Image processing apparatus, management apparatus and image processing method that reduce delays in print job processing caused by rewriting of firmware

• US 20030037115A1
• Filed: 08/13/2002
• Published: 02/20/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Minolta Corporation Limited (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Minolta Corporation Limited (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Inventors: Tomita, Atsushi, Hino, Hideki, Mae, Hideo
• Granted Patent: US 7,797,385 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

An image processing apparatus checks a next job to be executed, and if the job is a firmware rewriting job, accesses a mail server, downloads e-mail, and obtains a job type of a job attached to the e-mail. If the job is a print job, the image processing apparatus extracts image information pertaining to the job from the e-mail, stores the image information, registers the job in a job management table, and ends processing. If there are no print jobs, the image processing apparatus executes the firmware rewriting job, deletes the job from the job management table, and ends the processing.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus that obtains image data from a server, and processes the obtained image data, comprising:

a firmware rewriting unit that executes firmware rewriting processing;

an image data obtaining unit that, on detecting that the firmware rewriting unit is to execute the firmware rewriting processing, obtains the image data from the server before the firmware rewriting unit executes the firmware rewriting processing;

an image data processing unit that processes the image data obtained by the image data obtaining unit; and

a processing control unit that, after the image data processing unit processes the image data, has the firmware rewriting unit execute the firmware rewriting processing.

2. The image processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein

the server is a mail server, and

the image data obtaining unit obtains the image data by obtaining e-mail to which the image data is attached from the mail server.

3. The image processing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a processing prohibition unit that prohibits processing of image data while the firmware rewriting processing is being executed.

4. The image processing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of control modules that process the image data in coordination with each other; and

a communication line by which the control modules communicate,

wherein the firmware rewriting unit conveys the firmware via the communication line.

5. The image processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein

the image data obtaining unit obtains all image data that is accumulated in the server.

6. The image processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein

the processing control unit has the firmware rewriting processing executed after the image data processing unit has processed all the image data.

7. The image processing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

an access unit that accesses the server at an interval that is shorter than a time required for the firmware rewriting processing.

10. The image processing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a job management table for managing one or more firmware rewriting jobs and print jobs; and

a judging unit that judges whether a job registered in the job management table is a firmware rewriting job or a print job,

wherein the image data obtaining unit obtains the image data when the judging unit judges that a job is a firmware rewriting job.

11. The image processing apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

an access unit that receives e-mail from the server.

12. The image processing apparatus of claim 11, further comprising:

a judgement unit that judges whether a print job is attached to the e-mail received by the access unit.

13. The image processing apparatus of claim 11, wherein

the job management table manages jobs obtained by the access unit.

8. A management apparatus that obtains image data accumulated in a server, and instructs an image processing apparatus to process the image data, comprising:

a firmware rewriting instruction unit that instructs rewriting of firmware to the image processing apparatus;

an image data obtaining unit that, on detecting that the firmware rewriting processing is to be executed, obtains the image data from the server before the firmware rewriting unit instructs the rewriting of the firmware; and

a processing control unit that instructs the rewriting of the firmware after instructing processing of the image data obtained by the image data obtaining unit.

9. An image processing method used in an image processing apparatus that obtains image data accumulated in a server and processes the obtained image data, comprising:

a detection step for detecting that firmware rewriting processing is to be executed;

an obtaining step for obtaining the image data from the server before the firmware rewiring processing is executed; and

a rewriting step for executing the firmware rewriting processing.