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US 5,861,884 AGranted
Method and system managing information indicating how predetermined information has been used
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorSusumu Fujioka
Life of this patent
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AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorSusumu Fujioka
Estimating the term…
History information indicating a history of how respective items of help information have been displayed in a data processing apparatus is formed and stored. A function of outputting a list of the history information is provided. A center data processing apparatus collects, via a communications network, such history information from one or many user data processing apparatuses which the center apparatus manages. This collection is achieved either in response to the center apparatus sending a request or by a function of each user apparatus such that each user apparatus automatically sends the history information to the center apparatus periodically. The thus-collected history information is integrated and thus numbers of times of display of help information are summed for every item of history information or for every item of operation guidance information. Instead, the thus-collected history information may be individually stored.
A data processing method comprising the steps of:
A data processing method comprising steps of:
A data processing method comprising steps of:
A data processing method comprising steps of:
A data processing system comprising:
A data processing system comprising:
A data processing system comprising:
A data processing system comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
Drawings are temporarily unavailable. Open the PDF at USPTO
No related US applications are recorded in the indexed filing history.
Execution arrangements for user interfaces: help systems
Computing and data processing
Term ended 11 Dec 2015 (estimated)
USPTO file history isn’t available for this patent, so only indexed dates are shown.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a system managing information indicating how predetermined information has been used, in particular, to a method and a system managing information indicating how help information has been used.
There are data processing apparatus and communications terminal apparatus which have a well-known help function. The help function will now be described. For example, if a user of a relevant apparatus having the help function wishes to know how to use the apparatus, the user may input a predetermined help-information supply request: For example, the user may manipulate a specific help key provided on the apparatus. The help key may be either an actual key as a part of hardware or a virtual key realized by a software program. In response to the key manipulation, the apparatus automatically selects a set of help information, from among previously stored sets of help information, appropriate for a current internal state of the apparatus. The apparatus then displays the thus-selected set of help information indicating how to use the apparatus.
Other objects and further features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a video-conference communications terminal apparatus in a first embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 shows an outlined perspective view of an example of an operation and display unit of the terminal apparatus shown in FIG. 1;
With reference to FIG. 1, a video-conference communications terminal apparatus in a first embodiment of the present invention will now be described. The video-conference communications terminal apparatus uses a basic interface of ISDN as a transmission path. This terminal apparatus has a function of communicating audio information, a function of communicating moving-picture information, a function of communicating still-picture information, a facsimile-communications function, a tele-writing function, and a function of communicating information by multiplexing these communications functions. Further, the terminal apparatus can perform data communications using two information channels (B-channels) as a result of being connected to the basic interface of ISDN.
In FIG. 1, a system controller 1 performs various kinds of control operations such as control of each part of the video-conference communications terminal apparatus, handling of high layers of video-conference communications, execution of various kinds of application programs which this terminal apparatus is provided with, display of help information relevant to a user's help request, and so forth. A ROM (Read Only Memory) 2 stores some of control-operation programs which the system controller 1 executes, various kinds of data necessary for executing the control-operation programs, and so forth. A RAM (Random Access Memory) 3 forms a work area used by the system controller 1.
A clock circuit 4 supplies current date, time information. A scanner 5 inputs or reads in an original image with a predetermined resolution. A plotter 6 outputs or prints out an image with a predetermined resolution. A coder/decoder 7 encodes and compresses an image signal obtained as a result of reading in an original image through the scanner 5 in accordance with an encoding method of a Group-4 facsimile function. The coder/decoder 7 further decodes and decompresses encoded image information so as to obtain an original image signal. An image processor 8 performs various kinds of image processing such as size alteration and resolution alteration of image data. A magnetic disk device 9 stores system software, a plurality of application programs, a lot of user data, and so forth.