Image forming device to perform a system diagnosis and method thereof

• US 7,873,876 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2007
• Issued: 01/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: S-Printing Solution Co., Ltd. (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Oh, Hung-joon
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel; Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lottich; Joshua P
• Application Number:
  US11/954,691
• Publication Number:
  US 20080162993A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,133 Days
• Field of Search: 399/8, 399/11, 399/18, 714/25, 714/26, 714/46
• US Class Current: 714/46
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/502 relating to the structure of the control menu, e.g. pop-up menus, help screens
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/5079 for maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/55 Self-diagnostics; Malfunction or lifetime display
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/553 Monitoring or warning means for exhaustion or lifetime end of consumables, e.g. indication of insufficient copy sheet quantity for a job
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 2215/00109 Remote control of apparatus, e.g. by a host

Abstract

An image forming device which enables a user to determine a diagnostic item and to perform a system diagnosis easily. The image forming device includes a storage unit to store information corresponding to diagnostic items and keyword information for the respective diagnostic items, an input unit to receive an input of at least one input device, and a control unit to search for information corresponding to a diagnostic item stored in the storage unit which corresponds to the at least one input keyword if the at least one keyword is inputted, and performing a system diagnosis of the image forming device.

Claims

1. An image forming device comprising:

a storage unit to store information corresponding to diagnostic items and keyword information corresponding to respective diagnostic items;

an input unit to receive an input of at least one keyword; and

a control unit to search for at least one diagnostic item stored in the storage unit which corresponds to the input of the at least one keyword and to perform at least one diagnosis of the image forming device according to the searched at least one diagnostic item,

wherein the control unit matches information corresponding to the at least one diagnostic item for which a keyword is to be set with set keyword information corresponding to the keyword to be set and stores in the storage unit the set keyword information which corresponds to the at least one diagnostic item matched with the keyword to be set.

2. The image forming device of claim 1, wherein the input unit comprises:

a user interface unit to receive an input of the at least one keyword;

wherein the control unit searches for the at least one diagnostic item stored in the storage unit which corresponds to the at least one keyword inputted through the user interface unit and performs the at least one diagnosis according to the searched at least one diagnostic item.

3. The image forming device of claim 1, wherein the input unit comprises:

an interface unit to receive at least one keyword transmitted from an external host device;

wherein the control unit searches for at least one diagnostic item stored in the storage unit which corresponds to the at least one keyword transmitted through the interface unit and performs at least one diagnosis according to the at least one searched diagnostic item.

4. The image forming device of claim 3, wherein the control unit transmits a result of at least one diagnosis to the external host device through the interface unit if the at least one diagnosis corresponding to the at least one diagnostic item is completed.

5. The image forming device of claim 1, further comprising:

an engine part to perform an image forming operation;

wherein, if the at least one diagnostic item corresponding to the at least one input keyword relates to an image forming operation, the control unit performs the at least one diagnosis by performing a self-test of the engine part and checking a result of the self-test.

6. The image forming device of claim 1, further comprising:

a system data storage unit to store system data;

wherein the control unit performs the at least one diagnosis by checking the system data stored in the system data storage unit if the at least one diagnostic item corresponding to the at least one input keyword relates to a characteristic of the image forming device.

7. The image forming device of claim 1, further comprising:

an output unit to output a message to report a result of the at least one diagnosis; and

an engine part to perform an image forming operation and to output a printed document;

wherein the control unit outputs the result of the at least one diagnosis through at least one of the output unit and the engine part in the form of a message or a printed document if the at least one diagnosis corresponding to the at least one diagnostic item is completed.

8. The image forming device of claim 1, wherein the control unit searches for all diagnostic items having the same keyword as the at least one input keyword among the diagnostic items stored in the storage unit if the keyword is inputted and performs a diagnosis for each diagnostic item associated with the at least one input keyword.

9. The image forming device of claim 1, wherein the keyword information stored in the storage unit is editable metadata for at least one respective diagnostic item.

10. A system diagnosis method for an image forming device, comprising:

receiving an input of at least one keyword;

matching information corresponding to at least one diagnostic item for which at least one keyword is to be set with keyword set information corresponding to the at least one keyword to be set and storing the keyword set information corresponding to the at least one diagnostic item matched;

searching pre-stored information for at least one diagnostic item that corresponds to the at least one input keyword; and

performing at least one diagnosis of the image forming device according to the searched pre-stored information for the at least one corresponding diagnostic item.

11. The system diagnosis method of claim 10, wherein the performing of the at least one diagnosis includes performing a self-test of an engine part of the image forming device to perform an image forming operation if the at least one searched diagnostic item relates to the image forming operation and checking a result of the self-test.

12. The system diagnosis method of claim 10, wherein the performing of the at least one diagnosis includes confirming pre-stored system data if the at least one searched diagnostic item relates to a characteristic of the image forming device.

13. The system diagnosis method of claim 10, further comprising:

outputting a result of the at least one diagnosis in the form of a printed document or a message if the at least one diagnosis is completed.

14. The system diagnosis method of claim 10, further comprising:

transmitting a result of the at least one diagnosis to an external host device if the at least one diagnosis is completed.

15. The system diagnosis method of claim 10, wherein:

the searching of the pre-stored information for at least one diagnostic item comprises searching for all the diagnostic items having the same keyword as the input keyword among the pre-stored information for at least one diagnostic item; and

the performing at least one diagnosis comprises, if all the diagnostic items have been searched for, performing the at least one diagnosis corresponding to the searched at least one diagnostic item.

16. The system diagnosis method of claim 10, wherein:

the searching of the pre-stored information comprises searching for all the diagnostic items having the same keyword as the input keyword among the pre-stored information for at least one diagnostic item; and

the performing of the at least one diagnosis comprises, if all the diagnostic items have been searched for, providing a list of all the searched diagnostic items and performing at least one diagnosis corresponding to each diagnostic item selected from the list.

17. The system diagnosis method of claim 10, wherein the pre-stored information is editable metadata for the respective diagnostic items.

18. The system diagnosis method of claim 10, wherein the receiving an input of at least one keyword includes receiving the at least one keyword from at least one of an input device provided in the image forming device and an external host device.

19. An image forming device, comprising:

a storage unit to store information including one or more diagnostic items and one or more keywords to designate each of the one or more diagnostic items; and

a control unit to select at least one of the one or more diagnostic items according to an input of at least one of the one or more keywords to perform a diagnosis corresponding to the selected at least one diagnostic item,

wherein the control unit matches information corresponding to the at least one diagnostic item for which a keyword is to be set with set keyword information corresponding to the keyword to be set and stores in the storage unit the set keyword information which corresponds to the at least one diagnostic item matched with the keyword to be set.

20. An image forming device, comprising:

a storage unit to store information including a first diagnostic item, a second diagnostic item, a plurality of keywords to designate the first diagnostic item, and a single keyword to designate the second diagnostic item; and

a control unit to perform a diagnosis corresponding to the first diagnostic item according to any one of the keywords and to perform another diagnosis corresponding to the second diagnostic item according to a single keyword,

wherein the control unit matches information corresponding to the first diagnostic item for which a keyword is to be set with set keyword information corresponding to the plurality of keywords to be set and stores in the storage unit the set keyword information which corresponds to the first diagnostic item matched with the plurality of keywords to be set, and

the control unit matches information corresponding to the second diagnostic item for which a keyword is to be set with set keyword information corresponding to the single keyword to be set and stores the set keyword information which corresponds to the second diagnostic item matched with the single keyword to be set in the storage unit.