Terminal Apparatus and System

• US 20140211252A1
• Filed: 01/29/2014
• Published: 07/31/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: Tsujimoto, Shohei
• Granted Patent: US 9,135,530 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1204 resulting in reduced user or operator actions, e.g. presetting, automatic actions, using hardware token storing data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1226 Discovery of devices having required properties
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1236 Connection management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1268 Job submission, e.g. submitting print job order or request not the print data itself
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1292 Mobile client, e.g. wireless printing
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/007 only remotely, e.g. at a host computer dedicated computer interfaces to print systems G06F3/1201
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/402 Sharing data concerning the arrangement's configuration or current state for managing optional units G06K15/4025
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1021 based on client or server locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A terminal apparatus includes: a first position receiving unit configured to receive terminal position information indicating a position of the terminal apparatus; a receiving unit configured to receive a plurality of distance information corresponding to each of printers that are printer candidates to execute a printing, wherein each of the plurality of distance information is generated on the basis of coordinate information, which includes information of a latitude and a longitude indicating a position of the corresponding printer, and the terminal position information; a choosing unit configured to preferentially choose a printer having a short distance to the terminal apparatus from the printers based on the distance information; and a printing instruction unit configured to transmit a printing instruction for printing execution to a specific printer of the one or more chose printers.

Claims

1. A terminal apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions, the instructions, when executed by the processor, causing the terminal apparatus to perform operations comprising;

a first position receiving process of receiving terminal position information indicating a position of the terminal apparatus;

a receiving process of receiving a plurality of distance information corresponding to each of printers that are printer candidates to execute a printing, wherein each of the plurality of distance information is generated on the basis of coordinate information, which includes information of a latitude and a longitude indicating a position of the corresponding printer, and the terminal position information;

a choosing process of preferentially choosing a printer having a short distance to the terminal apparatus from the printers based on the distance information; and

a printing instruction process of transmitting a printing instruction for printing execution to a specific printer of the one or more chose printers.

2. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

a first transmission process of transmitting condition information, which indicates a printing condition of the printing based on the printing instruction, to each of the printers,

wherein the receiving process comprises receiving at least one of the distance information and the printer position information from a printer that is able to execute the printing in accordance with the printing condition indicated by the condition information, of the printers.

3. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

a registration process of registering the printer position information, which indicates the position of each printer, with each of the printers prior to the printing instruction,

wherein the registration process comprises a first reception process of receiving a predetermined operation from a user, and

wherein the registration process comprises registering the terminal apparatus information at a time at which the predetermined operation is received with a corresponding printer of the printers as the printer position information.

4. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the printing instruction process comprises transmitting the printing instruction for printing execution to the specific printer in a case where a distance between the terminal apparatus and the specific printer is a reference value or smaller, and

wherein the printing instruction process comprises not to transmit the printing instruction for printing execution to the specific printer in a case where the distance between the terminal apparatus and the specific printer is larger than the reference value.

5. The terminal apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein the printing instruction process comprises a second position receiving process of periodically receiving the terminal position information in a case where the distance between the terminal apparatus and the printer is larger than the reference value so that the printing instruction is not transmitted to the specific printer, and

wherein in a case where the distance between the terminal apparatus and the specific printer becomes the reference value or smaller by virtue of a movement of the terminal apparatus, the printing instruction process comprises transmitting the printing instruction for printing execution to the specific printer.

6. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the choosing process comprises choosing one printer having the shortest distance to the terminal apparatus as the specific printer, and

wherein the printing instruction process comprises transmitting the printing instruction for printing execution to the chose specific printer.

7. The terminal apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the operations further comprise:

a second reception process of receiving an instruction enabling the specific printer of the one or more chose printers to execute the printing from a user,

wherein the printing instruction process comprises transmitting the printing instruction for printing execution to the specific printer upon receiving the instruction enabling the specific printer to execute the printing from the user.

8. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the choosing process comprises choosing a plurality of printers having a distance to the terminal apparatus shorter than a reference value,

wherein the operations further comprise a third reception process of receiving a selection instruction selecting one printer of the chose printers as the specific printer from a user, and

wherein the printing instruction process comprises transmitting the printing instruction for printing execution to the specific printer selected by the selection instruction.

9. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a display unit; and

a display control unit configured to control the display unit to display a notification display for notifying a position of the specific printer to a user,

wherein the notification display comprises information indicating a direction of the position of the specific printer, starting from a position of the terminal apparatus.

10. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

a second transmission process of transmitting the terminal position information to each of the printers,

wherein the receiving process comprises receiving the distance information, which indicates the distance between each of the printers and the terminal apparatus, from each of the printers, wherein the distance information is generated on the basis of the printer position information stored in each of the printers and the terminal position information.

11. The terminal apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the receiving process comprises receiving the printer position information from each of the printers, and

wherein the receiving process comprises a distance information generation process of generating the distance information on the basis of the terminal position information and the printer position information.

12. A terminal apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions, the instructions, when executed by the processor, causing the terminal apparatus to perform operations comprising;

a first position receiving process of receiving terminal position information indicating a position of the terminal apparatus;

a acquisition process of receiving a plurality of distance information corresponding to each of printers that are printer candidates to execute a printing, wherein each of the plurality of distance information is generated on the basis of printer position information indicating a position of the corresponding printer and the terminal position information, and wherein at least one of the distance information and the printer position information is transmitted from each of the printers to the terminal apparatus;

a choosing process of preferentially choosing a printer having a short distance to the terminal apparatus from the printers based on the distance information; and

a printing instruction process of transmitting a printing instruction for printing execution to a specific printer of the one or more chose printers.

13. A system comprising a terminal apparatus and a printer,

wherein the terminal apparatus comprises a processor and a memory storing instructions, the instructions, when executed by the processor, causing the terminal apparatus to perform operations comprising:

a receiving process of receiving terminal position information, which indicates a position of the terminal apparatus, by using a GPS receiver; and

a transmission process of transmitting the terminal position information to the printer by executing NFC communication, and

wherein the printer comprises a processor and a memory storing instructions, the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the printer to perform operations comprising;

a reception process of receiving the terminal position information from the terminal apparatus by executing the NFC communication; and

a storing process of storing the received terminal position information in a memory, as printer position information indicating a position of the printer.

14. The system according to claim 13,

wherein the receiving process comprises receiving the terminal position information at a state where the terminal apparatus and the printer are able to perform communication by executing the NFC communication.

15. A terminal apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions, the instructions, when executed by the processor, causing the terminal apparatus to perform operations comprising;

a receiving process of receiving terminal position information, which indicates a position of the terminal apparatus, by using a GPS receiver; and

a transmission process of transmitting the terminal position information to a printer by executing NFC communication,

wherein the transmission process comprises transmitting the terminal position information to the printer when the terminal apparatus transitions to a state where the terminal apparatus and the printer are able to perform communication by executing the NFC communication, which is a specific mode.

16. The terminal apparatus according to claim 15,

wherein the receiving process comprises receiving the terminal position information when the terminal apparatus transitions to the state where the terminal apparatus and the printer are able to perform communication by executing the NFC communication.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having a computer program stored thereon and readable by a computer of a terminal apparatus, the computer program, when executed by the computer, causes the terminal apparatus to perform:

a position receiving function of receiving terminal position information indicating a position of the terminal apparatus;

a receiving function of receiving a plurality of distance information, which corresponds to each of printers that are printer candidates to execute a printing, each of the plurality of distance information being generated on the basis of coordinate information, which includes information of a latitude and a longitude indicating a position of the corresponding printer, and the terminal position information;

a choosing function of preferentially choosing a printer having a short distance to the terminal apparatus based on the distance information; and

a printing instruction function of transmitting a printing instruction for printing execution to a specific printer of the one or more chose printers.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having a computer program stored thereon and readable by a computer of a terminal apparatus, the computer program, when executed by the computer, causes the terminal apparatus to perform:

a position receiving function of receiving terminal position information indicating a position of the terminal apparatus;

a receiving function of receiving a plurality of distance information, which corresponds to each of printers that are printer candidates to execute a printing, each of the plurality of distance information being generated on the basis of coordinate information, which includes information of a latitude and a longitude indicating a position of the corresponding printer, and the terminal position information, and at least one of the distance information and the printer position information being transmitted from each of the printers to the terminal apparatus;

a choosing function of preferentially choosing a printer having a short distance to the terminal apparatus from the printers based on the distance information; and

a printing instruction of transmitting a printing instruction for printing execution to a specific printer of the one or more chose printers.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having a computer program stored thereon and readable by a computer of a terminal apparatus, the computer program, when executed by the computer, cause the terminal apparatus to perform:

a receiving function of receiving terminal position information, which indicates a position of the terminal apparatus, by using a GPS receiver; and

a transmission function of transmitting the terminal position information a printer by executing NFC communication,

wherein the transmission function transmits the terminal position information to the printer when the terminal apparatus transitions to a state where the terminal apparatus and the printer are able to perform communication by executing the NFC communication, which is a specific mode.