PRINTING SYSTEM, IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, AND METHOD

• US 20130114100A1
• Filed: 10/16/2012
• Published: 05/09/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Torii, Minoru, Seikh, Attaullah, Serfling, Jeremy, Giridharagopal, Rajini, Sato, Mark Toshiaki, Smith, Edward
• Granted Patent: US 9,235,819 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.14
• 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 11/0784 Routing of error reports, e.g. with a specific transmission path or data flow
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00037 Detecting, i.e. determining the occurrence of a predetermined state H04N1/00031 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00079 remotely
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00344 with a management, maintenance, service or repair apparatus monitoring H04N1/00002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0094 Multifunctional device, i.e. a device capable of all of reading, reproducing, copying, facsimile transception, file transception

Abstract

An information processing apparatus, which is configured to communicate with a server apparatus and an image forming apparatus, comprises a receiving unit configured to receive AR information that includes AR guidance for a first operation of an image forming apparatus, wherein the AR information superimposes the AR guidance on an image that was captured by the information processing apparatus; a display control unit configured to command the information processing apparatus to display the AR guidance to guide a user to operate the image forming apparatus, and an obtaining unit configured to obtain information that originated from performance of the first operation by the image forming apparatus, wherein the receiving unit is further configured to receive AR information that includes additional AR guidance that presents operations for recovering from the error.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus configured to communicate with a client apparatus and an image forming apparatus, the information processing apparatus comprising:

a receiving unit configured to receive status information from an image forming apparatus;

a sending unit configured to send AR information that includes AR guidance regarding a first operation of the image forming apparatus to a client apparatus, wherein the AR information superimposes the AR guidance on an image captured by the client apparatus;

an obtaining unit configured to obtain information which originated from the image forming apparatus and which includes an indication of an error that occurred in the image forming apparatus, wherein the information originates from performance of the first operation by the image forming apparatus;

a determining unit configured to determine an error based on the information obtained by the obtaining unit; and

a transfer unit configured to transfer AR information that includes additional AR guidance based on the determined error.

2. An information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein information that the obtaining unit is configured to obtain includes an image that originated from a sheet printed by the image forming apparatus, and wherein the first operation was the printing of the sheet.

3. An information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the determining unit is configured to determine an error by determining whether the obtained image indicates the edge of the sheet is colored by a specific color, and wherein, based on the determined error, the transferring unit is configured to transfer AR information that includes AR guidance which presents instructions for a user to clean a fuser in the image processing apparatus.

4. An information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the receiving unit is configured to receive device identification information that corresponds to the image forming apparatus from the client apparatus, and wherein the sending unit is configured to send AR information which corresponds to both the received status information and the received device identification information.

5. An information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sending unit is configured to send AR information that includes AR guidance for a second operation in response to the receiving unit receiving a request after completion of the first operation.

6. An information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the obtaining unit is further configured to obtain one or more of a serial number, an error log, and a print counter, and wherein the determining unit is further configured to determine the error based on the one or more of the serial number, the error log, and the print counter.

7. An information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determining unit is further configured to determine the error based on data in a knowledge base.

8. An information processing apparatus configured to communicate with a server apparatus and an image forming apparatus, the information processing apparatus comprising:

a receiving unit configured to receive AR information that includes AR guidance for a first operation of an image forming apparatus, wherein the AR information superimposes the AR guidance on an image that was captured by the information processing apparatus;

a display control unit configured to command the information processing apparatus to display the AR guidance; and

an obtaining unit configured to obtain information that originated from performance of the first operation by the image forming apparatus and to use the obtained information to determine an error that occurred the image forming apparatus,

wherein the receiving unit is further configured to receive AR information that includes additional AR guidance that presents operations for recovering from the error.

9. An information processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the obtaining unit is configured to obtain an image from a sheet printed by the image forming apparatus.

10. An information processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the obtaining unit is configured to obtain AR information that commands the information processing apparatus to display other AR guidance that presents instructions for user cleaning of a fuser in the image processing apparatus.

11. An information processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the sending unit is configured to send device identification information of the image forming apparatus to a server apparatus and the obtaining unit is configured to obtain AR information that corresponds to status information of the image forming apparatus and the device identification information.

12. A method performed by information processing apparatus that communicates with a client apparatus and an image forming apparatus, the method comprising:

receiving status information;

sending first AR information that commands a client apparatus to display AR guidance for a first operation of an image forming apparatus, wherein the AR guidance superimposes the AR guidance on an image captured by the client apparatus;

obtaining information that originated from performance of the first operation by the image forming apparatus and that includes a sign regarding an error that occurred in the image forming apparatus;

determining an error based on the obtained information; and

transferring second AR information to command the client apparatus to display other AR guidance to recover from the determined error.

13. A method according to claim 12, wherein the obtained information includes an image that originated from a sheet printed by the image forming apparatus, and wherein the sheet was printed by the image forming apparatus in response to performance of the first operation.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein the determining of the error is based on whether the obtained image indicates that an edge of the sheet is colored by a specific color, and based on the error the other AR guidance presents instructions that guide a user to clean a fuser in the image processing apparatus.

15. A method according to claim 12, further comprising receiving device identification information of the image forming apparatus from the client apparatus, and sending the received device identification information with the first AR information.

16. A method according to claim 12, further comprising sending third AR information that includes a AR guidance for a second operation in response to the receiving a request after completion of the first operation.

17. A method performed by an information processing apparatus configured to communicate with a server apparatus and an image forming apparatus, the method comprising:

receiving AR information that includes a command to display AR guidance for a first operation of an image forming apparatus that superimposes the AR guidance on an image that was captured by the information processing apparatus;

displaying the AR guidance; and

obtaining information that originated from performance of the first operation by the image forming apparatus;

determining an error that occurred the image forming apparatus based on the obtained information; and

receiving further AR information that includes a command to display other AR guidance to recover from the error.

18. A method according to claim 17, wherein the obtained information includes an image of a sheet printed by the image forming apparatus in response to performance of the first operation.

19. A method according to claim 17, wherein other AR guidance guides a user to clean a fuser of the image processing apparatus.

20. A method according to claim 17, further comprising sending device identification information that corresponds to the image forming apparatus to a server apparatus, and wherein the received AR information corresponds to status information of the image forming apparatus and the device identification information.

21. An method according to claim 17, wherein the other AR guidance displays a series of instructions, and the method further comprises displaying a current instruction in the series of instructions until receipt of a command to display a next instruction in the series of instructions.