US 2002/0054322 A1 · Stepped user alerts in a networked printer system

Abstract

A method of operating a printing system comprising at least one printer (PR) and at least two user terminals (WS) connected to the at least one printer through a network (N), each said printer having a control unit (14) which receives print jobs from the user terminals and controls processing of these print jobs, the method comprising: sending upon a disturbance of said processing of a print job, a warning message relating to said disturbance to one or more of the user terminals; providing, upon receipt of the warning message, an alerting signal relating to said disturbance at a predetermined first one of said user terminals (WS); waiting for a user response to be performed upon the printers; and, if no user response is detected within a predetermined delay time, providing an alerting signal relating to the same disturbance at a predetermined other one of the user terminals (WS).

Claims39

Dependent claims

A method of operating a printing system, wherein said printing system comprises at least one printer and at least two user terminals connected to the at least one printer through a network, each said printer having a control unit which receives print jobs from the user terminals and controls processing of these print jobs, the method comprising:

sending, upon a disturbance of a predetermined kind in one of the at least one printer while processing a print job, a warning message relating to said disturbance to at least one of the user terminals;
providing, upon receipt of said warning message, a first alerting signal relating to said disturbance at a predetermined first one of said user terminals;
waiting for a user response to be performed upon the printer;
and
providing, if no user response is detected within a predetermined delay time, a second alerting signal relating to the same disturbance at a predetermined other one of the user terminals.

2 more elements

For connection to a network having at least one printer, each printer having a control unit which receives print jobs from user terminals on said network and controls the processing of these print jobs by the printer, and wherein the control unit, upon a disturbance of said processing of a print job, sends a warning message relating to said disturbance onto said network, a printing system comprising:

a first remote user interface on said network;
and
a second remote user interface on said network;
wherein each of said first and second remote user interfaces include:
means for checking if said warning message relates to a disturbance of a predetermined kind;
and
means for generating an acoustic or optical signal for alerting a user of one of said remote user interfaces;
and
wherein, upon reception of a warning message of said predetermined kind:
said first remote user interface generates a first signal relating to said disturbance for alerting the corresponding user substantially upon receipt of and in response to said warning message;
and
said second remote user interface generates a second signal relating to said same disturbance for alerting the user in response to and at a predetermined time after receiving said warning message.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Stepped user alerts in a networked printer system

Life of this patent

Stepped user alerts in a networked printer system

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims39