Cloning system and method for multifunction peripherals
AssigneesKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsKevin C. SHIH, Milong SABANDITH
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and method for multifunction peripheral cloning includes a device controller with a processor and associated memory and a network interface. Device configuration data is stored on the device for configuring device components such as a scan engine and a print engine. A controller processor of a multifunction peripheral designated as a leader device generates a master clone file from a copy of its device configuration data and communicates it to at least one networked multifunction peripheral via the network interface via a push to targeted devices or responsive to a request for a copy of the master clone file from follower devices.
Claims20
A multifunction peripheral comprising:
- a device controller including a processor and associated memory configured to store device configuration data;
- a network interface;
- the processor configured to reconfigure the multifunction peripheral with received configuration data;
- a scanner configured in accordance with received configuration data;
- a printer configured in accordance with the received configuration data;
- wherein, when the multifunction peripheral is designated as a leader, the processor is further configured to
- generate a cloning copy of a device configuration of the reconfigured multifunction peripheral,
- receive a cloning copy request from each of a plurality of networked multifunction peripherals;
- communicate the cloning copy of the device configuration data to each of the plurality of networked multifunction peripheral via the network interface responsive to each cloning copy request, and
- upload the cloning copy to an associated cloud server;
- wherein, when the multifunction peripheral is designated as a follower, the processor is further configured to
- send a cloning file request to a designated leader multifunction peripheral,
- send a cloning file request to a cloud server when no cloning file is received responsive to a cloning file request to the designated leader multifunction peripheral,
- receive a cloning file, and
- reconfigure the multifunction peripheral with a received cloning file;
- wherein the controller is configured to scan a tangible document into electronic form via operation of the configured scanner;
- wherein the controller is configured to print a tangible document from an electronic document via operation of the configured printer.
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A method comprising:
- storing received device configuration data in a memory of a multifunction peripheral;
- reconfiguring the multifunction peripheral in accordance with received device configuration data, the reconfiguring including
- configuring a scanner of the multifunction peripheral in accordance with the received device configuration data and,
- configuring a printer of the multifunction peripheral in accordance with the received device configuration data;
- when the multifunction peripheral is designated as a leader,
- generating a cloning copy of a device configuration of the reconfigured multifunction peripheral via a processor,
- uploading the cloning copy to an associated cloud server,
- receiving a cloning copy request from each of a plurality of networked multifunction peripheral and
- communicating the cloning copy to each requesting networked multifunction peripheral via a network interface;
- when the multifunction peripheral is designated as a follower
- sending a cloning file request to a designated leader multifunction peripheral,
- sending a cloning file request to a cloud server when no cloning file is received responsive to a cloning file request sent to the leader multifunction peripheral,
- receive a cloning file, and
- reconfigure the multifunction peripheral with a received cloning file,
- scanning a tangible document into electronic form with a configured scanner;
- and
- printing a tangible document from an electronic document with a configured printer.
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Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.