Electrical computers and digital data processing systems: input/ – Input/output data processing – Peripheral monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-11
2002-10-29
Gaffin, Jeffrey (Department: 2782)
Electrical computers and digital data processing systems: input/
Input/output data processing
Peripheral monitoring
C710S017000, C710S019000, C709S223000, C709S224000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06473811
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a means for displaying the connection status of office automation equipment such as printers and scanners connected to an information processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known arrangements of connecting multiple printer devices and scanner devices to an information processing apparatus such as a host computer or the like and executing printing or reading of documents require that confirmation be made regarding how the devices are connected to the information processing apparatus, in order for the user to set the printing paper or document to be read in the device to be used.
Also, there is the need to confirm which of the ports of the information processing apparatus the device to be used is connected to, in order for the user to correlate device drivers with connected devices by performing operations on the display of the information processing apparatus, for example.
Accordingly, with known arrangements, in the event that scanner devices or the like are connected via a parallel interface such as a Centronics interface wherein one device is connected to one port, the user can easily confirm which device is the device to use and to which of the ports of the information processing apparatus the device to be used is connected to, by displaying port connection information correlating each interface port and the device connected to the port (e.g., a display stating, “Scanner device ‘A’ is connected to LPT port 1”) on the display of the information processing apparatus.
However, in the event that the information processing apparatus has an interface permitting cascade (serial) connections such as USB ports or permitting star connections, with a plurality of scanner devices or the like connected to the interface, known system arrangements do not allow the user to confirm how each device is connected to the information processing apparatus based on the above-described port connection information alone. For example, in an arrangement where the information processing apparatus has one port, and a total of four printer devices or the like are connected in a sequential cascade (i.e., serially), not only can the user not grasp the actual order in which the devices are serially connected to the information processing apparatus, the user cannot immediately determine where the device to be used is, which is problematic.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems by providing an information processing apparatus, connection status displaying method, information processing system, and storage medium, whereby the connection status of multiple connected devices can be easily confirmed, and the user can immediately grasp where the device to be used is located.
To this end, the information processing apparatus according to the present invention is an information processing apparatus to which a plurality of devices are connected, comprising: an obtaining means for obtaining system setting information provided by the operating system; and a displaying means for recognizing the connection status of the plurality of devices based on the system setting information obtained by the obtaining means, and displaying the connection status of the plurality of devices.
Also, the information processing apparatus according to the present invention is an information processing apparatus to which a plurality of devices are connected, comprising: an obtaining means for obtaining connection information of the plurality of devices; a comparing means for comparing the length of character strings of connection information for the plurality of devices, based on connection information obtained by the obtaining means; and a displaying means for displaying the connection status of the plurality of devices according to the comparison results from the comparing means.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5500934 (1996-03-01), Austin et al.
patent: 5995916 (1999-11-01), Nixon et al.
patent: 6055163 (2000-04-01), Wagner et al.
patent: 6246485 (2001-06-01), Brown et al.
patent: 6332159 (2001-12-01), Hatae et al.
Gaffin Jeffrey
Perveen Rehana
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