Log-image extracting apparatus for high security

For an image forming system comprising an image forming apparatus including a storage unit storing an image-forming job log containing log images indicating a history of images output in jobs performed by the image forming apparatus, and a management server communicably connected with the image forming apparatus via a network, the management server having a storage unit storing the image-forming job log as transmitted to the management server from the image forming apparatus via the network, and the management server having a control unit constituted by control circuitry, a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a log-image extracting program, the log-image extracting program causing the management-server control circuitry to function as:

• a target-log-image extracting unit performing optical character recognition on the image-forming job log to extract text information from the log images in the image-forming job log so as to extract, on the basis of the extracted log-image text information, a document-including target log image likely to have been generated by use for a specific purpose of the image forming apparatus, and
• a relevant-log-image extracting unit
• extracting, from comparison-target log images in the image-forming job log other than the target log image, a log image similar to the target log image, as a relevant log image, based on a specific feature of the target log image extracted by the target-log-image extracting unit, the specific feature being at least document ruled-line arrangement as one of document format items according to which the target-log-image document is formatted, and
• if a comparison-target log image includes a document formatted with a ruled-line arrangement similar to at least a specific extent to the ruled-line arrangement of the target-log-image document, the relevant-log-image extracting unit extracts the comparison-target log image as the relevant log image.

In an image forming system comprising an image forming apparatus including a storage unit storing an image-forming job log containing log images indicating a history of images output in jobs performed by the image forming apparatus, and a management server communicably connected with the image forming apparatus via a network, the management server having a storage unit storing the image-forming job log as transmitted to the management server from the image forming apparatus via the network, an image-forming job log log-image generating method, comprising:

• a target-log-image extracting process of performing optical character recognition on the image-forming job log to extract text information from the log images in the image-forming job log and extracting, on the basis of the extracted log-image text information, a document-including target log image likely to have been generated by use for a specific purpose of the image forming apparatus;
• extracting, from comparison-target log images in the image-forming job log other than the target log image, a log image similar to the target log image, as a relevant log image, based on a specific feature of the target log image extracted by the target-log-image extracting process, the specific feature being at least document ruled-line arrangement as one of document format items according to which the target-log-image document is formatted;
• and
• if a comparison-target log image includes a document formatted with a ruled-line arrangement similar to at least a specific extent to the ruled-line arrangement of the target-log-image document, extracting the comparison-target log image as the relevant log image.