Patent ID: 7584273
Filing Date: 2009-09-01
Classification: G03G,G06F,G06Q,H04L,H04N

Abstract:
1. An image forming apparatus capable of transferring and receiving data by email communication and facsimile communication and supervised by a manager who contacts a service depot when servicing is required, comprising: a consumable product status detector configured to automatically detect a status of said consumable product used in said image forming apparatus; a manager registration part configured to register a manager email address and telephone number of the manager who administers said image forming apparatus; a service depot registration part configured to register an email address and telephone number of a service depot; a terminal identification information registration part configured to register terminal identification information of said image forming apparatus, wherein said terminal identification information includes at least one of an E-mail address, a serial number, a facsimile number, facsimile TTI information, and a telephone number of said apparatus; a consumable product information registration part configured to register order details information, specification of said consumable product and identification of a supplier of the consumable product; an email controller part configured to send a first email communicating a request for supplying said consumable product, including the terminal identification information of the communications terminal apparatus, the order details information, specification of said consumable product and the identification of the supplier, to said manager email address registered in said manager registration part, when said consumable product status detector detects that said consumable product is nearly ended, and configured to send, when said consumable product status detector has detected that replenishment of the consumable product has been completed, a second email communicating that the replenishment of said consumable product has been completed, said request of the first email sent automatically to said manager (i) including an order form for sending to the service depot to order said consumable product and (ii) identifying the registered service depot email address of the supplier to which the order form is to be sent; an email analysis part configured to analyze a received email for receipt acknowledgement information indicating acknowledgement of receipt of the order, and response information responding to the order; and a display part configured to display various information, wherein the email controller part causes said display part to display a text message of the received email corresponding to the receipt acknowledgement information, causes said display part to stop displaying the receipt acknowledgement information which has been displayed in said display part after transmission of the second email indicating that the replenishment of the consumable product has been completed, to the manager and service depot, and causes said display part to display that the consumable product was replenished; and a facsimile controller part wherein said facsimile controller part communicates with at least one of said manager and service depot through said facsimile communication using said facsimile number registered in said terminal identification information registration part when said email communication is not available to at least one of said manager and said service depot.