JP2018014007A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem in which: when updating firmware of an image forming apparatus, if a function of a larger version is added to the firmware, a user may need to check and agree with a product license agreement contract; however, if display of the product license agreement contract is required every time the firmware of the image forming apparatus is updated, the user may need to perform unnecessary work.SOLUTION: An image forming apparatus is configured to check the generation version of firmware to be updated and display a product license agreement contract only when the generation version is larger than the version of the firmware installed in the image forming apparatus. The product license agreement contract can thus be displayed only when the firmware requiring checking of the product license agreement contract is updated.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.

  With the rapid enhancement of functions of image forming apparatuses, it is required to update firmware of image forming apparatuses quickly and efficiently. Conventionally, when it is necessary to update the firmware of an image forming apparatus due to function addition or defect correction, a service person visits a customer and manually updates the firmware. For this reason, the firmware could not be updated immediately, and the costs associated with dispatching service personnel for firmware update were also high.

  Therefore, in recent years, a method in which an image forming apparatus is configured to store firmware in a rewritable storage device such as a flash memory, and the firmware is transferred via the Internet to update the firmware has become mainstream. As a result, new functions can be added one after another, and it is possible to quickly respond to software defects. By automatically executing the firmware update at midnight when the image forming apparatus is not used, the user can use the image forming apparatus without stress. In addition, by sharing the firmware of multiple models, there are advantages such as adding functions to multiple models at once. As a result, functions can be added to the image forming apparatus uniformly and continuously.

  However, when a major change is made to the firmware, or when third party software is included in the firmware, it may be necessary for the user to agree to a license agreement.

  In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-228688, the license agreement is always displayed on the screen after the program is installed, so that the user can be allowed to agree to the license agreement.

JP 2000-357078 A

  However, the above-described technique always displays the license agreement confirmation screen after the program is installed. For this reason, in the case of a firmware update that does not require confirmation of the license agreement, a wasteful operation is required, and labor and time are required. Also, since firmware versions are managed with different versions at different times for each model, it is not possible to determine in a unified and accurate manner whether the display of the license agreement is necessary for the firmware version.

In order to solve the above problems, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention includes:
An image forming apparatus having a function of updating functions using firmware acquired from an external storage device, and means for receiving update information of firmware to be updated, and a license agreement based on a generation version obtained from the update information It is characterized by having means for determining whether or not display is necessary and means for displaying the license agreement to the user.

  According to the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the license agreement can be displayed only when the user needs to confirm the license agreement when updating the firmware of the image forming apparatus. Also, by determining based on the generation version, it is possible to display the license agreement in a uniform and accurate manner by a common process across multiple models.

2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a main part of the image forming apparatus. FIG. 3 is a block diagram describing a software configuration of the image forming apparatus. FIG. It is a figure shown about the update information used for a firmware update. It is a flowchart explaining the process which determines whether a license agreement is displayed after a firmware update. It is a figure explaining the contract display screen displayed on an operation part. It is a flowchart explaining the process which displays a contract display screen according to presence of a contract display flag file at the time of starting.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The following embodiments do not limit the invention according to the claims, and all combinations of features described in the embodiments are not necessarily essential to the solution means of the invention.

[First Embodiment]
The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  In this embodiment, a case has been described in which firmware update is realized by communicating with a firmware distribution server. However, the transfer method of the firmware to be updated is not limited to this, and is transferred from an external storage device such as a portable storage medium directly connected to the image forming device or a computer that communicates with the image forming device via a network. May be.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the image forming apparatus 100.

  In FIG. 1, the control unit 110 is configured to control the entire image forming apparatus 100. The control unit 110 includes the following as a configuration for controlling the image forming apparatus 100.

  The CPU 111 reads the program for the control unit 110 stored in the ROM 112 into the RAM 113 and executes it. The ROM 112 also stores device information such as a license, device configuration information, and firmware version.

  A hard disk drive (HDD) 114 stores print data received from the computer 103 via the network I / F 119. The program executed by the CPU 111 includes a print application program. The print application program converts the print data stored in the HDD 114 into image data that can be printed by the printer unit 130. The HDD 114 also stores image data that can be printed by the printer unit 130. The program executed by the CPU 111 includes a scanning application program. The scanning application program reads image data by the scanner unit 140 and transfers the read image data to the HDD 114. The HDD 114 stores the read image data.

  The operation unit I / F 115 is an I / F for transmitting an instruction input by the user of the image forming apparatus 100 via the operation unit 120 to the CPU 111. Further, the operation unit I / F 115 receives processing content for switching the content displayed on the operation unit 120 from the CPU 111 and transmits the processing content to the operation unit 120. The operation unit 120 includes a liquid crystal display unit having a touch panel function, a keyboard, and the like, and receives a user instruction.

  The printer I / F 116 is an interface for connecting the control unit 110 and the printer unit 130. Here, the printer unit 130 performs printing on a recording medium based on image data transferred from the HDD 114 via the printer I / F 116.

  The finisher unit 150 performs various finishing processes on the recording medium printed by the printer unit 130. The finishing process is, for example, a stapling process on a sheet, a punching process (perforation process) on a sheet, a saddle stitch bookbinding process, and the like.

  The scanner I / F 117 is an interface for connecting the control unit 110 and the scanner unit 140. Here, the scanner unit 140 (input means for inputting image data) reads an image on a document as image data using a line sensor constituted by a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) or the like. Then, the scanner unit 140 transfers the read image data to the HDD 114 via the scanner I / F 117. The image data transferred to and stored in the HDD 114 can be printed by the printer unit 130 described above, and the image data read by the scanner unit 140 is printed by the printer unit 130, so that copying (copying) processing can be performed. It becomes possible.

  The USB-Host I / F 118 is an interface for connecting the control unit 110 and the external USB device 102. Examples of the external USB device 184 include a USB memory and a USB keyboard. When a USB memory is connected, data necessary for the image forming apparatus can be read and written.

  The network I / F 119 connects the control unit 110 to the LAN 104 and communicates with the computer 103 on the LAN.

  The computer 103 is connected to the image forming apparatus 100 via a LAN 104, and can transmit print data to the image forming apparatus 100, operate devices via a WEB browser, and the like. Further, the computer 103 is connected to the distribution server 101 via the LAN 104 and can download an update file necessary for the firmware update. The update file download means here is not limited to HTTP, FTP, etc., and the protocol. The distribution server 101 exists mainly on the Internet, but may exist in an in-house network.

  A configuration of software executed by the CPU 111 of the control unit 110 will be described with reference to FIG. It is assumed that the program shown in FIG. 2 is stored in the ROM 112 in FIG.

  In the main system 200, programs for realizing various functions of the image forming apparatus 100 in this embodiment are arranged.

  The operation unit control unit 201 is a program for controlling the operation unit 120 via the operation unit I / F 115.

  Similarly, the printer control unit 202 is a program for performing processing of the printer unit 130 and the finisher unit 150 via the printer I / F 116. A scanner control unit 203 is a program for controlling the scanner unit 140 via the scanner I / F 117. Similarly, the USB control unit 204 is a program for controlling the USB device 102 beyond the USB-Host I / F 118.

  The application control unit 205 does not directly control the external device, but indicates a program group for realizing various functions of the information processing apparatus 100. The application control unit 205 includes httpd (HyperTextTransferProtocolDemon), lpd (LinePrinterDemon), a Wed browser function, a device information distribution function, and the like.

  The activation control unit 206 is a program for performing activation and deactivation control of the main system 200, and operates first after the image forming apparatus 100 is turned on to control activation processing of the entire main system 200.

  The program update processing unit 207 performs update processing of each processing unit in the main system 200 when a firmware update execution instruction is issued from the user via the operation unit 120, or when an update time reserved in advance is reached. Is to do.

  The device configuration acquisition unit 208 acquires device information (license, device configuration information, firmware version, etc.) stored in the ROM 112 by the image forming apparatus 100.

  The update condition determination unit 209 compares information acquired by the device configuration acquisition unit 208 with update information received from the distribution server 101 by the communication processing unit 210, which will be described later, and determines whether to update the firmware. .

  The communication processing unit 210 communicates with the distribution server 101 to perform transfer processing of update files and version upgrade execution conditions necessary for firmware update.

  The update information storage unit 211 stores the update information in the ROM 112 when the update condition determination unit 209 determines that the update is to be performed. By storing this information, it is possible to acquire the status of the firmware currently stored in the image processing apparatus.

  The device configuration change detection unit 212 has a function of detecting a change in the device configuration such that an optional hardware is connected and a new function license is introduced.

  The contract display determination unit 213 determines whether it is necessary to display the license agreement based on the update information received from the distribution server 101 by the communication processing unit 210. The contract document display unit 214 determines whether or not the flag file created by the contract document display determination unit 213 is stored, and notifies the operation unit control unit 201 to display the contract document confirmation screen.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of update information received by the image forming apparatus 100 from the distribution server 101. In addition, although described in the text format for convenience, the format on update may be used in another format such as XML.

  When the image forming apparatus 100 makes an inquiry to the distribution server 101 during version upgrade, update information as shown in FIG. 3 is received together with the firmware to be updated.

  The content 301 in this example indicates that firmware version 10.00 of the image forming apparatus 100 of the model iAC2200 is registered in the distribution server. It is a firmware whose generation version is 2.0, and describes what kind of software is used for the firmware. The generation version indicates which generation of firmware the firmware has, and the same generation of firmware has the same function.

  Similarly, the version upgrade information 302 indicates that the version is 50.33 and the generation version is 3.0.

  When trying to update the firmware having the update information 302 to the image forming apparatus 100 in which the update information 301 is stored in the HDD 114, it is determined that the user needs to confirm the license agreement because the generation version is increased. . On the other hand, for example, when the generation version in the update information 302 is 2.0, which is the same as that of 301, or 1.0 or less, it is determined that it is not necessary to confirm the license agreement.

  The processing of the image processing apparatus 100 will be described with reference to FIG.

  In step S 401, the device information acquisition unit 208 acquires the firmware version and configuration information stored in the image forming apparatus 100 from the ROM 112.

  In step S402, the communication processing unit 210 notifies this information to the distribution server 101.

  In step S <b> 403, the communication processing unit 210 acquires the latest firmware from the distribution server 101 and stores it in the HDD 114. The distribution server 101 transmits the latest updateable firmware to the image forming apparatus 100 based on the information notified in step S402. The firmware to be distributed is not limited to the latest firmware, and may be determined by other logic.

  In step S <b> 404, the activation control unit 206 restarts the image forming apparatus 100. At this time, the activation control unit 206 designates activation in a special mode (update mode) for updating the firmware, and executes the firmware update after the restart.

  In step S405, the contract document display determination unit 213 reads the update information 301 included in the firmware acquired in step S403, and searches whether the generation version is described in the update information 301 in step S406. If there is a description, the process proceeds to step S407, and if there is no description, the process proceeds to step S409.

  In step S407, the contract display determination unit 213 acquires the firmware generation version stored in the image forming apparatus 100 from the device configuration acquisition unit 208, and compares it with the generation version of the update target firmware found in step S406.

  If the generation version of the firmware to be updated has a larger value, the contract document display determination unit 213 creates a contract document display flag file in the ROM 112 in step S408. If the generation version of the firmware to be updated is smaller or the same, the process proceeds to step S409. Although the flag file is created in the present embodiment, it may be managed by a flag stored in the ROM 112.

  In step S409, the program update processing unit 207 performs update processing of each program in each processing unit in the ROM 112 using the update target firmware acquired in step 403. When the process is completed, the activation control unit 206 performs a reboot and performs a normal activation.

  Next, the contract confirmation screen 500 displayed when the contract display flag file exists in FIG. 5 will be described.

  The contract confirmation screen 500 has a content display unit 501 and a close button 502. The content display unit 501 is an area for displaying information about the license agreement to the user of the image forming apparatus 100. The content display section 501 may display the license agreement itself, or may display information on the storage location of the contract. The communication processing unit 210 may be used to acquire and display a license agreement from the distribution server or other server, or a license agreement corresponding to the generation version may be acquired from the server. I do not care. When the close button 502 is pressed, the contract confirmation screen 500 is not displayed, and the screen transitions to the normal image forming apparatus 100 screen.

  Next, a process of displaying the contract confirmation screen 500 on the operation unit 120 according to the presence of the flag file created in step S408 will be described with reference to FIG.

  At normal startup, in step S601, the contract display unit 214 checks whether or not the contract display flag file exists in the ROM 112. If the flag file exists, the process proceeds to step S602. If the flag file does not exist, the contract display process ends.

  In step S <b> 602, the contract document display unit 214 notifies the operation unit control unit 201 to display the contract document confirmation screen 500 on the operation unit 120.

  In step S603, it is determined whether or not the user has pressed the close button 502 on the contract confirmation screen 500. When the close button 502 is pressed, the process proceeds to step S604.

  In step S604, the contract document display unit 214 notifies the operation unit control unit 201 to hide the contract document confirmation screen 500.

  Thereafter, in step S605, the contract document display determination unit 213 deletes the contract document display flag file, and the process ends.

[Other Embodiments]
The object of the present invention can also be achieved by executing the following processing. That is, a storage medium in which a program code of software that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment is supplied to a system or apparatus, and a computer (or CPU, MPU, etc.) of the system or apparatus is stored in the storage medium. Is a process of reading. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the program code and the storage medium storing the program code constitute the present invention.

100 image forming apparatus, 500 license agreement

Claims (1)

An image forming apparatus having a function of updating a function using firmware acquired from an external storage device,
Means for receiving update information of the firmware to be updated;
A means of determining whether the license agreement needs to be displayed based on the generation version obtained from the update information;
An image forming apparatus comprising: means for displaying a license agreement to a user.