Image Data Management Apparatus, Image Forming Apparatus and Image Forming System
AssigneeKonica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
InventorsHirokazu Yamada, Yoshikazu Ikenoue
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image data management apparatus which provides a pull-print mark for a file which is expected to be printed at an externally connected image forming apparatus, that is, to be subjected to pull-printing. It is possible to provide the pull-print mark for a plural number of files. When a user commands pull-printing of such a file at an externally connected image forming apparatus, a search is made within the files provided with the pull-print mark. Thereby, the load on the image data management apparatus for searching the file is light. In order to permit a user to command pull-printing at a printer with a simple user interface, simple authentication codes may be used.
Claims15
An image data management apparatus comprising a data storage section and a connecting section to an image forming apparatus, said image data management apparatus comprising:
- a marking section for, when image data which are expected to be printed at said image forming apparatus connected via the connecting section are stored in the data storage section, marking the image data with a designating mark;
- a designating information providing section for providing designating information for the marked image data, a user presenting the designating information to said image data management apparatus when the user makes a request for the marked image data at said image forming apparatus;
- a searching section for searching the data storage section for image data marked with the designating mark and provided with the designating information;
- and
- a search result sending section for sending a result of the search made by the searching section to said image forming apparatus.
An image data management apparatus comprising a data storage section and a connecting section to an image forming apparatus, said image data management apparatus comprising:
- a marking section for, when image data which are expected to be printed at said image forming apparatus connected via the connecting section are stored in the data storage section, marking the image data with a designating mark;
- and
- a user ID attaching section for attaching a user ID to the image data marked with the designating mark, the user ID being an ID of a user who is to print the image data at said image forming apparatus.
An image forming system comprising an image data management apparatus comprising a data storage section and a connecting section, and an image forming apparatus connected to said image data management apparatus via the connecting section, said image data management apparatus and said image forming apparatus forming a virtual sub-network,
- said image data management apparatus comprising:
- a marking section for, when image data which are expected to be printed at said image forming apparatus are stored in the data storage section, marking the image data with a designating mark;
- a designating information providing section for providing designating information for the marked image data, a user presenting the designating information to said image data management apparatus when the user makes a request for the marked image data at said image forming apparatus;
- a searching section for searching the data storage section for image data marked with the designating mark and provided with the designating information;
- and
- a search result sending section for sending a result of the search made by the searching section to said image forming apparatus, and
- said image forming apparatus comprising:
- a search result receiving section for receiving the result of the search from said image data management apparatus;
- and
- a notifying section for, when there are image data marked with the designating mark and provided with the designating information in said image data management apparatus, notifying the user of the existence of the image data.
An image forming system comprising an image data management apparatus comprising a data storage section and a connecting section, and an image forming apparatus comprising an image forming section and connected to said image data management apparatus via the connecting section,
- said image data management apparatus comprising:
- a marking section for, when image data which are expected to be printed at said image forming apparatus are stored in the data storage section, marking the image data with a designating mark;
- and
- a user ID attaching section for attaching a user ID to the image data marked with the designating mark, the user ID being an ID of a user who is to print the image data at said image forming apparatus, and
- said image data forming apparatus comprising:
- a user authentication section for receiving a result of user authentication which is performed based on a user ID inputted by a user to judge whether to permit the user to log in;
- a user ID sending section for sending the user ID to said image data management apparatus;
- a search result receiving section for receiving the result of the search from said image data management apparatus;
- and
- a notifying section for, when there are image data marked with the designating mark and provided with the user ID in said image data management apparatus, notifying the user of the existence of the image data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.