IMAGE FORMING SYSTEM AND METHOD
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An image forming system in which a plurality of image forming devices, which form an images by receiving an image forming instruction, and an information processing device, which sends the image forming instruction to the image forming devices, communicate with each other, wherein:
- each of the image forming devices includes a memory module that stores an operation mode showing a state of the device and that stores power consumption information of the operation mode in advance; and
the information processing device includes;
an acquisition module that acquires the operation mode and the power consumption information stored in the memory module of each of the image forming devices;
an order determination module that assigns a power consumption order to each of the image forming devices according to power consumption based on the operation mode, that calculates image forming wait time from the time of receiving the image forming instruction at each of the image forming devices based on the operation mode to the time of starting an image forming operation, and that assigns an image forming wait time order to each of the image forming devices according to image forming wait time; and
a display device that displays the power consumption order and the image forming wait time order of each of the image forming devices assigned by the order determination module.
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Abstract
In a system in which a plurality of image forming devices are connected on one or more image processing devices through a network, efficiency of image formation is improved by assigning priority, or by ordering, the image forming devices according to power consumption and wait time. An image forming device is selected according to one of the power consumption and the wait time.
28 Citations
11 Claims
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1. An image forming system in which a plurality of image forming devices, which form an images by receiving an image forming instruction, and an information processing device, which sends the image forming instruction to the image forming devices, communicate with each other, wherein:
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each of the image forming devices includes a memory module that stores an operation mode showing a state of the device and that stores power consumption information of the operation mode in advance; and the information processing device includes; an acquisition module that acquires the operation mode and the power consumption information stored in the memory module of each of the image forming devices; an order determination module that assigns a power consumption order to each of the image forming devices according to power consumption based on the operation mode, that calculates image forming wait time from the time of receiving the image forming instruction at each of the image forming devices based on the operation mode to the time of starting an image forming operation, and that assigns an image forming wait time order to each of the image forming devices according to image forming wait time; and a display device that displays the power consumption order and the image forming wait time order of each of the image forming devices assigned by the order determination module. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5)
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2. An image forming system in which a plurality of image forming devices, which form images by receiving an image forming instruction, and an information processing device, which sends the image forming instruction to the image forming devices, communicate with each other, wherein:
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each of the image forming devices includes a memory module that stores an operation mode showing a state of the device and that stores power consumption information of the operation mode in advance; and the information processing device includes; an acquisition module that acquires the operation mode and the power consumption information stored in the memory module of each of the image forming devices; an order determination module that assigns a power consumption order to each of the image forming devices in according to power consumption based on the operation mode, that calculates image forming wait time from the time of receiving the image forming instruction at each of the image forming devices based on the operation mode to the time of starting an image forming operation, and that assigns an image forming wait time order to each of the image forming devices in according to image forming wait time; and a selection module that selects one of the image forming devices to which the image forming instruction is to be sent based on either the low power consumption order or the image forming wait time order of each of the image forming devices assigned by the order determination module. - View Dependent Claims (3)
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6. A method of forming images with improved efficiency, wherein each of a plurality of image forming devices forms an image by receiving an image forming instruction from an information processing device, which sends the image forming instruction to the image forming devices through a network, wherein the method includes:
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storing operation modes and power consumption information corresponding to the operation modes in the image forming devices in advance; and acquiring a current operation mode and power consumption information from each of the image forming devices; determining a power consumption order to each of the image forming devices according to power consumption based on the current operation mode; determining image forming wait times for each of the image forming devices, which is a delay time from the time of receiving the image forming instruction at each of the image forming devices based on the operation mode to the time of starting an image forming operation; and assigning an image forming wait time order to each of the image forming devices according to the image forming wait time; and selecting one image forming device to which the image forming instruction is to be sent among the plurality of image forming devices based on one of the power consumption order and the image forming wait time order. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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Specification