Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support – Digital data processing system initialization or configuration
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-02
2004-04-13
Heckler, Thomas M. (Department: 2785)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support
Digital data processing system initialization or configuration
C713S002000, C713S100000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06721879
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a medium containing a computer peripheral device maintenance guide program for displaying guidance information indicative of a procedure of maintenance operation of a computer peripheral device in a computer to which the computer peripheral device is connected, a computer peripheral device maintenance guide device, and a computer peripheral device maintenance guide method.
BACKGROUND ART
To use a computer peripheral device such as a printer, various install operations must be performed. For example, in case of a printer, connection of an interface cable, attachment of ink or toner cartridge, installation of printer driver, and the like, are performed as install operations. Among these operations, the printer driver or the like can be automatically installed by using a predetermined install program, however, the other operations such as attachment of cartridge must be manually performed in accordance with predetermined procedures.
Conventionally, such install operations are described in a book-style manual came with the printer. A user performs the operations by referring to the manual arbitrarily. However, with the recent widespread use of computers, general users without basic knowledge perform these install operations. For this reason, to provide more practical install operation procedures, a recording medium such as a CD-ROM for displaying install operation procedures with moving pictures and/or photographs is provided with the printer. The recording medium contains a setup guide program. When the setup guide program is executed on the computer, install operation procedures with moving pictures and/or photographs are displayed as described above. The user conducts the install operations while watching the display images.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The above-described conventional art has the following problem.
It is apparent that the user can easily understand the install operations if install operation procedures are displayed with moving pictures and/or photographs. However, in a case where the user must sequentially conduct plural steps of install operation while judging the status of a computer peripheral device, it was difficult for the user to determine whether or not he/she can perform the next operation step. For example, in a case where predetermined initialization processing must be performed after a computer peripheral device has been powered and the next operation step must be performed after the completion of the initialization processing, the user does not know in what status he/she can determine the completion of the initialization. In this case, the user cannot determine whether or not the next operation step can be performed.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above problem, and has its object to provide a medium containing a computer peripheral device maintenance guide program for displaying user-friendly guidance information for smooth maintenance operation in case of maintenance operation while judging the status of the computer peripheral device, a computer peripheral device maintenance device, and a computer peripheral device maintenance guide method for the computer peripheral device.
To attain the foregoing object, the present invention according to claim 1 provides a medium containing a computer-executable computer peripheral device maintenance guide program to display guidance information indicative of a procedure of a maintenance operation of a computer peripheral device, in a computer to which the computer peripheral device is connected, the program comprising: a status change detection step of detecting a status change of the computer peripheral device; a progress acquisition step of acquiring progress of the maintenance operation, based on the status change of the computer peripheral device detected at the status change detection step; and a guidance display step of obtaining corresponding guidance information from a series of guidance information, provided corresponding to the progress of the maintenance operation in advance, based on the progress acquired at the progress acquisition step, and producing a screen display of the guidance information on the computer.
In the present invention according to claim 1 having the above construction, when a computer peripheral device maintenance operation is performed, the maintenance guide program is executed on a computer to which the computer peripheral device is connected, and a user sequentially performs a series of maintenance operations in accordance with displayed guidance information. In the execution of the maintenance operation, if the status of the computer peripheral device changes, the maintenance guide program detects the status change at the status change detection step. Then at the progress acquisition step, the program obtains the progress of the maintenance operation based on the actually detected status change. At the guidance display step, the program obtains guidance information from a series of guidance information, previously set in correspondence to the progress of the maintenance operation, based on the progress, and then displays the guidance information.
According to the conventional art, the user performs maintenance operations while judging the status of the computer peripheral device. On the other hand, according to the present invention, guidance information corresponding to the progress of the maintenance operation is displayed, therefore, the user simply performs the maintenance operations sequentially in accordance with displayed images. For example, in a case where the computer peripheral device starts initial operation after the power of the device is turned on, and the maintenance operation is started after the completion of initial operation, the completion of initial operation can be detected and guidance information for the maintenance operation to be performed thereafter can be displayed by the maintenance guide program. In this case, it is not necessary for the user to determine whether or not the initial operation of the computer peripheral device has been completed. The user can simply perform the maintenance operation in accordance with the displayed guidance information. This is helpful for the user.
The maintenance operation here means an operation manually performed by the user. The maintenance operation includes various operations such as an install operation into the computer, maintenance work like exchange of part, and an operation to remove an error. For example, in a case where the present invention is applied to a printer as a computer peripheral device, guidance on printer install operation may be displayed, or guidance on operation procedure for removal of error such as paper jam may be displayed.
The medium in which the maintenance guide program is recorded may be a magnetic recording medium or a magneto-optic recording medium, or further, may be any recording medium to be developed in the future. Further, duplicates including primary and secondary duplicates can be considered to be equivalent to the above recording medium. Further, the present invention can be applied to a case where the maintenance guide program is supplied via a communication line. Further, the present invention can be applied to a case where the maintenance guide program is written into a semiconductor chip.
Further, the idea of the invention does not change at all when the invention is realized by partially software and partially hardware. Further, the present invention can be applied to a case where a part of the invention is stored in a recording medium and it is arbitrarily read in accordance with necessity.
In this manner, to realize the present invention by software, hardware and an operating system may be utilized, or the present invention may be realized separately from the hardware and operating system. For example, the processing to detect the status change may be performed by reading a predetermined function in the operating system, or may be performed by inputting such function from the har
Heckler Thomas M.
Seiko Epson Corporation
Suryawanshi Suresh K
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