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

• US 7,804,608 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2004
• Issued: 09/28/2010
• 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, Kitagata, Kei, Kayama, Hiroyuki, Yagita, Takashi, Kurotsu, Noriyoshi, Morooka, Hidekazu, Kikuchi, Koji, Wanda, Koichiro, Ohshima, Masamichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Coles; Edward L
• Assistant Examiner(s): McLean; Neil R
• Application Number:
  US10/894,018
• Publication Number:
  US 20050018236A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,261 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.15, 358/1.14, 358/1.13, 358/1.16, 358/1.18, 358/401, 358/434, 358/444, 710/17, 719/321
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• 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-readable medium storing, in executable form, a program for operating an information processing apparatus with a print processing function, the program comprising:

program code for executing a default printer specifying step of specifying a default printer, to be used as a default registered in an operating system, when a printing process is performed;

program code for executing a monitoring step of monitoring a status of a first printer that is specified as the default printer;

program code for executing a first control step of controlling to display a first job icon indicating a result of the monitoring of the status of the first printer, in the monitoring step, on a display unit as a resident display;

program code for executing a checking step of checking whether the default printer registered in the operating system has changed from the first printer to a second printer;

program code for executing a changing step of changing a monitoring object in the monitoring step from the first printer to the second printer, in response to a checked result in the checking step that the default printer has changed; and

program code for executing a second control step of monitoring a status of the second printer that is specified as the default printer and controlling to display a second job icon indicating a result of the monitoring of the status of the second printer, wherein, in the second control step, the first job icon displayed on the display unit as the resident display is changed to the second job icon.

2. The computer-readable medium 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-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the program further comprises 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-readable medium 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-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the program code for executing the monitoring step includes program code for monitoring a status of the default printer upon launching in response to a change from the first printer to the second printer.

6. The computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the program code for executing the monitoring step includes 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-readable medium according to claim 6, wherein the program further comprises:

program code for executing a determination step of determining, based on a presence or an absence of a job, whether 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 program code for ending monitoring of the default printer based on a determination result in the determination step.

8. The computer-readable medium according to claim 7, wherein the presence or the absence of a job is determined based on a job of a first user, and the status of the default printer reflected on the resident display is a status of a physical printer corresponding to the default printer based on a job of a second user.

9. The computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein monitoring of the default printer starts, or ends, or both starts and ends based on a job of a first user, and the status of the default printer reflected on the resident display is a status of a physical printer corresponding to the default printer based on a job of a second user.

10. The computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein a monitoring operation in the monitoring step can be launched irrespective of the presence or the absence of a print request.

11. The computer-readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the program code for executing the first control step includes program code for launching a monitor utility that displays statuses of a plurality of printers and a status of a job in each printer in addition to the resident display.

12. The computer-readable medium according to claim 1, further comprising program code for executing a job status monitoring step of determining a presence or an absence of a job that is undergoing a print process in the default printer, and displaying, when the job is determined to be present, a job icon indicating a status of the job as another resident display on the display unit parallel to the resident display.

13. An information processing method performed by an information processing apparatus with a print processing function, the method comprising:

a default printer specifying step of specifying a default printer to be used as a default registered in an operating system, when a printing process is performed;

a monitoring step of monitoring a status of a first printer that is specified as the default printer;

a first control step of controlling to display a first job icon indicating a result of the monitoring of the status of the first printer, in the monitoring step, on a display unit as a resident display;

a checking step of checking whether the default printer registered in the operating system has changed from the first printer to a second printer; and

a changing step of changing a monitoring object in the monitoring step from the first printer to the second printer, in response to a detection in the checking step that the default printer has changed; and

a second control step of monitoring a status of the second printer that is specified as the default printer and controlling to display a second job icon indicating a result the monitoring of the status of the second printer, wherein, in the second control step, the first job icon displayed on the display unit as the resident display is changed to the second job icon.

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 a status of the default printer upon launching in response to a change from the first printer to the second 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 a presence or an absence of a job, whether monitoring is to end in response to an elapse of the predetermined period of time,

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

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

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

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

23. The method according to claim 13, wherein the first 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 a presence or an absence of a job that is undergoing a print process in the default printer, and displaying, when the job is determined to be present, a job icon indicating a 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 to be used as a default registered in an operating system, when a printing process is performed;

monitoring means for monitoring a status of the default printer;

first control means for controlling to display a first job icon indicating a result of the monitoring of the status of the first printer, by the monitoring means, on a display unit as a resident display;

checking means for checking whether the default printer registered in the operating system has changed from a first printer to a second printer;

changing means for changing a monitoring object of the monitoring means from the first printer to the second printer, in response to a detection by the checking means that the default printer has changed; and

second control means for monitoring a status of the second printer that is specified as the default printer and for controlling to display a second job icon indicating a result of the monitoring of the second printer, wherein the second control means changes the first job icon displayed on the display unit as the resident display to the second job icon.