KR100685648B1 - System for printer control - Google Patents

Abstract

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing control system, which is applied to a system in which various printing apparatuses are used, and outputs printed matter through a printing apparatus according to printing permission information recorded in digital recording means capable of recording data, such as an RF ID card. Configured to allow. The printing permission information may be configured as a usable period or a quantity of printed matter that can be output through the printing apparatus. Accordingly, by allowing only those who have a certain authority to operate the various apparatuses in which the printing apparatus is used, the use of the apparatus can be properly controlled.

Printing, control, photo sticker, RF ID

Description

Print control system {System for printer control}

1 is an embodiment of a printing control system according to the present invention,

2 is an overview of an embodiment of configuring data recording means with an RF ID card;

3 is an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a photo sticker vending machine,

4 is an embodiment of a process for controlling a printing apparatus according to the present invention,

5 is a flowchart of an embodiment of controlling printing according to a usable period;

6 is a flowchart of an embodiment of controlling printing according to the number of available sheets.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

11: data recording means 12: data reader

13,33: computer system 13-1,33-1: operating system

13-2, 33-2: Application program 14, 34: Printing control means

15,35: printer 21,31: RF ID card

21-1: RF ID Tag 22,32: RF ID Reader

36: camera 37: key input unit

38: monitor 39: photo sticker

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing control system, and more particularly, to a system capable of controlling a printing apparatus connected to various apparatuses to be used only by an apparatus operator having a predetermined authority.

Various apparatuses, especially those in contact with the public, include various kinds of printing apparatuses to provide various printed matters to the user. An example of such a device is a photo sticker vending machine. A photo sticker vending machine can decorate a video image of a photographed user in various ways and then output it in the form of a photo sticker. These devices are distributed to store owners in the form of sales or leases.

Meanwhile, when distributing such devices, a contract may be made between the right holder of the device and the store owner to use the device under certain conditions. For example, a contract may be made that only consumables such as photo paper and film used in the printing device of a photo sticker vending machine are provided or designated by the license holder. You need to control it.

However, it is very difficult for an operator with control to monitor the operation status of each shop owner on a daily basis. However, if the use of the device is excessively uncomfortable, there is a problem of limiting the shopkeeper's profits excessively. Therefore, there is a need for a method that can effectively control the device under the terms of the contract without imposing excessive restrictions on the use of the device.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made in order to meet the above necessity, so that only a device operator having a certain authority can use a printing device connected to various devices, so that the use of the device can be accurately and easily controlled. Its purpose is to.

In order to achieve the above object, a printing control system according to the present invention includes a printing apparatus for printing various images by a computer system ; Data recording means for recording printing permission information indicating whether printing is permitted in the printing apparatus ; A data reader for reading printing permission information recorded in the data recording means; And a printing system installed in a computer system for controlling the data reader and the printing apparatus, and controlling whether printing of the printing apparatus is performed by determining whether to allow printing through the printing permission information read out from the data recording unit. It comprises a control means.

The printing permission information may be configured to include start date and end date information for using the printing apparatus.

In addition, the print permission information may be configured to include information about the number of prints that can be output by using the printing apparatus.

At this time, if printing through the printing apparatus is allowed, the print control means subtracts the number of prints allowed to be printed through the printing apparatus from the currently available number of sheets recorded in the data recording means through the data reader. Can be configured to                         

The data recording means may be configured in the form of a portable card including an RF ID tag in which the print permission information is recorded. In this embodiment, the data reader is configured to read information from the RF ID tag of the card.

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

Referring to FIG. 1, the print control device according to the present invention reads out print permission information recorded in the data recording means 11 through the data reader 12, and prints the print device according to the content of the read permission information. Control the use of 15). That is, the print control means 14 installed in the computer system 13 processes the printing device 15 to print through the printing device 15 when the print permission information read out from the data recording means 11 is information allowing printing. Otherwise, the process cannot be printed.

The data recording means 11 may record in a variety of forms, such as recording the printing permission information electrically or magnetically or through a predetermined code such as a barcode, and is preferably configured to be easily portable.

The data reader 12 serves to read the print permission information recorded in the data recording means 11. Therefore, the data reader 12 can be configured to read the recorded information either in the form of the data recording means 11, electrically or magnetically or in a code printed form.

The printing device 15 is a device which is connected to a communication port (for example, a parallel port and a USB port) of a computer system to perform a printing function, and executes printing under the control of the computer system 13. The printing apparatus 15 can be comprised by arbitrary apparatuses as needed, and is not limited to a specific printing apparatus.

The computer system 13 is connected to the data reader 12 and the printing apparatus 15 through various communication ports such as a serial port, a USB port, and a parallel port. The program 13-2 is installed. The application program is not limited, but in addition to the general application program, an application program for driving the device according to its usage is installed. For example, an application for a photo sticker vending service may be installed in a device such as a photo sticker vending machine.

In particular, the print control means 14 installed in the computer system 13 determines whether to allow printing through the printing apparatus 15 according to the print permission information received through the data reader 12.

Such print control means 14 can be configured in various ways as needed.

For example, it can be configured to be included in the print-related portion of the application program (13-2). That is, the print control means 14 included in the application program can be configured to check the print permission information when printing is attempted and to proceed with printing or to ignore the printing attempt according to the result. As another example, the print control unit 14 may be configured as a separate print function and configured to determine whether to perform printing according to the print permission information when this print function is called.

In addition, the computer system 13 and the printing device 15 are configured to be connected through a constant locking device which serves as the print control means 14, and the locking device of the computer system 13 according to the printing permission information. The communication port and the printing device 15 may be configured to physically connect or block each other.

Referring to FIG. 2, a specific embodiment constituting the data recording means 11 will be described. The data recording means 11 includes a portable card including an RF ID tag 21-1 in which print permission information is recorded. It can be configured in the form of (21). That is, an RF ID tag 21-1 in which the unique number of the card and the print permission information are recorded is embedded in the card 21 which is produced portable such as a credit card. In this embodiment, the data reader 12 uses an RF ID reader that reads data from the RF ID tag 21-1 of the card.

On the other hand, the print permission information is information indicating whether to permit the use of the printing apparatus 15 and can be configured in various forms that can display this.

An example of configuring the printing permission information is configured as a period during which the printing apparatus 15 can be used, that is, start date and end date information indicating an available period, and when the current date to print is within the available period, Printing can be allowed, or printing can be prevented.

Another example of configuring the print permission information is to include information on the number of printable sheets, and printing may be controlled through the number of prints output through the printing apparatus 15.

Referring to FIG. 3, an example of a photo sticker vending machine that photographs a user and variously decorates the photographed image and outputs the photo sticker will be described.

The overall operation of the photo sticker vending machine is collectively controlled by the computer system 33. When the computer system 33 is turned on, the operating system 33-1 is driven, and the application program 33-2 for the photo sticker vending machine is driven to start the photo sticker selling service according to the contents of the program. The computer system 33 is also connected to a monitor 38, a printing device 35, and an RF ID reader 32 for reading printing permission information from the RF ID card 31 as in the above-described embodiment. .

In addition, the photo sticker vending machine is equipped with a digital camera 36 for photographing the user, and is provided with a user interface 37 for allowing the user to input various information required for service or to control the driving of the photo sticker vending machine. have. Accordingly, the user manipulates the user interface 37 while instructing the user to take a picture while viewing the appearance on the screen of the monitor 38 after the digital camera 36 is positioned at a location where the user can take a picture. Then, the application program 33-2 processes the captured video image of the user and prints it through the printing apparatus 35.

At this time, the print control means 34 checks the print permission information recorded on the RF ID card 31 through the RF ID reader 32, and determines whether to permit printing according to the print permission information. Therefore, in order to normally use the photo sticker vending machine, an RF ID card 31 provided by an authorized proprietor and allowed to print must be input to the RF ID reader 32.

That is, the store owner operating the photo sticker vending machine can normally operate the photo sticker vending machine only when the normal RF ID card 31 is input. Otherwise, the printer will not print even if the user shoots and operates the device.

A process of controlling printing according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 4.

First, an attempt is made to read data recorded in the RF ID card 31 through the RF ID reader 32 (S41).

If the data read attempt is successful in step S41 (S42), it is checked whether the card is normally issued through the unique identification information of the card (S43), and if the data read attempt fails, a message indicating that there is no RF ID card exists. It performs a certain error procedure, such as output to the screen of the monitor 38 and does not allow printing (S44).

However, in the case of the card normally issued as a result of the check in step S43, it is determined whether the print permission information indicates a state permitting printing (S45), and according to the determination result, printing is allowed (S46) or printing is not allowed. (S47).

However, if the card is not normally issued as a result of the check in step S43, a certain error procedure is performed such as outputting a message informing the message on the screen of the monitor 38 and printing is not allowed (S48).

Referring to FIG. 5, the embodiment in which the print permission information includes a usable period including a start time and an end time will be described in more detail. First, the usable period read from the RF ID card 31 is checked ( S51).

In addition, to confirm the current time (S52), the current time can be confirmed using the time information of the computer system 33. If the current time identified in step S52 is within the available period checked in step S51, printing is allowed (S46), otherwise printing is not allowed (S47).

Referring to FIG. 6, the embodiment in which the print permission information includes the number of printable photo stickers is described in more detail. First, the number of usable copies read from the RF ID card 31 is checked (S61). . At this time, the number of usable sheets may be arbitrarily set and distributed as necessary, such as 100 sheets, 300 sheets, 500 sheets, and the like. If the available number indicated by the print permission information in step S61 is larger than zero, printing is allowed (S62, S46), otherwise printing is not allowed (S47). At this time, when printing is allowed in step S46, the number of sheets allowed for printing is subtracted from the currently available number of sheets recorded on the RF ID card 31.

As described above, if the printing apparatus is controlled through the print permission information recorded in the data recording means, the commercial use of the entire apparatus can be finally controlled. Therefore, the device proprietor can provide the owner with the appropriate card to control the use of the device under the terms of the contract.

As one specific example, if the equipment distributor and the owner have contracted to use only certain films or prints in the printing device, the marketing rights holder may provide information that permits the use of only the available number of films in the packaging of the film or photo paper. The package contains and distributes data recording means to control the use of the device under contract.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments and can be variously modified and implemented by those skilled in the art without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention.

According to the present invention, it is possible to appropriately control various devices located remotely by allowing only those who have a certain authority to operate various devices for which the printing apparatus is essentially used. As a result, interested parties of the device can easily control the license holder of the device to use the device according to the terms of the contract.

Claims (6)

A printing apparatus for printing various images by a computer system ; Data recording means for recording printing permission information indicating whether printing is permitted in the printing apparatus ; A data reader for reading printing permission information recorded in the data recording means; And A print control installed in a computer system for controlling the data reader and the printing apparatus, and controlling whether to perform printing of the printing apparatus by determining whether to permit printing based on print permission information read from the data recording means by the data reader; Means for printing control comprising; The method of claim 1, And a digital camera, wherein the print control means is configured to determine whether to allow printing of the video image photographed by the digital camera according to the print permission information. The method according to claim 1 or 2, And the print permission information comprises start date and end date information for using the printing apparatus. The method according to claim 1 or 2, And the print permission information includes information on the number of prints that can be output by using the printing apparatus. The method of claim 4, wherein And the print control means is configured to subtract the number of prints allowed for printing from the currently available number of sheets recorded in the data recording means if printing through the printing apparatus is permitted. The method of claim 1, The data recording means is configured in the form of a portable card including an RF ID tag in which the print permission information is recorded, and the data reader is configured to read information from the RF ID tag of the card. .

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