US 10,817,236 B2Granted

Image forming apparatus, service system, control method, and recording medium storing computer program

AssigneeSharp Kabushiki Kaisha

InventorsMasao Saeda, Yasuhiro Nakai, Kohji Katamoto, Kohichi Murakami, Yasutomo Hayano

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Abstract

An image forming apparatus includes a short-range wireless communication unit, an acquisition unit that acquires a plurality of pieces of identification information from a plurality of mobile terminals located in a wireless communication area, a display unit that displays the acquired pieces of identification information, an operation input unit that identifies a mobile terminal by using a piece of identification information selected from among the pieces of identification information displayed on the display unit, a data communication unit that receives data only from the selected mobile terminal, and a printing unit. The operation input unit accepts designation, by an operator, of whether to print the received data for each selected mobile terminal. The printing unit prints data in accordance with the designation.

Claims7

Dependent claims

An image forming apparatus including a short-range wireless communication circuitry, for communicating with a mobile terminal, the image forming apparatus comprising:

an acquisition circuitry that acquires a plurality of pieces of identification information from a plurality of mobile terminals located in a communication area via the short-range wireless communication circuitry, each of the plurality of pieces of identification information indicating one of the plurality of mobile terminals;
a display that displays the plurality of pieces of identification information acquired by the acquisition circuitry;
an operation input circuitry that accepts, in accordance with operation by an operator, selection of at least one of the pieces of identification information displayed on the display and to identify at least one mobile terminal by using the selected at least one of the pieces of identification information;
a storage that stores a selection list including the at least one of the pieces of identification information selected by the operation input circuitry;
a data communication circuitry that receives data from the at least one mobile terminal corresponding to the at least one of the pieces of identification information included in the selection list;
a job generation circuitry that generates a print job by associating the data received by the data communication circuitry with the at least one of the pieces of identification information;
and
a printing circuitry that prints the data on a paper medium in accordance with the print job, wherein
in the print job, whether to print each of the received data is designated in accordance with operation by the operator, and
when the selection list includes the plurality of pieces of identification information, the job generation circuitry generates a plurality of print jobs respectively corresponding to the plurality of pieces of identification information.

7 more elements

A service system comprising:

a plurality of mobile terminals;
and
an image forming apparatus including a short-range wireless communication circuitry and that communicates with the plurality of mobile terminals,
the image forming apparatus including
an acquisition circuitry that acquires a plurality of pieces of identification information from a plurality of mobile terminals located in a communication area among the plurality of mobile terminals via the short-range wireless communication circuitry, each of the plurality of pieces of identification information indicating one of the plurality of mobile terminals located in the communication area,
a display that displays the plurality of pieces of identification information acquired by the acquisition circuitry,
an operation input circuitry that accepts, in accordance with operation by an operator, selection of at least one of the pieces of identification information displayed on the display and to identify at least one mobile terminal by using the selected at least one of the pieces of identification information,
a storage that stores a selection list including the at least one of the pieces of identification information selected by the operation input circuitry;
a data communication circuitry that receives data from the at least one mobile terminal corresponding to the at least one of the pieces of identification information included in the selection list,
a job generation circuitry that generates a print job by associating the data received by the data communication circuitry with the at least one of the pieces of identification information;
and
a printing circuitry that prints the data on a paper medium in accordance with the print job, wherein
in the print job, whether to print each of the received data is designated in accordance with operation by the operator, and
when the selection list includes the plurality of pieces of identification information, the job generation circuitry generates a plurality of print jobs respectively corresponding to the plurality of pieces of identification information.

11 more elements

A non-transitory recording medium storing a computer program for control, the computer program being executable by an image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus including a short-range wireless communication circuitry and communicating with a mobile terminal, the computer program being configured to execute:

an acquiring step of acquiring a plurality of pieces of identification information from a plurality of mobile terminals located in a communication area via the short-range wireless communication circuitry, each of the plurality of pieces of identification information indicating one of the plurality of mobile terminals;
a displaying step of displaying the acquired plurality of pieces of identification information acquired in the acquiring step;
an operation inputting step of accepting, in accordance with operation by an operator, selection of at least one of the pieces of identification information displayed in the displaying step, and identifying at least one mobile terminal by using the selected at least one of the pieces of identification information;
a storing step of storing a selection list including the at least one of the pieces of identification information selected in the operation inputting step;
a data communication step of receiving data from the at least one mobile terminal corresponding to the at least one of the pieces of identification information included in the selection list,
a job generating step of generating a print job by associating the data received in the data communicating step with the at least one of the pieces of identification information;
and
a printing step of printing the data on a paper medium in accordance with the print job, wherein
in the print job, whether to print each of the received data is designated in accordance with operation by the operator, and
when the selection list includes the plurality of pieces of identification information, a plurality of print jobs respectively corresponding to the plurality of pieces of identification information is generated in the job generating step.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/410,525Filed 13 May 2019
Priority: JP 2018-09769822 May 2018
Published: US 2019/0361654 A128 Nov 2019
Granted: 27 Oct 2020
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification14 codes

G06F 3/1292
Specifically adapted to adopt a particular infrastructure: mobile client, e.g. wireless printing
G06F 3/1204
Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. print management: resulting in reduced user or operator actions, e.g. presetting, automatic…
G06F 3/1239
Print job management: restricting the usage of resources, e.g. usage or user levels, credit limit, consumables, special fonts
G06F 3/126
Print job management: job scheduling, e.g. queuing, determine appropriate device