System for automatically monitoring copiers from a remote location
First Claim
1. A system for automatically monitoring the operational status of one or more copier machines from a remote location, each copier machine having a copier control computer for determining copier status, comprising means for monitoring status information from the copier control computer, a translator associated with each copier including means to adapt status information from the specific copier machine into uniform status information for transmission to the remote location, means for transmitting information between the translator of each copier and the remote location and means to poll the translator for each copier machine, to obtain copier machine status information, from the remote location.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for automatically, remotely monitoring the operational status of one or more copy machines each having a copier computer therein for determining copier status comprising a data tap in the copier to monitor status information from the copier computer, a translator to adapt the status information from the copier computer into uniform information for transmission to the remote location, and a transmission link between the individual copiers and the remote location. The system utilizes a scanner to respectively monitor the copiers which can poll each of the copiers at a uniform rate or, when requested by the user at the central location, vary the poll rate of one or more of the copiers to poll the selected copier with increased regularity, slowing the polling rate of the other copiers, to provide a real-time monitoring of the selected copier. The system also provides for the operation of the copier from the remote location to allow the user at the remote location to operate the copier, i.e., for the diagnosis of a detected problem.
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Citations
9 Claims
- 1. A system for automatically monitoring the operational status of one or more copier machines from a remote location, each copier machine having a copier control computer for determining copier status, comprising means for monitoring status information from the copier control computer, a translator associated with each copier including means to adapt status information from the specific copier machine into uniform status information for transmission to the remote location, means for transmitting information between the translator of each copier and the remote location and means to poll the translator for each copier machine, to obtain copier machine status information, from the remote location.
Specification