Patent ID: 8904288
Filing Date: 2014-12-02
Classification: G03G,H04N

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus connectable to a remote terminal, the image forming apparatus comprising: a local operation panel; a storage unit that stores a class definition, wherein the class definition corresponds to setting items to be set in response to user operations; an assignor for assigning a local attribute to a first instance, created by using the class definition stored in the storage unit, upon receipt of an interface acquisition request from the local operation panel and assigning a remote attribute to a second instance, created by using the class definition stored in the storage unit, upon receipt of an interface acquisition request from a remote terminal, wherein the first and second instances are stored in the storage unit; and an image creator that creates a first user-interface image to be displayed on the local operation panel using the first instance upon receipt of the interface acquisition request from the local operation panel, and that creates a second user-interface image to be displayed on the remote terminal by using the second instance upon receipt of the interface acquisition request from the remote terminal; wherein each user-interface image has at least a first state and a second state, and a predetermined region of the user-interface image in the first state is linked to the second state, and if the received interface acquisition request includes coordinate information indicating a user-specified point on the user-interface image in the first state and if the user-specified point is located within the predetermined region, the image creator creates a corresponding one of the user-interface images in the second state as the user-interface image to be displayed.