Image forming apparatus, control method, and storage medium
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorMyoshi Toda
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image forming apparatus generates embedded information for uniquely identifying a page, for each page of a document, prints the document while embedding the embedded information into the document, and registers a set of pieces of the embedded information in a blockchain service. The image forming apparatus thereby verifies whether the printed product is a correct printed product.
Claims10
An image forming apparatus cooperating with a management service for receiving a document via a network and storing the document, and a blockchain service for managing information regarding the document in a block unit, and managing a plurality of blocks at a plurality of nodes after defining relation with a previous and/or subsequent block for each block, the image forming apparatus comprising:
- a generation unit configured to generate, when a document stored in the management service is printed, embedded information for uniquely identifying a page, for each page of the document, and further generate an embedded image from the embedded information;
- a printing unit configured to output a printed product by performing printing while embedding the embedded image into each page of the document;
- a registration unit configured to register information regarding the printed product in the blockchain service based on a set of pieces of the embedded information;
- and
- a document verification unit configured to verify whether the printed product is a correct printed product, by extracting embedded information by scanning the printed product and analyzing the embedded image, and inquiring of the blockchain service about information regarding the printed product based on the embedded information.
A control method of an image forming apparatus cooperating with a management service for receiving a document via a network and storing the document, and a blockchain service for managing information regarding the document in a block unit, and managing a plurality of blocks at a plurality of nodes after defining relation with a previous and/or subsequent block for each block, the control method comprising:
- generating, when a document stored in the management service is printed, embedded information for uniquely identifying a page, for each page of the document, and further generating an embedded image from the embedded information;
- outputting a printed product by performing printing while embedding the embedded image into each page of the document;
- registering information regarding the printed product in the blockchain service based on a set of pieces of the embedded information;
- and
- verifying whether the printed product is a correct printed product, by extracting embedded information by scanning the printed product and decrypting the embedded image, and inquiring of the blockchain service about information regarding the printed product based on the embedded information.
A storage medium storing a program of an image forming apparatus cooperating with a management service for receiving a document via a network and storing the document, and a blockchain service for managing information regarding the document in a block unit, and managing a plurality of blocks at a plurality of nodes after defining relation with a previous and/or subsequent block for each block, the program causing a computer to execute a control method comprising:
- generating, when a document stored in the management service is printed, embedded information for uniquely identifying a page, for each page of the document, and further generating an embedded image from the embedded information;
- outputting a printed product by performing printing while embedding the embedded image into each page of the document;
- registering information regarding the printed product in the blockchain service based on a set of pieces of the embedded information;
- and
- verifying whether the printed product is a correct printed product, by extracting embedded information by scanning the printed product and decrypting the embedded image, and inquiring of the blockchain service about information regarding the printed product based on the embedded information.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.