A maintenance support device includes a memory that stores data of a maintenance manual that describes a first maintenance work to be performed to resolve a failure of an image processing apparatus, and a processor configured to acquire, and store in the memory, work result information corresponding to a second maintenance work that has been performed to resolve the failure of the image processing apparatus, and generate additional information based on the acquired work result information and store in the memory the additional information in association with the data of the maintenance manual.

The embodiments herein relate to a method performed by a system (100) for handling variations in a mark (110) printed by a group (105) of industrial printers (101). The system (100) obtains images of the printed mark (110) printed by each of the printers (101) in the group (105). The system (100) creates a composite image from the obtained images. The printed marks (110) appear as a repeating pattern in the composite image. The system (100) compares the printed marks (110) in the composite image to each other or to another mark. The system (100) detects variations with a first resolution in the printed marks (110) in the composite image as a result of the comparison. The system (100) creates an augmented image in which the detected variations are augmented to a second resolution. The first resolution is lower than the second resolution.

An erasing apparatus according to an embodiment includes an erasing unit that erases an image formed on a sheet and a scanning unit that scans a surface of a sheet. A control determines whether or not an image on the sheet has been erased based on the scanned surface and count the number of sheets on which images are determined to have been erased, with respect to each size of the sheets. A network interface transmits information including the counted number of the sheets and a size of the sheets on which images are determined to have been erased to a managing apparatus that manages points associated with the erasing of the images on the sheets.

A terminal device includes an acquisition unit that acquires image information, a display unit that displays the image information acquired by the acquisition unit, a detection unit that detects pitch information by performing frequency analysis on the image information displayed by the display unit, and a control unit that controls the display unit to display the pitch information detected by the detection unit. The control unit adjusts saturation or shade of the image information displayed by the display unit.

An image forming apparatus includes a control device. The control device acts, when a built-in processor executes a control program, as a decider that decides whether the image forming apparatus has been used for business, depending on whether the terminal device that has requested a job to the image forming apparatus, or is to receive an output from the image forming apparatus, is registered in advance as a device for business use, or a device for private use, a used time detector that detects a time decided by the decider to have been used for business by the image forming apparatus, with respect to each of operation modes, and a transmitter that transmits information indicating the time used for business, with respect to each of the operation modes, detected by the used time detector, to a management computer installed in an office, through a network I/F.

A system and method for maintenance and supplying of a fleet of multifunction peripheral devices includes two or more networked devices including a decision engine. Devices discover one another and one device is designated as a server. The server creates a virtual lobby accessible by other devices and its decision engine is enabled. The server invites other devices into its virtual lobby, and these devices join the lobby in response. Devices provide their device state information to the lobby. The enabled decision engine generates recommendations for consumable replenishment, device servicing or device configuration, relaying the recommendations to a system administrator's tablet or smartphone. The administrator may accept, reject, modify or implement received suggestions. Consumable supplies or servicing recommendations can be done automatically if enabled. Administrator actions are fed back to the server for machine learning to improve future suggestions.

An information processing apparatus includes a controller that performs control so that a specific operation among operations performed on a second operation unit is invalidated in a state where an operation performed on a first operation unit is valid.

An information processing system includes an information processing terminal and a device. The device includes a first display unit configured to display a screen and a transmitting unit configured to transmit identification information relating to the screen being displayed by the first display unit to the information processing terminal. The information processing terminal includes a receiving unit configured to receive the identification information from the device, an acquiring unit configured to acquire data corresponding to the received identification information, and a second display unit configured to display the acquired data.

An apparatus includes a volatile first storage and a nonvolatile second storage with a limited number of writes, and the apparatus includes a printer configured to execute printing based on image data, and a controller having one or more processors which execute instructions stored in one or more memories, the controller being configured to acquire information about a number of writes of the second storage, and switch between a first operating mode of storing the image data in the second storage and a second operating mode of storing the image data in the first storage and not storing the image data in the second storage based on the information about the number of writes.

A system and method for monitoring of document processing devices for scheduling of service includes a processor, associated memory and a network interface. The network interface is in data communication with a plurality of identifiable multifunction peripherals. Contact data maps each multifunction peripheral to at least one designated contact is stored in the memory. The network interface receives status data from each of the plurality of multifunction peripherals which is stored in the memory. A statistical engine, including the processor and memory calculates trend data from stored status data and generates alerts corresponding to identified multifunction peripherals in accordance with an analysis of the trend data. The network interface communicates the alerts to at least one designated contact in accordance with each identified multifunction peripheral and the contact data.