Remote maintenance and diagnosis of office or domestic appliances

• US 20020183978A1
• Filed: 05/02/2002
• Published: 12/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Suzuki, Keiichi, Koyama, Kiyohisa, Onodera, Youichi, Takehisa, Akira
• Granted Patent: US 6,947,675 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/188
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/5079 for maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 2215/00109 Remote control of apparatus, e.g. by a host
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0733 in a data processing system embedded in an image processing device, e.g. printer, facsimile, scanner
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2294 by remote test
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00002 Diagnosis, testing or measuring; Detecting, analysing or monitoring not otherwise provided for error detection, error correction or monitoring in digital computers or digital computer components G06F11/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00029 Diagnosis, i.e. identifying a problem by comparison with a normal state
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00061 using a remote apparatus H04N1/00066 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00076 locally
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00127 Connection or combination of a still picture apparatus with another apparatus, e.g. for storage, processing or transmission of still picture signals or of information associated with a still picture
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00344 with a management, maintenance, service or repair apparatus monitoring H04N1/00002

Abstract

A remote maintenance and diagnosis apparatus for making a diagnosis of a remote client appliance comprises a data acquisition unit that acquires data necessary to diagnose the client appliance, a diagnosing unit that make an automatic diagnosis of the client appliance based on the data acquired by the data acquisition unit, and an automatic diagnosis result reporting unit that reports a result of the automatic diagnosis to the client appliance.

Claims

1. A remote maintenance and diagnosis apparatus for making a diagnosis of a remote client appliance, the apparatus comprising:

a data acquisition unit configured to acquire data necessary to diagnose the client appliance;

a diagnosing unit configured to make an automatic diagnosis of the client appliance based on the data acquired by the data acquisition unit; and

an automatic diagnosis result reporting unit configured to report a result of the automatic diagnosis to the client appliance.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the automatic diagnosis result reporting unit attaches an inquiry when reporting the result of the automatic diagnosis to the client appliance.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an interview result entry unit configured to input and register a result of an interview; and

a diagnosis report creating unit configured to creates a remote diagnosis customer report based on the result of the automatic diagnosis and the result of the interview.

4. The apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

an interview result entry unit configured to input and register a result of an interview, the interview being conducted based on the inquiry; and

a diagnosis report creating unit configured to creates a remote diagnosis customer report based on the result of the automatic diagnosis and the result of the interview.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acquired data includes at least one of operating conditions of the client appliance, troubling information, and measures taken to resolve problems.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the troubling information includes a service call made by the client appliance when a problem occurs, and the diagnosing unit makes the automatic diagnosis based on the service call.

7. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the troubling information includes a paper jam that has occurred in the client appliance, and the diagnosing unit makes the automatic diagnosis based on the occurrence of the paper jam.

8. A client appliance comprising:

a self-diagnosis unit configured to make a self-diagnosis of the client appliance itself;

an interface configured to send a result of the self-diagnosis to an external diagnosis apparatus and receive inquiries from the external diagnosis apparatus; and

an operation panel configured to allow a user to answer the inquiries.

9. A remote diagnosis system comprising:

a client appliance; and

a remote maintenance and diagnosis apparatus connected to the client appliance via a network and diagnosing the client appliance, the remote maintenance and diagnosis apparatus having;

a data acquisition unit configured to acquire data necessary for making a diagnosis of the client appliance;

an automatic diagnosis unit configured to make an automatic diagnosis of the client appliance based on the data acquired by the data acquisition unit; and

an automatic diagnosis result reporting unit configured to report a result of the automatic diagnosis to the client appliance.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the automatic diagnosis result reporting unit attaches inquiries when reporting the result of the automatic diagnosis, and the client appliance is configured to answer the inquiries through an operation panel.

11. The system according to claim 9, further comprising a customer appliance administration apparatus configured to collect and manage information about the client appliance, wherein the data acquisition unit of the remote maintenance and diagnosis apparatus acquires the data from the customer appliance administration apparatus.

14. The method according to claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

entering an interview result into the remote maintenance and diagnosis apparatus; and

creating a remote diagnosis report automatically based on the result of the automatic diagnosis and the interview result.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein the automatic diagnosis step includes determination of whether or not there is a service call made by the client appliance within a predetermined period of time.

16. The method according to claim 13, wherein the automatic diagnosis step includes determination of whether or not a paper jam occurred in the client appliance within a predetermined period of time.

12. The system according to clam 9, further comprising a customer appliance administration apparatus configured to collect and manage information about the client appliance, wherein the automatic diagnosis result reporting unit reports the result of the automatic diagnosis to the client apparatus via the customer appliance administration apparatus.

13. A remote diagnosis method for diagnosing a remote client appliance, comprising the steps of:

acquiring data required to diagnose the client appliance;

making an automatic diagnosis of the client appliance at a remote maintenance and diagnosis apparatus based on the acquired data; and

reporting a result of the automatic diagnosis to the client appliance.