Information processing system reducing inconvenience relating to distance between computer and printer or the like

• US 8,274,677 B2
• Filed: 02/21/2006
• Issued: 09/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Asano, Taiga
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, DUNG D
• Application Number:
  US11/359,949
• Publication Number:
  US 20060195495A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,408 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/027 Arrangements and methods specific for the display of internet documents
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display

Abstract

An information processing system includes a device having a printing unit and an information processing apparatus connected to the device via a network. The device includes a display screen sharing client unit configure to acquire data of a display screen displayed at the information processing apparatus and to display the data of the display screen on a display unit of the device, thereby achieving display screen sharing. The information processing apparatus includes a display screen sharing server unit configured to supply the data of the display screen displayed at the information processing apparatus to the device, and a print setting unit configured to acquire, through a network, usage information necessary to use the printing unit in response instruction from the device, and to spontaneously make a setting necessary to cause the printing unit to print document data stored in the information processing apparatus in response to the usage information.

Claims

1. An information processing system, comprising:

an image forming device having a printing unit; and

an information processing apparatus connected to the image forming device via a network,

wherein said image forming device includes

a supplying unit configured to supply, to the information processing apparatus in response to a request from the information processing apparatus, an installer for a printer driver that is necessary for using the printing unit, and

a display screen sharing client unit including

a screen-data receiving unit configured to receive data of a display screen displayed at the information processing apparatus,

a screen-data displaying unit configured to display, on a display unit of said image forming device based on the data of the display screen, the display screen that is displayed at the information processing apparatus,

an operation event acquiring unit configured to detect an operation event that is input into the display screen displayed at the image forming device, and

a display screen sharing client unit configured to transmit the operation event to the information processing apparatus, and

wherein said information processing apparatus includes;

a display screen sharing server unit configured to supply the data of the display screen displayed at the information processing apparatus, to the image forming device;

an operation event receiving unit configured to receive the operation event transmitted from the image forming device; and

a print setting unit configured to send a request for the installer of the printing unit to the image forming device in response to the operation event received by the operation event receiving unit, to activate the installer provided by the image forming device to install a printer device, for a print job to the printing unit, in the information processing apparatus, and to automatically make a setting necessary to cause the printing unit to print document data stored in the information processing apparatus.

2. The information processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the printing unit usage information includes a program written as a predetermined script, and wherein the print setting unit is configured to spontaneously make a setting necessary to cause said image forming device to print document data stored in the information processing apparatus by performing the predetermined script.

3. The information processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the printing unit usage information includes an installer to install the printer driver corresponding to the printing unit, and wherein the print setting unit is configured to install the printer driver in the information processing apparatus by executing the installer.

4. The information processing system as claimed in claim 1, further including, in the image forming device, a print service unit configured to receive the document data to be printed and print setting information regarding the document data, and to cause the printing unit to print the received document data, wherein said print setting unit is configured to cause a print setting display screen to be displayed to cause the document data and the print setting information to be specified, and to transmit the document data and the print setting information specified on the print setting display screen to the print service unit.

5. The information processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus includes a conversion unit configured to convert the document data into data having a universal data format that is printable by the printing unit, and to request a printout destination to print the data having the universal data format, and wherein said print setting unit is configured to make a setting to the conversion unit such as to specify said image forming device as the printout destination.

6. The information processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said image forming device further includes:

a scanner unit; and

a scan control unit configured to cause the scanner unit to perform a scan in response to instruction from the information processing apparatus and to transmit scanned information to the information processing apparatus,

and wherein said information processing apparatus includes;

a scanner setting unit configured to acquire scanner usage information necessary to use the scanner unit in response to instruction from said image forming device and to spontaneously make a setting in response to the scanner usage information such as to make the scanner unit controllable from the information processing apparatus; and

a scanner control unit configured to cause a scanner setting display screen to be displayed to prompt a scan instruction to be entered with respect to the scanner unit controllable from the information processing apparatus, and configured to cause the scanner unit to perform a scan in response to information entered through the scanner setting display screen.

7. The information processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said image forming device further includes:

a scanner unit;

a scan control unit configured to cause the scanner unit to perform a scan in response to instruction from an input unit provided in said image forming device; and

a scan information transmitting unit configured to transmit image information scanned by said scanner unit to the information processing apparatus,

and wherein said information processing apparatus further includes an image information storage unit configured to receive the image information transmitted from said image forming device and to store the received image information in a predetermined memory area.

8. The image forming device of the information processing system as claimed in claim 1.

9. The information processing apparatus of the information processing system as claimed in claim 1.

10. The information processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus sends a print request to the image forming device in response to instruction entered by the user at the image forming device using the display screen of the information processing apparatus, on the image forming device, so that the printing unit of the image forming device prints a document stored in the information processing apparatus in response to the print request.

11. The information processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the display screen of the information processing apparatus is displayed on a display device of the information processing apparatus.

12. The information processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the display screen of the information processing apparatus displayed on the display unit of said image forming device allows the user at the image forming device to enter the instruction to cause the information processing apparatus to (i) acquire the printing unit usage information and (ii) send to the image forming device a print request requesting that the printing unit of the image forming device print a document stored in the information processing apparatus.

13. The information processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus sets a printer port to a network address of the printing device, in response to the printing unit usage information.

14. The information processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the printing unit usage information includes an installer for installing the printer driver necessary for printing to the printing unit.

15. The information processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the setting to share the printing unit includes selecting the printer driver of the printing unit already installed on the information processing apparatus, as a shared printer.

16. The information processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the print setting unit automatically sets the printing unit as the default printer when making the setting to share the printing unit.

17. An information processing method for an information processing system which includes an image forming device having a printing unit and an information processing apparatus connected to the image forming device via a network, said method comprising:

a display screen sharing step of making said image forming device and said information processing apparatus share a display screen, including

receiving, by the image forming device, data of a display screen displayed at the information processing apparatus,

displaying, on a display unit of said image forming device having the printing unit, based on the data of the display screen displayed at the information processing apparatus, the display screen that is displayed at the information processing apparatus,

detecting an operation event that is input into the display screen displayed at the image forming device, and

transmitting the operation event from the image forming device to the information processing apparatus; and

a print setting step of causing the information processing apparatus to make a setting to share the printing unit via the network, including

receiving, by the image forming device from the information processing apparatus, a request for an installer for a printer driver that is necessary for using the printing unit, in response to the operation event transmitted from the image forming device to the information processing apparatus,

supplying, from the image forming device to the information processing apparatus in response to the request from the information processing apparatus, the installer for the printer driver that is necessary for using the printing unit, and

causing the installer provided by the image forming device to be activated to install a printer device, for a print job to the printing unit, in the information processing apparatus, and to automatically make a setting necessary to cause the printing unit to print document data stored in the information processing apparatus.

18. The information processing method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the printing unit usage information includes a program written as a predetermined script, and wherein the print setting step makes a setting necessary to cause said image forming device to print document data stored in the information processing apparatus by performing the predetermined script.

19. The information processing method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the printing unit usage information includes an installer to install the printer driver corresponding to the printing unit, and wherein the print setting step installs the printer driver in the information processing apparatus by executing the installer.

20. The information processing method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the information processing system further includes, in the image forming device, a print service unit configured to receive the document data to be printed and print setting information regarding the document data, and to cause the printing unit to print the received document data, wherein said print setting step causes a print setting display screen to be displayed to cause the document data and the print setting information to be specified, and to transmit the document data and the print setting information specified on the print setting display screen to the print service unit.

21. The information processing method as claimed in claim 17, wherein the information processing apparatus includes a conversion unit configured to convert the document data into data having a universal data format that is printable by the printing unit, and to request a printout destination to print the data having the universal data format, and wherein said print setting step makes a setting to the conversion unit such as to specify the image forming device as the printout destination.

22. The information processing method as claimed in claim 17, wherein said image forming device further includes a scanner unit, said method further comprising:

a scanner setting step of causing the information processing apparatus to acquire scanner usage information necessary to use the scanner unit in response to instruction from said image forming device, and to make a setting in response to the scanner usage information such as to make the scanner unit controllable from the information processing apparatus;

a scan request step of causing the information processing apparatus to cause a scanner setting display screen to be displayed to prompt a scan instruction to be entered with respect to the scanner unit controllable from the information processing apparatus, and to transmit a scan instruction to the image forming device in response to information entered through the scanner setting display screen; and

a scan performing step of causing the scanner unit to perform a scan in response to the scan instruction from the information processing apparatus to transmit scanned information to the information processing apparatus.

23. The information processing method as claimed in claim 17, wherein said image forming device further includes a scanner unit, said method further comprising:

a scan performing step of causing the scanner unit to perform a scan in response to instruction from an input unit provided in said image forming device;

a scan information transmitting step of causing the image forming device to transmit image information scanned by said scanner unit to the information processing apparatus; and

an image information storage step of causing the information processing apparatus to receive the image information transmitted from said image forming device to store the received image information in a predetermined memory area.

24. The information processing method as claimed in claim 17, further comprising:

sending a print request from the information processing apparatus to the image forming device in response to instruction entered by the user at the image forming device using the display screen of the information processing apparatus, on the image forming device, to cause the printing unit of the image forming device to print a document stored in the information processing apparatus in response to the print request.

25. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying a program of instructions executable by a computer, which is connected via a network to an image forming device having a printing unit, and has a display screen thereof displayed on a display unit of said image forming device through display screen sharing, to cause the computer to perform:

a display screen sharing step of making said image forming device and said computer share a display screen, including

supplying, from the computer to the image forming device, data of a display screen displayed at the computer,

causing to be displayed, on the display unit of said image forming device having the printing unit, based on the data of the display screen displayed at the computer, the display screen that is displayed at the computer,

receiving from the image forming device an operation event that is input into the display screen displayed at the image forming device; and

a print setting step of making a setting to share the printing unit via the network, including

sending, to the image forming device, a request for an installer for a printer driver that is necessary for using the printing unit, in response to the operation event received from the image forming device,

activating the installer provided by the image forming device to install a printer device, for a print job to the printing unit, in the computer, and

automatically making a setting necessary to cause the printing unit to print document data stored in the computer.

26. The computer-readable medium as claimed in claim 25, wherein the printing unit usage information includes a program written as a predetermined script, and wherein the print setting step makes a setting necessary to cause said image forming device to print the document data stored in the computer by performing the predetermined script.

27. The computer-readable medium as claimed in claim 25, wherein the printing unit usage information includes an installer to install the printer driver corresponding to the printing unit, and wherein the print setting step installs the printer driver in the computer by executing the installer.

28. The computer-readable medium as claimed in claim 25, wherein said print setting step causes a print setting display screen to be displayed to prompt document data and print setting information to be specified, and to transmit the document data and the print setting information specified on the print setting display screen to a predetermined device.

29. The computer-readable medium as claimed in claim 25, wherein said image forming device further includes a scanner unit, said program further causing the computer to perform:

a scanner setting step of acquiring scanner usage information necessary to use the scanner unit in response to instruction from said image forming device, and making a setting in response to the scanner usage information such as to make the scanner unit controllable from the computer; and

a scan request step of causing a scanner setting display screen to be displayed to prompt a scan instruction to be entered with respect to the scanner unit controllable from the computer, and transmitting a scan instruction to the image forming device in response to information entered through the scanner setting display screen.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein the program of instructions executable by the computer, causes the computer to send a print request from the computer to the image forming device in response to instruction entered by the user at the image forming device using the display screen of the information processing apparatus, on the image forming device, to cause the printing unit of the image forming device to print a document stored in the computer in response to the print request.