Patent ID: 7471410
Filing Date: 2008-12-30
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus connectable to a WAN and a LAN and capable of conducting a bidirectional communication with each terminal in the WAN or the LAN, comprising: an image forming unit configured to form an image based on externally input data on a recording medium; a substitutional sending/receiving unit configured to send a request signal to a web server in the WAN upon reception of a request signal for web server from a LAN terminal in the LAN, and configured to receive content data sent from the web server as a response signal to the request signal; a transfer unit configured to send the content data received by the substitutional sending/receiving unit to the LAN terminal that has sent the request signal for web server; an image formation requesting unit that causes the image forming unit to form an image based on the content data received by the substitutional sending/receiving unit by inputting the content data to the image forming unit; and a switching unit configured to judge whether the content data received by the substitutional sending/receiving unit is suitable for capabilities of the LAN terminal, configured to cause the transfer unit to operate when judging that the content data is suitable for the capabilities of the LAN terminal, and configured to cause the image formation requesting unit to operate when judging that the content data is not suitable for the capabilities of the LAN terminal, wherein the switching unit directly causes the image formation requesting unit to operate by sending operating instructions to the image formation requesting unit, and the image formation requesting unit, which is configured to receive the operating instructions from the switching unit, causes based on the operating instructions, the image formation unit to form the image.