Electrophotography – Diagnostics
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-05
2004-03-02
Tran, Hoan (Department: 2852)
Electrophotography
Diagnostics
C399S018000, C399S021000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06701095
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to office information systems, such as copiers, facsimiles or printers, and more particular to an office information system having a device which provides a user (or a request source) with an operational message of the office information system when an specific event occurs.
(2) Description of the Related Art
FIG. 8
shows an enclosure of an office information system according to the related art. This office information system is, for example, a copier, a facsimile or a printer.
In the office information system of
FIG. 8
, a liquid-crystal-display (LCD) panel
101
is provided on top of an enclosure
100
, and an access door
102
is provided at a lower portion of the enclosure
100
. The access door
102
is opened by the operator or user who wishes to look into the internal components of the system for the purpose of repair or maintenance.
When a failure, such as paper jam or lack of toner, in the office information system of the above type takes place, an image indicating a failure location in the system is displayed on the LCD panel
101
.
FIG. 9
shows an image of a failure location displayed on the LCD panel
100
of the office information system of FIG.
8
. In the example of
FIG. 9
, a paper jam occurs in the system and a location “B
3
” of the paper jam in the system is indicated in the displayed image.
FIG. 10
shows an internal structure of the office information system of
FIG. 8
when the access door
102
is opened and the internal components of the system are looked into. As shown in
FIG. 10
, the office information system includes, for example, a plurality of components at respective locations A
1
, A
2
, B
1
, B
2
and B
3
.
The user views the image on the LCD panel
100
, opens the access door
102
, and searches for the location of the paper jam in the actual system corresponding to the location “B
3
” in the displayed image. If the location of the paper jam can be found, the user performs a repairing or correcting operation on the related component at the location “B
3
” so as to eliminate the failure from the system.
However, in the office information system of
FIG. 8
, a guidance message which helps the user to recover the paper jam or lack of toner in the system is only the image displayed on the LCD panel
101
. Such a message is often inadequate for the user to complete failure-recovery operations on the system, and this makes it difficult to efficiently carry out the failure recovery.
For example, when the location “B
3
” of the failure indicated by the displayed image is a concealed place within the system, finding the actual component related to the failure in the system is difficult, or a considerable time and cost is needed to find it. When a certain preliminary operation must be formed to reach the related component at the location “B
3
” of the failure, the user is often unable to recognize the need of the preliminary operation from the displayed image only. Therefore, it is desirable that an office information system which-ensures easy searching and recognition of a location of a failure in the system and provides the user with a failure-recovery operational message for efficient failure recovery is provided.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved office information system in which the above-described problems are eliminated.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an office information system which ensures easy searching and recognition of a location of a failure in the system and provides a user with a failure-recovery operational message that allows efficient failure recovery in the system.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an office information system which allows the setting of customized operational messages of the system appropriate for individual users and increases the operability of the system for the individual users by the use of the customized operational messages.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an office information system having a communication device linked to a remote terminal via a network for telecommunications between the system and the remote terminal, which safely returns, when an image from the remote terminal is received at the system but an error occurs in the outputting of a reconstructed image by the system, an error message back to the remote terminal.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an office information system having a communication device linked to a remote terminal via a network for telecommunications between the system and the remote terminal, which safely returns, when a specific request from the remote terminal is accepted at the system, an operational message related to image quality or sheet quality, back to the remote terminal.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an office information system which ensures easy searching and recognition of a failure in the system by using a result of a machine noise evaluation, and provides a user with an operational message that allows efficient failure recovery in the system.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an office information system which ensures easy recognition of lack of toner or lack of copy sheets in the system by providing a user with a failure-detection voice message based on a result of a self-diagnosis of the system.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an office information system which provides a user with an increased operability in the setting of operating conditions and operating condition changes to an image forming operation being executed on the office information system, and allows easy operating-condition setting procedures for the user.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an office information system which ensures improved man-machine interface which allows a user to easily recognize an operational error in the system.
The above-mentioned objects of the present invention are achieved by an office information system including: a path record storage device which stores a plurality of path records related to components of the system, each path record indicating a locating path needed to reach a location of a specific one of the components in the system when a failure of the specific one of the components occurs; a failure location detecting device which detects a location of a component in the system when a failure related to the component occurs; a reached location determining device which reads a path record from the path record storage device when the location of the failure is detected, and determines a currently reached location in the system based on the path indicated by the path record; and a message device which generates, when the reached location is determined, an operational message needed for recovering the failure at a subsequent location of the path following the reached location.
In the office information system of the present invention, the reached location determining device reads a path record from the path record storage device when the location of the failure is detected, and determines a currently reached location in the system based on the path indicated by the path record, and the message device generates, when the reached location is determined, an operational message needed for recovering the failure at a subsequent location of the path following the reached location. The office information system of the present invention is effective in providing easy searching and recognition of a location of a failure in the system and in providing the user with a failure-recovery operational message that allows efficient failure recovery in the system.
The above-mentioned objects of the present invention are achieved by an office information system including: a user identifying device which authenticates a personal identification by receiving a user ID; a customizing device which generates a customized operational message of the system appropria
Ariyoshi Takashi
Bin Lu
Fujimoto Jun-Ichiroh
Kato Yoshinaga
Kitagawa Hiroo
Dickstein , Shapiro, Morin & Oshinsky, LLP
Ricoh & Company, Ltd.
Tran Hoan
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