Patent ID: 8958096
Filing Date: 2015-02-17
Classification: G06F,G06K

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus comprising: a communication controller configured to transmit and receive information to and from a network; a storage; a searcher; a search responder; an image-information manager configured to receive image-information through the communication controller from the network; an image-forming unit configured to form an image; a user interface configured to display a picture and to receive an input from a user; and an authenticator configured to generate authentication-information for authentication on the basis of the input from the user; wherein the searcher is configured to: transmit a first search-message notifying first identification-information for identifying the image forming apparatus as a first image forming apparatus and first group-confirmation-information used for confirming a first apparatus-group to which the first image forming apparatus belongs, through the communication controller to second image forming apparatuses connected to the network, receive a second search-response-message notifying second identification-information for identifying any of the second image forming apparatuses, through the communication controller from the second image forming apparatuses, and store the second identification-information notified by the received second search-response-message in the storage; wherein the search responder is configured to: receive a second search-message notifying third identification-information for identifying any of the second image forming apparatuses and second group-confirmation-information for confirming a second apparatus-group to which any of the second image forming apparatuses belongs, through the communication controller from any of the second image forming apparatuses, and transmit a first search-response-message for notifying the first identification-information, through the communication controller to a transmission originator of the received second search-message, when the second apparatus-group confirmed by the second group-confirmation-information notified by the received second search-message is the same as the first apparatus-group to which the first image forming apparatus belongs; wherein when the authentication-information for use of user authentication is included in the image-information, the image-information manager causes the image-information to be stored in the storage, and when the authentication-information is not included in the image-information, the image-information manager causes the image-forming unit to form the image on the basis of the image-information; and wherein the image-information manager is configured to: search the storage for image-information including the authentication-information coinciding with the authentication-information generated by the authenticator, transmit a search-response-message for notifying the authentication-information generated by the authenticator, through the communication controller to the second image forming apparatus identified by the authentication-information stored in the storage, receive a search-request-response-message for notifying identification-information for specifying the image-information including the authentication-information coinciding with the authentication-information notified by the search-response-message, through the communication controller from the second image forming apparatuses identified by the identification-information stored in the storage; generate a selection-picture for selecting the image-information to form an image from the image-information searched from the storage and from the image-information specified by the identification-information, and to display the selection-picture on the user interface; acquire the selected image-information from the second image forming apparatus through the communication controller, when the image-information selected through the user interface is already stored in the second image forming apparatuses identified by the authentication-information stored in the storage; and cause the image-forming unit to form an image on the basis of the selected image-information.