Image processing device

• US 6,778,289 B1
• Filed: 05/25/2000
• Issued: 08/17/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Iwata, Nobuo
• Primary Examiner(s): Coles, Edward
• Assistant Examiner(s): RAHIMI, IRAJ A
• Application Number:
  US09/577,829
• Time in Patent Office: 1,545 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.15, 358/1.1, 709/245, 709/217, 709/218, 709/219, 380/51, 380/52
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/953 Querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2216/17 Web printing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1224 Client or server resources management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

When a user wishes to print a document available in a server (E103), the user transmits a document information transmission request (X200) from a computer (E102) to a specified printer (E101) The printer (E101) transfers this request (X200) to the server (E103), and the server (E103) sends document information (X201) including a list of URLs of documents available in itself to the computer (E102) via the printer (E101) When the user specifies the desired document shown in the document information (X201) on the computer (E102), the computer (E102) sends a print URL request (X202) to the printer (E101) requesting a printout of the document specified by its URL. The printer (E101) acquires document data of the specified URL from the server (E103) and prints the pertinent document.

Claims

1. A printing device which receives reference information of a desired document from an external device, acquires the document from a server using the reference information and performs a predetermined operation, the printing device comprising:

receiving means for receiving a reference information request asking for reference information of documents available in the server from the external device;

reference information acquisition means for acquiring the reference information from the server according to the reference information request received by the receiving means; and

reference information transmission means for transmitting the reference information acquired by the reference information acquisition means to the external device which has issued the reference information request.

2. The printing device according to claim 1, further comprising:

server designation means for determining the server from which the reference information is to be acquired based on the reference information request received by the receiving means;

wherein the reference information acquisition means acquires the reference information according to the reference information request from the server determined by the server designation means.

3. The printing device according to claim 2, further comprising:

server designation information input means which allows entry of information to be used for determining the server based on the reference information request; and

a server designation information memory for storing the information entered from the server designation information input means;

wherein the server designation means determines the server from which the reference information is to be acquired based on the information stored in the server designation information memory.

4. The printing device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a request converter for converting the reference information request received by the receive means into a predetermined format which can be recognized by the server;

wherein the reference information acquisition means acquires the reference information from the server by sending the reference information request converted by the request converter to the server.

5. The printing device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a reference information converter for converting the reference information acquired by the reference information acquisition means into a predetermined format which can be displayed by the external device;

wherein the reference information transmission means transmits information converted from the reference information by the reference information converter.

6. The printing device according to claim 5, wherein the reference information converter converts the reference information acquired by the reference information acquisition means into the information of such format that makes it possible to accept an input by an operator specifying a desired item in the reference information at the external device and to be transferred to the printing device.

7. The printing device according to claim 5, wherein the reference information converter converts the reference information acquired by the reference information acquisition means into such format that enables an operator to enter additional information concerning a printing method for the desired document at the external device.

8. The printing device according to claim 1, further comprising authentication means which enables a predetermined authentication operation between the server and the printing device.

14. The printing device according to claim 1, wherein the server is an external server, which is external to the printing device.

9. A printing system in which reference information indicating the location of a document requested by an operator is sent from a computer manipulated by the operator to a printer, and the printer which has received the reference information acquires the document corresponding to the reference information from a server according to the reference information;

wherein the printer comprises reference information acquisition means for acquiring a list of reference information of documents available in the server in response to a request from the computer, and reference information transmission means for transmitting the acquired list of the reference information to the computer; and

wherein the server sends back the list of the reference information of the documents to the printer in response to a request from the printer.

10. The printing system according to claim 9, wherein the printer further comprises means for determining the server from which the list of the reference information is to be acquired based on information included in the request from the computer, and wherein the reference information acquisition means acquires the list of the reference information from the server designated by the means for determining the server.

11. The printing system according to claim 9, wherein the server further comprises means for determining whether the request for the list of the reference information was issued by a previously registered printer when the request has been received, and wherein the server accepts the request only from the previously registered printer.

12. A method of printing a desired document available in a server by using a printer selected by a user according to a command from a computer which is manipulated by the user, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) causing the computer to send a list acquisition request to the user-selected printer requesting it to acquire a list of reference information of documents available in the server;

(b) causing the printer to send a list transmission request to the server requesting it to send back the list of the reference information of the documents in accordance with the list acquisition request;

(c) causing the server to send back the list of the reference information of the documents available in the server to the printer in accordance with the list transmission request;

(d) causing the printer to send data on the list of the reference information received from the server to the computer;

(e) causing the computer to present a selection entry display based on the data on the list of the reference information received from the printer, enabling the user to specify the desired document;

(f) causing the computer to send a print request to the printer, the print request including the reference information of the document specified by the user on the selection entry display; and

(g) causing the printer to acquire data on the user-specified document from the server based on the reference information included in the print request and print out the document.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising the step of causing the server to verify the authenticity of the printer from which list transmission request has been received between steps (b) and (c), wherein the server is allowed to proceed to step (c) only when the authenticity of the printer has been established.