IMAGE FORMING SYSTEM AND NON-TRANSITORY RECORDING MEDIUM STORING A COMPUTER-READABLE PROGRAM

• US 20190122351A1
• Filed: 09/12/2018
• Published: 04/25/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Konica Minolta Inc.
• Original Assignee: Konica Minolta Inc.
• Inventors: HONMA, Mikimasa
• Granted Patent: US 10,607,336 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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 3/1208 resulting in improved quality of the output result, e.g. print layout, colours, workflows, print preview
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1215 achieving increased printing speed, i.e. reducing the time between printing start and printing end
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/124 Parallel printing or parallel ripping
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1259 Print job monitoring, e.g. job status
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1285 Remote printer device, e.g. being remote from client or server
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1288 in client-server-printer device configuration
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30144 Printing quality
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/001 using an image reference approach
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/11 Region-based segmentation

Abstract

An image forming system in which distributed processing of a job is performed by a plurality of image forming apparatuses and each of the image forming apparatuses inspects an output image formed on paper by distributed processing. Among the image forming apparatuses which perform distributed processing, one or more image forming apparatuses generate data for abnormal image detection which is required to inspect the output image in the image forming apparatuses to perform the distributed processing.

Claims

1. An image forming system in which distributed processing of a job is performed by a plurality of image forming apparatuses and each image forming apparatus inspects an output image formed on paper by the distributed processing, each of the image forming apparatuses comprising:

an image forming section for forming the output image on the paper according to original image data of the job;

a reader for reading the output image formed on the paper and generating read image data; and

an inspection section for inspecting the output image using the original image data, the read image data, and data for abnormal image detection as a reference for detection of an abnormal image,

wherein the data for abnormal image detection which is required to inspect the output image in the image forming apparatuses to perform the distributed processing is generated by one or more of the image forming apparatuses.

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

at least one of the image forming apparatuses acquires information on each image forming apparatus as apparatus information from the own apparatus and other image forming apparatuses and has a generating apparatus determiner for determining an image forming apparatus to generate the data for abnormal image detection according to the apparatus information,

each of the image forming apparatuses has a detection data generator for generating the data for abnormal image detection,

the generating apparatus determiner of an image forming apparatus which has received the job determines an image forming apparatus to generate the data for abnormal image detection according to received information concerning conditions of the image forming apparatuses and sends a request to generate the data for abnormal image detection and the original image data to the determined image forming apparatus, and

the image forming apparatus which has received the request to generate the data for abnormal image detection generates the data for abnormal image detection from the received original image data through the detection data generator and sends the generated data for abnormal image detection to the other image forming apparatuses to perform the distributed processing.

3. The image forming system according to claim 2, wherein the generating apparatus determiner of the image forming apparatus which has received the job acquires information on a reserved job for each image forming apparatus as the apparatus information from the own apparatus and the other image forming apparatuses and determines an image forming apparatus having no reserved job to be an image forming apparatus to generate the data for abnormal image detection.

4. The image forming system according to claim 2, wherein the generating apparatus determiner of the image forming apparatus which has received the job acquires hardware resource information for each image forming apparatus as the apparatus information from the own apparatus and the other image forming apparatuses and determines an image forming apparatus to generate the data for abnormal image detection according to the hardware resource information.

5. The image forming system according to claim 2, wherein the generating apparatus determiner of the image forming apparatus which has received the job acquires information on a reserved job and hardware resource information for each image forming apparatus as the apparatus information from the own apparatus and the other image forming apparatuses and determines an image forming apparatus to generate the data for abnormal image detection according to existence or nonexistence of the reserved job and the hardware resource information.

6. The image forming system according to claim 5, wherein the generating apparatus determiner of the image forming apparatus which has received the job determines an order of priority for each image forming apparatus according to the information on a reserved job and hardware resource information for each image forming apparatus which are acquired from the own apparatus and the other image forming apparatuses and determines an assignment to each image forming apparatus to generate the data for abnormal image detection according to the order of priority.

7. The image forming system according to claim 6, wherein the generating apparatus determiner determines an assignment to each image forming apparatus for output in the distributed processing according to the assignment to each image forming apparatus to generate the data for abnormal image detection.

8. The image forming system according to claim 2, wherein the detection data generator of each image forming apparatus to perform the distributed processing generates the data for abnormal image detection from the read image data generated by reading the output image formed on the paper.

9. The image forming system according to claim 2, further comprising:

a server connected to the plural image forming apparatuses through a network in a communicable manner, wherein

the server, which has received the distributed processing job, sends a request to determine the image forming apparatus to generate the data for abnormal image detection to an image forming apparatus having the generating apparatus determiner, and

upon receipt of a result of decision as a reply from the image forming apparatus having the generating apparatus determiner, the server sends the request to generate the data for abnormal image detection and the original image data to the image forming apparatus to generate the data for abnormal image detection.

10. The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the data for abnormal image detection contains data representing an edge position in the output image.

11. The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the data for abnormal image detection contains data representing a position not subject to the inspection in the output image.

12. A non-transitory recording medium storing a computer-readable program causing a computer of an image forming apparatus which has received the job, among a plurality of image forming apparatuses to perform distributed processing of a job, to perform:

acquiring information on each image forming apparatus as apparatus information from the own apparatus which has received the job, and other image forming apparatuses;

determining an image forming apparatus to generate data for abnormal image detection as a reference for detection of an abnormal image according to the received apparatus information; and

sending a request to generate data for abnormal image detection and original image data of the job to the determined image forming apparatus.

13. A non-transitory recording medium storing a computer-readable program causing a computer of each image forming apparatus of a plurality of image forming apparatuses to perform distributed processing of a job to perform:

receiving a request for apparatus information as information on another image forming apparatus from an image forming apparatus which has received the job;

returning the apparatus information on the own apparatus as a reply to the request for apparatus information;

receiving a request to generate data for abnormal image detection as a reference for detection of an abnormal image and original image data of the job from the image forming apparatus which has received the job;

generating the data for abnormal image detection from the original image data; and

sending the generated data for abnormal image detection to other image forming apparatuses to perform the distributed processing.

14. A non-transitory recording medium storing a computer-readable program causing a computer of a server connected to a plurality of image forming apparatuses to perform distributed processing of a job in a communicable manner through a network to perform:

receiving the distributed processing job;

sending a request to determine an image forming apparatus to generate data for abnormal image detection as a reference for detection of an abnormal image to a given image forming apparatus; and

receiving a result of decision as a reply from the given image forming apparatus and sending a request to generate the data for abnormal image detection and original image data of the job to the image forming apparatus to generate the data for abnormal image detection.