System and method of managing shared printer with RFID

• US 20070018785A1
• Filed: 07/21/2006
• Published: 01/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HP Printing Korea Co., Ltd. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Chi, Won-young
• Granted Patent: US 7,675,419 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/5.200
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1222 Increasing security of the print job
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1238 Secure printing, e.g. user identification, user rights for device usage, unallowed content, blanking portions or fields of a page, releasing held jobs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1288 in client-server-printer device configuration

Abstract

A system and method of managing a shared printer with radio frequency identification (RFID) includes at least one RFID chip containing information about task permission for users, an RFID transceiver unit to periodically retrieve information about the RFID chip, a controller to determine whether to output a document based on task permission held by a user associated with the RFID chip retrieved by the RFID transceiver unit, and a printing unit to form images on a printing medium in response to a control signal from the controller. It is possible to allow, for example, printing and facsimile transmission by giving specific permission to each user and allows a manager to inspect a use specification by the RFID transceiver unit. The RFID transceiver unit is included in a printer and periodically retrieves information about an RFID chip and determines whether a document is to be output based on task permission held by a user associated with the retrieved RFID chip.

Claims

1. A system to manage a shared printer with RFID, comprising:

at least one RFID chip to transmit information;

an RFID transceiver to receive the information transmitted from the at least one RFID chip; and

a controller to control the shared printer to print a document based on the information transmitted from the at least one RFID chip.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the information comprises at least one of a task permission level, a printing count value, a user ID, and a manager permission level.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising:

a memory unit to store log information.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein RFID transceiver periodically retrieves the information from the at least one RFID chip.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller determines whether to control the shared printer to print a document based on the retrieved information from the at least one RFID chip.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the controller controls the shared printer to print the document based on a printing task corresponding to the at least one RFID chip.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising:

a server to connect the shared printer to a network.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the server comprises an authenticating unit to determine if the retrieved information transmitted from the RFID chips includes a user ID that corresponds to a new ID or a pre-stored ID.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the controller comprises an authenticating unit to determine whether the retrieved information transmitted from the at least one RFID chip includes a user ID that corresponds to a new ID or a pre-stored ID.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein when the authenticating unit determines that the at least one RFID chip has the new ID, the information of the RFID chip having the new ID is stored in a memory unit.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein when the authenticating unit determines that the at least one RFID chip has the pre-stored ID, the controller controls a memory unit to reduce an ID-specific printing count value for the pre-stored ID upon completion of the printing task.

12. The system of claim 5, wherein when the controller retrieves a plurality of printing tasks, the controller assigns priority to the printing tasks in order of task permission levels of a plurality of RFID chips corresponding to each of the plurality of printing tasks.

13. A shared printer to print documents based on a task permission level of a user obtained through radio frequency identification (RFID) information, the shared printer comprising:

an RFID transceiver unit to periodically retrieve the RFID information including at least one of an ID of a user and the task permission level of one or more corresponding RFID chips; and

a controller to determine whether to perform a print task based on the retrieved RFID information and to control the printing by the shared printer based on the determination.

14. The shared printer of claim 13, further comprising:

a memory unit to store log information including a print count value corresponding to the RFID chip when the print task is completed.

15. The shared printer of claim 14, wherein if the user ID retrieved by the RFID transceiver unit is determined to be a pre-stored ID in the memory unit, the controller reduces a print count value corresponding to the RFID chip in the memory unit.

16. The shared printer of claim 14, wherein if the user ID retrieved by the RFID transceiver unit is determined to be a new ID, the controller stores information including the task permission level and the print count value corresponding to the RFID chip in the memory unit.

17. The shared printer of claim 14, wherein when the RFID transceiver unit retrieves RFID information from a plurality of RFID chips, the controller gives priority to the RFID chip having a highest task permission level.

18. The shared printer of claim 17, wherein the controller controls the memory unit to store log information including the print count value corresponding to each of the plurality of RFID chips after the print task corresponding to each of the plurality of the RFID chips are completed.

19. The shared printer of claim 14, wherein when the user ID retrieved by the RFID transceiver unit is determined to have a manager permission level, the controller controls a display unit to display the log information stored in the memory unit.

20. A computer-readable recoding medium having a program recorded therein to perform a method of managing a shared printer with RFID, comprising:

periodically retrieving information of at least one RFID chip with an RFID transceiver unit;

determining whether to print a document based on task permission held by a user associated with the RFID chip retrieved by the RFID transceiver unit with a controller; and

printing the document in response to a control signal from the controller.

21. A method of controlling a shared printer with RFID to perform different tasks for users based on an authorized task permission level, the method comprising:

retrieving RFID chip information including user information from an external source; and

performing the printing task corresponding to the retrieved RFID chip information if the retrieved RFID chip information includes the task permission level authorized to perform the task.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

determining whether the retrieved RFID chip information corresponds to a new ID or a previously stored ID, and if the retrieved RFID chip information corresponds to the new ID, registering the new ID in a memory unit.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

adjusting and storing an ID specific printing count value corresponding to a number of pages used in performing the task.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

storing an ID-specific task log for the performed task in a memory unit.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

allowing a user with a manager permission level to access the ID-specific task log.

26. A method of controlling a shared printer with RFID, the method comprising:

determining whether a plurality of RFID chips are detected;

setting a task permission level to a highest permission level when the plurality of RFID chips are detected;

performing a checking operation including checking whether any of the detected RFID chips have the task permission level that is the same as the set task permission level, and if there are RFID chips that have the task permission level that is the same as the set task permission level, performing a task related to each of the RFID chips having the task permission level that is the same as the set task permission level, otherwise re-setting the task permission level to a lower level by a predetermined value;

repeating the checking operation until all task permission levels have been checked against the detected RFID chips; and

repeating the determining of whether a plurality of RFID chips are detected after a predetermined period of time.