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US 10,540,130 B2Granted
Management apparatus for designating one or more image forming apparatuses as preferential image forming apparatuses for requesting job information from a server
AssigneeKonica Minolta, Inc.
InventorOkihisa Yoshida
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A management apparatus included in a system including a plurality of MFPs receives a use history of a user from at least one MFP among the plurality of MFPs. The management apparatus, based on the use history, designates a group including one or more MFPs among the plurality of MFPs as MFPs being preferentially requested information related to a job issued by the user. Then, the management apparatus updates a group, which is stored in the storage device and previously designated, to be a designated group.
Claims26
A management apparatus used in an image forming system to which a plurality of image forming apparatuses are connected, comprising:
- a receiver that receives a use history of a user from at least one image forming apparatus among said plurality of image forming apparatuses;
- and
- a processor that designates at least two favorite groups, each favorite group comprising one or more image forming apparatuses among said plurality of image forming apparatuses as a group of image forming apparatuses having a higher priority than another image forming apparatus of the plurality of image forming apparatuses, based on said use history of said user, and stores information related to the at least two favorite groups to a storage device,
- wherein said processor, in response to a failure to identify a presence of a job in those image forming apparatuses of the first favorite group, identifies a second favorite group of the at least two favorite groups based on the use history of the user, and sends a request only to those image forming apparatuses of the second favorite group for information related to at least one job associated with said user, based on said information related to said second favorite group stored in said storage device, prior to the execution of the at least one job,
- wherein said processor receives said information related to at least one job associated with said user from the image forming apparatuses of the second favorite group to which the processor sends the request, obtains a job designated by the user from the image forming apparatus that spools the job, and executes the job.
2 more elements
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program causing a computer, which is included in an image forming system having a plurality of image forming apparatuses being connected and serves as a management apparatus, to perform a processing of managing a group including one or more image forming apparatuses, said program causing said computer to perform:
- (a) receiving a use history of a user from at least one image forming apparatus among said plurality of image forming apparatuses;
- (b) designating at least two favorite groups, each favorite group comprising one or more image forming apparatuses among said plurality of image forming apparatuses as a group of image forming apparatuses having a higher priority than another image forming apparatus of the plurality of image forming apparatuses, based on said use history of said user;
- (c) storing information related to the at least two favorite groups wherein said information is associated with the user
- (d) in response to an action by said user, identifying a first favorite group of the at least two favorite groups based on the use history of the user and sending a request to only those image forming apparatuses of the first favorite group, for requesting information related to at least one job associated with said user, based on, information related to said first favorite group stored in said storage device, prior to execution of the at least one job;
- (e) in response to a failure to identify a presence of a job in those image forming apparatuses of the first favorite group, identifying a second favorite group of the at least two favorite groups based on the use history of the user, and sending a request only to those image forming apparatuses of the second favorite group for information related to at least one job associated with said user, based on said information related to said second favorite group stored in said storage device prior to the execution of the at least one job;
- (f) receiving said information related to at least one job associated with said user from the image forming apparatuses of the second favorite group to which the processor sends the request;
- (g) obtaining a job designated by the user from the image forming apparatus that spools the job;
- and
- (h) executing the job.
6 more elements
A management apparatus used in an image forming system to which a plurality of image forming apparatuses are connected, comprising:
- a receiver that receives a use history of a user from at least one image forming apparatus among said plurality of image forming apparatuses;
- and
- a processor that causes a storage device to store information related to at least two favorite groups, each favorite group comprising a subset of said plurality of image forming apparatuses, in association with a user, wherein the subset of the image forming apparatuses is one or more image forming apparatus designated as having a higher priority than another image forming apparatus of the plurality of image forming apparatuses, based on said use history
- wherein said processor, in response to an action by a user, identifies a first favorite group of the at least two favorite groups based on the use history of the user and sends a request to only those image forming apparatuses of the first favorite group, for information related to at least one job associated with said user, based on said information related to said first favorite group stored in said storage device, prior to execution of the at least one job;
- wherein said processor, in response to a failure to identify a presence of a job in those image forming apparatuses of the first favorite group, identifies a second favorite group of the at least two favorite groups based on the use history of the user, and sends a request only to those image forming apparatuses of the second favorite group for information related to at least one job associated with said user, based on said information related to said second favorite group stored in said storage device, prior to the execution of the at least one job;
- and
- wherein said processor receives said information related to at least one job associated with said user from the image forming apparatuses of the second favorite group to which the processor sends the request, obtains a job designated by the user from the image forming apparatus that spools the job, and executes the job.
4 more elements
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program causing a computer, which is included in an image forming system having a plurality of image forming apparatuses being connected and serves as a management apparatus, to perform a processing of managing a group including one or more image forming apparatuses, said program causing said computer to perform steps of:
- (a) receiving a use history of a user from at least one image forming apparatus among said plurality of image forming apparatuses;
- and
- (b) causing a storage device to store information related to at least two favorite groups, each favorite group comprising a subset of said plurality of image forming apparatuses, in association with a user, wherein each subset of the image forming apparatuses is one or more image forming apparatus designated as having a higher priority than another image forming apparatus of the plurality of image forming apparatuses for requesting information related to a job associated with said user, based on said use history of, wherein
- said step (b) includes updating, by using information related to an image forming apparatus designated as having a higher priority than another image forming apparatus for requesting information related to at least one job associated with said user based on said use history, information related to said at least two favorite groups stored in said storage device, and
- (c) in response to an action by said user, identifying a first favorite group of the at least two favorite groups based on the use history of the user and sending a request to only those image forming apparatuses of the first favorite group, for information related to at least one job associated with said user, based on said information related to said first favorite group stored in said storage device, prior to execution of the at least one job;
- (d) in response to a failure to identify a presence of a job in those image forming apparatuses of the first favorite group, identifying a second favorite group of the at least two favorite groups based on the use history of the user, and sending a request only to those image forming apparatuses of the second favorite group for information related to at least one job associated with said user, based on said information related to said second favorite group stored in said storage device prior to the execution of the at least one job;
- (e) receiving said information related to at least one job associated with said user from the image forming apparatuses of the second favorite group to which the processor sends the request;
- (f) obtaining a job designated by the user from the image forming apparatus that spools the job;
- and
- (g) executing the job.
7 more elements
A method performed in a management apparatus used in an image forming system to which a plurality of image forming apparatuses are connected, comprising:
- (a) receiving a use history of a user from at least one image forming apparatus among said plurality of image forming apparatuses,
- (b) causing a storage device to store information related to at least two favorite groups, each favorite group comprising a subset of said plurality of image forming apparatuses, in association with a user, wherein each subset of the image forming apparatuses is one or more image forming apparatus designated as having a higher priority than another image forming apparatus of the plurality of image forming apparatuses, based on said use history of said user,
- wherein said step (b) includes updating, by using information related to an image forming apparatus designated as having a higher priority than another image forming apparatus of requesting information related to at least one job associated with said user based on said use history, information related to said at least two favorite groups stored in said storage device, and
- (c) in response to an action by said user, identifying a first favorite group of the at least two favorite groups based on the use history of the user and sending a request to only those image forming apparatuses of the first favorite group, for information related to at least one job associated with said user, based on said information related to said first favorite group stored in said storage device, prior to execution of the at least one job;
- (d) in response to a failure to identify a presence of a job in those image forming apparatuses of the first favorite group, identifying a second favorite group of the at least two favorite groups based on the use history of the user, and sending a request only to those image forming apparatuses of the second favorite group for information related to at least one job associated with said user, based on said information related to said second favorite group stored in said storage device prior to the execution of the at least one job;
- (e) receiving said information related to at least one job associated with said user from the image forming apparatuses to which the processor sends the request;
- (f) obtaining a job designated by the user from the image forming apparatus that spools the job;
- and
- (g) executing the job.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.