Minolta Company, Ltd.

Aisin Aw Co., Ltd.

Hiroyuki Asai

Tomoyuki Atsumi

Tomokazu Kato

Hidenobu Nakamura

Yoichi Kawabuchi

Takeshi Morikawa

Kazuhiro Araki

Hiroyasu Ito

Hiroharu Tanaka

An in vehicle device transfers connection information to a power management device, the connection information indicating whether the in-vehicle device can communicate with the power management device. The in-vehicle device either transfers condition information to the power management device, the condition information indicating that the in-vehicle device is ready for turning off, or sets the in-vehicle device to not communicate with the power management device when a predetermined condition is met, the predetermined condition indicative of an inability of the in-vehicle device to transfer information to the power management device. The power management device requests the connection information from the in-vehicle device and requests the condition information from the in-vehicle device. The power management device determines that the in-vehicle device is ready for turning off when both the connection information and the condition information have been received from the in-vehicle device, or no connection information has been received from the in-vehicle device because the in-vehicle device has been set to not communicate with the power management device.

Power management systems, methods, and programs for in-vehicle devices

An image forming system with a finisher connected to a copying machine via an inverting unit. The finisher has a stapling section which staples sheets stacked on a tray with a stapler and a folding section which folds a sheet with folding rollers. In a confidential mode, a sheet on which an image with confidential or private contents has been copied is transported to the finisher with its image-formed side facing down and is folded in two with the image inside. Then, in the stapling section, the folded sheet is stapled along a side opposite the fold.

Image forming system

If an input number exceeds a section remaining number, an image forming apparatus executes a processing of displaying a warning notifying that the input number exceeds the section remaining number. If a rounding off processing is possible, the input number is changed to be within the section remaining number and the set number is automatically reduced. As a result, an image forming apparatus capable of giving an alarm or automatically changing a set number into a possible number of prints if the set number exceeds the possible number of prints upon setting is provided.

Image forming apparatus with section-based management function

An image forming apparatus supervisory system is provided. The image forming apparatus supervisory system includes an image forming apparatus and a control device. The image forming apparatus has an input unit for inputting an identification code and a transmission unit for transmitting the identification code. The control device is connected to the image forming apparatus, and has a reception unit for receiving the identification code and a transmission unit for transmitting to the image forming apparatus a signal for informing the image forming apparatus of a permitted number of time an image can be formed in response to receipt of the identification code. Upon receipt of the signal from the control device, the image forming apparatus permits forming an image the permitted number of times.

Image formation supervisory system and method for controlling the number

An image forming system has a folding unit which can fold in two a sheet of paper at a position being slightly offset from the center of the sheet of paper. When an index mode is designated and a location where an index sheet is to be inserted, an index sheet which size is twice the size of a sheet of regular paper is supplied and fed to the folding unit, then is folded and fed to a tray where sheets of regular paper are stacked.

Image forming apparatus having a folding unit

The invention provides an image forming apparatus such as a coin-operated copy machine, which has an upper limit value to the number of copies which are authorized to be made and which also copies both sides of originals fed to the image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus is configured so that its intermediate tray, which temporarily stores sheets copied on their first side, is empty at the end of a copy cycle and despite the image forming apparatus being fed more double-sided originals to copy than are authorized to be copied. The image forming apparatus compares the upper limit value of the number of copies authorized to be made to the number of single-sided copies already made in the current copying cycle and begins copying the second side of the originals onto sheets from the intermediate tray when the upper limit value equals a constant K plus twice the number of images formed. The image forming apparatus thus eliminates the problem of single-sided but unfinished copies being present in the intermediate tray when the apparatus is to start its next copy cycle, since the intermediate tray of the image forming apparatus is emptied by the end of the imaging cycle.

Image forming apparatus and method for controlling number of image

A host computer is connected to a copying machine through communication lines. The copying machine includes an management apparatus which is provided with a card reader. Using the card reader, a section code stored in a user ID card is read and is compared with section codes previously registered in the management apparatus. When the section code of the user ID card matches one of the section codes registered in advance, copying operation is allowed and the section code and the number of copying operations are stored as management data in a registration table stored in an SRAM. When the amount of available storage space becomes less than the predetermined amount, the management apparatus transmits the registered management data to the host computer through the communication lines, clears the storage area and waits for next registrations. The host computer has an accumulating table which is capable of storing the numbers of copying operations for all the sections subjected to management. The host computer receives the management data and updates the number of copying operations of the corresponding section.

Image forming apparatus management system which manages number of image

A copier supervisory control system in which a plurality of copiers are connected to each other over a network is provided. Each of the plurality of copiers has a structure that compares a user identifier inputted by a user with a registered identifier. If the user identifier and the registered identifier are identical, the user is permitted to make copies by the copier. If the two compared identifiers are not identical, the user is prohibited from making copies. More specifically, a first copier receives a user identifier and compares it with its registered identifier. If the user identifier and the registered identifier of the first copier are not identical, the copier inquires of a second copier whether it has a registered identifier identical to the user identifier over the network. Upon receipt of the inquiry, the second copier compares the user identifier with its own identifier, and if the two identifiers are identical, it informs the first copier of the result over the network. Upon receipt of the information, the first copier permits the user to make copies.

Image forming apparatus having an image formation supervising controller

An image forming apparatus having a process maintenance (PM) counter which counts the frequency of use of a part from the execution of maintenance of the part, and a life counter which counts the frequency of use of a part from when the part is replaced. The counting value of both counters are displayed selectively. The image forming apparatus has a reset switch which resets the PM counter when the counting value of the PM counter is displayed, and resets both the PM counter and the life counter simultaneously when the counting value of life counter is displayed, so as not to forget to reset the PM counter when the life counter is reset.

Growing community of inventors

Okazaki, Japan

Hiroyuki Asai