Information processing apparatus, information processing method, program, and computer-readable storage medium

• US 20050018236A1
• Filed: 07/20/2004
• Published: 01/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Shirai, Kenichi, Kurotsu, Noriyoshi, Morooka, Hidekazu, Kikuchi, Koji, Kitagata, Kei, Kayama, Hiroyuki, Wanda, Koichiro, Ohshima, Masamichi, Yagita, Takashi
• Granted Patent: US 7,804,608 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.140
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1204 resulting in reduced user or operator actions, e.g. presetting, automatic actions, using hardware token storing data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/122 with regard to computing resources, e.g. memory, CPU
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1229 Printer resources management or printer maintenance, e.g. device status, power levels
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1261 by using alternate printing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1284 Local printer device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1286 via local network

Abstract

There are provided an information processing apparatus and information processing method, which can implement a job or printer device monitoring scheme that allows the user to easily detect status of printing apparatus in advance. The status of a physical printer device corresponding to a predetermined logical printer, which is set as an object to be monitored, is monitored, and a result based on monitoring is displayed on a computer display as a resident display. For example, when the resident display is displayed as an icon on the task tray on the computer display, it does not disturb display of windows of other document creation applications. Also, the user need not purposely instruct to launch a monitor utility upon printing. Hence, a job or printer device monitoring scheme which is very convenient for the user can be implemented.

Claims

1. A computer program product which has a program code for operating an information processing apparatus with a print processing function and is stored in a computer-readable memory, comprising:

program code for executing a default printer specifying step of specifying a default printer which is set to be used as a default in an operating system;

program code for executing a monitoring step of monitoring status of the specified default printer; and

program code for executing a control step of controlling to display a result based on monitoring in the monitoring step on a display unit as a resident display.

2. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the default printer is a logical printer, and the program code for executing the monitoring step includes program code for monitoring a physical printer corresponding to the logical printer.

3. The computer program product according to claim 1, further comprising a program code for executing a process switching step of switching processing operations to be executed in correspondence with types of instructions to the resident display.

4. The computer program product according to claim 3, wherein the processing operations include a default printer change setup window display process, and a default printer monitor process.

5. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the program code for executing the monitoring step includes a program code for monitoring status of another default printer upon launching in response to a change to the other default printer.

6. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the program code for executing the monitoring step includes a program code for monitoring the default printer for a predetermined period of time when a first instruction is made for the resident display.

7. The computer program product according to claim 6, further comprising:

program code for executing a determination step of determining based on the presence/absence of jobs whether or not monitoring is to end in response to an elapse of the predetermined period of time, and

wherein the program code for executing the monitoring step includes a program code for ending monitoring of the specified default printer on the basis of the determination result in the determination step.

8. The computer program product according to claim 7, wherein the presence/absence of jobs is based on jobs of a first user, and the status of the default printer reflected on the resident display is status of a physical printer corresponding to the default printer based on jobs of a second user.

9. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein monitoring of the default printer starts and/or ends on the basis of jobs of a first user, and the status of the default printer reflected on the resident display is status of a physical printer corresponding to the default printer based on jobs of a second user.

10. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring operation in the monitoring step can be launched irrespective of the presence/absence of a print request.

11. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the program code for executing the control step includes a program code for launching a monitor utility that can display status data of a plurality of printers and status data of jobs in each printer in addition to the resident display.

12. The computer program product according to claim 1, further comprising program code for executing a job status monitoring step of determining the presence/absence of a job which is undergoing a print process in the printer, and displaying, when the job is found, a job icon indicating status of the job as another resident display on the display unit parallel to the resident display.

13. An information processing method for an information processing apparatus with a print processing function, comprising:

a default printer specifying step of specifying a default printer which is set to be used as a default in an operating system;

a monitoring step of monitoring status of the specified default printer; and

a control step of controlling to display a result based on monitoring in the monitoring step on a display unit as a resident display.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the default printer is a logical printer, and the monitoring step includes a step of monitoring a physical printer corresponding to the logical printer.

15. The method according to claim 13, further comprising a process switching step of switching processing operations to be executed in correspondence with types of instructions to the resident display.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the processing operations include a default printer change setup window display process, and a default printer monitor process.

17. The method according to claim 13, wherein the monitoring step includes a step of monitoring status of another default printer upon launching in response to a change to the other default printer.

18. The method according to claim 13, wherein the monitoring step includes a step of monitoring the default printer for a predetermined period of time when a first instruction is made for the resident display.

19. The method according to claim 18, further comprising:

a determination step of determining based on the presence/absence of jobs whether or not monitoring is to end in response to an elapse of the predetermined period of time, and

wherein the monitoring step includes a step of ending monitoring of the specified default printer on the basis of the determination result in the determination step.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the presence/absence of jobs is based on jobs of a first user, and the status of the default printer reflected on the resident display is status of a physical printer corresponding to the default printer based on jobs of a second user.

21. The method according to claim 13, wherein monitoring of the default printer starts and/or ends on the basis of jobs of a first user, and the status of the default printer reflected on the resident display is status of a physical printer corresponding to the default printer based on jobs of a second user.

22. The method according to claim 13, wherein the monitoring operation in the monitoring step can be launched irrespective of the presence/absence of a print request.

23. The method according to claim 13, wherein the control step includes a step of launching a monitor utility that can display status data of a plurality of printers and status data of jobs in each printer in addition to the resident display.

24. The method according to claim 13, further comprising a job status monitoring step of determining the presence/absence of a job which is undergoing a print process in the printer, and displaying, when the job is found, a job icon indicating status of the job as another resident display on the display unit parallel to the resident display.

25. An information processing apparatus with a print processing function, comprising:

default printer specifying means for specifying a default printer which is set to be used as a default in an operating system;

monitoring means for monitoring status of the specified default printer; and

control means for controlling to display a result based on monitoring by the monitoring means on a display unit as a resident display.

26. A computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program for operating an information processing apparatus with a print processing function, said computer program comprising:

program code for executing a default printer specifying step of specifying a default printer which is set to be used as a default in an operating system;

program code for executing a monitoring step of monitoring status of the specified default printer; and

program code for executing a control step of controlling to display a result based on monitoring in the monitoring step on a display unit as a resident display.