IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, IMAGE FORMING METHOD, AND RECORDING MEDIUM STORING IMAGE FORMING PROGRAM

• US 20150049361A1
• Filed: 08/01/2014
• Published: 02/19/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Yukinari Hirose
• Inventors: HIROSE, Yukinari
• Granted Patent: US 9,639,300 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1204 resulting in reduced user or operator actions, e.g. presetting, automatic actions, using hardware token storing data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1229 Printer resources management or printer maintenance, e.g. device status, power levels
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1238 Secure printing, e.g. user identification, user rights for device usage, unallowed content, blanking portions or fields of a page, releasing held jobs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/126 Job scheduling, e.g. queuing, determine appropriate device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1267 Job repository, e.g. non-scheduled jobs, delay printing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00336 with an apparatus performing pattern recognition, e.g. of a face or a geographic feature image or video recognition or understanding of scenes G06V20/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00811 according to user specified instructions, e.g. user selection of reading mode

Abstract

An image forming apparatus includes an image capture device that captures a user image and generates a captured image, a document holding determination unit that determines whether or not the user appearing in the captured image holds a document based on the captured image, and a scanned data processor that performs processing including scanning the document. The scanned data processor is activated if the document holding determination unit determines that the user holds the document.

Claims

1. An image forming apparatus, comprising:

an image capture device to capture an image of a user to generate a captured image;

a scanned data processor to perform processing including scanning the document; and

a document holding determination unit to determine whether or not the user appearing in the captured image holds a document based on the captured image, and a processor activate the scanned data processor based on determination that the user holds the document.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a printer unit to execute forming an image on a recording sheet based on a print job issued by the user,

wherein the processor activates the printer unit even if the document holding determination unit determines that the user does not hold the document.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the scanned data processor is at least one of a scanner that scans the document and generates image data, a copier that scans the document and outputs an image on recording paper, and a facsimile transmitter that scans the document and transfers facsimile to a destination.

4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the document holding determination unit comprises:

a hand region extractor to extract a region of the captured image in which a user hand appears; and

a document region determination unit to extract a closed region that contacts the hand region and determine whether or not the closed region corresponds to a document region where the document appears.

5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4 wherein the document region determination unit determines a size of the document based on image characteristics in the closed region, and the document holding determination unit determines that the user does not hold the document if the determined size of the document is either larger or smaller than a predetermined document size by more than a predetermined ratio.

6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the scanned data processor is at least one of a scanner that scans the document and generates image data, a copier that scans the document and outputs an image on recording paper, and a facsimile transmitter that scans the document and faxes the scanned document.

7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising an auxiliary parameter setting unit to determine a type of the document that the user holds based on the image characteristics in the document region and set an auxiliary parameter used in accordance with the type of the document.

8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising a facsimile number setting unit to perform a character recognition process on the document region and set a telephone number to which the scanned document is faxed based on a result of the character recognition process.

9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising a user authentication unit to authenticate the user who appears in the captured image individually,

wherein the scanned data processor prepares for an operation corresponding to the authenticated user.

10. The image forming apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the facsimile number setting unit checks stored telephone number registration data that associates identification information that identifies the user individually with telephone numbers to which the user sends facsimile, acquires stored destination number associated with the user, and sets the destination number if the destination number corresponds to the telephone number acquired by the character recognition process.

11. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising a user authentication unit to authenticate the user who appears in the captured image individually,

wherein the scanned data processor prepares for an operation corresponding to the authenticated user.

12. The image forming apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the user authentication unit checks stored function availability data that associates identification information that identifies the user individually with functional information that indicates functions of the image forming apparatus available to the user and activates the scanned data processor if the function is available to the user authorized by the user authentication unit.

13. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a user authentication unit to authenticate the user who appears in the captured image individually,

wherein the scanned data processor is activated depending on the authenticated user.

14. The image forming apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising a print job storage unit that stores a print job associated with identification information that identifies the user who issued the print job,

wherein the printer unit acquires a print job from the print job storage unit and executes image formation based on the print job.

15. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a rangefinder to measure a distance between the image forming apparatus and the user,

wherein the image forming apparatus is activated if the measured distance reaches a predetermined threshold distance.

16. An image forming method, comprising the steps of:

capturing an image of a user to generate a captured image;

performing processing including scanning the document; and

determining whether or not the user appearing in the captured image holds a document based on the captured image, and a processor activate the scanned data processor based on determination that the user holds the document.

17. A non-transitory, computer-readable recording medium storing a program that, when executed by a computer, causes a processor to implement a method of forming an image,

the method comprising the steps of:

capturing an image of a user to generate a captured image;

performing processing including scanning the document; and

determining whether or not the user appearing in the captured image holds a document based on the captured image, and a processor activate the scanned data processor based on determination that the user holds the document.