Image forming method

• US 10,089,564 B2
• Filed: 02/09/2016
• Issued: 10/02/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation), Toshiba Tec Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation), Toshiba Tec Corporation (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Nakayama, Fumiharu
• Primary Examiner(s): McLean, Neil R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dottin, Darryl V
• Application Number:
  US15/018,979
• Publication Number:
  US 20170228624A1
• Time in Patent Office: 966 Days
• Field of Search: 358 116
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/08 Systems for determining direction or position line
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/01 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0284 Relative positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1211 Improving printing performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1231 Device related settings, e.g. IP address, Name, Identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1292 Mobile client, e.g. wireless printing
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/4055 Managing power consumption, e.g. standby mode computer driven power saving management for a printer G06F3/1221; power saving in a data processing device in general G06F1/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00307 with a mobile telephone apparatus constructional features of portable telephone sets H04M1/0202; mobile radio systems H04W84/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00342 with a radio frequency tag transmitter or receiver storage of additional information in an RFID tag attached to an image bearing paper sheet H04N1/32138
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32117 in a separate transmission or protocol signal prior to or subsequent to the image data transmission, e.g. in digital identification signal [DIS], in non standard setup [NSS] or in non standard field [NSF] for mode signalling H04N1/333
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/006 Using near field communication, e.g. an inductive loop
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0075 by a user operated remote control device, e.g. receiving instructions from a user via a computer terminal or mobile telephone handset
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0094 Multifunctional device, i.e. a device capable of all of reading, reproducing, copying, facsimile transception, file transception
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3221 of a job number or identification, e.g. communication number

Abstract

A portable terminal comprises an ID acquisition section, a position information acquisition section and a return instruction section. The ID acquisition section acquires ID information that specifies a print job sent from an information processing apparatus to an image forming apparatus. In a case in which the ID information is acquired and a beacon signal is received from a beacon transmitter, the position information acquisition section acquires, according to the received beacon information, position information relating to a position of the portable terminal relative to the image forming apparatus. If the position information meets a specific condition indicating the approach of the portable terminal to the image forming apparatus, the return instruction section instructs the image forming apparatus to return from a power-saving mode to a normal mode.

Claims

1. An image forming method, comprising:

sending a printing job from a computer terminal to an image forming apparatus;

receiving, by an image forming apparatus, a printing job with a document ID issued from the computer terminal that specifies a print job sent from the computer terminal to the image forming apparatus;

receiving, by a portable terminal, the document ID issued from the computer terminal, which is same as the document ID sent to the image forming apparatus from the computer terminal;

sending a beacon signal for acquiring a position information of the portable terminal from the beacon transmitter to the portable terminal;

if the position of the portable terminal having received the document ID and the image forming apparatus is within a predetermined distance, sending a return instruction to power each section in the image forming apparatus from the portable terminal to the image forming apparatus;

sending authentication information associated with the document ID, which is sent from the computer terminal to the portable terminal, from the portable terminal to the image forming apparatus;

authenticating at the image forming apparatus the authentication information;

printing, by the image forming apparatus, the print job that is specified with the document ID associated with the authentication information which is authenticated by the image forming apparatus.

2. The image forming method according to claim 1,

acquiring, by the portable terminal, the position information relating to a position of the portable terminal relative to the image forming apparatus based on beacon signal transmitted by the beacon transmitter.

3. The image forming method according to claim 2,

sending, by the portable terminal, the return instruction based on the position information to the image forming apparatus.

4. The image forming method according to claim 1,

sending, by the portable terminal, the return instruction to the beacon transmitter;

and

sending, by the beacon transmitter, the return instruction to the image forming apparatus.

5. The image forming method according to claim 1,

if a vibration is detected by the portable terminal, sending, by the portable terminal, the document ID and the authentication information from the portable terminal to another portable terminal in which no document ID is stored.