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US 6,788,902 B2Granted
Service support system and method for image forming apparatus
AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorHiroyuki Funahashi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
With a push of a maintenance button disposed on a printer, printer information mail is created based on information previously stored in a memory, and sent to a mail server. The sent mail is read by a support server, the support server extracts maintenance information that best suits the contents of the sent mail from a database, and sends it as maintenance information mail to the mail server in reply to the mail. When the maintenance information mail arrives at the printer, cleaning is performed or error remedy is displayed or printed, according to the contents of the maintenance information mail.
Claims16
A service support system for an image forming apparatus comprising the image forming apparatus and a service support center, which communicate with each other with messages on a network,
- the image forming apparatus comprising:
- a printing device that outputs an image on a printing medium;
- an extracting device that extracts information regarding the image forming apparatus required for a service support;
- a sending device that sends the information extracted by the extracting device to the service support center as a main body of a message or an attachment to the message;
- a receiving device that receives a reply message from the service support center in response to the message sent by the sending device;
- and
- a control device that activates the image forming apparatus based on the reply message;
- the service support center comprising:
- a database that previously stores a plurality of maintenance processes required for the image forming apparatus;
- a receiving device that receives the message sent from the image forming apparatus;
- a searching device that searches maintenance information corresponding to the information contained in the received message from the database;
- and
- a sending device that sends the searched maintenance information to the image forming apparatus as a main body of the reply message or an attachment to the reply message, wherein the database of the service support center previously stores a plurality of image data for cleaning pages associated with cleaning processes required for the image forming apparatus, the service support center searches the image data for a cleaning page matching the information sent from the image forming apparatus from the database and sends the image data for the cleaning page to the image forming apparatus as the main body of the reply message or the attachment to the reply message, and the image forming apparatus receives the reply message and activates the printing device based on the image data contained in the reply message to output the cleaning page.
10 more elements
An image forming apparatus that exchanges messages with a service support center via a network and receives a service support information via a message, the image forming apparatus comprising:
- an printing device that outputs an image to a printing medium;
- a displaying device that displays various information;
- a extracting device that extracts information regarding the image forming apparatus required for a service support;
- a determining device that determines which of display data or print data of service support information to receive from the service support center based on the information;
- a sending device that sends the information extracted by the extracting device and a result of a determination by the determining device to the service support center as the main body of the message or an attachment to the message;
- a receiving device that receives a reply message from the service support center in response to the message sent by the sending device;
- and
- a control device that selectively activates the printing device or the displaying device based on the reply message, wherein a database of the service support center previously stores a plurality of image data for cleaning pages associated with cleaning processes required for the image forming apparatus, the service support center searches the image data for a cleaning page matching the information sent from the image forming apparatus from the database and sends the image data for the cleaning page to the image forming apparatus as the main body of the reply message or the attachment to the reply message, and the image forming apparatus receives the reply message and activates the printing device based on the image data contained in the reply message to output the cleaning page.
5 more elements
A method of providing service support with a service support center and an image forming apparatus, comprising:
- extracting information regarding the image forming apparatus required for a service support;
- sending the information extracted to the service support center as a main body of a message or an attachment to the message;
- searching a database of the service support center, that previously stores a plurality of maintenance processes required for the image forming apparatus, for maintenance information corresponding to the information contained in the message;
- sending the searched maintenance information to the image forming apparatus as a main body of a reply message or an attachment to the reply message;
- and
- activating the image forming apparatus based on the reply message, wherein the database of the service support center previously stores a plurality of image data for cleaning pages associated with cleaning processes required for the image forming apparatus, the service support center searches the image data for a cleaning page matching the information sent from the image forming apparatus from the database and sends the image data for the cleaning page to the image forming apparatus as the main body of the reply message or the attachment to the reply message, and the image forming apparatus receives the reply message and activates the printing device based on the image data contained in the reply message to output the cleaning page.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.