Gateway apparatus and network system

• US 6,799,178 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2001
• Issued: 09/28/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• 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: Ogura, Kazuhiro, Iwase, Akinori, Haraguchi, Tatsuya
• Primary Examiner(s): Coby, Frantz
• Application Number:
  US09/943,067
• Publication Number:
  US 20020045422A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,124 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 707/103.R, 707/102, 709/217, 709/218, 709/219, 345/173, 345/810, 455/410, 455/556.2, 375/220, 370/352
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2895 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data provider application, e.g. reverse proxies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99944 Object-oriented database structure

Abstract

In a network system, only text data is displayed on a portable telephone when access is made to a page which is made public on the Internet by use of the portable telephone. An image of the page and information indicating a URL of the page are stored into a predetermined folder according to an instruction for storage of the page from the portable telephone based on the operation by the user.

Claims

1. A network system having a server and an image forming apparatus, the server comprising:

a mobile terminal interface that interfaces with a mobile terminal;

a modem which acquires data of a page which is made public on a network in response to a request from the mobile terminal interface for acquiring the page which is made public on the network; and

a controller which stores the data of the page acquired by the modem in a predetermined storage location where the mobile terminal instructs storage of the data of the page,

and the image forming apparatus comprising;

an interface that acquires the data of the page acquired by the server from the network, from the storage location; and

a printer which prints on an image forming medium based on the data of the page acquired by the interface.

2. A network system according to claim 1, wherein the controller further extracts data that can be displayed by the mobile terminal from the data of the page acquired by the modem and transmits it to the mobile terminal using the mobile terminal interface.

3. A network system according to claim 1, wherein the server further comprises a database which stores information in relation to the mobile terminal,

the controller further executes authentication processing on the mobile terminal, on the basis of authentication data supplied by the mobile terminal interface from the mobile terminal and information stored in the database, and

when the controller stores the data of the page, the controller judges a storage location corresponding to the mobile terminal authenticated by the authentication processing based on the database, and stores the data of the page in the storage location.

4. A network system according to claim 1, wherein the controller stores access information of the page in the storage location, together with the data of page acquired from the network,

the image forming apparatus further comprises an operating section into which a user inputs instructions for operation,

the printer prints data of the page stored in the storage location, the printing of the data of the stored page being instructed by the operating section, and

the printer prints a present page, accessing the present page in accordance with the access information stored in the storage location, the printing of the present page among pages stored in the storage location being instructed by the operating section.

5. A network system according to claim 1, wherein the controller optimizes the data of the page acquired by the network and stores the data in the storage location.

6. A network system according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus further comprises an image processing section which optimizes the data of the page acquired from the network.

7. A network system according to claim 1, further comprising a database which stores user information,

wherein, when acquiring the data from the storage location, user authentication is executed based on user information stored in the database and information input by the user.

8. An image forming method for use in a network system comprising a server, which has a function of communicating with a mobile terminal, and an image forming apparatus, which has an image forming section that forms an image on an image forming medium, comprising:

acquiring data of a page which is made public on a network via a modem in response to a request from a mobile terminal interface for acquiring the page which is made public on the network;

storing the data of the page acquired by the modem in a predetermined storage location as instructed by the mobile terminal;

acquiring the data of the page acquired by the server from the network, from the storage location, in response to the image forming apparatus receiving an instruction for printing the data of the page stored in the storage location; and

printing, on the image forming medium, using the data of the page acquired by an interface from the storage location.

9. An image forming method according to claim 8, further comprising:

extracting data that can be displayed by the mobile terminal from the data of the page acquired by the modem and transmitting the extracted data to the mobile terminal.

10. An image forming method according to claim 8, further comprising:

executing authentication processing on the mobile terminal on the basis of a database which stores information in relation to the mobile terminal and authentication data supplied from the mobile terminal,

wherein said storing judges a storage location corresponding to the mobile terminal authenticated by the authentication processing based on the database, and stores the data of the page in the storage location.

11. An image forming method according to claim 8, wherein said step of storing further comprising storing access information of the page in the storage location, together with the data of the page acquired from the network,

the image forming apparatus prints the data of the page stored in the storage location on the image forming medium, the printing of the stored data of the page being instructed by an operating section of the image forming apparatus, and

the image forming apparatus prints a present page, accessing the present page in accordance with the access information stored in the storage location, the printing of the present page among pages stored in the storage location being instructed by the operating section.

12. An image forming method according to claim 8, the step of storing further comprising optimizing the data of the page acquired by the network based on size of printing performed by the image forming apparatus and storing the data in the storage location.

13. An image forming method according to claim 8, wherein the image forming apparatus further optimizes the data of the page acquired from the network based on size of printing.

14. An image forming method according to claim 8, further comprising:

performing user authentication based on user information stored in a database and information input by a user, when acquiring the data from the storage location.

15. An image forming method for use in a network system that includes a server that communicates with a mobile terminal, and an image forming apparatus that forms an image on an image forming medium, comprising:

acquiring data of a page which is made public on a network via the server in response to a request from a mobile terminal interface to acquire the page;

storing the acquired data in a predetermined storage location using the server, as instructed by the mobile terminal;

accessing the data stored in the storage location, in response to the image forming apparatus receiving an instruction for printing the data stored in the storage location; and

printing the data accessed from the storage location on the image forming medium using the image forming apparatus.