An image forming apparatus operable by an operation device includes a storage that stores a plurality of operations, a detector that detects an operation, and a controller. The controller registers a terminal as the operation device if an operation detected by the detector conforms with an operation stored in the storage.

An information processing apparatus configured to transmit apparatus management information used in the management of the own apparatus to an external server is provided with a first communication unit; a second communication unit that is different from the first communication unit; a transmission unit configured to externally transmit apparatus management information via the first communication unit when in a regular power mode in which the information processing apparatus operates using a first power source configured to receive a power supply from outside the apparatus; and a control unit configured to perform, in a case that power supply to the information processing apparatus by the first power supply has been stopped, control such that power is supplied to the second communication unit by a second power source inside the apparatus after this power supply has been stopped, and the apparatus management information is externally transmitted via the second communication unit.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a device monitoring method, an apparatus, a server, and a storage medium. The method includes receiving an authorization code, where the authorization code includes first information; the first information is configured to indicate a first value; and the first value is a maximum quantity of image forming devices capable of being monitored by a device monitoring system which is activated by the authorization code; determining the first value according to the authorization code; and configuring a first parameter value according to the first value, where the first parameter value is configured to record the maximum quantity of image forming devices capable of being monitored. The present disclosure reduces the data processing amount of the server where the device monitoring system is located, improves the monitoring effect of the device monitoring system on the image forming device and improves the user experience.

An information distribution system includes an electronic device; and a server system including at least one information distribution apparatus that communicates with the electronic device via a network. The electronic device includes an information requester configured to transmit, to the server system, a request to distribute information, the request being transmitted together with identification information of the electronic device; and an information displayer configured to display, on a display device, the information transmitted from the server system. The server system includes a contract information acquirer configured to acquire contract information relating to a contract for a service provided to the electronic device; an information generator configured to identify the contract information of the electronic device based on the identification information, and generate the information according to the contract information; and an information distributor configured to distribute the information generated by the information generator, to the electronic device.

An image forming device including an image former, a primary controller, a secondary controller, one or more sensors, an interface, and a writer. The image former executes image forming processing to form an image on a sheet. The primary controller instructs the secondary controller to control the image former to execute the image forming processing. Each sensor detects a state of the image former and outputs sensor data to the secondary controller. The interface can be connected to a storage medium. The secondary controller generates diagnostic data based on the sensor data. The writer writes the diagnostic data to the storage medium via the interface. The diagnostic data is used by a diagnostic server to perform failure diagnostics and life prediction pertaining to the image forming device, after transfer to the diagnostic server via a transfer device when the storage medium is mounted to the transfer device.

An information processing apparatus includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry acquires a log related to communication and execution of processing and transmits the log to a log collection server. The processing circuitry stores a log related to a transmission failure in a memory storage when transmission of the log to the log collection server fails due to occurrence of an error. When the transmission of the log to the log collection server succeeds after the transmission failure, the processing circuitry stores a log related to a transmission success in the memory storage and transmits the log related to the transmission failure and the log related to the transmission success to the log collection server.

A scanner redirection method for a remote desktop system that includes a client computing device and a host server, includes the steps of: acquiring properties of a physical scanner from a data source; generating a user interface (UI) for the acquired properties of the physical scanner; in response to a first user selection made on the UI, transmitting a request to the physical scanner to update a scanner property that is one of the acquired properties of the physical scanner; and in response to a second user selection made on the UI, receiving from an application running on the host server, a request for a scanned image, transmitting to the data source a request to acquire the scanned image from the physical scanner, and upon receiving the scanned image from the data source, transmitting the scanned image to the application.

A virtual calibration system uses a reference printing device to add new printing devices and perform verification operations. The reference printing device is defined using color printing resources from an initial printing device. Policies define environmental specification information regarding the operating conditions for a printing device in the system. When a new printing device is added, the new printing device performs a match calibration using the color printing resources provided by the reference printing device. If the match calibration is acceptable, then the new printing device is added to the virtual calibration system. The reference printing device also instructs the printing devices to perform quality checks and to provide environmental information. Using the environmental information, the reference printing device determines if an issue is impacting color printing that is not related to the color printing capabilities of the printing device.

An image forming apparatus includes: an image former that executes image forming processing; a primary controller; a secondary controller that controls the image former; a sensor that detects a state of at least a unit of the image forming apparatus and transmits sensor data indicating the state to the secondary controller; a first transmission path for duplex communication between the primary and secondary controllers; and a second transmission path. The secondary controller: generates, from the sensor data, diagnostic data for failure diagnostics or life prediction, transmits data other than the diagnostic data to the primary controller via the first transmission path and transmits the diagnostic data to the diagnostic server via the second transmission path, or transmits data other than the sensor data to the primary controller via the first transmission path and transmits the sensor data to the diagnostic server via the second transmission path.

An example image forming apparatus includes an image forming apparatus, a processor, and a memory storing instructions executable by the processor. The processor of the image forming apparatus executes the instructions to render a print job, obtain information regarding a pattern for determining print quality from a rendered image of the print job, scan, through the image forming job unit, a document on which the rendered image is printed, and determine the print quality based on a scanned image of the document and the obtained information regarding the pattern.