Patent Application
20080062453
The subject matter which is regarded as the invention is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion of the specification. The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention are apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
The detailed description explains the preferred embodiments of the invention, together with advantages and features, by way of example with reference to the drawings.
Turning now to the drawings in greater detail, it will be seen that in
As used herein, an “imaging device” includes any device for providing document output. Typical imaging devices, and the exemplary imaging device discussed herein includes a network printer. However, one skilled in the art will recognize that the teachings herein may be used with a variety of devices other than network printers. Accordingly, network printers are merely illustrative of certain embodiments for imaging devices.
The data processing system 8 may also include multiple printing or imaging devices, such as network printer 18, which may be preferably coupled to LAN 10 by means of communications link 22. The mainframe computer 18 may also be coupled to a storage device 20 which may serve as remote storage for LAN 10. Similarly, LAN 10 may be coupled via communications link 24 to a network printing or imaging device 26 and communications link 34 to a gateway server 28. It will be appreciated that network printer 18 may also contain resources and logic features for emailing status, alerts, and notifications via any suitable communications link to a remote user in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.
Network printer 18 also includes secure storage area 18A for the storage of printed documents and shredder 18D. It will be appreciated that any suitable shredder may be used. For example, shredder 18D may be a strip-cut shredder, or a cross-cut shredder, including a high security micro-cut shredder.
Documents are retrieved from the secure storage area 18A by network printer 18 after an identifying access code is entered through access code validator 18C, or selected from access code database 14A via input control window 18B. It will be appreciated that access codes may be entered into network printer by any suitable means, such as a keypad, optical character recognition, magnetic data transfer, or a biometric device such as a fingerprint reader or optical scanner. It will also be appreciated that access code database 14A need not be collocated with network printer 18 but may be geographically remote and connectable to the network printer 18 via LAN 10.
Similarly, network printer 26 also includes secure storage area 26A for the storage of printed documents and shredder 26D. It will be appreciated that any suitable shredder may be used. For example, shredder 26D may be a strip-cut shredder, or a cross-cut shredder, including a high security micro-cut shredder.
Documents are retrieved from the secure storage area 26A by network printer 26 after identifying access code is entered through access code validator 26C, or selected from access code database 14A via input control window 26B. It will be appreciated that access codes may be entered into network printer by any suitable means, such as a keypad, optical character recognition, or magnetic data transfer. It will also be appreciated that access code database 14A need not be collocated with network printer 26 but may be geographically remote and connectable to the network printer 26 via gateway server 28. It will be further appreciated that network printer 26 will also contain resources and logic features for emailing status, alerts, and/or notifications via any suitable communications link (e.g., link 22, to a remote user), in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.
Referring to
In block 125, the system 8 receives the job request message, including identifying information and priority status. In decision block 123, the system 8 then determines if the originator or user identifying information is valid. It will be appreciated that user identifying information may be validated by various techniques, including comparing email address, access codes, or similar identifying information (e.g., digital certificates), with identifying information stored in a company database (not shown) or in the access code database 14A shown in
If the answer to decision block 123 is no, then printing device 26 provides a notification (such as by emailing an alert 122) to the user indicating that the identifying information is not valid. It will be appreciated that an alert or notification from the printer device 26 may be sent by any suitable technique. If the answer to decision block 123 is yes, then printing device 26 images, or prints or images job 126.
It will be appreciated that the print job may be interrupted for various reasons, such as the printer is out of paper, out of ink, etc. In decision block 127, the system 8 determines if the print job has completed. If the answer to decision block 127 is no, then in block 128 the system 8 determines the status of the print job. The system 8 provides notification of the status result back to the user as indicated in block 124 with a priority equivalent to the priority received as part of the identifying information (see block 125).
If the answer to decision block 127 is yes, the print job is stored, block 129, in secure container storage area 26A. It will be appreciated that multiple print jobs may be grouped, stored, and retrieved, according to the originator's or user's ID, or any other suitable grouping index. In addition, once a print job is complete, decision block 139 provides for determining if the printed documents have been retrieved. Decision block 139 is further described below.
To retrieve the print job a user, or other authorized person, inputs an access code, block 130 via access code validator 26C. It will be appreciated that inputting an access code can be accomplished by any suitable means such as keypad entry, badge recognition, or biometric scanning. Decision block 133 determines if the access code is valid by comparing the inputted access code with codes stored in the access code database 14A or any other suitable database, such as, for example, a company email directory, or digital certificates used to authenticate network users. If the answer to decision block 133 is no then block 132 sets an attempt counter to 1.
Decision block 131 determines if a predetermined number (e.g., three) access attempts have made. If the answer to decision block 131 is no (the number of permitted access attempts have not been made) then the user makes another attempt, block 130. If the answer to decision block 131 is yes, (the number of permitted access attempts have been made) then block 134 provides for alerting document security (such as the shift supervisor and/or any other appropriate persons or departments, such as a security office). It will be appreciated that the number of attempts may be any suitable number. For example, documents with a higher classification may only allow one attempt while documents with a lower classification may allow more attempts for retrieving the print job.
Block 135 provides for allowing the shift supervisor the option of resetting the user's access code after determining the user's authorization status for retrieving the print job.
If the answer to decision block 133 is yes, then in decision block 137 the system 8 determines if the access code is a new code. If the access code is new code the code may be stored in the printer access code database according to block 136.
Block 138 provides for allowing the user to retrieve their printed documents from the secure storage area 26A.
In block 139, the system 8 determines if the printed documents have been retrieved from the secure storage area 26A. If the answer to block 139 is no, then a timer is set by block 140.
Decision block 141 provides for determining if the time elapsed has exceeded a predetermined threshold. If the answer to block 141 is no (the timer has not exceeded a predetermined threshold) the timer is again incremented via block 140 and decision block 141 again determines if the time elapsed has exceeded the predetermined threshold. This loop between blocks 140 and 141 continues until block 141 determines that the predetermined threshold has been reached or exceeded or, in other words, the answer to decision block 141 is yes. If the answer to decision block 139 is yes, the system 8 is done, as depicted in block 143.
If the answer to decision block 141 is yes, in block 142, the system 8 sends an alert to the shift supervisor or any other suitable destination such as, for example, a security office. A yes answer for block 141 also provides for sending an instruction to block 143 to shred the printed documents. It will be appreciated that the predetermined time threshold in decision block 141 for retrieving documents printed and stored in secure storage area 126A may be any suitable predetermined time. For example, the predetermined time may be correlated with the priority status or classification of the printed document. In other words, and for example purposes only, a printed document having a high classification may have a short predetermined amount of time for retrieving the printed document from the secure storage area before a shift supervisor is alerted and the document is shredded.
The capabilities of the present invention can be implemented in software, firmware, hardware or some combination thereof.
As one example, one or more aspects of the present invention can be included in an article of manufacture (e.g., one or more computer program products) having, for instance, computer usable media. The media has embodied therein, for instance, computer readable program code means for providing and facilitating the capabilities of the present invention. The article of manufacture can be included as a part of a computer system or sold separately.
Additionally, at least one program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying at least one program of instructions executable by the machine to perform the capabilities of the present invention can be provided.
The flow diagrams depicted herein are just examples. There may be many variations to these diagrams or the steps (or operations) described therein without departing from the spirit of the invention. For instance, the steps may be performed in a differing order, or steps may be added, deleted or modified. All of these variations are considered a part of the claimed invention.
While the preferred embodiment to the invention has been described, it will be understood that those skilled in the art, both now and in the future, may make various improvements and enhancements which fall within the scope of the claims which follow. These claims should be construed to maintain the proper protection for the invention first described.
