An image forming apparatus 176 capable of easy log-in to a desired cloud service includes a print engine communicable with a cloud server 170 for printing a print job received from cloud server 170, a reader/writer 174 capable of proximity communication with a portable terminal 172, and a log-in executing device receiving log-in information to cloud server 170 from portable terminal 172 through reader/writer 174, for executing the log-in process to cloud server 170 using the log-in information.

Portable communication devices transmit digital images and their location information to a central server. If a particular location is often photographed it can be designated as a hot spot. Thereafter, if a communication device is currently transmitting from within a vicinity of the hot spot, based on the location data received from the communication device, notification data can be transmitted to the communication device for notifying the user of the hot spot. The notification data can include directional information for the user to access on the communication device for enabling the user to find the hot spot.

The present disclosure relates to user-selected metadata related to images captured by a camera of a client device. User-selected metadata may include contextual information and/or information provided by a user when the images are captured. In various implementations, a free form input may be received at a first client device of one or more client devices operated by a user. A task request may be recognized from the free form input, and it may be determined that the task request includes a request to store metadata related to one or more images captured by a camera of the first client device. The metadata may be selected based on content of the task request. The metadata may then be stored, e.g., in association with one or more images captured by the camera, in computer-readable media. The computer-readable media may be searchable by the metadata.

A communication apparatus capable of performing facsimile communication includes at least one memory that stores a set of instructions and at least one processor. The processor executes the instructions to receive facsimile data, store the received facsimile data in a storage, generate a preview image based on the stored facsimile data, and transmit, according to a request for a preview image from an external device, the generated preview image to the external device. In addition, the stored facsimile data is deleted according to an instruction, but deletion of the facsimile data in the storage is prohibited while the external device is displaying the preview image of the facsimile data if the instruction is received from another external device.

Disclosed are methods and apparatus for acquiring and displaying whole slide images of crystalline samples. In some embodiments, a slide is placed upon an imaging device with a motorized stage, and a digital imaging device, and all parts of the specimen are imaged and reassembled to display the entire slide as a single image, displayable on PC and transmittable across local and wide area networks and the Internet, then facilitating the acquisition multiple whole slide images of the slide under crossed polarizers rotated at different angles, with each image displayed to the viewer at the angle of polarization.

A computing device initiates a linked capture session to enable automatic image sharing by multiple users and devices. The linked capture session is a group of devices that automatically share captured images during the linked capture session. The linked capture session may be initiated based on a location, a group of people, and/or a time duration. The images captured by devices that are connected in the linked capture session are automatically communicated to a remote storage system that allows all users to access the images through devices connected to the linked capture session.

An electronic device associates first information and at least a first portion of a first image, and uses a second image that includes a portion corresponding to at least the first portion of the first image to access the associated first information.

An image forming apparatus 176 capable of easy log-in to a desired cloud service includes a print engine communicable with a cloud server 170 for printing a print job received from cloud server 170, a reader/writer 174 capable of proximity communication with a portable terminal 172, and a log-in executing device receiving log-in information to cloud server 170 from portable terminal 172 through reader/writer 174, for executing the log-in process to cloud server 170 using the log-in information.

An image scanning method includes: generating, in a terminal, a scan job ticket as a data file including a content of job to store scan data generated by scanning in a storage, the scan data being to be; sending the scan job ticket from the terminal to a scanning apparatus; receiving, in the scanning apparatus, the scan job ticket and accepting an initiation operation for initiating the job in response to the receiving of the scan job ticket; performing, in the scanning apparatus, the scanning to generate the scan data in response to the accepting of the initiation operation; and storing the scan data in the storage.

An electronic device associates first information and at least a first portion of a first image, and uses a second image that includes a portion corresponding to at least the first portion of the first image to access the associated first information.