Image processing device, image processing system, and authentication method

Abstract

To provide an image processing device that can prevent the time required for a user to perform log-in operation from becoming longer.SOLUTION: An image processing device comprises an image processing part and a control part. The control part is configured to: receive biological information about a user for log-in operation; hold a table including records in which user identification information, last update date information, last log-in date information, and the biological information are associated with one another; re-order the records in the table, when at least one of a plurality of predetermined process starting conditions is satisfied; and perform an authentication process of comparing the received biological information with the biological information included in the records in the table, after re-ordering of the records. Each of the records in the table includes an attending / leaving flag showing a state of attending / leaving of the user associated with the records.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] FIELD Embodiments of the present invention relate to an image processing device, an image processing system, and an authentication method. [Background technology]

[0002] There are known image processing devices that allow users to log in using their biometric information. The biometric information of a user may be, for example, information indicating a user's fingerprint, information indicating a user's veins, information indicating a user's iris, information indicating a user's face, or the like. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2018-134745 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] When a user A attempts to log in to the image processing device, such an image processing device reads the biometric information of user A as target biometric information. The image processing device also stores the biometric information of each of a plurality of users who can log in to the image processing device as reference biometric information. The order of the plurality of reference biometric information stored in the image processing device is a predetermined order. Therefore, after reading the target biometric information, the image processing device selects the reference biometric information one by one in a predetermined order. The image processing device repeatedly compares each selected reference biometric information with the target biometric information. In this case, the image processing device continues this repeated comparison until it finds reference biometric information whose degree of match with the target biometric information is higher than a predetermined threshold.

[0005] However, in such an image processing device, the predetermined order is not necessarily the order in which the matching is completed quickly. For example, the predetermined order is often the order in which the reference biometric information is stored in the image processing device. Therefore, in the image processing device, the lower the ranking of reference biometric information whose degree of match with the target biometric information is higher than a predetermined threshold is compared to other reference biometric information, the longer the time required for the matching. As a result, in the image processing device, it may take a long time for user A to log in to the image processing device.

[0006] The problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide an image processing device, an image processing system, and an authentication method that can prevent the time required for a user to log in from becoming too long. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] According to an embodiment, an image processing device includes an image processing unit and a control unit. The control unit holds a table including records in which user identification information, last update date and time information, and last login date and time information are associated with each other, accepts biometric information of a user for a login operation, and when a predetermined condition is satisfied, reorders the records in the table, and after the reordering of the records, performs authentication processing in which the accepted biometric information is compared with the biometric information included in the record in the table. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] 1 is an external view illustrating an example of the overall configuration of an image processing apparatus according to an embodiment; [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of an image processing apparatus. [Figure 3] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of the flow of an order change process performed by a control unit. [Figure 4] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a plurality of pieces of user information in a case where the order change process has not been performed even once. [Figure 5]FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a table in a case where order change processing is performed based on last login date and time information. [Figure 6] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a table in a case where order change processing is performed based on login count information. [Figure 7] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a table in a case where order change processing based on user identification information is performed. [Figure 8] FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a table in a case where order change processing based on attendance flags is performed. [Figure 9] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a table in a case where order change processing based on content information is performed. [Figure 10] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of the flow of authentication processing performed by a control unit. [Figure 11] FIG. 10 is an external view showing an example of the overall configuration of an image processing device according to a modified example of the embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0009] Hereinafter, an image processing apparatus according to an embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. In each drawing, the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals. In the following, an image processing apparatus 100 will be described as an example of the image processing apparatus according to an embodiment.

[0010] For ease of explanation, the following description will refer to a user attempting to log in to the image processing device 100 as a first user. For ease of explanation, the following description will refer to each of a plurality of users who can log in to the image processing device 100 as a second user. That is, a second user is a user who is registered in the image processing device 100 as a person who can use the image processing device 100. If the first user can log in to the image processing device 100, the first user is the same person as any of the second users. On the other hand, if the first user cannot log in to the image processing device 100, the first user is a person different from any of the second users.

[0011] For ease of explanation, authentication of a first user U1 logging into the image processing device 100 will be referred to as authentication of the first user U1. For ease of explanation, matching the biometric information of the first user U1 with the biometric information of a second user U2 will be referred to as matching the first user U1 with the second user U2. Here, the biometric information of a user may be fingerprint information indicating the user's fingerprint, or vein information indicating the user's veins. The biometric information of a user may be iris information indicating the user's iris, or face information indicating the user's face. In the following, as an example, a case will be described in which the biometric information of the user is the user's fingerprint information. Therefore, in the following, matching the first user U1 with the second user U2 means matching the fingerprint information of the first user U1 with the fingerprint information of the second user U2.

[0012] (Details of image processing device) The image processing device 100 will be described in detail below with reference to FIG.

[0013] 1 is an external view showing an example of the overall configuration of an image processing device 100 according to an embodiment. The image processing device 100 is, for example, a device that performs image processing such as a multifunction peripheral, a scanner, or a facsimile (FAX). Image processing refers to processing related to an image. Image processing includes, for example, processing to form an image on a sheet, processing to read image information of a read target, processing to record (store) image information, and processing to transmit an image to another device.

[0014] The image processing device 100 includes a display 110, a control panel 120, a printer unit 130, a sheet storage unit 140, an image reading unit 150, and a biometric information reading unit 160. The printer unit 130 of the image processing device 100 may be a device that fixes a toner image, or may be an inkjet device.

[0015] The image processing device 100 reads an image displayed on a sheet, generates digital data, and generates an image file. The sheet may be, for example, a manuscript or paper on which characters, images, etc. are written. The sheet may be any object that can be read by the image processing device 100.

[0016] The display 110 is an image display device such as a liquid crystal display, an organic EL (Electro Luminescence) display, etc. The display 110 displays various information related to the image processing device 100.

[0017] The control panel 120 has a plurality of buttons. The control panel 120 accepts operations by the user. The control panel 120 outputs a signal corresponding to the operation performed by the user to a control unit of the image processing device 100. The display 110 and the control panel 120 may be configured as an integrated touch panel. The control panel 120 is an example of an operation accepting unit.

[0018] The printer unit 130 forms an image on a sheet based on image information generated by the image reading unit 150 or image information received via a communication path. The printer unit 130 forms an image by, for example, the following process. The image forming unit of the printer unit 130 forms an electrostatic latent image on a photosensitive drum based on the image information. The image forming unit of the printer unit 130 forms a visible image by attaching a developer to the electrostatic latent image. A specific example of the developer is toner. The transfer unit of the printer unit 130 transfers the visible image onto the sheet. The fixing unit of the printer unit 130 fixes the visible image onto the sheet by applying heat and pressure to the sheet. The sheet on which the image is formed may be a sheet stored in the sheet storage unit 140 or a sheet that is manually fed.

[0019] The sheet storage section 140 stores sheets to be used for image formation in the printer section 130 .

[0020] The image reading unit 150 reads the image information of the reading target as brightness and darkness of light. The image reading unit 150 records the read image information. The recorded image information may be transmitted to another information processing device via a network. The recorded image information may be formed into an image on a sheet by the printer unit 130.

[0021] The biometric information reading unit 160 reads the biometric information of the first user as the first biometric information. Here, in this embodiment, the biometric information of the first user is the fingerprint information of the first user. Therefore, the biometric information reading unit 160 reads the fingerprint information of the first user as the first fingerprint information. Note that in this embodiment, the biometric information reading unit 160 reading the first fingerprint information means that the biometric information reading unit 160 generates the first fingerprint information based on the fingerprint of the first user.

[0022] When the biometric information reading unit 160 reads the first fingerprint information, the biometric information reading unit 160 includes, for example, an imaging unit that captures an image of the first user's fingerprint. The biometric information reading unit 160 captures an image of the first user's fingerprint using this imaging unit. Then, the biometric information reading unit 160 generates the first fingerprint information based on the captured image of the first user's fingerprint. For example, the biometric information reading unit 160 extracts feature points from the image and generates information indicating the extracted feature points as the first fingerprint information. The method for extracting feature points from the image may be a known method or a method to be developed in the future. Furthermore, the biometric information reading unit 160 may simply be a device that captures an image of the first user's fingerprint. In this case, the process of extracting feature points from the image and the process of generating information indicating the extracted feature points as the first fingerprint information are performed by, for example, a control unit of the image processing device 100. In this case, the process of extracting feature points from the image and the process of generating information indicating the extracted feature points as first fingerprint information may be performed by another device. In this case, however, the image processing device 100 acquires the fingerprint information generated by the other device from the other device.

[0023] For ease of explanation, the formation of an image on a sheet by the printer unit 130, that is, the formation of an image on a sheet by the image processing device 100, will be referred to as printing in the following description.

[0024] Here, the image processing device 100 is communicably connected to one or more other information processing devices such as a PC (Personal Computer) and a server via a network. In the example shown in Fig. 1, the image processing device 100 is communicably connected to a server 210. Note that the image processing device 100 may be configured to be communicably connected to another information processing device instead of the server 210. Furthermore, the image processing device 100 may be configured to be communicably connected to another information processing device in addition to the server 210.

[0025] The server 210 is a print server. In response to a request from an information processing device communicatively connected to the server 210, the server 210 stores print data received from the information processing device. The print data is information indicating an image to be formed on a sheet by the image processing device 100 during printing. In response to a request from the image processing device 100, the server 210 transmits the print data indicated by the request from one or more stored print data to the image processing device 100. This enables the image processing device 100 to print the image indicated by the print data. Note that the information processing device is omitted in FIG. 1 to avoid cluttering the illustration. Note that the server 210 may be configured to be connected to only one information processing device, or to be connected to two or more information processing devices including the information processing device.

[0026] 1, the image processing device 100 constitutes an image processing system 500. The image processing system 500 includes the image processing device 100, a server 210, and one or more information processing devices (not shown) that are communicatively connected to the image processing device 100. The image processing system 500 also includes one or more information processing devices (not shown) that are communicatively connected to the server 210. The image processing system 500 may not be configured to include the server 210. The image processing system 500 may also be configured to not include one or more information processing devices (not shown) that are communicatively connected to the image processing device 100. The image processing system 500 may also be configured to not include one or more information processing devices (not shown) that are communicatively connected to the server 210.

[0027] (Functional configuration of image processing device) The functional configuration of the image processing device 100 will be described below with reference to FIG.

[0028] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the functional configuration of the image processing device 100. As shown in FIG.

[0029] The image processing device 100 includes a display 110, a control panel 120, a printer unit 130, a sheet storage unit 140, an image reading unit 150, and a biometric information reading unit 160. The image processing device 100 also includes a control unit 300, a network interface 310, a storage unit 320, and a memory 330. These functional units of the image processing device 100 are connected to each other so as to be able to communicate with each other via a system bus.

[0030] The display 110, control panel 120, printer unit 130, sheet storage unit 140, image reading unit 150, and biometric information reading unit 160 will be described below as they are the same as those described above. The control unit 300, network interface 310, storage unit 320, and memory 330 will be described below.

[0031] The storage unit 320 is, for example, an auxiliary storage device such as a hard disk or a solid state drive (SSD). The storage unit 320 stores various types of information. For example, the storage unit 320 stores a program executed by the control unit 300. The program is, for example, firmware, an application, or the like.

[0032] Furthermore, storage unit 320 stores user information for each second user. In other words, storage unit 320 stores user information for each of a plurality of second users. Hereinafter, the plurality of pieces of user information thus stored in storage unit 320 will be simply referred to as a plurality of pieces of user information.

[0033] The user information of a certain second user is information including information in which the biometric information of the second user is associated with related information of the second user. Here, in this embodiment, as described above, the biometric information of the second user is fingerprint information of the second user. Therefore, in this embodiment, the user information of the second user is information including information in which the fingerprint information of the second user is associated with related information of the second user.

[0034] Furthermore, the related information of a certain second user refers to information related to the second user. The related information of the second user includes, for example, user identification information for identifying the second user, last login date and time information of the second user, and number of logins information of the second user. The second user identification information is, for example, the user ID (identifier) ​​of the second user. The last login date and time information is information indicating the most recent date and time that the second user has logged into the image processing device 100 in the past. The number of logins information is information indicating the number of times that the second user has logged into the image processing device 100 in the past. Note that the related information of the second user may include other information related to the second user instead of some or all of the second user identification information, last login date and time information, and number of logins information. The related information of the second user may also include other information related to the second user in addition to all of the second user identification information, last login date and time information, and number of logins information. The user information of the second user may include other information in addition to the information in which the fingerprint information of the second user is associated with the related information of the second user. The control unit 300 of the image processing device 100 authenticates the first user based on the first biometric information read by the biometric information reading unit 160 and the plurality of pieces of user information stored in the storage unit 320.

[0035] The control unit 300 is an example of a control unit of the image processing device 100. The control unit 300 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) of the image processing device 100. The control unit 300 controls the operation of each functional unit of the image processing device 100. The control unit 300 executes various processes by running programs. The control unit 300 acquires instructions input by a user from the control panel 120. That is, the control unit 300 accepts operations from the user via the control panel 120. The control unit 300 executes control processes based on the acquired instructions.

[0036] Here, as an image processing device different from the image processing device 100, there is known an image processing device capable of reading a user's biometric information in the same way as the image processing device 100. Such an image processing device reads the biometric information of a user attempting to log in to the image processing device as target biometric information. The image processing device also stores the biometric information of each of a plurality of users who can log in to the image processing device as reference biometric information. A predetermined order is assigned to the plurality of reference biometric information stored in the image processing device. Therefore, after reading the target biometric information, the image processing device selects each piece of reference biometric information in a predetermined order. The image processing device repeatedly matches each piece of selected reference biometric information with the target biometric information. In this case, the image processing device continues this repeated matching until reference biometric information whose degree of match with the target biometric information is found above a predetermined threshold. However, in this image processing device, the predetermined order does not necessarily correspond to the order in which the matching is completed first. For example, the predetermined order is often the order in which the reference biometric information is stored in the image processing device. Therefore, in the image processing device, the lower the ranking of the reference biometric information whose degree of match with the target biometric information is higher than a predetermined threshold is, the longer the time required for the above matching becomes. As a result, in the image processing device, the time required for the user to log in to the image processing device may become longer.

[0037] Therefore, the control unit 300 performs an order change process and an authentication process. The order change process is a process of changing the order of multiple pieces of user information based on related information when a predetermined condition is met. The authentication process is a process that is performed when first biometric information is acquired. Specifically, the authentication process is a process of authenticating the first user based on the acquired first biometric information and multiple pieces of user information. This allows the control unit 300 to prevent the time required for a user to log in from becoming longer. The order change process performed by the control unit 300 and the reason why the order change process prevents the time from becoming longer will be described in detail below. The authentication process performed by the control unit 300 will also be described in detail below.

[0038] The network interface 310 transmits and receives data to and from other devices. The network interface 310 operates as an input interface to receive data sent from other devices. The network interface 310 also operates as an output interface to transmit data to other devices.

[0039] The memory 330 is, for example, a RAM (Random Access Memory). The memory 330 temporarily stores information used by each functional unit included in the image processing device 100. The memory 330 may also store image information read by the image reading unit 150, programs for operating each functional unit, and the like.

[0040] (Order change process performed by the control unit) The order change processing performed by the control unit 300 will be described below with reference to Fig. 3. Fig. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the flow of the order change processing performed by the control unit 300.

[0041] The control unit 300 waits until a predetermined condition is met (ACT 110). Here, the predetermined condition will be explained.

[0042] The predetermined conditions include one or more processing start conditions. Here, each of the one or more processing start conditions included in the predetermined conditions is associated with one of one or more pieces of information included in the related information. Then, when a certain processing start condition is satisfied, the control unit 300 performs order change processing based on the information associated with the processing start condition among the one or more pieces of information included in the related information. Note that the order change processing based on the information will be described later.

[0043] For example, one process start condition is that at least one piece of last login date and time information is updated in a plurality of pieces of user information. The last login date and time information is associated with the process start condition. For convenience of explanation, the process start condition will be referred to as a first process start condition below.

[0044] Furthermore, for example, one processing start condition is that at least one piece of login count information is updated in a plurality of pieces of user information. The login count information is associated with the processing start condition. For convenience of explanation, the processing start condition will be referred to as a second processing start condition below.

[0045] The predetermined conditions may be configured to include other conditions as processing start conditions instead of either or both of the first processing start condition and the second processing start condition. Also, the predetermined conditions may be configured to include other conditions as processing start conditions in addition to the first processing start condition and the second processing start condition.

[0046] In ACT110, if at least one of the processing start conditions included in the predetermined conditions is satisfied, the control unit 300 determines that the predetermined conditions are satisfied.

[0047] When the control unit 300 determines that the predetermined condition is satisfied (ACT110-YES), it identifies one or more process start conditions that are satisfied among the process start conditions included in the predetermined condition. Then, the control unit 300 performs a sequence change process based on each of the information associated with the one or more process start conditions that it has identified (ACT120). Here, the process of ACT120 will be described.

[0048] For example, when the control unit 300 identifies the first process start condition as one of the process start conditions satisfied in ACT110, it performs a process of changing the order based on the last login date and time information. Here, the process of changing the order based on the last login date and time information is a process of changing the order of multiple pieces of user information to descending order based on the date and time indicated by the last login date and time information. In other words, the process of changing the order is a process of changing table T1 shown in FIG. 4 to table T2 shown in FIG. 5.

[0049] Here, Fig. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a plurality of pieces of user information when the order change process has not been performed even once. Table T1 shown in Fig. 4 is a table showing a plurality of pieces of user information. Furthermore, each record in table T1 shows one of the plurality of pieces of user information.

[0050] When a plurality of pieces of user information are represented by a table such as Table T1, the order of the plurality of pieces of user information is indicated by the arrangement order of the records in the table. That is, the ranking of each record in Table T1 indicates the ranking of the user information represented by each record. The ranking of each record in Table T1 is the ranking before the order change process performed in ACT120 is performed. That is, the order of the plurality of pieces of user information represented by Table 1 shown in FIG. 4 is the order before the order change process is performed. Note that instead of being represented by a table such as Table T1, the plurality of pieces of user information may be represented in another format that allows an individual ranking to be assigned to each piece of user information.

[0051] 4, in each record of table T1, user identification information, fingerprint information, last update date and time information, last login date and time information, and number of logins information are associated with each other. That is, in this example, user information is information including user identification information, fingerprint information, last update date and time information, last login date and time information, and number of logins information. Also, in this example, of these pieces of information, user identification information, last update date and time information, last login date and time information, and number of logins information are information included in related information.

[0052] Here, the fingerprint information stored in a record in table T1 is the fingerprint information of a second user identified by the user identification information stored in that record. Furthermore, the last update date and time information stored in that record is information indicating the most recent date and time when the user information indicated by that record was updated. Furthermore, the last login date and time information stored in that record is the last login date and time information of the second user. Furthermore, the login count information stored in that record is the login count information of the second user.

[0053] For ease of explanation, the second user identified by the user identification information stored in a record will be referred to as the second user of the record, and the record will be referred to as the record of the second user. For ease of explanation, the fingerprint information stored in the record will be referred to as the fingerprint information of the record, and the record will be referred to as the record of the fingerprint information. For ease of explanation, the date and time indicated by the last update date and time information stored in the record will be referred to as the last update date and time of the record, and the record will be referred to as the record of the last update date and time. For ease of explanation, the date and time indicated by the last login date and time information stored in the record will be referred to as the last login date and time of the record, and the record will be referred to as the record of the last login date and time. For ease of explanation, the number of times indicated by the login count information stored in the record will be referred to as the login count of the record, and the record will be referred to as the record of the login count.

[0054] For ease of explanation, the second user identified by "Oda" will be referred to as second user X1 in the following description. For ease of explanation, the second user identified by "Toyotomi" will be referred to as second user X2 in the following description. For ease of explanation, the second user identified by "Tokugawa" will be referred to as second user X3 in the following description. For ease of explanation, the second user identified by "Sakamoto" will be referred to as second user X4 in the following description. For ease of explanation, the second user identified by "Ookubo" will be referred to as second user X5 in the following description. For ease of explanation, the second user identified by "Saigo" will be referred to as second user X6 in the following description. For ease of explanation, the second user identified by "Ito" will be referred to as second user X7 in the following description. For convenience of explanation, the second user identified by "Yoshida" will be referred to as second user X8 in the following explanation.

[0055] Here, in table T1, the records indicating the user information of each of second users X1 to X8 are arranged in ascending order of the last update date and time of the record. In other words, in table T1, the records indicating the user information of each of second users X1 to X8 are arranged in ascending order of the last update date and time of the record. Therefore, when the control unit 300 selects the records of table T1 one by one from the top down, the control unit 300 selects the records of table T2 in descending order of the last update date and time of the record.

[0056] 5 is a diagram showing an example of table T1 when order change processing based on last login date and time information is performed. In FIG. 5, for convenience of explanation, table T1 is shown as table T2. In table T2, records indicating the user information of second users X1 to X8 are arranged in descending order of the date and time indicated by the last login date and time information of the records. Therefore, when the control unit 300 selects records one by one from the top of table T2, the control unit 300 can select records from table T2 in order of the most recent last login date and time of the records.

[0057] In this way, when the control unit 300 identifies the first process start condition as one of the process start conditions that is satisfied in ACT110, it performs the order change process based on the last login date and time information.

[0058] Here, the more recent the date and time indicated by the last login date and time information, the more likely it is that the second user of the record with that last login date and time information will use the image processing device 100 again. For this reason, by processing the flowchart shown in FIG. 3 , the control unit 300 performs a reordering process based on the last login date and time information each time the first process start condition is satisfied. As a result, in the authentication process described below, the control unit 300 can select records in order of most recent last login date and time from table T2 after the reordering process has been performed. Then, the control unit 300 can compare the second user of the selected record with the first user in order of most recent last login date and time. In other words, the image processing device 100 can prevent the time required for frequently used users to log in from becoming too long.

[0059] Furthermore, for example, when the control unit 300 identifies the second process start condition as one of the process start conditions satisfied in ACT110, it performs a sequence change process based on the login count information. Here, the sequence change process based on the login count information is a process of changing the sequence of multiple pieces of user information to descending order based on the number of times indicated by the login count information. In other words, the sequence change process is a process of changing the table T1 shown in FIG. 4 to the table T3 shown in FIG. 6.

[0060] 6 is a diagram showing an example of table T1 when order change processing based on login count information is performed. In FIG. 6, for convenience of explanation, table T1 is shown as table T3. In table T3, records indicating the user information of second users X1 to X8 are arranged in descending order of the number of times indicated by the login count information of the records. Therefore, when the control unit 300 selects records one by one from the top of table T3, the control unit 300 can select records from table T3 in descending order of the number of logins of the records.

[0061] Here, the more recent the number of times indicated by the login count information, the more likely it is that the second user of the record with the login count indicated by the login count information will use the image processing device 100 again. For this reason, by processing the flowchart shown in FIG. 3, the control unit 300 performs a sequence change process based on the login count information each time the second process start condition is satisfied. As a result, in the authentication process described below, the control unit 300 can select records in descending order of login count from table T3 after the sequence change process has been performed, for example. Then, the control unit 300 can compare the second user of the selected record with the first user in descending order of login count. In other words, the image processing device 100 can prevent the time required for frequently used users to log in from becoming too long.

[0062] As described above, the predetermined condition may include other process start conditions in addition to the first and second process start conditions. For example, the predetermined condition may include a third process start condition. The third process start condition is that user identification information is received together with the print data from another device. The other device may be, for example, a PC, a server, etc., but is not limited to these.

[0063] The third process start condition is associated with user identification information. When the control unit 300 identifies the third process start condition as one of the process start conditions satisfied in ACT110, it performs order change processing based on the user identification information. Here, the order change processing based on the user identification information is processing for changing the order of multiple pieces of user information so that the order of user information including the received user identification information becomes a predetermined order. In other words, the order change processing is processing for changing, for example, table T1 shown in FIG. 4 to table T4 shown in FIG. 7. Note that the predetermined order may be any order. Below, as an example, a case where the predetermined order is 1st will be described.

[0064] FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of table T1 when a sequence change process based on user identification information is performed. For ease of explanation, table T1 is shown as table T4 in FIG. 7. FIG. 7 also shows table T4 in the case where the second user identified by the user identification information received by the control unit 300 along with the print data is second user X7. Therefore, in table T4, the record showing the user information of second user X7 is ranked first. As a result, when the control unit 300 selects records one by one from the top of table T4, the control unit 300 can first select the record of second user X7, which is ranked first.

[0065] Here, the control unit 300 performs, for example, a sequence change process based on user identification information, receives print data, and prints based on the received print data, using the following process flow. The control unit 300 receives first user identification information identifying the first user U1 along with the print data from a PC operated by the first user U1. In this case, the control unit 300 determines that the third process start condition is met and therefore the predetermined condition is met. The control unit 300 then performs a sequence change process based on the received first user identification information and changes the order of the multiple pieces of user information. As a result, the control unit 300 changes the ranking of the user information of a second user who is the same person as the first user U1 to first place in the table showing the multiple pieces of user information. Thereafter, the first user U1 performs an operation on the image processing device 100 to log in to the image processing device 100. As a result, the control unit 300 reads the first biometric information of the first user U1 using the biometric information reader 160. The image processing device 100 authenticates the first user U1 based on the read first biometric information and the multiple user information after the order change process. During this authentication, the control unit 300 compares the first user U1 with multiple second users using the table in which the second user's ranking has been changed to first. During this comparison, the control unit 300 can shorten the time required to compare the first user U1 with multiple second users. This is because, as described above, the ranking of the second user, who is the same person as the first user U1, in the table has been changed to first by the order change process based on the user identification information. If the first user U1 is permitted to log in through this authentication, the first user U1 instructs the image processing device 100 to print the print data received by the control unit 300. The control unit 300 then causes the printer unit 130 to print the print data based on the received print data.

[0066] The control unit 300 also performs, for example, a sequence change process based on user identification information, receives print data, and prints based on the received print data, using the following process flow. The first user U1 sends the first user identification information identifying the first user U1 to the server 210 along with the print data from the PC operated by the first user U1. The server 210 then sends the received first user identification information to the image processing device 100. The control unit 300 then receives the first user identification information. In this case, the control unit 300 determines that the third process start condition is met and therefore the predetermined condition is met. The control unit 300 then performs a sequence change process based on the received first user identification information and changes the order of the multiple pieces of user information. As a result, the control unit 300 changes the ranking of the user information of the second user, who is the same person as the first user U1, to first place in the table showing the multiple pieces of user information. The first user U1 then performs an operation on the image processing device 100 to log in to the image processing device 100. As a result, the control unit 300 reads the first biometric information of the first user U1 using the biometric information reader 160. The control unit 300 authenticates the first user U1 based on the read first biometric information and the multiple user information after the order change process. In this authentication, the control unit 300 compares the first user U1 with multiple second users using the table in which the second user's ranking has been changed to first. In this comparison, the image processing device 100 can reduce the time required to compare the first user U1 with multiple second users. This is because, as described above, the ranking of the second user, who is the same person as the first user U1, in the table has been changed to a predetermined ranking by the order change process based on the user identification information. If the first user U1 is permitted to log in through this authentication, the first user U1 instructs the image processing device 100 to print the print data received by the server 210. That is, in response to the accepted operation, the control unit 300 receives the print data from the server 210. Then, the control unit 300 causes the printer unit 130 to perform the printing based on the received print data.

[0067] Furthermore, the predetermined condition may include a fourth process start condition in addition to the first process start condition and the second process start condition. The fourth process start condition is a change in the clock-in / clock-out status of the second user. The clock-in / clock-out status of the second user is either a state in which the second user is clocking in or a state in which the second user is clocking out. In other words, a change in the clock-in / clock-out status of the second user means a change from a state in which the second user is clocking in to a state in which the second user is clocking out. Furthermore, a change in the clock-in / clock-out status of the second user means a change from a state in which the second user is clocking out to a state in which the second user is clocking in.

[0068] If the predetermined conditions include a fourth process start condition, the control unit 300 acquires time clock-in / out information indicating the time clock-in / out status of the second user from another device. For example, in this case, the control unit 300 is communicably connected to a management server (not shown) that manages the time clock-in / out status of the second user. In this case, the control unit 300 acquires the time clock-in / out information from this management server. Based on the acquired time clock-in / out information, the control unit 300 adds a time clock-in / out flag indicating the time clock-in / out status of the second user to each record in table T1 shown in FIG. 4. For example, the time clock-in / out flag indicating the time clock-out status of the second user is 1. For example, the time clock-in / out flag indicating the time clock-out status of the second user is 0.

[0069] The fourth process start condition is associated with an attendance flag. That is, the attendance flag is an example of information included in the related information. When the image processing device 100 identifies the fourth process start condition as one of the process start conditions satisfied in ACT110, it performs an order change process based on the attendance flag. Here, the order change process based on the attendance flag is a process of changing the order of multiple user information as follows. That is, the order change process is a process of changing the order so that user information whose attendance flag is 1 is ranked higher than user information whose attendance flag is 0. In other words, the order change process is a process of changing table T1 shown in FIG. 4 to table T5 shown in FIG. 8.

[0070] FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of table T1 when order change processing based on the attendance flag is performed. For ease of explanation, table T1 is shown as table T5 in FIG. 8. As shown in FIG. 8, an attendance flag is added to each record in table T5. Also, to simplify the illustration, FIG. 8 shows only records whose attendance flag is 1. Therefore, when the control unit 300 selects records one by one from the top of table T5, the control unit 300 will select records whose attendance flag is 1 in preference to records whose attendance flag is 0.

[0071] Here, the second user of a record whose time clock flag is 0 is unlikely to log in to the image processing device 100 until he or she clocks in. In other words, the second user of a record whose time clock flag is 1 is more likely to log in to the image processing device 100 than the second user whose time clock flag is 0. For this reason, by the processing of the flowchart shown in FIG. 3, the control unit 300 causes the image processing device 100 to perform order change processing based on the time clock flag every time the fourth processing start condition is satisfied. As a result, the image processing device 100 can achieve the following effects. That is, the image processing device 100 can prevent the time required for a user who is at work to log in from becoming too long.

[0072] The order change process based on the attendance flag may be a process of extracting user information whose attendance flag is set to 1 from among multiple pieces of user information. This is because such extraction is also a process of changing the order of user information in a broad sense.

[0073] Furthermore, the predetermined conditions may include a fifth process start condition in addition to the first process start condition and the second process start condition. The fifth process start condition is that the image processing device 100 receives information indicating at least a part of first user identification information that identifies the first user. Hereinafter, for convenience of explanation, this information will be referred to as content information. For example, if the first user identification information is "abc", the content information is any of "a", "b", "c", "ab", "bc", and "abc". Furthermore, the content information can also be referred to as information indicating at least a part of user identification information that identifies the second user.

[0074] The fifth process start condition is associated with content information. That is, the content information is an example of information included in the related information. When the image processing device 100 identifies the fifth process start condition as one of the process start conditions satisfied in ACT110, it performs an order change process based on the content information. Here, the order change process based on the content information is a process of changing the order of multiple pieces of user information as follows. That is, the order change process is a process of changing the order so that user information including user identification information that completely matches or partially matches the content information is ranked higher than the other user information. In other words, the order change process is a process of changing table T1 shown in FIG. 4 to table T6 shown in FIG. 9.

[0075] FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of table T1 when a reordering process based on content information is performed. For ease of explanation, table T1 is shown as table T6 in FIG. 9 . FIG. 9 shows table T6 when the content information is “S” as an example. To simplify the illustration, FIG. 9 also shows only records with user identification information that completely or partially match “S.” Therefore, when the control unit 300 selects records in table T6 one by one from the top down, the control unit 300 performs the following selection. That is, in this case, the control unit 300 can prioritize selecting records that store user identification information that completely or partially match the content information over other records. The control unit 300 can prioritize matching the second user of the selected record with the first user over matching the second user of the other records with the first user. That is, the image processing device 100 can prevent a user who inputs content information from logging in to the image processing device 100 from taking too long.

[0076] Here, the control unit 300 receives content information and performs a list change process based on the received content information, for example, through the following process flow. When a first user U1 logs in to the image processing device 100, the control unit 300 receives the content information along with the login operation to the image processing device 100 via the control panel 120. In this case, the control unit 300 determines that the fifth process start condition is met, and therefore the predetermined condition is met. The control unit 300 then performs a list change process based on the received content information and changes the order of the multiple user information as follows. That is, the control unit 300 changes the order of the multiple user information so that user information including user identification information that completely or partially matches the received content information is ranked higher than the other user information. For example, the control unit 300 changes the order from table T1 shown in FIG. 4 to table T6 shown in FIG. 9 through the list change process based on content information. Therefore, when the control unit 300 selects records one by one from the top of the table T6, the control unit 300 will select the record that includes the user identification information in preference to other records.

[0077] Here, the content information of a certain first user U1 is accepted by the image processing device 100 immediately before the first user U1 logs in to the image processing device 100. Therefore, the control unit 300 performs the order change process based on the content information every time the fifth process start condition is satisfied. This allows the image processing device 100 to obtain the following effects. That is, the image processing device 100 can prevent the time required for the first user who inputs content information to the image processing device 100 to log in from becoming too long.

[0078] The order change process based on the content information may be a process of extracting user information including user identification information that completely or partially matches the content information from among a plurality of pieces of user information, because such extraction is also a process of changing the order of user information in a broad sense.

[0079] As described above, when the control unit 300 determines in ACT110 that a predetermined condition is satisfied, it identifies one or more process start conditions included in the predetermined condition that have been satisfied. Then, in ACT120, the control unit 300 performs a sequence change process based on information associated with each of the identified one or more process start conditions. Note that the control unit 300 may be configured to perform a sequence change process in ACT120 based on some or all of the last login date and time information, login count information, user identification information, clock-in / clock-out flag, and content information. In other words, the predetermined condition may be configured to include some or all of the first to fifth process start conditions.

[0080] After the processing of ACT120 is performed, the control unit 300 transitions to ACT110 and waits again until a predetermined condition is met.

[0081] (Authentication process for control unit) The authentication process performed by the control unit 300 will be described below with reference to Fig. 10. Fig. 10 is a diagram showing an example of the flow of the authentication process performed by the control unit 300. As an example, the following describes a case where an order change process is performed on a table showing multiple pieces of user information at a timing before the process of ACT210 is performed.

[0082] The control unit 300 waits until an operation to log in to the image processing device 100 is received from the first user via the control panel 120 (ACT210).

[0083] When the control unit 300 determines that an operation to log in to the image processing device 100 has been received from the first user (ACT210-YES), the control unit 300 waits until preparations for reading fingerprint information are complete. This preparation is when the first user places his / her finger in a position where an image can be captured by the imaging unit of the biometric information reading unit 160. The control unit 300 identifies that the preparations are complete, for example, based on an operation received via the control panel 120. When the control unit 300 determines that the preparations are complete, the control unit 300 reads the fingerprint information of the first user (ACT220). Note that the method of starting reading of fingerprint information by the biometric information reading unit 160 in ACT220 may be other methods.

[0084] Next, the control unit 300 selects records in the table indicating multiple pieces of user information one by one as target records, starting from the top. Then, the control unit 300 repeatedly performs the processes of ACT240 to ACT280 for each selected target record (ACT230).

[0085] After selecting the target record in ACT230, the control unit 300 compares the second user of the selected target record with the first user based on the fingerprint information read in ACT220 (ACT240).

[0086] Next, the control unit 300 determines whether the degree of match between the fingerprint information of the first user and the fingerprint information of the second user exceeds a predetermined threshold in the comparison performed in ACT 240 (ACT 250). The method of calculating the degree of match by the control unit 300 may be a known method or a method to be developed in the future.

[0087] When the control unit 300 determines that the degree of match between the fingerprint information of the first user and the fingerprint information of the second user exceeds a predetermined threshold (ACT250-YES), it permits the first user to log in to the image processing device 100 (ACT270). Thereafter, the control unit 300 performs an update process to update the last login date and time information and the number of logins information in a table showing information on multiple users (ACT290), and ends the process.

[0088] On the other hand, if the control unit 300 determines that the degree of match between the fingerprint information of the first user and the fingerprint information of the second user does not exceed the predetermined threshold (ACT250-NO), the control unit 300 performs the following process: In this case, the control unit 300 determines whether or not there is a record that has not been selected in ACT230 (ACT260).

[0089] If the control unit 300 determines in ACT230 that there is an unselected record (ACT260-YES), it transitions to ACT230 and selects the next record as the target record.

[0090] On the other hand, if the control unit 300 determines in ACT230 that there are no unselected records (ACT260-NO), it performs the following process: In this case, the control unit 300 denies the first user from logging in to the image processing device 100 (ACT280) and ends the process.

[0091] As described above, the control unit 300 performs the authentication process. In this authentication process, if the order change process has been performed in advance on the table showing information on multiple users, the control unit 300 can prevent the time required for the first user to log in from becoming too long.

[0092] (Modification of the embodiment) A modification of the embodiment will be described below. Fig. 11 is an external view showing an example of the overall configuration of an image processing device 100 according to the modification of the embodiment. In the example shown in Fig. 11, the image processing device 100 is connected to a server 220 in addition to a server 210 so as to be able to communicate with each other.

[0093] The server 220 is an authentication server that authenticates the first user. That is, the server 220 performs the order change process and authentication process described above on behalf of the image processing device 100. In this case, information on multiple users is stored in the server 220. When the image processing device 100 reads the fingerprint information of the first user using the biometric information reading unit 160, it transmits the read fingerprint information to the server 220. As a result, the server 220 performs the authentication process described above. The server 220 also determines whether or not a predetermined condition is satisfied. As a result, the server 220 performs the order change process described above. For this reason, the server 220 may be configured to be connected to the management server described above.

[0094] 11 , the image processing device 100 constitutes an image processing system 510. The image processing system 510 includes the image processing device 100, a server 210, a server 220, and one or more information processing devices (not shown) communicatively connected to the image processing device 100. The image processing system 510 also includes one or more information processing devices (not shown) communicatively connected to the server 210, and one or more information processing devices (not shown) communicatively connected to the server 220. The image processing system 510 may not include the server 210. The image processing system 510 may not include one or more information processing devices (not shown) communicatively connected to the image processing device 100. The image processing system 510 may not include one or more information processing devices (not shown) communicatively connected to the server 210. The image processing system 510 may not include one or more information processing devices (not shown) communicatively connected to the server 220.

[0095] The image processing device 100 described above may be separate from the biometric information reading unit 160. In this case, the image processing device 100 may be configured to include the biometric information reading unit 160, or may not be configured to include the biometric information reading unit 160.

[0096] As described above, the image processing device (in this example, the image processing device 100) has a storage unit (thereby, the storage unit 320) and a control unit (in this example, the control unit 300). The storage unit stores user information for each of a plurality of users, including information in which biometric information (in this example, fingerprint information) is associated with related information. When a predetermined condition is satisfied, the control unit performs an order change process of changing the order of the plurality of pieces of user information based on the related information. When first biometric information, which is biometric information of a first user, is acquired, the control unit performs an authentication process of authenticating the first user's login to the image processing device (in this example, the image processing device 100) based on the acquired first biometric information and the plurality of pieces of user information. This allows the image processing device to prevent the time required for user login from becoming too long.

[0097] Although several embodiments of the present invention have been described, these embodiments are presented as examples and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. These embodiments can be implemented in various other forms, and various omissions, substitutions, and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. These embodiments and their modifications are included within the scope and spirit of the invention, as well as within the scope of the invention described in the claims and their equivalents.

[0098] A program for implementing the functions of any of the components of the above-described devices (e.g., image processing device 100, server 210, server 220, etc.) may be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium and then loaded into a computer system for execution. The term "computer system" as used herein includes hardware such as an operating system (OS) and peripheral devices. The term "computer-readable recording medium" also refers to portable media such as flexible disks, optical magnetic disks, ROMs, and compact disks (CDs)-ROMs, as well as storage devices such as hard disks built into computer systems. The term "computer-readable recording medium" also includes storage devices that retain a program for a certain period of time, such as volatile memory (RAM) within a computer system that acts as a server or client when the program is transmitted via a network such as the Internet or a communication line such as a telephone line.

[0099] The above program may be transmitted from a computer system storing the program in a storage device or the like to another computer system via a transmission medium or by transmission waves in the transmission medium. Here, the "transmission medium" that transmits the program refers to a medium that has the function of transmitting information, such as a network (communication network) such as the Internet or a communication line (communication line) such as a telephone line. The above program may also be a program for realizing some of the above functions. Furthermore, the above program may be a so-called differential file (differential program) that can realize the above functions in combination with a program already recorded in the computer system. [Explanation of symbols]

[0100] 100... image processing device, 110... display, 120... control panel, 130... printer unit, 140... sheet storage unit, 150... image reading unit, 160... biometric information reading unit, 210, 220... server, 300... control unit, 310... network interface, 320... storage unit, 330... memory, 500, 510... image processing system

Claims

1. an image processing unit; A control unit; Equipped with The control unit Accept the user's biometric information for the login operation, a table including records in which user identification information, last update date and time information, last login date and time information, and the biometric information are associated with each other; reordering the records in the table when at least one of a plurality of predetermined processing initiation conditions is satisfied; After the records are reordered, an authentication process is performed in which the received biometric information is compared with the biometric information included in the records in the table; Each of the records in the table includes an attendance flag indicating the attendance status of the user associated with the record. Image processing device.

2. Further comprising a storage unit that stores the table. The image processing device according to claim 1 .

3. One of the plurality of processing start conditions is that the last update date and time information of the record in the table has been changed.

3. The image processing device according to claim 1 or 2.

4. One of the plurality of processing start conditions is receiving print data associated with the user identification information corresponding to the user identification information of the record in the table.

3. The image processing device according to claim 1 or 2.

5. The last login date and time information is information indicating the last date and time of a login operation of the user associated with the record. The image processing device according to claim 1 .

6. Each of the records in the table includes login count information indicating the number of times the user associated with the record has logged in in the past. The image processing device according to claim 1 .

7. one of the plurality of processing start conditions is accepting a part of the user identification information input by the user in the login operation; the reordering of the records in the table is based on a comparison of the portion of the user identification information entered by the user in the login operation with the user identification information included in the record; The image processing device according to claim 1 .

8. a biometric information reader that supplies the biometric information of the user for the login operation; The image processing device according to claim 1 .

9. an image processing device; a server communicably connected to the image processing device; Equipped with one of the image processing device and the server includes a control unit; The control unit Accept the user's biometric information for the login operation, a table including records in which user identification information, last update date and time information, last login date and time information, and the biometric information are associated with each other; reordering the records in the table when at least one of a plurality of predetermined processing initiation conditions is satisfied; After the records are reordered, an authentication process is performed in which the received biometric information is compared with the biometric information included in the records in the table; Each of the records in the table is a user ID associated with the record. Includes an attendance flag that indicates the attendance status of the user. Image processing system.

10. An authentication method for an image processing device, comprising: receiving biometric information of a user for a login operation; maintaining a table including records in which user identification information, last update date and time information, last login date and time information, and the biometric information are associated with each other; reordering the records in the table if at least one of a plurality of predetermined processing initiation conditions is met; performing an authentication process after reordering the records by comparing the received biometric information with the biometric information included in the records in the table; and Each of the records in the table is a user ID associated with the record. Includes an attendance flag that indicates the attendance status of the user. Authentication method.

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