Patent Application
20050289645
The present invention relates to image processing devices having a password entry screen that is displayed before users and administrators may access a screen that is protected for security reasons, and programs for controlling such image processing devices.
In conventional image processing devices, screens that are not used by all users, such as the initial settings screens, section management screens, and service provision screens, are protected by password, preventing third parties from accessing accounting information, personal information, or other data that are stored. A password entry screen is displayed when switching to a screen protected by password or when calling up images, and into this password entry screen a user enters his password to be verified. When the result of this verification is that the password is a match, it becomes possible to switch to the desired screen or to retrieve desired data. With the password displayed on this password screen, however, there is a risk that the password may be misused if seen by other persons. Accordingly, as disclosed in Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2001-337734, the safety of confidential information is increased by masking the password by inverting the fields to which the password has been entered to display only black or white, or showing solid black circles (●) or letter Xs (X) in place of characters or numbers.
With this technology, however, the password that is entered is not displayed, and thus when verified, if the password is not a match, then it is not possible to ascertain immediately whether this is due to an incorrect key entry or whether this is because the password itself is incorrect. In particular, when employing key entry means in which a plurality of characters are assigned to a single key, and continuously operating this one key to toggle between a plurality of characters to select and enter one or more proposed characters, the password itself will become complicated. Thus, one must manually operate this one key, there will be many incorrect key entries, and it is very important to know whether a failed password is the result of a simple incorrect key entry or that the password itself is incorrect. Moreover, when only a part of the password is incorrectly entered, reentering the password from the beginning is very arduous and time-consuming. It is an object of the present invention to solve these problems.
To solve the foregoing problems, an image processing device according to a first aspect of the present invention is an image processing device having key entry means for entering a password and a password entry screen for displaying a screen protected by password, the image processing device including entered password display means for controlling display of the password that is entered to the password entry screen, password verification means for performing verification of a password that has been entered, and misentry display means which, if there is a misentry in the password that has been entered and a number of characters of the misentry is equal to or less than a number of allowable misentries, indicates on the password entry screen that there is an incorrect key entry in the password, and if the number of characters that have been misentered is greater than a number of allowable misentries, indicates on the password entry screen that the password is incorrect.
In a second aspect of the present invention, the image processing device according to the first aspect further includes password reentry display means which, if there is a misentry in a password that has been entered, and a number of characters of the misentry is equal to or less than a number of allowable misentries, displays a screen through which it is possible to reenter only the characters that have been misentered, and if the number of characters that have been misentered is greater than a number of allowable misentries, displays a screen in which the entire entered password has been cleared to allow the password to be entered from the beginning.
In a third aspect of the present invention, in the image processing device according to the first aspect, the entered password display means conceals the password that has been entered to the password entry screen.
In a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the image processing device according to the first aspect, the number of allowable misentries is one.
An image processing device according to a fifth aspect of the present invention is an image processing device having key entry means for entering a password and a password entry screen for displaying a screen protected by password, and includes entered password display means for controlling display of the password that is entered to the password entry screen, password verification means for performing verification of a password that has been entered, and password reentry display means which, if there is a misentry in the password that has been entered and a number of characters of the misentry is equal to or less than a number of allowable misentries, displays a screen through which it is possible to reenter only the characters that have been misentered, and if the number of characters that have been misentered is greater than a number of allowable misentries, displays a screen in which the entire entered password has been cleared to allow the password to be reentered from the beginning.
In a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the image processing device according to the fifth aspect, the entered password display means conceals the password that has been entered to the password entry screen.
In a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the image processing device according to the sixth aspect, the number of allowable misentries is one.
A program according to an eighth aspect of the present invention is for causing a computer to function, with respect to an image processing device having key entry means for entering a password and a password entry screen for displaying a screen protected by password, as entered password display means for controlling display of the password that is entered to the password entry screen, password verification means for performing verification of a password that has been entered, and misentry display means which, if there is a misentry in the password that has been entered and a number of characters of the misentry is equal to or less than a number of allowable misentries, indicates on the password entry screen that there is an incorrect key entry in the password, and if the number of characters that have been misentered is greater than a number of allowable misentries, indicates on the password entry screen that the password is incorrect.
In a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the program according to the eighth aspect, the computer is made to function as password reentry display means which, if there is a misentry in the password that has been entered and a number of characters of the misentry is equal to or less than a number of allowable misentries, displays a screen through which it is possible to reenter only the characters that have been misentered, and if the number of characters that have been misentered is greater than a number of allowable misentries, displays a screen in which the entire entered password has been cleared to allow the password to be entered from the beginning.
In a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the program according to the eighth aspect, the entered password display means conceals the password that has been entered to the password entry screen.
In a eleventh aspect of the present invention, in the program according to the eighth aspect, the number of allowable misentries is one.
A program according to a twelfth aspect of the present invention is for causing a computer to function, with respect to an image processing device having key entry means for entering a password and a password entry screen for displaying a screen protected by password, as entered password display means for controlling display of the password that is entered to the password entry screen, password verification means for performing verification of a password that has been entered, and password reentry display means which, if there is a misentry in the password that has been entered and a number of characters of the misentry is equal to or less than a number of allowable misentries, displays a screen through which it is possible to enter only the characters that have been misentered, and if the number of characters that have been misentered is greater than a number of allowable misentries, displays a screen in which the entire entered password has been cleared to allow the password to be reentered from the beginning.
In a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, in the program according to the twelfth aspect, the entered password display means conceals the password that has been entered to the password entry screen.
In a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, in the program according to the twelfth aspect, the number of allowable misentries is one.
According to the inventions of the first and eighth aspects, at the time the password is verified if the number of misentered characters of a password that has been entered is small, there is a high probability that this is the result of an incorrect key entry. If the number of characters that have been misentered is large, then there is a high probability that the user is not aware that the password has been changed or that he is recalling a different password. Accordingly, by selectively employing a display indicating that there has been a simple incorrect key entry and a display indicating that the password itself is mistaken, based on the results of a comparison between the number of allowable misentered characters that has been determined in advance and the actual number of misentered characters, it is possible to improve the convenience for the user.
According to the inventions of the second and ninth aspects, a screen for reentering the password is displayed in conjunction with the display indicating that there has been a simple incorrect key entry or the display indicating that the password itself is mistaken. Thus this is considerate of the user.
According to the inventions of the fifth and twelfth aspects, at the time the password is verified if the number of misentered characters of a password that has been entered is small, there is a high probability that this is the result of an incorrect key entry. If the number of characters that have been misentered is large, then there is a high probability that the user is not aware that the password has been changed or that he is recalling a different password. Accordingly, in the case of a simple incorrect key entry, based on the results of a comparison between the number of allowable misentered characters that has been determined in advance and the actual number of misentered characters, if only the characters that have been misentered are reentered then it is possible to perform verification again. Thus it is not necessary for the user to perform the bothersome task of reentering the whole password from the beginning, and this increases the convenience for the user.
According to the inventions of the third, sixth, tenth and thirteenth aspects, by masking the password that is entered to the password entry screen by concealing it, it is possible to increase the confidentiality of the password.
According to the inventions of the fourth, seventh, eleventh and fourteenth aspects, the security is increased because the number of allowed misentries is defined as one. That is, if the user remembers the password that should be entered, there will be few input mistakes, and even when there are, these are most likely to be of only a single character. Thus, because it is rare for the user to make an input mistake of two or more characters, by treating such cases as if the password is mistaken as a whole, it is possible to reduce the risk that the password will be misused.
A multifunction device serving as an image processing device adopting the present invention is described below with reference to the schematic diagram of
The E-mail creation means 5 is means for creating electronic mail when data read by the scanner 12 is sent as an attachment for another party that has been registered in advance.
The printer controller 6 performs analysis of print commands (PDL) or job information sent from a connected personal computer and stored in a receiving region of the buffer memory 14, and creates intermediate language information. The intermediate language information is stored in an intermediate language information memory region of the buffer memory 14.
The printer portion 7 sequentially sends image data in use in the bitmap memory 15 to an optical device for writing a latent image such as an LSU or LPH of the image-creation portion of the printer portion 7. The printer portion 7 forms toner images with the image-creation portion and transfers these images to paper sequentially fed and carried from a paper feed cassette, allows the toner images to set, and then discharges the paper.
The postprocessing device 9 performs postprocessing such as stapling and hole punching, and performs compiling such as sorting and grouping, with respect to the printed material that is printed and discharged from the multifunction device 1. The postprocessing device I/F 8 is an interface and a cable for connecting postprocessing device 9 to the multifunction device 1 main unit.
The control panel 10, as shown in
The screens displayed on the LCD display portion 101 include the base screen shown in
Furthermore, when the initial settings key 105 is operated, an initial settings screen such as that shown in
The scanner I/F 11 is an interface that is connected, via a cable, to the scanner portion 12 disposed on the top of the multifunction device 1 and is for controlling the scanner portion 12 and the DF 13.
The scanner portion 12 irradiates light onto an original document, which is fed one sheet at a time by the DF 13 or one sheet of which is placed on the contact glass, using a halogen lamp or a fluorescent lamp. The scanner portion 12 reads the reflected light with a CCD sensor, converts these analog signals into digital signals through A/D conversion and performs image processing with the image processing portion, and then sends these to the bitmap memory 15, which is at a later stage. The bitmap memory 15 is a means for expanding the image data from the scanner portion 12, the intermediate language information created by analyzing the print commands transferred from a personal computer connected via a network and the like with the printer controller 7, and the image data sent from a facsimile 26 belonging to another via the public telephone line 19, the NCU 18, or the modem 17, using the CODEC 16 as necessary, and developing and holding these as full bitmap image data. The CODEC 16 is also employed for decoding image data in the print data that have been encoded.
In addition to the received image region and the intermediate language region, if performing memory transmission or reserved transmission of a normal memory copy or facsimile, then the buffer memory 14 also encodes the image data read by the scanner portion 12 using the CODEC 16, and stores these. If using the scanner function, then image data read by the scanner portion 12 that has been encoded by the CODEC 16 and stored can be read out from an outside computer. Similarly, it is possible to read from another party's facsimile using the polling function of the facsimile. In recent years there have been many multifunction devices 1 that employ hard disks as image memories with relatively large capacities for image data storage.
The modem 17 is for converting analog signals sent over the public telephone line 19 into digital signals, or alternatively, for converting digital signals into analog signals and sending these over a public telephone line. The modem may perform modulation and demodulation and carry out reception of HDLC frames only, for example. The NCU 18 is for connecting to the public telephone line, switching between facsimile and telephone, sending on-hook signals to the telephone line, and conducting ring detection, for example.
The network I/F 20 is an interface for connecting the multifunction device 1 to a network. Here the network I/F 20 is connected to personal computers (24, 25), a printer 23, and other connection devices that are not shown, via the network cable 22.
The bus 21 is a bus for sending and receiving the various data and signals mentioned above. Separate buses are employed for the image data and for the control signals, but here these are expressed in a simplified manner as a single bus.
The CPU 2 controls the operations and functions of the various components of the multifunction device 1, including the above-described aspects of the multifunction device 1, and executes a print job in accordance with the foregoing conditions and settings. Here, print job refers to the processing by the CPU 2 to control the operations and functions of the various components to obtain printed material corresponding to a series of original documents in accordance with the above conditions and settings. The CPU 2 is also connected to the ROM 3, which stores various programs including the control program of the present invention, and the RAM 4, which for example stores user choice data, settings information, total count data, and various font data.
More specifically, in the image processing device of the present invention the CPU 2 is provided with entered password display means 201, password verification means 202, misentry display means 203, and password reentry display means 204, as shown in
The entered password display means 201 controls the display of passwords entered through the password entry screen displayed on the LCD display portion 101. The entered password display means 201 also makes the characters of the password indiscernible by, for example, masking each character of the password when it is entered.
The password verification means 202 performs verification of the password that is entered through the key entry means 106 of the control panel 10 on the password entry screen.
If there is a misentry in the password that has been entered and the number of misentered characters is equal to or less than the number of allowable misentries, then the misentry display means 203 indicates on the password entry screen that there has been an incorrect key entry. If the number of characters that have been misentered is greater than the number of allowable misentries, the misentry display means 203 indicates on the password entry screen that the password is incorrect.
If there is a misentry in the password that has been entered and the number of misentered characters is equal to or less than the number of allowable misentries, then the password reentry display means 204 displays a screen through which it is possible to reenter only the characters that have been misentered. If the number of characters that have been misentered is greater than the number of allowable misentries, the password reentry display means 204 displays a screen where the entire entered password has been cleared to allow the password to be reentered from the beginning.
The password and the number of allowable misentries can be set and changed on the copy initial settings screen. The number of allowable misentries can be two or more characters, but considering the implications of an incorrect key entry, it is preferable that it is three or less characters. For greater security it is particularly preferable that the number of allowable misentries is one character.
The key entry means of the present invention will be described next. As shown in
An example of entering a password into the password entry screen is described with reference to
The process after a password has been input, which is a feature of the present invention, is described using the flowchart of
It should be noted that the image processing device and program of the present invention are not limited to the specific example described above. For example, in the above example, fields with selected characters were displayed as inverted so that those characters are not shown, but it is also possible to substitute selected characters with symbols such as solid black circles (●) or letter Xs (X) to conceal the selected characters. Further, in the above example candidate characters were displayed during the selection of input characters, but it is also possible for these not to be displayed in order to increase security. In the above example, when there is an incorrect key entry of a single character, that character was displayed flashing as shown in (A) of
In the above implementation, a case where the image processing device of the present invention is a multifunction device serving as an image processing device was described as one example, but the present invention can be similarly adopted for other image processing devices as well, including electronic devices having a password entry screen, mobile devices such as portable telephones and PDAs, automatic cash teller machines, and personal computers.
The program of the present invention can be used incorporated into the above electric devices. Another possibility is for a computer that functions as a result of the program and a device having a password entry screen to be different. That is, the program of the present invention can also be capable of displaying a password screen provided by an Internet server, for example, on a terminal device such as a personal computer that is connected to a network. The program can be provided by various types of recording media such as CD-ROMs, DVDs, or flash memories, an electric communications line such as a LAN or a telephone line, or an optical communications network, for example.
The invention may be embodied in other forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The embodiments disclosed in this application are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not limiting. The scope of the invention is indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are intended to be embraced therein.
