Print Management Authentication for Pay-Per-Use Printer Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing print services face challenges in preventing unauthorized use of printers without paying the required fees, particularly in shared or public printing environments.
Innovation Solution
A control device and print management program that include a billing processing unit, storage unit, and print processing unit to authenticate users and printers, ensuring payment of print fees based on successful authentication and destination information acquisition from a management server.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If authentication and billing processing are implemented to prevent unauthorized use, then security against unauthorized printing is improved, but device complexity and operational difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
A print management server acts as an intermediary between users and printing devices, handling authentication, destination information management, and billing processing. This centralizes security functions externally, allowing the printing system itself to remain relatively simple while maintaining strong security controls through the server-mediated authentication and payment verification processes
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements automated authentication verification, destination information acquisition, and billing processing without requiring manual intervention. The print management program automatically verifies user credentials, retrieves printing destination information from the server, and processes payments, reducing operational complexity despite enhanced security requirements
2Reliability
If multiple authentication steps and billing processing are required, then unauthorized use is prevented, but ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
User authentication, payment verification, and destination information retrieval are performed in advance before the actual printing operation. The print management program verifies credentials and secures payment upfront, then automatically proceeds with printing once authentication succeeds, making the user experience smooth despite the multiple verification steps
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides clear feedback to users regarding authentication status, billing verification results, and printing destination information. The print management server communicates authentication outcomes and payment status back to the user interface, enabling users to understand the status of each authentication and billing step without increasing operational burden
Data Source
AI summary
A control device includes: a billing processing unit configured to execute billing processing for printing to a billing server; a storage unit storing destination information of a printing device acquired from a destination management server when at least one of an authentication of a user and an authentication of a computer is successful and an authentication of a print management program is successful; and a print processing unit configured to cause the printing device corresponding to the destination information to print print data, using the print management program, and the billing processing unit performs payment of a print fee, based on a result of printing.