Information Delivery Device and Information Processing Method

• US 20080215666A1
• Filed: 02/07/2008
• Published: 09/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Brother Industries Limited)
• Original Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Brother Industries Limited)
• Inventors: KADOTA, Masatoshi
• Granted Patent: US 8,255,481 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/121 Facilitating exception or error detection and recovery, e.g. fault, media or consumables depleted
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1229 Printer resources management or printer maintenance, e.g. device status, power levels
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1285 Remote printer device, e.g. being remote from client or server

Abstract

There is provided an information delivery device including a command transmission unit configured to accept a command request from a client and to transmit a command corresponding to the command request to a device, an information obtaining unit configured to obtain device information transmitted from the device as a response to the command, an information storage unit configured to store the device information obtained by the information obtaining unit, a judgment unit configured to judge which of current device information obtained by the information obtaining unit and past deice information stored in the information storage unit should be provided for a requesting source, the current device information corresponding to device information presently set to the device, and an information providing unit configured to provide one of the current device information and the past device information for the requesting source in accordance with a judgment result of the judgment unit.

Claims

1. An information delivery device, comprising:

a command transmission unit configured to accept a command request from a client and to transmit a command corresponding to the command request to a device;

an information obtaining unit configured to obtain device information transmitted from the device as a response to the command transmitted by the command transmission unit;

an information storage unit configured to store the device information obtained by the information obtaining unit;

a judgment unit configured to judge which of current device information obtained by the information obtaining unit and past deice information stored in the information storage unit should be provided for a requesting source, the current device information corresponding to device information presently set to the device; and

an information providing unit configured to provide one of the current device information and the past device information for the requesting source in accordance with a judgment result of the judgment unit.

2. The information delivery device according to claim 1, wherein the judgment unit judges that the current device information should be provided for the requesting source if the information obtaining unit obtains the device information in a predetermined time period from transmission of the command by the command transmission unit, and the judgment unit judges that the past device information should be provided for the requesting source if the information obtaining unit fails to obtain the device information in the predetermined time period from transmission of the command by the command transmission unit and the past device information is stored in the information storage unit.

3. The information delivery device according to claim 1, wherein the information providing unit additionally provides, for the requesting source, identification information for identifying the past device information as past information when the information providing unit provides the past device information for the requesting source.

4. The information delivery device according to claim 1, further comprising a prohibition unit configured to prohibit a predetermined type of device information not to be provided as past information from being provided for the requesting source as past information by the information providing unit.

5. The information delivery device according to claim 4, wherein the prohibition unit comprises a deletion unit configured to delete, from the information storage unit, the past device information corresponding to the predetermined type of device information.

6. The information delivery device according to claim 4, wherein the predetermined type of device information is defined as information which should be provided for the requesting source as latest information.

7. The information delivery device according to claim 4, wherein the predetermined type of device information corresponds to the device information concerning the device for which communication can not be established.

8. The information delivery device according to claim 5, wherein the deletion unit judges that the past device information is the predetermined type of device information to be deleted if an elapsed time from acquisition of the past device information reaches a first predetermined time period and an elapsed time from last reception of the command request from the requesting source reaches a second predetermined time period.

9. The information delivery device according to claim 1, wherein:

the information obtaining unit starts to obtain the device information from the device in response to initiation thereof; and

the information storage unit starts to store the device information in response to initiation of the information obtaining unit.

10. The information delivery device according to claim 9, wherein the information obtaining unit operates, in response to initiation thereof, to obtain at least a part of a plurality of types of device information which the information obtaining unit was received from the device in the past.

11. The information delivery device according to claim 1, wherein:

the information obtaining unit obtains the device information from the device each time a status change occurs in the device; and

the information storage unit stores the device information each time the information obtaining unit obtains the device information from the device.

12. The information delivery device according to claim 1, wherein the information storage unit stores the device information obtained from the device in association with the command transmitted to the device

13. The information delivery device according to claim 1, wherein the information storage unit is configured such that, if the command transmitted by the command transmission unit corresponds to a predetermined command type for obtaining the current device information for a plurality of times by transmitting the command to the device one time, the information storage unit stores the obtained current device information in association with the command of the predetermined command type and also stores the obtained device information in association with a command of a command type for obtaining same type of device information as that obtained the command of the predetermined command type.

14. An information processing method, comprising the steps of:

accepting a command request from a client to transmit a command corresponding to the command request to a device;

obtaining device information transmitted from the device as a response to the command;

storing the obtained device information;

judging which of current device information obtained by the obtaining step and past deice information stored by the storing step should be provided for a requesting source, the current device information corresponding to device information presently set to the device; and

providing one of the current device information and the past device information for the requesting source in accordance with a judgment result of the judgment step.

15. A computer readable medium having computer readable instruction stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor of an information delivery device, configures the processor to perform the steps of:

accepting a command request from a client to transmit a command corresponding to the command request to a device;

obtaining device information transmitted from the device as a response to the command;

storing the obtained device information;

judging which of current device information obtained by the obtaining step and past deice information stored by the storing step should be provided for a requesting source, the current device information corresponding to device information presently set to the device; and

providing one of the current device information and the past device information for the requesting source in accordance with a judgment result of the judgment step.