Image forming method, control device, image forming apparatus, and image forming system

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention provides an image forming method, control equipment and an image forming device and system, and the method comprises the steps: generating printing data in response to an image forming instruction; encrypting the printing data by using biological characteristic information to obtain encrypted printing data; and transmitting the encrypted print data to the image forming apparatus. In the embodiment of the invention, the printing data is encrypted at the control equipment end, and the encrypted printing data is decrypted and verified at the image forming device end, so that the additional hardware investment is reduced, the encryption and decryption cost is reduced, and meanwhile, the security of the printing output data in the communication process and the image forming process is effectively guaranteed; even if the printing output data is intercepted, the content in the printing output data cannot be acquired.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the field of image forming technology, and in particular to an image forming method, a control device, an image forming apparatus and a system. Background Art

[0002] The process of controlling the device to communicate with image forming devices such as printers, copiers, fax machines, etc. and complete the image forming operation is called the print output process. Encrypting the print output process can effectively prevent and control the security of information. In the domestic system, the common encryption methods for the print output process are: encrypting the text or image file (such as PDF, Doc, Xls, JPEG, etc.) itself, encrypting the image forming file, using a dedicated encryption channel or encrypting the image forming device, etc. If the text or image file itself is encrypted, the encrypted text or image file needs to be decrypted before it can be sent to the image forming device via a wired or wireless channel. In this process, there is still a risk of information exposure; if the image forming file is encrypted, a dedicated encryption and decryption device needs to be provided, resulting in an increase in hardware equipment investment and high costs; if a dedicated encryption channel is used, on the one hand, a large amount of cost needs to be invested in hardware construction, and on the other hand, the information security of the image forming device is not protected; if only the image forming device is encrypted, the transmission process of the image forming file is not protected, and there is also a risk of information leakage.

[0003] It should be noted that the information disclosed in the background technology section of this application is only intended to deepen the understanding of the general background technology of this application, and should not be regarded as admitting or suggesting in any form that the information constitutes the prior art known to those skilled in the art. Summary of the invention

[0004] In view of this, the present application provides an image forming method, a control device, an image forming apparatus and a system, so as to solve the problem in the prior art that only the image forming file itself is encrypted, a dedicated encryption channel is used or the image forming apparatus is encrypted, which results in high cost and risk of information exposure.

[0005] In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an image forming method, which is applied to a control device, and the method includes:

[0006] generating print data in response to an image forming instruction;

[0007] Encrypting the print data using biometric information to obtain encrypted print data;

[0008] The encrypted print data is sent to an image forming device.

[0009] In a possible implementation, encrypting the biometric information of the print data to obtain the encrypted print data includes:

[0010] Acquire the printing data;

[0011] Setting command header data at the head of the print data, and / or setting tail data at the tail of the print data, to obtain print data described in a predetermined format;

[0012] receiving biometric information input by a user;

[0013] The biometric information is used to encrypt at least part of the print data described in the predetermined format to obtain the encrypted print data, wherein an open verification mark is set on the command header data, and the open verification mark is used to indicate that the encrypted print data needs to be decrypted, and the tail data is used to compare with preset data to determine whether the result of decrypting the encrypted print data is correct.

[0014] In a possible implementation, the using the biometric information to encrypt at least part of the print data described in the predetermined format includes:

[0015] Extracting features from the biometric information to obtain a biometric information feature vector;

[0016] The biometric information feature vector is stored in an array form to obtain biometric information feature value array information;

[0017] The biometric information characteristic value array information is used to encrypt at least part of the print data described in the predetermined format.

[0018] In a possible implementation, when the command header data is additionally added to the header of the print data, encrypting at least part of the print data described in the predetermined format by using the biometric information to obtain the encrypted print data includes:

[0019] Encrypting the print data and the tail data using the biometric information to obtain ciphertext data, or encrypting the print data using the biometric information to obtain ciphertext data;

[0020] The ciphertext data is concatenated with the command header data to obtain the encrypted print data.

[0021] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: receiving instruction information input by a user, and confirming whether to set the command header data in the header of the print data according to the instruction information.

[0022] In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an image forming method, which is applied to an image forming device, and the method includes:

[0023] receiving encrypted printing data;

[0024] receiving biometric information input by a user;

[0025] Decrypting the encrypted print data using the biometric information to obtain a decrypted result;

[0026] An image forming operation is performed based on at least a portion of the decrypted result.

[0027] In a possible implementation, the decrypting the encrypted print data by using the biometric information includes:

[0028] Extracting features from the biometric information to obtain a biometric information feature vector;

[0029] The biometric information feature vector is stored in an array form to obtain biometric information feature value array information;

[0030] The encrypted printing data is decrypted using the biometric information characteristic value array information to obtain the decrypted result.

[0031] In a possible implementation, before using the biometric information to decrypt the encrypted print data, the method further includes:

[0032] Detecting whether there is an opening verification mark on the encrypted print data;

[0033] If there is an opening verification mark on the encrypted printing data, the encrypted printing data is decrypted using the biometric information to obtain the decrypted result.

[0034] In a possible implementation, after obtaining the decrypted result, the method further includes:

[0035] confirming whether the decrypted result is correct according to at least a first part of the content of the decrypted result;

[0036] When the decrypted result is correct, an image forming operation is performed based on at least a second portion of the decrypted result.

[0037] In a possible implementation manner, the at least first portion of the content is set at the end of the decrypted result.

[0038] In a possible implementation manner, the at least first portion of content is different from the at least second portion of content.

[0039] In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a control device, including:

[0040] A generating unit, for generating printing data in response to an image forming instruction;

[0041] An encryption unit, used to encrypt the print data using biometric information to obtain encrypted print data;

[0042] The sending unit is used to send the encrypted printing data to the image forming device.

[0043] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an image forming device, including:

[0044] A receiving unit, used for receiving encrypted printing data;

[0045] A decryption unit, used to decrypt the encrypted print data using the biometric information to obtain a decrypted result;

[0046] An image forming unit is used to perform an image forming operation based on at least part of the decrypted result.

[0047] In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an image forming system, comprising the control device described in the third aspect and the image forming apparatus described in the fourth aspect, wherein the control device and the image forming apparatus are communicatively connected.

[0048] In the embodiment of the present application, by encrypting the print data on the control device side and decrypting and verifying the encrypted print data on the image forming device side, not only the additional hardware investment is reduced and the encryption and decryption costs are lowered, but also the security of the print data in the communication process and the image formation process is effectively guaranteed, so that even if the print data is intercepted, the content therein cannot be obtained. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0049] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the drawings required for use in the embodiments will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present application. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying creative labor.

[0050] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of an application scenario provided for an embodiment of the present application;

[0051] Figure 2A schematic diagram of a process of an image forming method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0052] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of a control device structure provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0053] Figure 4a-4b A schematic diagram of a data structure of printing data described in a predetermined format provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0054] Figure 5 A schematic diagram of extracting user fingerprint information features provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0055] Figure 6 A schematic diagram of an AES symmetric encryption and decryption algorithm flow provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0056] Figure 7 A schematic diagram of an application flow of a control device in a printing scenario provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0057] Figure 8 A schematic diagram of a printing process provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0058] Fig. 9 A schematic diagram of the structure of another control device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0059] Fig.10 A schematic diagram of the structure of an image forming device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0060] In order to better understand the technical solution of the present application, the embodiments of the present application are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0061] It should be clear that the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present application, rather than all the embodiments. Based on the embodiments in the present application, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in the field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present application.

[0062] The terms used in the embodiments of the present application are only for the purpose of describing specific embodiments, and are not intended to limit the present application. The singular forms "a", "said" and "the" used in the embodiments of the present application and the appended claims are also intended to include plural forms, unless the context clearly indicates other meanings.

[0063] It should be understood that the term "and / or" used in this article is only a description of the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that there can be three relationships. For example, A and / or B can represent: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone. In addition, the character " / " in this article generally indicates that the associated objects before and after are in an "or" relationship.

[0064] To facilitate understanding, the terms involved in this application are first explained.

[0065] Printer Job Language (PJL) is used to direct printer behavior, such as changing device settings, transferring files, etc. PJL can be used to make permanent changes to print tasks. PJL reads the file format and settings, and then converts them to the printer for print output.

[0066] Page Description Language (PDL) is characterized by versatility and fine expression, and is mainly used to output complex pages and images. Its workflow is to first interpret the print content into a standard page description file on the computer side and then transmit it to the printer controller, where the page description file is interpreted into a printable raster image. Postscript (PS) and Printer Command Language (PCL) are two standardized page description languages.

[0067] See also Figure 1 , is a schematic diagram of an application scenario provided by an embodiment of the present application. Figure 1 As shown, the application scenario includes: a control device 110 and an image forming device 120, wherein the control device 110 and the image forming device 120 are interconnected through a wired or wireless communication network to transmit information. During the image forming process, the control device 110 converts the print data into a printer language, and sends the printer language to the image forming device 120, and the image forming device 120 performs the image forming operation.

[0068] The communication network between the control device 110 and the image forming apparatus 120 may be a local area network or a wide area network transferred through a relay device. When the communication network is a local area network, illustratively, the communication network may be a short-distance communication network such as a wifi hotspot network, a wifi P2P network, a Bluetooth network, a zigbee network, or a near field communication (NFC) network. When the communication network is a wide area network, exemplarily, the communication network can be a third-generation mobile communication technology (3rd-generation wireless telephone technology, 3G) network, a fourth-generation mobile communication technology (4G) network, a fifth-generation mobile communication technology (5G) network, a future evolved public land mobile network (public and mobile network, PLMN) or the Internet, etc.

[0069] It should be pointed out that Figure 1 This is only an exemplary description and should not be used as a limitation on the scope of protection of this application. For example, the image forming device 120 includes but is not limited to a printer, a copier, a fax machine, a multifunctional image making and copying device, an electrostatic printing device, and any other similar device. The control device 110 includes but is not limited to a computer, a mobile phone, a tablet computer, an internal server of an enterprise, a cloud server, and other electronic devices that can communicate with the image forming device 120. In some possible implementations, the control device 110 may also be referred to as a host computer, a host, and the like.

[0070] The process of controlling the communication between the control device and the image forming device such as the printer, copier, fax machine, etc. and completing the image forming operation is called the print output process. Encrypting the print output process can effectively prevent and control the security of information. In the domestic system, the common encryption method of the print output process is mainly for the file to be imaged itself. This type of method requires the provision of dedicated encryption and decryption equipment, which leads to increased investment in hardware equipment and high costs. In addition, the encrypted file to be imaged needs to be decrypted before it can be sent to the image forming device via wired or wireless channels. In this process, there is a risk of information exposure.

[0071] In response to the above problems, an embodiment of the present application provides an image forming method, which reduces the encryption and decryption costs by encrypting the print data on the control device side and performing decryption verification on the image forming device side, and effectively ensures the security of the print data, so that even if the print data is intercepted, the content therein cannot be obtained.

[0072] See also Figure 2 , is a schematic diagram of a flow chart of an image forming method provided in an embodiment of the present application. The method can be applied to Figure 1 The application scenarios shown are as follows: Figure 2 As shown, it mainly includes the following steps.

[0073] Step S201: In response to an image forming instruction, the control device generates print data.

[0074] In the embodiment of the present application, when the user needs to perform a printing operation, the file to be printed is uploaded to the control device, and an image forming instruction is triggered. The control device processes the file to be printed through the driver software according to the image forming instruction, thereby obtaining printing data suitable for the image forming device. Specifically, after receiving the file to be printed, the driver software converts the format of the file to be printed, such as converting the file to be printed into printing data in PDL format, so that the image forming device can identify and print the received printing data. In a specific implementation, the file to be printed can also be converted into printing data of other formats suitable for the image forming device, and the embodiment of the present application does not impose specific restrictions on this.

[0075] Step S202: The control device encrypts the print data using the biometric information to obtain the encrypted print data.

[0076] In an embodiment of the present application, the control device is pre-installed with encryption software. When the print data is generated, the control device encrypts the generated print data using the pre-installed encryption software.

[0077] In a possible implementation, the Common UNIX Printing System (CUPS) and encryption software are pre-installed in the control device of the present application, and the encryption software communicates with the CUPS driver software through a process. Figure 3, is a schematic diagram of a control device structure provided by an embodiment of the present application, wherein the encryption software 305 stores key information. When the user needs to perform a printing operation, the driver software 300 obtains the key information in the encryption software 305 through the key acquisition module 303, and encrypts the print data using the encryption algorithm through the encryption module 302. Adding an encryption module on the driver side to encrypt the print data reduces the investment in hardware devices and reduces costs compared to encrypting the print data through an encryption device.

[0078] In the embodiment of the present application, in order to enable the image forming apparatus to more quickly identify the format and requirements of the received printing data, the control device of the present application also describes the generated printing data in a predetermined format through the driver software. Specifically, Figure 3 As shown, the data processing module 301 converts the format of the file to be printed, and after obtaining the print data, adds command header data to the head of the print data, and / or adds tail data to the tail of the print data, so as to obtain the print data described in the predetermined format. Figure 4a-4b As shown, a data structure diagram of print data described in a predetermined format provided by an embodiment of the present application is provided. In a possible implementation, the command header data may be PJL command header data, and the tail data may be PJL tail data, that is, the command header data and / or tail data may be additionally added to the print data, or the print data may be directly modified so that the header data of the printer data is changed to the command header data, and the data at the end of the print data is changed to the tail data.

[0079] In a possible implementation, the user sends instruction information to the driver software, and the driver software confirms whether to set the command header data in the head of the print data according to the user's instruction information. When the user's instruction information includes setting the command header data in the head of the print data, the driver software sets the command header data in the head of the print data according to the user's instruction information. At this time, the print data described in the predetermined format includes the command header data, such as Figure 4a and 4bAs shown; if the user's instruction information does not include command header data for setting in the header of the print data, the driver software does not set the command header data in the header of the print data, that is, the driver software does not describe the print data in a predetermined format. In an embodiment of the present application, the user can choose whether to add command header data to the header of the print data as needed to adapt to image forming devices with different requirements. In a specific implementation, when command header data is added to the header of the print data, an open verification mark is set on the command header data. When the image forming device receives the encrypted print data, it can determine whether to turn on the data decryption processing based on the presence or absence of the verification mark. That is, the command header data with the open verification mark can be additionally added in addition to the print data, or the header data originally provided in the print data can be directly modified to the command header data with the open verification mark, so that the header of the print data is provided with the open verification mark.

[0080] It should be noted that when no command header data is added to the header of the print data, that is, when the print data is not described in a predetermined format, the processing of the print data and the subsequent print output operation performed by the image forming device are both existing technical means and will not be elaborated in this application.

[0081] In a possible implementation, encrypting the print data includes encrypting at least part of the print data described in a predetermined format. In a specific implementation, when command header data is added to the head of the print data and tail data is added to the tail of the print data, encrypting at least part of the print data described in the predetermined format includes: encrypting the print data and the tail data using an encryption algorithm to obtain ciphertext data, and concatenating the ciphertext data with the command header data to obtain encrypted print data; when command header data is added only to the head of the print data, encrypting at least part of the print data described in the predetermined format includes: encrypting the print data using an encryption algorithm to obtain ciphertext data, and concatenating the ciphertext data with the command header data to obtain encrypted print data.

[0082] In an embodiment of the present application, the key information of the present application may be biometric information of the logged-in user, exemplarily including user fingerprint information, user facial information, etc. The embodiment of the present application does not impose any specific limitation on this.

[0083] It should be understood that when the user's biometric information is used as a key, the originally collected user's biometric information needs to be further processed. For ease of understanding, the user's fingerprint information is used as an example to illustrate the user's biometric information processing.

[0084] See also Figure 5 , is a schematic diagram of extracting user fingerprint information features provided in an embodiment of the present application, including:

[0085] Obtain user fingerprint information. Specifically, the user fingerprint information can be obtained through a fingerprint collector using encryption software 305;

[0086] Generate small area images of multiple key points based on user fingerprint information;

[0087] Extract fingerprint features from small area images to obtain fingerprint information feature vectors;

[0088] The fingerprint information feature vector is stored in array form to obtain fingerprint information feature value array information.

[0089] In a specific implementation, the fingerprint information characteristic value array information can be stored in the encryption software 305 and sent to the driver software 300 through the key acquisition module 303. The driver software 300 uses the fingerprint information characteristic value array information as a key to encrypt at least part of the print data described in a predetermined format.

[0090] The above fingerprint information feature extraction methods all adopt common technical means in the field, and for the sake of brevity, they will not be described here.

[0091] In a possible implementation, the AES symmetric encryption algorithm may be used to encrypt at least part of the print data described in the predetermined format. Figure 6 . Combined Figure 6 From the encryption part, it can be known that at least part of the print data described in the predetermined format is the plain text to be encrypted, the fingerprint information feature value array information is the encryption key, the encryption key is subjected to the key expansion algorithm to obtain the round key, at least part of the print data described in the predetermined format is subjected to the round key addition, and then the byte replacement, row shift, column confusion, round key addition cycle operation is performed to finally obtain the ciphertext data. Figure 6 From the decryption part, it can be seen that each step of the decryption algorithm corresponds to the inverse operation of the encryption algorithm. When the control device sends the encrypted printing data to the image forming device through the sending module 304, the image forming device uses the inverse algorithm corresponding to the encryption part to decrypt the ciphertext data, and finally obtains the decrypted printing data described in the predetermined format.

[0092] It is worth noting that the use of the AES symmetric encryption algorithm to encrypt at least part of the print data described in a predetermined format is only an exemplary description of an embodiment of the present application. In specific implementations, any executable symmetric encryption algorithm can be applied in the embodiment of the present application, and the embodiment of the present application does not impose specific restrictions on this.

[0093] Step S203: The control device sends the encrypted print data to the image forming apparatus.

[0094] In the embodiment of the present application, after the print data is encrypted, the control device can send the encrypted print data to the image forming device via USB or NET.

[0095] For ease of understanding, the above steps are described below in conjunction with specific application scenarios.

[0096] See also Figure 7 , which is a schematic diagram of an application flow of a control device in a printing scenario provided by an embodiment of the present application. After receiving a print request initiated by a user, the driver software processes data through thread 1, obtains a key through thread 2, and encrypts the processed data using the AES symmetric encryption algorithm to obtain ciphertext data. After concatenating the ciphertext data with the plaintext data, the encrypted print description file can be obtained.

[0097] Specifically, the data processing process includes:

[0098] Set the PJL command header and add the enable verification flag to the command header data;

[0099] Convert the file to be printed into a PDL language file in PCL / PS format;

[0100] Set PJL tail data;

[0101] It should be noted that there is no sequential execution order among the above three steps, and the execution process can be relatively independent, or can be determined according to user needs or system default settings.

[0102] Specifically, the key acquisition process includes:

[0103] Sending a command to the encryption software to obtain fingerprint information feature value array information;

[0104] Receive fingerprint information characteristic value array information sent by encryption software.

[0105] It should be noted that the user has entered valid fingerprint information in the encryption software in advance. After the encryption software extracts the features of the fingerprint information, it stores the feature information in the form of a feature value array to facilitate the subsequent call of key data.

[0106] Specifically, the AES encryption process includes:

[0107] The fingerprint information characteristic value array information is used as the key to encrypt the PDL language file and the PJL tail data to obtain the ciphertext data.

[0108] The ciphertext data is concatenated with the PJL command header data (plaintext data) to obtain concatenated data, which is the encrypted printing data, and the encrypted printing data is sent.

[0109] In a specific implementation, the data processing process may not include setting the PJL tail data. In this case, the AES encryption process may be described with reference to the above embodiment. For the sake of brevity, this application will not elaborate on it here.

[0110] Step S204: the image forming device receives the biometric information input by the user.

[0111] In this embodiment, the image forming device is equipped with a user biometric information collection device. When the image forming device receives the encrypted print data, the user biometric information is first collected by the user biometric information collection device. It should be noted that the image forming device can also obtain the user biometric information by communicating with other devices, and the embodiment of the present application does not limit the method of obtaining the user biometric information.

[0112] In a possible implementation, in order to ensure image formation efficiency, the number of times the user's biometric information is collected is limited at the image forming device. Specifically, when collecting the user's biometric information, it is determined whether the number of times exceeds a set value. If it exceeds the set value, the print output is terminated. If it does not exceed the set value, step S205 is executed.

[0113] Step S205: the image forming device uses the biometric information to decrypt the encrypted print data to obtain a decrypted result.

[0114] In this embodiment, after the image forming device collects the user's biometric information, it further processes the collected user's biometric information to obtain a decryption key, and then decrypts the encrypted print data using a decryption algorithm to obtain a decrypted result.

[0115] It is understandable that the image forming device of this embodiment is pre-installed with decryption software, and the encrypted print data is decrypted by the decryption software. At the same time, the decryption key of this embodiment must be consistent with the encryption key output by the encryption software, that is, the decryption key and the encryption key are obtained by processing the biometric information of the same user, so that the decryption can be successful.

[0116] Specifically, the specific contents of the above-mentioned "further processing the collected user biometric information" and "decrypting the encrypted print data by using a decryption algorithm" have been described in the embodiment of step S202, and will not be repeated here for the sake of brevity.

[0117] In a possible implementation, when the encrypted print data includes command header data, when the image forming device receives the encrypted print data, it is necessary to first detect whether there is an opening verification mark on the command header data, and if there is an opening verification mark, the encrypted print data is decrypted. If there is no opening verification mark, the file is directly discarded.

[0118] Step S206: The image forming device performs an image forming operation based on at least part of the decrypted result.

[0119] In the embodiment of the present application, when the encrypted print data is decrypted successfully, a decrypted result is obtained, and the image forming device performs an image forming operation based on at least part of the data of the decrypted result.

[0120] In a possible implementation, the decrypted result includes a first part of content and a second part of content, and the image forming device confirms whether the decrypted result is correct based on at least the first part of content, and performs an image forming operation based on at least the second part of content. In a specific implementation, the first part of content is tail data, which is set at the tail of the decrypted result, and the second part of content is print data. In a specific implementation, the tail data is generally a fixed character, so the correctness of the decrypted result can be determined by verifying whether the tail data is a fixed target character.

[0121] Specifically, confirming whether the decrypted result is correct based on at least the first part of the content includes:

[0122] Determine whether the tail data of the decrypted result is the target data;

[0123] If the tail data of the decrypted result is the target data, it is confirmed that the decrypted result is correct.

[0124] In an application scenario, the tail data may be %-12345X@PJL\n@PJL EOJ\n%-12345X.

[0125] Specifically, if the decrypted result is correct, the image forming device starts printing and outputting based on the print data, and exits the image forming program after completing the printing and outputting;

[0126] If the decrypted result is incorrect, the verification fails and the printing output ends.

[0127] In another possible implementation, the decrypted result includes a second part of content. In a specific implementation, the second part of content is print data, and in this case, the image forming device does not need to verify the correctness of the decrypted result, but directly prints out based on the print data in the decrypted result, and exits the image forming program after completing the print output.

[0128] In the embodiment of the present application, biometric information is used to encrypt and decrypt print data. Compared with the common encryption methods in the prior art, the present method uses biometrics to encrypt print data. First, biometrics can significantly improve the encryption security margin. Encrypting the print data can prevent sensitive data from being directly exposed when the PC communicates with the image forming device. Even if it is stolen during the communication process, the content cannot be obtained. Through the decryption and verification process on the image forming device side, it can be guaranteed that the person who takes the paper document is authorized; second, the user side does not need to use expensive hardware equipment, and the user can complete editing and other operations normally in the confidential computer. When a printing job is required, it only needs to complete the verification twice using biometric information on the local PC and the dedicated printing device to complete the secure printing of classified files.

[0129] In the embodiment of the present application, by setting a plaintext opening verification mark in the encrypted print data, the same image forming device can perform both encrypted jobs and regular jobs, and the specific operation mode to be executed is determined according to the result of the mark recognition, and the recognition of the mark is fast, and this determination process is imperceptible to the user, so that the user can quickly enter the target printing mode. When the image forming device receives the job, it can first identify the plaintext opening verification mark set in the print data to make a mode judgment, that is, enter the encrypted operation mode and prompt the user to enter the biometric verification information, or directly print the current job. If there is a potential attacker, the harmful file or junk file is spliced ​​with a forged verification mark and sent to the confidential image forming device, the following situation will occur: if the attacker chooses the encrypted operation mode, the job cannot be generated because the authorized biometric information cannot be entered; if the attacker chooses the regular operation mode, the job will be directly parsed according to the regular parsing process, and invalid content will be obtained, and the confidential image forming device cannot be damaged. Furthermore, after receiving the encrypted print data, the image forming device can directly parse and determine whether there is an open verification mark, and can quickly determine whether the received data needs to be decrypted. Compared with the prior art that requires parsing at least part of the received data to determine whether the received data needs to be decrypted, the decision-making efficiency of whether the received data needs to be decrypted is higher, thereby shortening the time required for users to wait for print job output, providing convenience to users.

[0130] In an embodiment of the present application, by setting tail data in the encrypted print data for determining whether the decrypted result is correct, verification of the decrypted result can be achieved, that is, if the tail data of the decrypted result is the target data, the decrypted result is confirmed to be correct. Through this verification process, even if a potential attacker cracks the biometric encryption and sends harmful files or junk files with forged verification marks to the image forming device, the job cannot be generated because the tail data verification cannot be completed.

[0131] To facilitate further understanding of the present application, the implementation process of the present application is described in detail below using a printing job as an example.

[0132] See also Figure 8 After the user logs in to the control device, he uploads the document to print the job. After the driver software receives the print job uploaded by the user, it processes the print job and obtains the print data described in a predetermined format. At the same time, the driver software communicates with the encryption software. The encryption software sends the fingerprint information feature value array information of the logged-in user to the driver software according to the driver software's request. After the driver software receives the fingerprint information feature value array information of the logged-in user, it uses the fingerprint information feature value array information of the logged-in user as the key to perform AES encryption on the print data described in the predetermined format, and sends the encrypted print data to the printer via USB or net; after the printer receives the encrypted print data, it waits for the logged-in user to input the fingerprint, and determines the fingerprint verification times. The number of fingerprint verifications exceeds the set value. If the number of fingerprint verifications exceeds the set value, printing is terminated. If the number of fingerprint verifications does not exceed the set value, feature extraction is performed on the fingerprint input by the user to obtain the fingerprint information feature value array information of the logged-in user. The decryption software uses the fingerprint information feature value array information of the logged-in user as the decryption key to decrypt the encrypted print data. When the encrypted print data is decrypted successfully, the decryption software performs tail data verification on the print data described in the predetermined format obtained after the decryption, specifically, including determining whether the tail data is PJL tail fixed data. If the tail data is PJL tail fixed data, the printing job is executed. If the tail data is not PJL tail fixed data, the user is waited to input the fingerprint again.

[0133] In the above embodiment, the process of the driver software obtaining the printing data described in the predetermined format and encrypting the printing data described in the predetermined format can be referred to Figure 7 For the sake of brevity, the description thereof will not be repeated here.

[0134] It should be noted that if the print data described in the predetermined format obtained after successful decryption does not contain tail data, there is no need to verify the tail data, but the print job is directly executed after successful decryption; if the decryption is not successful, the user is waited to enter the fingerprint again.

[0135] This application uses the process communication mechanism of the preset encryption software and the driver software to complete the key (fingerprint data) transmission, and completes the AES encryption of the print data described in the predetermined format in the driver software. At the same time, the corresponding decryption scheme is completed in the printer through the decryption software, which not only ensures the communication security and normal printing of the job data, but also does not require additional hardware equipment investment in the process, reducing the encryption and decryption costs. At the same time, this application uses the characteristics of the PDL job to design a set of encryption and decryption scheme frameworks. In the specific implementation, the PJL command header is used as a command to encapsulate the user name and job type (PS, PCL), the AES encryption algorithm encrypts the job part, and the PJL tail fixed character is used as a successful parsing mark, which greatly improves the security of the print job.

[0136] Corresponding to the above embodiment, the embodiment of the present application also provides another control device.

[0137] See also Fig. 9 , is a schematic diagram of the structure of another control device provided in an embodiment of the present application. Fig. 9 As shown, the control device 900 includes: a generation unit 901, which is used to generate print data in response to an image forming instruction; an encryption unit 902, which is used to encrypt the print data using biometric information to obtain encrypted print data; and a sending unit 903, which is used to send the encrypted print data to the image forming device.

[0138] The specific contents of the embodiments of the present application can be found in the description of the above method embodiments, which will not be repeated here for the sake of brevity.

[0139] Corresponding to the above embodiment, the embodiment of the present application further provides an image forming device.

[0140] See also Fig.10 , is a schematic diagram of the structure of an image forming device provided in an embodiment of the present application. Fig.10 As shown, the image forming device 1000 includes: a receiving unit 1001, used to receive encrypted printing data; a decryption unit 1002, used to decrypt the encrypted printing data using biometric information to obtain a decrypted result; and an image forming unit 1003, used to perform an image forming operation based on at least part of the content of the decrypted result.

[0141] Corresponding to the above embodiment, the embodiment of the present application further provides an image forming system, the image forming system comprising Fig. 9 The control devices shown and Fig.10 In the image forming apparatus shown, the control device is communicatively connected to the image forming apparatus.

[0142] In a specific implementation, the present application also provides a computer storage medium, wherein the computer storage medium may store a program, and when the program is executed, the program may include some or all of the steps in each embodiment provided in the present application. The storage medium may be a disk, an optical disk, a read-only memory (ROM) or a random access memory (RAM).

[0143] In a specific implementation, an embodiment of the present application further provides a computer program product, which includes executable instructions. When the executable instructions are executed on a computer, the computer executes some or all of the steps in the above method embodiment.

[0144] In the embodiments of the present application, "at least one" refers to one or more, and "plurality" refers to two or more. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist. For example, A and / or B can represent the existence of A alone, the existence of A and B at the same time, and the existence of B alone. Among them, A and B can be singular or plural. The character " / " generally indicates that the previous and subsequent associated objects are in an "or" relationship. "At least one of the following" and similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of single or plural items. For example, at least one of a, b and c can be represented by: a, b, c, ab, ac, bc, or abc, where a, b, c can be single or multiple.

[0145] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various units and algorithm steps described in the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in a combination of electronic hardware, computer software, and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of the present invention.

[0146] Those skilled in the art can clearly understand that, for the convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the systems, devices and units described above can refer to the corresponding processes in the aforementioned method embodiments and will not be repeated here.

[0147] In several embodiments provided by the present invention, if any function is implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present invention, or the part that contributes to the prior art or the part of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software product, and the computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including a number of instructions for a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method described in each embodiment of the present invention. The aforementioned storage medium includes: U disk, mobile hard disk, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), disk or optical disk, etc., various media that can store program codes.

[0148] The above is only a specific embodiment of the present invention. Any person skilled in the art can easily think of changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed by the present invention, which should be included in the protection scope of the present invention. The protection scope of the present invention shall be based on the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. An image forming method, characterized in that: Applied to a control device, the method comprises: generating print data in response to an image forming instruction; Encrypting the print data using biometric information to obtain encrypted print data; The encrypted print data is sent to an image forming device.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The method of encrypting the print data by using the biometric information to obtain the encrypted print data includes: Acquire the printing data; Setting command header data at the head of the print data, and / or setting tail data at the tail of the print data, to obtain print data described in a predetermined format; receiving biometric information input by a user; The biometric information is used to encrypt at least part of the print data described in the predetermined format to obtain the encrypted print data, wherein an open verification mark is set on the command header data, and the open verification mark is used to indicate that the encrypted print data needs to be decrypted, and the tail data is used to compare with preset data to determine whether the result of decrypting the encrypted print data is correct.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The encrypting at least part of the print data described in the predetermined format by using the biometric information comprises: Extracting features from the biometric information to obtain a biometric information feature vector; The biometric information feature vector is stored in an array form to obtain biometric information feature value array information; The biometric information characteristic value array information is used to encrypt at least part of the printing data described in the predetermined format.

4. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that: When the command header data is additionally added to the header of the print data, the step of encrypting at least part of the print data described in the predetermined format by using the biometric information to obtain the encrypted print data comprises: Encrypting the print data and the tail data using the biometric information to obtain ciphertext data, or encrypting the print data using the biometric information to obtain ciphertext data; The ciphertext data is concatenated with the command header data to obtain the encrypted print data.

5. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 4, characterized in that: The method further includes receiving instruction information input by a user, and confirming whether to set the command header data in the header of the print data according to the instruction information.

6. An image forming method, characterized in that: Applied to an image forming device, the method comprises: receiving encrypted printing data; receiving biometric information input by a user; Decrypting the encrypted print data using the biometric information to obtain a decrypted result; An image forming operation is performed based on at least a portion of the decrypted result.

7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that The decrypting the encrypted print data by using the biometric information comprises: Extracting features from the biometric information to obtain a biometric information feature vector; The biometric information feature vector is stored in an array form to obtain biometric information feature value array information; The encrypted printing data is decrypted using the biometric information characteristic value array information to obtain the decrypted result.

8. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that Before decrypting the encrypted print data using the biometric information, the method further includes: Detecting whether there is an opening verification mark on the encrypted print data; If there is an opening verification mark on the encrypted printing data, the encrypted printing data is decrypted using the biometric information to obtain the decrypted result.

9. The method according to any one of claims 6 to 8, characterized in that: After obtaining the decrypted result, the method further includes: confirming whether the decrypted result is correct according to at least a first part of the content of the decrypted result; When the decrypted result is correct, an image forming operation is performed based on at least a second portion of the decrypted result.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that The at least first part of the content is set at the end of the decrypted result.

11. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that The at least first portion of content is different from the at least second portion of content.

12. A control device, characterized in that: include: A generating unit, for generating printing data in response to an image forming instruction; An encryption unit, used to encrypt the print data using biometric information to obtain encrypted print data; The sending unit is used to send the encrypted printing data to the image forming device.

13. An image forming device, characterized in that: include: A receiving unit, used for receiving encrypted printing data; A decryption unit, used to decrypt the encrypted print data using biometric information to obtain a decrypted result; An image forming unit is used to perform an image forming operation based on at least part of the decrypted result.

14. An image forming system, characterized in that: The invention comprises the control device according to claim 12 and the image forming apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the control device and the image forming apparatus are communicatively connected.

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