A system to determine a relative position between a moveable part and a working surface is disclosed. The system comprises a controller to control a light emitter from an array of light emitters to emit a signal at a setting, the setting being indicative of a position associated with the light emitter. The controller further to receive a signal from the sensor indicative of the setting. The controller also to determine the relative position between a moveable part and the working surface based on the signal.

Systems and methods are provided though which a transaction, e.g., in a multi-tier, distributed application may be initiated from a portable or hand-held device, such as a smartphone. A computer system or systems, possibly remote from the device, may approve the transaction, complete it, or both, and the remote computer system or systems may cause a document to be printed, e.g., by a printer physically proximate to the device. Aspects of the invention are illustrated by embodiments in which a drug prescription may be created electronically using a hand-held device. In such an embodiment, the prescription may be transmitted to one or more remote computer systems, such as an application server, for processing. If specified, the remote computer systems may cause a prescription to be printed, e.g., at a printer near the prescriber's location. The prescriber may sign the printed prescription and give it to a patient or pharmacy.

A printing apparatus comprising: a disc receiving portion configured to receive a disc which can record data; and a camera provided to oppose to a label surface of the disc when the disc is received in the disc receiving portion and configured to photograph the label surface of the disc.

A belt transfer type multi-function device includes a control device performing controlling such that an image to be printed on paper already caught between a transfer roller and the belt roller is printed, and if printing should not be performed on a next paper, movement of the next paper is stopped on a transfer path before the next paper is positioned between the transfer roller and the belt roller, the image already transferred on the transfer belt is deleted in a state in which the next paper is stopped on the transfer path, and the next paper in a stopped state is ejected as a blank paper through a ejection port along the transfer path, so that the image already transferred to the transfer belt, which is to be printed on the next paper along the movement direction of paper, is not printed on the next paper.

A wireless tag communication device includes an antenna, a first maximum value acquiring unit, a second maximum value acquiring unit, a first minimum value acquiring unit, a second minimum value acquiring unit, and a polarization direction determining unit. The wireless tag communication device acquires, for each of n wireless tags provided on a sheet, a maximum value M1(k) of a received power intensity of the wireless tag when the radio wave is transmitted from the antenna to the sheet in a first polarization direction; acquires, for each of the wireless tags, a maximum value M2(k) of a received power intensity of the wireless tag when the radio wave is transmitted from the antenna in a second polarization direction that is different from the first polarization direction; acquires a minimum value m1 of M1(k); acquires a minimum value m2 of M2(k); and determines the polarization direction along which one of m1 and m2 that is not smaller is acquired as the polarization direction of the radio wave transmitted to the sheet.

A print head includes: a mounting board; a light source portion that includes a plurality of light emitting elements provided on one surface of the mounting board; a drive member that is provided on other surface of the mounting board so as to generate a lighting signal and drive the light source portion; and a first temperature detector that is provided on the mounting board, and at least one second temperature detector that is provided at a farther position on the mounting board from the drive member than the first temperature detector; and the drive member includes: a light emitting unit that generates the lighting signal based on a temperature detected by the first temperature detector and a temperature detected by the second temperature detector; and an optical unit that forms an image of light emitted from the light emitting unit.

An image forming apparatus is provided which is used in a system having a first group and one or more second groups into which a plurality of second image forming apparatuses are classified, and classified into the first group together with a third image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus includes a transmitter configured to send target data to be shared to the plurality of second image forming apparatuses, one by one, classified into the second groups, and to send the target data to the third image forming apparatus.

A management system includes: a management server; one or more image forming apparatuses that notify the management server of information on a remaining amount of toner; and one or more terminals, in which the management server makes a toner remaining amount history by combining the information on the remaining amount of toner with time and date information, detects, based on the toner remaining amount history, that toner replacement has been performed when an increase rate of the remaining amount of toner exceeds a threshold value, and determines, based on the contract value, whether the remaining amount of toner before the toner replacement is not more than the contract value when the toner replacement is detected, and notifies the one or more terminals of that the performed toner replacement corresponds to a contract violation when the remaining amount of toner before the toner replacement is more than the contract value.

The present disclosure provides an image forming apparatus capable of improving usability in a configuration where information related to sheet size is detected automatically, and a control method thereof. A control unit is configured to execute a determination process if the control unit acquires a detection result of a size of a sheet supported on a sheet support portion by a size detection unit in a state where a first information related to a size of a sheet and a second information related to a type of a sheet that satisfy a predetermined combination condition are stored in the storage portion. The control unit determines in the determination process whether the detection result of the size of the sheet satisfies the combination condition with respect to the second information stored in the storage portion, and changes a successive procedure depending on a result of the determination process.

Distribution of electronic documents is described, including receiving an electronic document to be distributed, identifying whether a destination identifier is associated with a destination account among a known group of customer accounts, routing the electronic document, and calculating a fee associated with delivery of the electronic document based on whether the destination account is among the known group of customers and a set of billing rules. The set of billing rules may specify a discounted fee for routing an electronic document to each of a known group of customer accounts. In other aspects, the set of billing rules may specify a discounted fee for routing an electronic document to a first group of the known group of customer accounts and specify a standard fee for a second group of the known group of customer accounts.