part 61 of the image forming apparatus 1. An image processor 200 judges an operation state of the image forming apparatus 1 on the basis of the apparatus information collected by the reading device 100. The reading device 100 can acquire the apparatus information of the image forming apparatus 1 by neither being electrically connected to the image forming apparatus 1 nor keeping a storage medium interposed. Processing of judging the operation state of the image forming apparatus 1 can be easily carried out outside the image forming apparatus 1. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, an apparatus information collection system, and an apparatus information collection method, and more particularly to an improvement in a method for acquiring apparatus information of an image forming apparatus.

  Conventionally, a server URL is converted into a two-dimensional code, and the two-dimensional code is displayed on the screen of the navigation device, and the displayed two-dimensional code is read by a mobile phone, thereby operating buttons of the navigation device stored in the server. A technique for causing a mobile phone to obtain an operation description related to this is known (for example, Patent Document 1).

  In addition, a technology for acquiring product-accompanying information stored in a host station by connecting to a host station specified by a product identification symbol from a mobile phone type operation means (hand apparatus) is also conventionally known. More known (for example, Patent Document 2).

JP 2006-125881 A JP 2000-276534 A

  Here, the image forming apparatus normally has a function of outputting apparatus information (for example, the number of sheets recorded by the recording unit, the number of read sheets by the scanner unit, etc.) from the recording unit. However, when a trouble such as a paper jam occurs in the recording unit of the image forming apparatus, a maintenance person of the image forming apparatus (for example, a service person: hereinafter, also simply referred to as “maintenance person”) provides apparatus information regarding the trouble generating apparatus. Can not get. As a result, there is a problem that the maintenance person cannot grasp the trouble situation accurately and the trouble cannot be solved quickly.

  In addition, the resolution of the display unit of the image forming apparatus is usually sufficient if information necessary for recording processing or the like (for example, the number of recording sheets or the size of recording paper) can be displayed. Therefore, it is difficult to display a lot of device information on the display unit at a time. As a result, there has been a problem that device information cannot be easily acquired even if a trouble occurs.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus, a device information collection system, and a device information collection method that can easily acquire device information.

  In order to solve the above problems, the invention of claim 1 is an image forming apparatus, wherein a code generation unit that two-dimensionally encodes device information related to the device, and a two-dimensional code generated by the code generation unit And a display unit capable of displaying.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, the code generation unit can generate a two-dimensional code for each function of the apparatus.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the second aspect, the display unit can simultaneously display a plurality of two-dimensional codes generated for each function of the apparatus. To do.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the second aspect, the display unit can switch and display a plurality of two-dimensional codes generated for each function of the apparatus. And

  According to a fifth aspect of the invention, there is provided the image forming apparatus according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, and a reading unit capable of reading a two-dimensional code displayed on the display unit. And a reading device capable of collecting device information relating to the image forming apparatus.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the apparatus information collecting system according to the fifth aspect, the image forming apparatus is connected to the reading apparatus via a network, and the image formation is performed based on the apparatus information collected by the reading apparatus. An information processing apparatus capable of determining the operating status of the apparatus is further provided.

  According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided (a) a step of two-dimensionally coding device information relating to an image forming apparatus, and (b) a two-dimensional code generated in the step (a) And (c) collecting device information relating to the image forming apparatus by reading the two-dimensional code displayed in the step (b) with an external device of the image forming apparatus. Features.

  The invention according to claim 8 further includes the step of (d) determining an operating status of the image forming apparatus based on the apparatus information collected in the step (c).

  According to the first to eighth aspects of the invention, the apparatus information of the image forming apparatus can be converted into a two-dimensional code and the generated two-dimensional code can be displayed on the display unit. Therefore, an external device (for example, a reading device) of the image forming apparatus can acquire device information of the image forming device by reading the two-dimensional code displayed on the display unit. Therefore, it is possible to easily execute processing and calculation processing of device information (for example, device information analysis processing) outside the image forming apparatus.

  In particular, according to the second aspect of the invention, the external device of the image forming apparatus can read the two-dimensional code generated for each function, and easily obtains device information for each function regarding the image forming apparatus. be able to.

  In particular, according to the third aspect of the invention, it is possible to read each of a plurality of two-dimensional codes displayed on the display unit at the same time, and it is possible to more easily acquire device information for each function of the image forming apparatus. it can.

  In particular, according to the fourth aspect of the invention, even when only a part of the two-dimensional codes can be displayed among the plurality of two-dimensional codes generated for each function of the image forming apparatus, all of the two-dimensional codes are displayed by the switching display. The two-dimensional code can be displayed. Therefore, device information can be acquired for all functions even when the display area of the display unit is narrow.

  In particular, according to the sixth aspect of the present invention, the operating status of the image forming apparatus can be easily determined by the information processing apparatus connected to the reading apparatus via the network. Therefore, the operating status of the image forming apparatus can be acquired without imposing a calculation load on the image forming apparatus and the reading apparatus.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

<1. Configuration of device information collection system>
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of an apparatus information collection system 800 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Here, the apparatus information collection system 800 is a system that collects apparatus information related to the image forming apparatus 1 and can determine the operating status of the image forming apparatus 1 based on the collected apparatus information. As shown in FIG. 1, the apparatus information collection system 800 mainly includes an image forming apparatus 1, a reading apparatus 100, and an information processing apparatus 200.

  The image forming apparatus 1 is a scanner (image reading), a printer, a copier, a facsimile, or a complex machine that combines these functions. The configuration of the image forming apparatus 1 will be described later.

  The reading device 100 is, for example, a mobile terminal device that can be connected to a network (for example, a mobile phone or a portable tablet personal computer), and is configured as an external device of the image forming apparatus 1. The reading device 100 collects device information related to the image forming device 1 by reading the two-dimensional code displayed on the display unit 61 of the image forming device 1. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the reading apparatus 100 mainly includes a reading unit 110, a communication unit 125, and a code reverse conversion unit 161.

  Here, the two-dimensional code is encoded by converting data such as characters and numbers into a two-dimensional graphic pattern. Therefore, it is possible to acquire predetermined data by reading this two-dimensional code and applying an inverse transformation process to the read two-dimensional code.

  The reading unit 110 is an image input unit configured by a device having an image input function such as a CCD camera, for example. Thereby, the two-dimensional code displayed on the display unit 61 of the image forming apparatus 1 can be input to the reading apparatus 100. In addition, the code reverse conversion unit 161 executes a process of reversely converting the two-dimensional code read by the reading unit 110 into the original device information.

  The communication unit 125 is a network card that enables data communication with the information processing apparatus 200 connected via the network 400. For example, the device information reversely converted by the code reverse conversion unit 161 is transmitted to the information processing device 200 by the communication unit 125.

  The information processing apparatus 200 includes, for example, a personal computer or a workstation, and is electrically connected to the reading apparatus 100 via a network 400 as illustrated in FIG. In the present embodiment, the information processing apparatus 200 is used as a determination server that performs determination processing based on received apparatus information and provides a determination result to a request source (for example, the reading apparatus 100). As illustrated in FIG. 1, the information processing apparatus 200 mainly includes a determination unit 210 and a communication unit 225.

  The determination unit 210 executes a determination process based on the device information by performing processing and arithmetic processing (for example, device information analysis processing) on the received device information. Further, when it is determined that some problem (for example, paper jam or the like in the scanner unit 41) has occurred in the image forming apparatus 1, the determination unit 210 selects information for solving the problem.

  The communication unit 225 is a network card that enables data communication with the reading device 100 connected via the network 400, and has the same configuration as the communication unit 125 of the reading device 100.

  For example, when it is determined that a paper jam has occurred in the scanner unit 41 of the image forming apparatus 1, the determination unit 210 uses, as apparatus information, a handling method of the image forming apparatus 1 that is necessary for clearing a paper jam. Select based on. And the communication part 225 transmits the information regarding this handling method with respect to the reader 100 of a request origin.

<2. Configuration of image forming apparatus>
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of the image forming apparatus 1 in the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the two-dimensional code displayed on the display unit 61. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of apparatus information regarding the image forming apparatus 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the image forming apparatus 1 mainly includes a modem 22, a communication unit 25, a display unit 61, and a code generation unit 65.

  The modem 22 converts digital data into an audio signal for transmission, or converts an audio signal transmitted from the outside of the image forming apparatus 1 and received by the image forming apparatus 1 into digital data. The NCU 21 is a device required when the image forming apparatus 1 is connected to the public switched telephone network, and performs outgoing / incoming calls and dial control. Furthermore, the communication unit 25 is a network card that enables data communication with an apparatus connected via the network 400.

  Therefore, the user of the image forming apparatus 1 can realize a facsimile communication function based on his / her operation by operating the NCU 21 and the modem 22.

  The CODEC 31 is used for lossless compression processing of images transmitted by facsimile communication. For example, the CODEC 31 encodes a binarized image read from a document by the scanner unit 41. The encoded image is stored in the image memory 16. The CODEC 31 decodes facsimile data (binary data) transmitted from another image forming apparatus. The decoded binary data is supplied to the recording unit 51, and a recording process is executed.

  When binary data is encoded by the CODEC 31, any one of MH (Modified Huffman), MR (Modified Read), MMR (Modified MR), and JBIG (Joint Bi-level Image experts Group) The method is adopted. When multi-value data is encoded by the CODEC 31. For example, the JPEG method is adopted.

  The scanner unit 41 is a so-called image reading unit, and reads an image from a document. Then, the image data read by the scanner unit 41 is compressed by, for example, the JPEG method by the CODEC 31 and stored in the image memory 16.

  The recording unit 51 is an image forming unit that records a toner image based on an electrostatic latent image on a recording sheet by an electrophotographic method. For example, the recording unit 51 forms a toner image based on the image data read by the scanner unit 41 on a photosensitive drum (not shown), and transfers the toner image to recording paper.

  The display unit 61 is configured by a liquid crystal display, for example. Therefore, the display unit 61 can display not only characters but also a graphic pattern such as a two-dimensional code (see FIG. 3).

  In addition, the display unit 61 has a function as a “touch panel” that can specify a position on the screen by touching the screen with a finger or a dedicated pen. Therefore, the user of the image forming apparatus 1 instructs the image forming apparatus 1 to perform a predetermined operation by giving an instruction using the “touch panel” function of the display unit 61 based on the content displayed on the display unit 61. be able to. Thus, the display unit 61 is also used as an input unit.

  The operation unit 62 is an input unit configured by a so-called keypad. The user of the image forming apparatus 1 can cause the image forming apparatus 1 to execute a predetermined operation by performing an input operation based on the display content of the display unit 61.

  The code generation unit 65 converts the device information regarding the image forming apparatus 1 into a two-dimensional code. For example, the device information shown in FIG. 4 is converted into a two-dimensional code 61b by the code generator 65 (see FIG. 3).

  A RAM (Random Access Memory) 12 and an image memory 16 are readable and writable volatile memories (storage units). A ROM (Read Only Memory) 13 is a read only memory. An MPU (Micro Processing Unit) 11 executes control according to a program stored in the ROM 13. In addition, each of the MPU 11, RAM 12, ROM 13, recording unit 51, etc. is electrically connected via a signal line 15. Therefore, the MPU 11 can execute, for example, a recording process by the recording unit 51 at a predetermined timing.

<3. Device information collection procedure by the device information collection system>
FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining a device information collection procedure by the device information collection system 800. In the present embodiment, when some trouble occurs in the image forming apparatus 1 (for example, a paper jam in the recording unit 51), or in accordance with an operation from the operation unit 62, the device information related to the image forming apparatus 1 is a two-dimensional code. (S101). Then, the generated two-dimensional code is displayed in the display area 61a (in a broken line) of the display unit 61 (S102: see FIG. 3).

  Subsequently, the displayed two-dimensional code is read by the reading device 100 (S103). The read two-dimensional code is reversely converted by the code reverse conversion unit 161. Then, the device information obtained by the inverse conversion is transmitted from the reading device 100 to the information processing device 200 via the network 400.

  The information processing apparatus 200 determines the operating status of the image forming apparatus 1 based on the received apparatus information. The information processing apparatus 200 provides the reading apparatus 100 with the determination result and, if necessary, the handling method of the image forming apparatus 1.

<4. Advantages of apparatus information collection system of this embodiment>
As described above, in the apparatus information collecting system 800 including the image forming apparatus 1, the apparatus information of the image forming apparatus 1 is two-dimensionally encoded, and the image forming apparatus is a two-dimensional code having a high recording density (information amount per area). 1 on the display unit 61. As a result, the reading apparatus 100 can acquire the apparatus information of the image forming apparatus 1 without being electrically connected to the image forming apparatus 1 or via a storage medium.

  Therefore, the apparatus information collection system 800 can easily execute the operation status determination process of the image forming apparatus 1 outside the image forming apparatus 1. In addition, the operating status of the image forming apparatus 1 can be acquired without imposing a calculation load on the image forming apparatus 1 and the reading apparatus 100.

<5. Modification>
Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications can be made.

  (1) In the present embodiment, the code generation unit 65 has been described as converting the device information shown in FIG. 4 into a two-dimensional code. However, the two-dimensional code generated by the code generation unit 65 is not limited to this. For example, a two-dimensional code for e-mail may be generated by the code generation unit 65. That is, the two-dimensional code generated by the code generation unit 65 includes (a) an e-mail address as a transmission destination of apparatus information, (b) an e-mail subject, and (c) apparatus information as a body of the e-mail. And may be configured. Thereby, the reading device 100 can quickly transmit the read device information to the information processing device 200 as an electronic mail.

  (2) In the present embodiment, the code generation unit 65 has been described as converting the device information into one two-dimensional code. However, the two-dimensional code generation method is not limited to this. For example, a two-dimensional code may be generated for each function of the image forming apparatus 1. Thereby, the apparatus information for every function can be acquired easily.

  When the resolution of the display unit 61 is sufficient, a plurality of two-dimensional codes generated for each function may be displayed on the display unit 61 simultaneously (see FIG. 6). Thereby, apparatus information for each function of the image forming apparatus 1 can be acquired more easily.

  Further, when the resolution of the display unit 61 is not sufficient and all the two-dimensional codes corresponding to each function cannot be displayed at the same time, the two-dimensional codes may be switched and displayed. Accordingly, even when the resolution of the display unit 61 is not sufficient and the display area 61a of the display unit cannot be sufficiently secured, it is possible to display all the two-dimensional codes on the display unit 61.

It is a block diagram which shows an example of the whole structure of the apparatus information collection system in embodiment of this invention. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an overall configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the two-dimensional code displayed on the display part. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of device information regarding an image forming apparatus. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the collection procedure of the apparatus information by an apparatus information collection system. It is a figure which shows the other example of the two-dimensional code displayed on the display part.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image forming apparatus 25, 125, 225 Communication part 41 Scanner part 51 Recording part 61 Display part 65 Code generation part 62 Identification part 63 Judgment part 100 Reading apparatus 110 Reading part 161 Code reverse conversion part 200 Information processing apparatus 210 Determination part 400 Network 800 Device information collection system

Claims (8)

An image forming apparatus,
(a) a code generator for two-dimensionally encoding device information relating to the device;
(b) a display unit capable of displaying the two-dimensional code generated by the code generation unit;
An image forming apparatus comprising: The image forming apparatus according to claim 1,
The image forming apparatus, wherein the code generator is capable of generating a two-dimensional code for each function of the apparatus. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2.
The image forming apparatus, wherein the display unit can simultaneously display a plurality of two-dimensional codes generated for each function of the apparatus. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2.
The image forming apparatus, wherein the display unit can switch and display a plurality of two-dimensional codes generated for each function of the apparatus. An image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
A reader having a reader capable of reading the two-dimensional code displayed on the display, and capable of collecting device information relating to the image forming device;
A device information collecting system comprising: In the device information collection system according to claim 5,
An information processing apparatus connected to the reading apparatus via a network and capable of determining an operating status of the image forming apparatus based on apparatus information collected by the reading apparatus;
An apparatus information collection system further comprising: (a) a step of two-dimensionally coding device information relating to the image forming device;
(b) displaying the two-dimensional code generated in the step (a) on a display unit of the image forming apparatus;
(c) collecting device information about the image forming apparatus by reading the two-dimensional code displayed in the step (b) with an external device of the image forming apparatus;
A device information collecting method comprising: (d) a step of determining the operating status of the image forming apparatus based on the apparatus information collected in the step (c);
A device information collecting method, further comprising:

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