An energy saving setting unit controls an image forming apparatus that makes a transition to a power saving state if a transition time passes without any prescribed operation in a normal state, and it includes: a unit for storing specific day information distinguishing a normal operation day and a specific day; an auto pattern updating unit determining the transition time in a normal operation day based on past operational status of the normal operation day of the image forming apparatus; a specific day pattern registering unit receiving and storing setting of the transition time of the specific day; and a switching unit, switching the state of conduction of the image forming apparatus using the transition time determined by the auto pattern updating unit and the stored transition time, on the normal operation day and on the specific day, respectively, based on the specific day information.

A surface object comprises a surface with a boundary, the surface having a background color. At least one optical marker is provided on the surface for assisting of image processing for improving appearance of an image of the surface with the boundary. At least one optical marker includes at least one color which is lighter or darker than the background color and the color different ΔE between the background color and the at least one color of the optical marker being between ΔE=2 and ΔE=18.

Automatically configuring a portable electronic device for accessing a site on a public network is disclosed. The method and system include establishing a connection to at least one server for establishing and maintaining website accounts, and sending information uniquely identifying the electronic device to the at least one server. The at least one server sends user account information to the device, including an account ID and password, created based on the electronic device information. The user account information is stored on the device for use the next time the device accesses the website, whereby the user does not have to enter account information in order to establish the ISP connection or the website account before accessing the public network or, if the user account is not completely set up, to establish the user account a next time the device connects to the at least one server.

A mechanism in which, even if a case in which an information processing apparatus has a plurality of methods for specifying an image forming apparatus to which to connect, a selection of the method and a selection of an alternative method for a case when specifying an image forming apparatus is not possible in a predetermined method are suitably executed is provided.

To accomplish this, an information processing apparatus sets destination information, searches for peripheral devices by using wireless communication, and if devices can be found, transmits the destination information to a device that the user selects from among the results of the search, and if a device could not be found, makes a recommendation to the user to use a reading function for reading a QR code in order to specify a transmission destination for the destination information.

This invention relates to creating a narrative description of media content. In an embodiment, a computer-implemented method describes content of a group of images. The group of images includes a first image and a second image. A first object in the first image is recognized to determine a first content data. A second object in the second image is recognized to determine a second content data. Finally, a narrative description of the group of images is determined according to a parameterized template and the first and second content data.

An image management apparatus includes a memory, circuitry and a transmitter. The circuitry is configured to: generate a thumbnail image from each of captured images; store, in the memory, for each of the thumbnail images, thumbnail identification information for identifying the thumbnail image in association with related information relating to the captured image, the related information indicating one or more attributes of the captured image; transmit one or more thumbnail images of the thumbnail images stored in the memory to a communication terminal; and receive, from the communication terminal, a change request that requests to change a display of the screen to include a specific one or more thumbnail images each being associated with a specific attribute of the related information. The transmitter transmits the specific thumbnail images each identified by specific thumbnail identification information associated with the specific attribute of the related information.

A printer maintenance guide device includes a guide command button for commanding a maintenance guide for a maintenance work, and a moving image memory storing moving images for successively and continuously displaying a whole process of the maintenance guide from start to end at once on a display unit by the operation of the guide command button.

A distributed computing system for managing solutions for print device support requests includes a print device having a user interface, a solution data store, and a solution processing system in communication with the print device. The system receives a support request from the print device that includes print device data pertaining to an issue with the print device. The system uses the print device data to generate a search query, and queries the solution data store to identify a list of possible solutions for the support request. For each selection, the system receives, from the print device, an indication of an exit status for the support request. The system correlates the possible solution associated with the selection with the print device data, generates factors based on the correlation, and uses the generated factors to update fields of a solution index in the data store for the possible solution.

An information processing apparatus that can be connected to information terminals and a data storage device through a network, and includes: a storage request receiver that receives conference identification information, information terminal identification information for a user participating in the conference, conference material data, and a storage request of the conference material data; an authentication program generator that generates an authentication program for determining whether the conference material data is capable of being transmitted to any of the information terminals when the conference material data is transmitted to the information terminal based on correspondence information in which pieces of the information terminal identification information are at least correlated with respective pieces of conference identification information, in accordance with the storage request; and a storage controller that stores the conference material data contained in the storage request and the authentication program in the data storage device in a correlated manner.

Disclosed is an image forming apparatus, including: an input unit that inputs an original data; an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording sheet in accordance with the original data; an operation panel that comprises a display unit and an operating unit and that receives an operation for entering a job for forming the image on the recording sheet by using the image forming unit; a display control unit that displays one or more types of window on the display unit of the operation panel; and a conference information obtaining unit that obtains conference information of a conference held in a conference room which is placed near the image forming apparatus, from a predetermined conference management server that manages the conference information of the conference, wherein the display control unit displays the conference information on the display unit from the conference management server.