JP7143676B2 - Image forming apparatus and receiving transfer method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and a receiving/transferring method, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus and a receiving/transferring method capable of communication such as Internet facsimile (IP-FAX) transmission/reception.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there have been image forming apparatuses such as multifunctional peripherals (MFPs) capable of printing documents and images.
These image forming apparatuses are capable of performing communications such as facsimile (hereinafter simply referred to as "FAX") and Internet facsimile (Internet Protocol Facsimile (hereinafter referred to as "IP-FAX") via a voice line. things exist.

On the other hand, Patent Literature 1 describes a communication device capable of recording history information regarding incoming calls and notifying the user of the history information. In the device of Patent Document 1, when the maximum number of communication histories is retained when an incoming call is received, the caller device information such as caller telephone number display service (“number display”, “Caller ID”) is turned off. Prioritize deletion.

JP 2009-81814 A

However, in the case of the technique of simply recording the communication history like the device of Patent Document 1, when the image data received by communication is transferred to another device by IP-FAX or the like, the communication history at the time of reception and transmission is recorded. always recorded.
For this reason, if the transfer frequency is high, the communication history that should remain is deleted.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus that solves the above problems.

An image forming apparatus according to the present invention is an image forming apparatus capable of transferring received communication to another apparatus, wherein when the communication is received, the number of receptions of the communication from the communication source is equal to or greater than a threshold, and a communication determination unit that determines to transfer the communication if the condition is satisfied; and a communication transfer unit that transfers the communication without recording a communication history if the communication determination unit determines to transfer the communication. and a reception recording unit that receives the communication and increases the number of times of reception when the communication is not transferred by the communication transfer unit.
In the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the communication judgment unit may set the conditions such that the toner is not a genuine product and a transfer destination is specified, the device itself is out of order, and/or the memory for receiving the communication is determined. When the storage capacity of the unit is equal to or less than a specific capacity, it is determined to transfer to the other device.
In the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the communication is IP-FAX, and the communication transfer unit does not transfer the image data after receiving the image data by IP-FAX, but transfers the image data by relaying when a reception session is established. , the communication history is not recorded.
A receiving and forwarding method of the present invention is a receiving and forwarding method executed by an image forming apparatus capable of forwarding received communication to another apparatus, wherein the image forming apparatus, when receiving the communication, determines that the source of the communication is If the number of receptions from is greater than or equal to a threshold value and further corresponds to a set condition, it is determined to transfer the communication, and if it is determined to transfer the communication, the communication is transferred without recording the communication history. and if the communication is not forwarded, the communication is received and the number of times of reception is increased.

According to the present invention, when the number of times of reception from the communication source is equal to or greater than the threshold and the set conditions are met, the frequency of transfer is increased by transferring to another device without recording the communication history. Even in such a case, it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus whose communication history is less likely to be deleted.

1 is a system configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control configuration of the image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 1; FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the invention; FIG. FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram when setting transfer conditions shown in FIG. 3; 4 is a flowchart of reception transfer processing according to the embodiment of the present invention; 6 is a diagram showing sequences of session confirmation processing and communication reception processing shown in FIG. 5; FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a sequence of transfer processing shown in FIG. 5; FIG.

<Embodiment>
[System Configuration of Image Forming System X]
First, referring to FIG. 1, the system configuration of an image forming system X according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The image forming system X is connected via a network 5 to the image forming apparatus 2 on the transmission side and the server 4b. In the image forming system X, a network is configured via a router R or the like connected to the network 5, which is a router or a gateway. An image forming apparatus 1 on the receiving side, a plurality of image forming apparatuses 3 (other apparatuses), and a server 4a are connected to this network.
In this embodiment, IP-FAX communication or the like via the network 5 is possible as communication between the image forming apparatus 2 on the transmitting side and the image forming apparatus 1 on the receiving side. Further, the image forming apparatus 1 can transfer the communication received from the image forming apparatus 2 to the image forming apparatus 3 of another apparatus by IP-FAX or the like.

Specifically, the image forming apparatuses 1, 2, and 3 are document devices such as MFPs, network scanners, document scanners, network FAX, printers with scanner functions, and single-function printers.

The image forming apparatuses 1, 2, and 3 have various functions such as printing, duplicating (copying), electronic document conversion by scanning, network scanning, facsimile transmission/reception, network facsimile transmission/reception, and document boxes for storing electronic documents. good. Also, each function may be set to black and white, monochromatic color, full color, or the like.
The image forming apparatuses 1, 2, and 3, in the case of an MFP, printer, or the like having a printing function, include a photosensitive drum, an exposure section, a development section, a transfer section, a fixing section, and the like. Accordingly, the image forming apparatus 2 can record and print a toner image on recording paper by executing an image forming process including charging, exposure, development, transfer, and fixing.

The servers 4a and 4b are information processing devices such as PCs (Personal Computers) and general-purpose machines. In this embodiment, the servers 4a and 4b include SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) servers.
In addition, the servers 4a and 4b may be servers that perform billing, maintenance, service support, and the like. In addition, the servers 4a and 4b perform image processing, OCR (Optical Character Recognition) processing, classification processing, e-mail, shared folders (document boxes, storage folders), business or office DMS (Document Management System), etc. may be executed.

The network 5 is a network such as an intranet such as a LAN (Local Area Network) or a WAN (Wide Area Network) such as the Internet or a mobile phone network.
The image forming apparatus 2 may be connected to the network 5 via a hub, router, or the like. Also, the network 5 may constitute a VPN (Virtual Private Network).

[Control Configuration of Image Forming Apparatus 1]
Next, referring to FIG. 2, the control configuration will be described with the image forming apparatus 1 as a representative among the image forming apparatuses 1, 2, and 3 shown in FIG.
The image forming apparatus 1 includes an image processing section 11, a document reading section 12, a document feeding section 13, a paper feeding section 14, a network transmitting/receiving section 15, an operation panel section 16, an image forming section 17 (image forming means), and a FAX transmitting/receiving section. 18, a storage unit 19, and the like. Each unit is connected to the control unit 10 and controlled in operation by the control unit 10 .

The control unit 10 includes a GPP (General Purpose Processor), a CPU (Central Processing Unit), an MPU (Micro Processing Unit), a DSP (Digital Signal Processor), a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), an ASIC (Application Specific Processor, It is an information processing unit such as a special purpose processor).
The control unit 10 reads the control program stored in the ROM or HDD of the storage unit 19, develops the control program in the RAM, and executes it, thereby operating as each unit of the function blocks described later. Further, the control unit 10 controls the entire apparatus according to predetermined instruction information input from an external terminal (not shown) or the operation panel unit 16 .

The image processing unit 11 is control arithmetic means such as a DSP (Digital Signal Processor) or a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). The image processing unit 11 performs predetermined image processing on image data. This predetermined image processing may be processing such as enlargement/reduction, density adjustment, gradation adjustment, and image improvement, for example.
The image processing unit 11 also stores the image read by the document reading unit 12 in the storage unit 19 as print data. At this time, the image processing unit 11 can also convert the print data into an electronic document such as PDF or an image data file such as TIFF. Further, the image processing unit 11 may be capable of executing at least part of OCR (Optical Character Recognition) processing.

The document reading unit 12 reads the set document. Further, the document reading section 12 is arranged on the upper portion of the main body section of the image forming apparatus 1 .
The document reading section 12 includes a scanner, a platen glass, and a document reading slit. When reading a document placed on the platen glass, the document reading unit 12 moves the scanner to a position facing the platen glass, reads the document placed on the platen glass while scanning, and acquires image data. and outputs the acquired image data to the control unit 10 .

Further, when reading a document fed from the document feeding section 13, the document reading section 12 moves the scanner to a position facing the document reading slit. Then, the document reading unit 12 reads the document through the document reading slit in synchronization with the document feeding operation of the document feeding unit 13 to acquire image data. The document reading unit 12 outputs the acquired image data to the control unit 10 .

The document feeding section 13 conveys the document read by the document reading section 12 . The document feeding section 13 is arranged above the document reading section 12 .
The document feeding section 13 includes a document placing section and a document conveying mechanism. The document feeding section 13 feeds the documents placed on the document placing section one by one by the document conveying mechanism and feeds them to the document reading section 12 .

The paper feeding unit 14 feeds recording papers one by one toward the image forming unit 17 . The paper feeding unit 14 is provided in the main body.

The network transmission/reception unit 15 is a network connection unit including a LAN board, a wireless transmission/reception device, and the like for connecting to an external network such as LAN, wireless LAN, WAN, and mobile phone network.
The network transmission/reception unit 15 transmits/receives data through a data communication line, and transmits/receives voice signals through a voice telephone line.

The operation panel section 16 includes an input section such as buttons and a touch panel, and a display section such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) and an organic EL display. Further, the operation panel section 16 is arranged on the front side of the image forming apparatus 1 .
Buttons of the input section of the operation panel section 16 include a numeric keypad, start, cancel, switching of operation modes, buttons for instructing job execution, and the like. This mode of operation may comprise modes of the type copying, fax transmission (IP-FAX transmission), scanner, network scanner, and the like. Jobs also include types such as printing, sending, saving, and recording selected documents. The input section of the operation panel section 16 acquires various job instructions of the image forming apparatus 1 from the user. In addition, it is also possible to input and change the information of each user according to the user's instruction obtained from the operation panel section 16 .

The image forming unit 17 forms an image on recording paper from data stored in the storage unit 19, read by the document reading unit 12, or obtained from an external terminal, according to a user's output instruction.
The image forming section 17 includes a photosensitive drum, an exposure section, a development section, a transfer section, a fixing section, and the like. The image forming unit 17 records a toner image on recording paper by executing an image forming process including charging, exposure, development, transfer, and fixing.

The FAX transmission/reception unit 18 transmits and receives FAX. The FAX transmission/reception unit 18 can receive a facsimile (fax reception) from another FAX device (not shown) via a voice line, store the facsimile data in the storage unit 19 , and form an image in the image forming unit 17 . In addition, the FAX transmission/reception unit 18 converts a document read by the document reading unit 12 or network FAX data transmitted from an external terminal into image data, and facsimile transmission (FAX transmission) to another FAX device via a voice line. ) is possible.

Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the FAX transmission/reception section 18 can transmit and receive telephone and IP-FAX communications via the network transmission/reception section 15 . In this IP-FAX, the image data received by FAX is processed by SIP or H.264. Using a protocol such as H.323, the data is transmitted (transferred) to another image forming apparatus 1 to form an image. Furthermore, image data transferred from another image forming apparatus 1 using IP-FAX can be image-formed by the image forming unit 17, and can be further IP-FAX-transmitted to another FAX apparatus via a network. It is possible.

The storage unit 19 is a non-temporary recording medium such as a semiconductor memory such as a ROM (Read Only Memory) or a RAM (Random Access Memory) or a HDD (Hard Disk Drive).
The RAM of the storage unit 19 retains the stored contents by a function such as self-refresh even in the power saving state.
A control program for controlling the operation of the image forming apparatus 1 is stored in the ROM or HDD of the storage unit 19 . In addition, the storage unit 19 also stores user account settings. In addition, the storage unit 19 may include a storage folder (document box) area for each user.

In the image forming apparatus 1, the control unit 10 and the image processing unit 11 may be integrally formed like a GPU built-in CPU, chip-on-module package, SOC (System On a Chip), or the like. .
Also, the control unit 10 and the image processing unit 11 may incorporate RAM, ROM, flash memory, or the like.

[Functional Configuration of Image Forming Apparatus 1]
Here, the functional configuration of the image forming apparatus 1 of the image forming system X according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG.
The control section 10 of the image forming apparatus 1 includes a communication determination section 100 , a communication transfer section 110 and a reception recording section 120 .
The storage unit 19 stores transfer condition settings 200 and communication history 210 .

When receiving communication by IP-FAX, the communication determination unit 100 determines that the communication is forwarded if the number of times of reception from the communication source of the communication is equal to or greater than a threshold value and if the forwarding condition setting 200 is supported. For example, the communication determining unit 100 determines whether the toner is not a genuine product and the transfer destination is specified, when the image forming apparatus 1 is out of order, and/or when the storage capacity of the storage unit that receives the communication is less than or equal to a specific capacity. In this case, it is determined to transfer to one of the image forming apparatuses 3 which are other apparatuses.

The communication transfer unit 110 transfers the communication when the communication determination unit 100 determines to transfer the communication. This transfer is performed using, for example, the SIP protocol. Specifically, in the present embodiment, the communication transfer unit 110 does not transfer the image data by IP-FAX after it is received, but transfers the image data by relaying it when a reception session is established so as not to record the communication history 210. to

If the communication is not transferred by the communication transfer unit 110, the reception recording unit 120 receives the communication from the image forming apparatus 2 that is the transfer source. That is, the reception recording unit 120 receives image data by IP-FAX and stores it in the storage unit 19 . At this time, the reception recording unit 120 records the history of the reception in the communication history 210 . Further, the reception recording unit 120 increases the number of receptions of communication from the image forming apparatus 2 included in the communication condition setting.

The transfer condition setting 200 is setting information of conditions referred to by the communication determination unit 100 to determine that the data should be transferred. Specifically, in the transfer condition setting 200, when the toner is not genuine and the image forming apparatus 3 which is another transfer destination is specified, when the image forming apparatus 1 is out of order, and/or when communication is disabled. It is possible to set a condition such that the storage capacity of the storage unit 19 for receiving is equal to or less than a specific capacity. Of these, for failures, the type of failure can be set. For example, it can be set to forward in the event of a particular unit failure. The specific capacity can be calculated based on the temporary storage capacity of image data required for IP-FAX reception.
Further, the transfer condition setting 200 includes a threshold for the number of times of reception for transfer. This threshold may be a preset fixed value or may be settable by the user. If the threshold can be set, the initial value is preferably 3 or less. Furthermore, in this embodiment, a threshold is set for each source and each type of communication.

A screen example 300 in FIG. 4 is an example when the transfer condition setting 200 is set. Here, there is shown an example of setting a transmission source to which transfer is desired when non-genuine toner is installed on the operation panel unit 16 . In this example, it is possible to target all destinations registered in the address book, or to designate a specific transmission source image forming apparatus 2 . In addition to specifying the transmission source, it is also possible to set the image forming apparatus 3 as the transfer destination. The transfer destination can be specified by direct input by the user. Alternatively, information on the image forming apparatus 3 connected to the image forming system X may be acquired, and the image forming apparatus 3 loaded with genuine toner may be automatically set. At this time, it is also possible to automatically set only the image forming apparatuses 3 of the same manufacturer or company. Although this example shows that there is only one transfer destination, a transfer destination may be set for each transmission source.

The communication history 210 is information indicating a history (log) of acquired communication. For example, in the communication history 210, information indicating the time, type of communication, sender, transfer destination (other device), etc. is recorded as history. Among these, the types of communication include telephone via the network 5, IP-FAX reception, IP-FAX transmission, transfer by IP-FAX (IP-FAX transfer), and the like. Here, in the present embodiment, in IP-FAX reception, at the stage of receiving a call, it is not yet clear whether the call is FAX or telephone. Therefore, the communication history 210 is not recorded until the fax is confirmed. In addition, only a specific number of histories in the communication history 210 are retained and deleted in chronological order.
Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the communication history 210 also records the number of receptions for each transmission source and each type of communication, for example.

Here, the control unit 10 of the image forming apparatus 1 functions as the communication determination unit 100, the communication transfer unit 110, and the reception recording unit 120 by executing the control program stored in the storage unit 19. FIG.
Each part of the image forming apparatus 1 described above is a hardware resource for executing the image forming method of the present invention.
It should be noted that part or any combination of the functional configurations described above may be configured in terms of hardware using an IC, programmable logic, FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), or the like.

[Reception Transfer Processing by Image Forming System X]
Next, with reference to FIGS. 5 to 7, reception transfer processing executed by the image forming apparatus 1 of the image forming system X according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described.
In the reception transfer process of this embodiment, when communication is received, if the number of times of reception from the communication source of the communication is equal to or greater than a threshold value and if the set conditions are met, it is determined that the communication is to be transferred. Then, when it is determined to transfer the communication, the communication is transferred without recording the history in the communication history 210 . Conversely, if the communication was not forwarded, it receives the communication and increments the receive count. In this embodiment, an example in which this communication and transfer are performed using the SIP protocol will be described.
In the reception transfer processing of this embodiment, the control unit 10 mainly executes a program stored in the storage unit 19 in cooperation with each unit and using hardware resources.
The details of the reception transfer processing of this embodiment will be described below step by step with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 5 . This flowchart is mainly based on the processing of the image forming apparatus 1 on the receiving side.

(Step S101)
First, the communication determination unit 100 performs session establishment processing.
When the image forming apparatus 2 on the transmitting side and the image forming apparatus 1 on the receiving side communicate with each other, the communication determination unit 100 receives a call (establishes a session) over a voice line or establishes a SIP protocol session.
FIG. 6 shows an example of IP-FAX reception of SIP protocol. "INVITE" to "ACK" in this figure show an example in which a session is established between transmission and reception using the SIP protocol.

(Step S102)
Next, the communication determination unit 100 determines whether or not the conditions for transfer to another device are met. Specifically, the communication determination unit 100 refers to the transfer condition setting 200 and determines whether or not the set conditions are met. The communication determination unit 100 determines Yes when this determination is supported. The communication determination unit 100 determines No when the determination is not supported.
If Yes, the communication determination unit 100 advances the process to step S103.
If No, the communication determination unit 100 advances the process to step S106.

(Step S103)
If the conditions for transfer to another device are met, the communication determination unit 100 performs reception count confirmation processing.
The communication determination unit 100 refers to the communication history 210 to confirm the number of receptions for each type of communication with the image forming apparatus 2 on the transmission side.

(Step S104)
Next, communication determination section 100 determines whether or not the number of times of reception is equal to or greater than a threshold. In the present embodiment, the communication determination unit 100 refers to the transfer condition setting 200, and determines to transfer the communication when the number of times of reception is equal to or greater than the threshold for each type of communication in the image forming apparatus 2 on the transmission side. and determine Yes. Otherwise, the communication determination unit 100 determines No.
If Yes, the communication determination unit 100 advances the process to step S105.
If No, the communication determination unit 100 advances the process to step S106.

(Step S105)
If the number of receptions is equal to or greater than the threshold, the communication transfer unit 110 performs transfer processing.
The communication transfer unit 110 transfers the received IP-FAX communication by IP-FAX.
FIG. 7 shows an example of transfer using call hold transfer in the SIP protocol.
The communication transfer unit 110 relays direct IP-FAX communication between the image forming apparatus 2 on the transmission side and the image forming apparatus 3, which is another transfer destination apparatus. Note that the communication transfer unit 110 designates the one set in the transfer condition setting 200 as the transfer destination.

Thus, in IP-FAX reception, since it is not determined whether the type of communication is FAX or telephone at the stage of receiving a call, the communication history 210 is not recorded until FAX reception is confirmed. That is, when transfer on hold is used, the call is switched before the FAX communication is established, so the communication history 210 is not recorded in the image forming apparatus 1 on the receiving side. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the communication history 210 from being recorded by the transfer relayed when the session is established in the communication from the specific transmission source. Therefore, the communication history 210 does not continue to accumulate.
After that, the communication transfer unit 110 advances the process to step S108.

(Step S106)
Here, if the communication is not transferred by the communication transfer unit 110, the reception recording unit 120 performs communication reception processing.
For example, if a session can be established, the reception recording unit 120 receives IP-FAX communication with the image forming apparatus 2 on the transmission side.
That is, in the present embodiment, even if a non-genuine toner container is installed, if the sender is not registered, or if the number of receptions is less than the threshold, the normal IP-FAX reception is performed.
In the example of FIG. 6, actual IP-FAX reception is performed in the "FAX communication" sequence.

(Step S107)
Next, the reception recording unit 120 performs reception count increasing processing.
If the transmission source is set in the transfer condition setting 200, the reception recording unit 120 increases (increments) the number of receptions in the communication history 210. FIG.

(Step S108)
Here, the reception recording unit 120 performs session disconnection processing.
The reception recording unit 120 terminates the IP-FAX communication.
In the case of IP-FAX, the communication is terminated according to the sequence after "Bye" in FIGS. This is the same as normal IP-FAX communication.
With the above, the reception transfer processing according to the embodiment of the present invention ends.

By configuring as described above, the following effects can be obtained.
Conventionally, in the technique of simply recording the communication history, the communication history at the time of communication reception and transmission was always recorded. For this reason, when the frequency of transfer increases, the communication history continues to accumulate with each transfer, and the history that is originally desired to be kept is deleted first.
On the other hand, the image forming apparatus 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention is a receiving-side image forming apparatus capable of transferring received communication to another apparatus. is equal to or greater than the threshold value and further corresponds to a set condition, the communication determination unit 100 determines to transfer the communication; and a reception recording unit 120 that receives a communication, records the history in a communication history 210, and increases the number of receptions when the communication is not transferred by the communication transfer unit 110. do.
By configuring in this way, even when the transfer frequency is high, accumulation of the communication history 210 can be suppressed, and deletion of the history of the communication history 210 can be made difficult. This makes it easier to check the history you want to keep.

Further, in the image forming apparatus 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention, the communication determination unit 100 sets the condition that the toner is not genuine and the transfer destination is specified, the failure of the own apparatus, and/or and determining to transfer the communication to another device when the storage capacity of the storage unit for receiving the communication is less than or equal to a specific capacity.
By configuring in this way, it becomes possible to determine whether or not to transfer to another device according to various conditions. For example, it is possible to set conditions that should not be recorded in the communication history 210 and adjust the amount of history to be recorded. In addition, by recording paper jams and the like in the communication history 210 without setting them as conditions, it is possible to easily check the necessary history.

Further, in the image forming apparatus 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention, the communication is IP-FAX, and the communication transfer unit 110 does not transfer image data after receiving the image data by IP-FAX, but initiates a reception session. It is characterized by not recording the history in the communication history 210 by the transfer that is relayed at the time of establishment.
By configuring in this way, when the number of times of reception reaches or exceeds the threshold in communication from a specific transmission source, by relaying at the time of session establishment, exception processing, etc., when recording the communication history 210 can be set. Even if not, the communication history 210 can be prevented from being recorded. In addition, since it corresponds to the conventional rules for recording the communication history 210, it can be adapted to security policies and the like.

Here, if the communication history 210 is not recorded even if it is simply received in order to suppress the accumulation of the communication history 210, when a problem occurs in the FAX communication, the problem cannot be confirmed as evidence.
On the other hand, as in the image forming apparatus 1 of the present embodiment, if a problem arises by relaying the transfer without receiving it, the communication recorded in the image forming apparatus 3, which is the other apparatus of the transfer destination, It is possible to confirm the problem from the history or the like.

[Other embodiments]
In the above-described embodiment, in the flowchart of FIG. 5, the number of times of reception is confirmed after the transfer condition setting 200 is determined. However, it is also possible to determine the transfer condition setting 200 after confirming the number of times of reception.
Also, in the above-described embodiments, the number of times communication is received is simply increased. However, this number of receptions may be decreased or reset (to 0) after a certain period of time has elapsed.
Also, in the above-described embodiments, the example of setting the threshold value and the number of times of reception according to the transmission source and the type of communication has been described. However, the threshold and the number of times of reception may be set regardless of the source or type of communication.
Also, in the embodiment of the present invention, an example of performing IP-FAX reception and transfer has been described as communication. However, other communications are also applicable. For example, it can be applied to network scanning, pull printing, receiving and forwarding messenger messages and e-mails, and the like.
By configuring in this way, it is possible to deal with a flexible configuration.

The present invention can also be applied to information processing apparatuses other than image forming apparatuses. In other words, a network scanner or a server or the like to which the scanner is separately connected via a USB or the like may be used.

Further, the configuration and operation of the above-described embodiment are examples, and needless to say, they can be modified and executed without departing from the gist of the present invention.

1, 2, 3 Image forming apparatus 4a, 4b Server 5 Network 10 Control unit 11 Image processing unit 12 Document reading unit 13 Document feeding unit 14 Paper feeding unit 15 Network transmitting/receiving unit 16 Operation panel unit 17 Image forming unit 18 FAX transmitting/receiving unit 19 storage unit 100 communication determination unit 110 communication transfer unit 120 reception recording unit 200 transfer condition setting 210 communication history 300 screen example R router X image forming system

Claims (4)

An image forming device capable of transferring received communication to another device,
a communication determination unit that, when receiving the communication, determines that the communication is forwarded if the number of times the communication is received from the communication source is equal to or greater than a threshold value and the communication meets a set condition;
a communication transfer unit that transfers the communication without recording a communication record when the communication determination unit determines to transfer the communication;
and a reception recording unit that receives the communication and increases the number of times of reception when the communication is not transferred by the communication transfer unit. The communication determination unit
As the above conditions, if the toner is not a genuine product and the transfer destination is specified, if the own device fails, and/or if the storage capacity of the storage unit that receives the communication is less than a specific capacity, the other device 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus determines that the image is transferred to the image forming apparatus. the communication is IP-FAX;
The communication transfer unit
3. The image according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the communication record is not recorded by transferring the image data by relaying when a reception session is established instead of transferring after receiving the image data by IP-FAX. forming device. A receiving and transferring method executed by an image forming device capable of transferring received communication to another device, the image forming device comprising:
determining, when receiving the communication, that the number of times the communication has been received from the communication source is equal to or greater than a threshold value and that the communication corresponds to a set condition, and that the communication is to be transferred;
if determined to forward said communication, forward said communication without recording a communication record;
A method of receiving and forwarding, comprising: receiving the communication and increasing the number of receptions when the communication is not forwarded.

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