Image forming apparatus

• US 20090116076A1
• Filed: 11/03/2008
• Published: 05/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions, Inc. (Kyocera Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kyocera MITA Corporation (Kyocera Corporation)
• Inventors: Nagano, Daisaku
• Granted Patent: US 8,422,066 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/403
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00408 Display of information to the user, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00432 using tabs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00477 Indicating status, e.g. of a job for control or supervision between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device H04N2201/3219
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32101 Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32358 using picture signal storage, e.g. at transmitter H04N1/17 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32443 with asynchronous operation of the image input and output devices connected to the memory
• 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 2201/3219 of a job status, e.g. successful execution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3221 of a job number or identification, e.g. communication number
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3273 Display
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3274 Storage or retrieval of prestored additional information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3288 Storage of two or more complete document pages or image frames

Abstract

A document management section 77 updates and manages stored information in an additional information storage section 74 in such a manner that when details of operation information having been acquired in an operation information acquisition section 71 regard an operation of reading all the pages that is an operation targeting all the pages of an unread document, the current status of processing of the document is changed from unread to read, whereas when the details of operation information regard an operation of reading a part of the pages that is an operation targeting a part of the pages of an unread document, the current status of processing of the document is changed from unread to hold. By this means, a current status of a management target document that changes every moment can be updated and managed in detail in real time.

Claims

1. An image forming apparatus comprising:

a document accumulation section in which information of each of a plurality of documents is accumulated;

an additional information storage section storing additional information on a current status of processing of each of the plurality of documents as associated with each relevant document;

a display section for displaying various information on each of the plurality of documents on a display screen;

an operation information acquisition section acquiring operation information when a user specifies an operation for a document in line with his/her intention and its related processing from among the various information on documents having been displayed on the display screen;

a current status determination section determining a current status of processing of the document based on the operation information having been acquired in the operation information acquisition section; and

a document management section updating and managing stored information in the additional information storage section based on the current status of processing of the document having been stored in the additional information storage section and the current status of processing of the document having been determined in the current status determination section.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the current status of processing of the document includes each status of unread that indicates being unprocessed, hold that indicates being in the course of processing, and read that indicates having been processed;

and

the document management section updates and manages stored information in the additional information storage section in such a manner that when details of operation information having been acquired in the operation information acquisition section regard an operation of processing that targets all the pages of an unread document, the current status of processing of the document is changed from unread to read, whereas when the details of operation information regard an operation that targets a part of the pages of an unread document, the current status of processing of the document is changed from unread to hold.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the processing of the document includes any one of reading the document, printing the document, or transmitting the document to a necessary destination.

4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

when the stored information in the additional information storage section is updated, the document management section updates displayed information of a document related to the updating on the display screen, along with the updating.

5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein

the displayed information of the document related to the updating is the current status of processing of the document and the number of items of a document belonging to each current status.

6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the document management section

stores each document belonging to each current status into a relevant folder among a plurality of folders having been preset for each current status of processing of the document;

and

when the stored information in the additional information storage section is updated, moves a document related to the updating, to a relevant folder along with the updating.

7. An image forming apparatus comprising:

a document accumulation section in which information of each of a plurality of documents is accumulated including a new document;

an additional information storage section storing additional information on a current status of processing of each of the plurality of documents, permission or prohibition of overwriting, and an accumulation period as associated with each relevant document; and

a document management section updates and manages stored information on an accumulated document in the document accumulation section based on the additional information having been read out from the additional information storage section.

8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

the document management section updates and manages stored information on an accumulated document in the document accumulation section based on the additional information having been read out from the additional information storage section by releasing for a new document a storage area for a document associated with additional information that overwriting is permitted and allocating the released storage area to the new document.

9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

the document management section turns additional information on permission or prohibition of overwriting of the document into overwriting permitted when there is a relevant document extracted with which additional information that its accumulation period exceeds a predetermined period is associated, based on the additional information having been read out from the additional information storage section.

10. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

the current status of processing of the document includes each status of unread that indicates being unprocessed, hold that indicates being in the course of processing, and read that indicates having been processed.

11. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising a display section for displaying various information on each of the plurality of documents on a display screen, wherein when stored information on an accumulated document in the document accumulation section is updated, the document management section updates displayed information of a document related to the updating on the display screen along with the updating.