Image processing device, control method thereof and computer program product

• US 8,510,856 B2
• Filed: 02/09/2006
• Issued: 08/13/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies Incorporated (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies Incorporated (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Inventors: Murakawa, Akira
• Primary Examiner(s): Darrow, Justin T
• Application Number:
  US11/350,069
• Publication Number:
  US 20060256370A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,742 Days
• Field of Search: 713/170, 713/182, 726/16, 726/28, 726/31, 726 2- 4, 726/17
• US Class Current: 726/28
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/5091 for user-identification or authorisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/608 Secure printing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2149 Restricted operating environment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32

Abstract

An image forming device is provided with a use permission determining portion, an authentication process requesting portion and a job executing portion. The use permission determining portion performs determination whether or not use of the image processing device should be permitted for a user who wants to use the image processing device. The authentication process requesting portion requests the authentication server via a network to act for the determination when the use permission determining portion cannot perform the determination. The job executing portion performs the image processing of process specifics designated by the user when a determination result indicating that the user can use the image forming device is obtained.

Claims

1. An image processing device for performing an image-related process about an image, comprising:

an access right information storage for storing first access right information which indicates permission of using one or more functions of the image processing device in the image processing device for each user;

an access right information searching portion for searching in the access right information storage for first access right information of a user who wants to use the one or more functions of the image processing device;

a use permission determining portion for determining whether or not use of the one or more functions of the image processing device should be permitted for the user in accordance with the first access right information of the user if the first access right information of the user is found by the access right information searching portion;

an image-related process control portion for controlling the image processing device so that an image-related process of the image processing device designated by the user can be performed when the use permission determining portion produces a determination result indicating that the user can use the one or more functions of the image processing device;

a determination request portion for requesting an authentication server via a network to act as the use permission determining portion if the first access right information does not allow the user to use the one or more functions of the image processing device, the authentication server storing second access right information, which indicates permission of use of the one or more functions of the image processing device in the image processing device for each user in accordance with the second access right information; and

wherein, when the authentication server produces a determination result indicating that the user can use the image processing device for the one or more functions and the image processing device receives the determination result by the authentication server from the authentication server, the image-related process control portion controls the image processing device so that the image-related process of the image processing device designated by the user can be performed in accordance with the second access right information for the user.

2. The image processing device of claim 1, wherein

the determination request portion requests the authentication server to act as the use permission determining portion only if the first access right information of the user is not found by the access right information searching portion.

3. The image processing device of claim 1, wherein the authentication server stores second access right information in addition to the first access right information stored in the access right information storage.

4. The image processing device of claim 1, wherein the first access right information and the second access right information are different for the user based on a user'"'"'s environment.

5. An image processing device for performing an image-related process about an image, comprising:

a use limitation information storage for storing first use limitation information for each user, the first use limitation information relating to limitation of using each function of the image processing device;

a process specifics designation accepting portion for accepting designation of process specifics of the image-related process from a user;

a use limitation information searching portion for searching in the first use limitation information storage for use limitation information of the user who designated the process specifics;

a use permission determining portion for determining whether or not use of a function necessary for performing the image-related process of the designated process specifics should be permitted in accordance with the first use limitation information if the use limitation information is found by the use limitation information searching portion;

a determination request portion for requesting an authentication server via a network to act as the use permission determining portion if the first use limitation information does not allow the user access to each function of the image processing device, the authentication server storing second use limitation information for each of the users; and

an image-related process control portion for controlling each portion of the image processing device;

wherein, when a determination result indicating that the use of the function necessary for performing the image-related process of the designated process specifics is permitted is produced by the authentication server and received by the image processing device, or produced by the use permission determining portion, the image-related process control portion controls each portion of the image processing device so that the image-related process of the designated process specifics can be performed in accordance with the second use limitation; and

wherein, when a determination result indicating that the use of the function is not permitted is produced by the authentication server and received by the image processing device, or produced by the use permission determining portion, the image-related process control portion controls each portion of the image processing device to stop execution of the image-related process of the designated process specifics.

6. The image processing device of claim 5, wherein:

the determination request portion requests the authentication server to act as the use permission determining portion only if the first use limitation information of the user is not found by the use limitation information searching portion.

7. The image processing device of claim 5, wherein the authentication server stores second use limitation information relating to limitation of using the image processing device in addition to the first use limitation information stored in the use limitation information storage.

8. The image processing device of claim 5, wherein the first use limitation information and the second use limitation information are different for the user based on a user'"'"'s environment.

9. An image processing device for performing an image-related process about an image, comprising:

an access right information storage for storing first access right information which indicates permission of using the image processing device in the image processing device for one or more functions in accordance with the first access right information for a user;

a connection making portion for making connection with an authentication server via a network, the authentication server storing second access right information which indicates permission of using the image processing device in the image processing device for the one or more functions in accordance with the second access right information for the user;

a determination request portion for requesting the authentication server to determine whether or not use of the image processing device for the one or more functions in accordance with the second access right information should be permitted for the user; and

an image-related process control portion for controlling the image processing device so that an image-related process of the image processing device designated by the user can be performed when the determination request portion produces a determination result indicating that the user can use the image processing device for the one or more functions in accordance with the first access right information or the second access right information.

10. A method for controlling an image processing device that performs an image-related process about an image, the method comprising the steps of:

preparing an authentication server that can be connected to the image processing device via a network;

storing first access right information which indicates permission of using the image-related process in the image processing device for each user or each group including plural users;

searching for the first access right information of a user who wants to use the image processing device to perform the image-related process;

if the first access right information of the user is found as a result of the step for searching, determining whether use of the image-related process should be permitted for the user in accordance with the first access right information of the user, and allowing execution of the image-related process designated by the user when a determination result indicating that the user can use the image processing device is obtained from the first access right information;

if the first access right information of the user is not found as a result of the step for searching, requesting the authentication server to determine, in place of the image processing device, whether the use of the image-related process should be permitted for the user in accordance with second access right information; and

allowing execution of the image-related process designated by the user when a determination result indicating that the user can use the image processing device is obtained from the authentication server in accordance with the second access right information.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising a step for preparing the second access right information in the authentication server for each user or each group including plural users, wherein the authentication server determines whether the use of the image-related process should be permitted for the user in accordance with the second access right information of the user or a group to which the user belongs.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein

the requesting of the authentication server is performed only if the first access right information of the user is not found as a result of the step for searching.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the authentication server stores second access right information in addition to the first access right information.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the first access right information and the second access right information are different for the user based on a user'"'"'s environment.

15. A method for controlling an image processing device that performs an image-related process about an image, the method comprising the steps of:

preparing an authentication server that can be connected to the image processing device via a network;

storing first access right information which indicates permission of using the image-related process in the image processing device;

making connection with the authentication server via the network;

if the connection with the authentication server succeeds in the step for making connection, requesting the authentication server to determine whether use of image-related process of the image processing device should be permitted for a user who wants to use the image processing device in accordance with second access right information in the authentication server for each user or each group including plural users, wherein the authentication server determines whether the use of the image-related process should be permitted for the user in accordance with the second access right information of the user or a group to which the user belongs; and

allowing execution of the image-related process designated by the user when a determination result indicating that the user can use the image-related process in the image processing device is obtained based on the first or second stored access right information.

16. The method according to claim 15, further comprising a step for preparing second access right information in the authentication server for each user or each group including plural users, wherein the authentication server determines whether the use of the image-related process in the image processing device should be permitted for the user in accordance with the second access right information of the user or a group to which the user belongs.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein

the determining based on the stored first access right information, in place of the authentication server, is performed only if the connection with the authentication server fails in the step for making connection.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a computer program for use in an image processing device that performs an image-related process about an image and stores access right information which indicates permission of using the image processing device in the image processing device for each user or each group including plural users, the computer program making the image processing device execute the processes including:

a process for searching first access right information indicating permission of using the image processing device of a user who wants to use one or more functions of the image processing device, wherein the access right information is stored in the image processing device;

if the first access right information of the user is found as a result of the searching process, a process for determining whether use of the one or more functions of the image processing device should be permitted for the user in accordance with the first access right information of the user; and

for controlling the image processing device so that the image-related process designated by the user can be performed when a determination result indicating that the user can use the image processing device is obtained from the first access right information stored in the image processing device; and

if the first access right information of the user is not found as a result of the process for searching, a process for requesting an authentication server, via a network to search for whether the use of the one or more functions of the image processing device should be permitted for the user in accordance with a second access right information; and

for controlling the image processing device so that the one or more functions of the image-related process designated by the user can be performed when a determination result indicating that the user can use the image processing device is obtained from the first access right information on the image processing device or the second access information from the authentication server.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 18, wherein

the process for requesting an authentication server to act for the process for determining is executed only if the first access right information of the user is not found as the result of the process for searching.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium according to claim 18, wherein the authentication server stores second access right information in addition to the first access right information stored in the image processing device.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a computer program for use in an image processing device that performs an image-related process about an image and stores first access right information which indicates permission of using the image processing device for one or more functions in accordance with the first access right information for a user, the computer program making the image processing device execute the processes including:

a process for making connection with an authentication server via a network, the authentication server storing second access right information which indicates permission of using the image processing device for the one or more functions in accordance with the second access right information for a user;

a process for requesting the authentication server via a network to determine whether or not use of the image processing device should be permitted for a user who wants to use the image processing device if the connection with the authentication server succeeds in the process for making connection;

a process for determining whether or not the use of the image processing device should be permitted for the user based on the first access right information stored in the image processing device if information indicating a permission of use of the one or more functions of the image processing device for the user based on the second access right information is not obtained from the authentication server; and

a process for controlling each portion of the image processing device so that the image-related process of the image processing device designated by the user can be performed when a determination result indicating that the user can use the image processing device for the one or more functions in accordance with the first access right information or the second right information is obtained.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable recording medium of claim 21, wherein

the process for acting for determining whether or not the use of the image processing device should be permitted for the user only if the connection with the authentication server fails in the step for making connection.