JP2000025306A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance convenience of a printer by executing a specified operation actively. SOLUTION: The printer 1 is provided with a clock section 7 generating absolute time information indicative of current date, week day and time. Using absolute time information from the clock section 7, occurring time of error is notified along the content thereof and printing time is printed on print results. Turn on power, turn off power, warming up or sleep down of printer are performed at specified times and cleaning interval is controlled such that over cleaning is not performed. Update time of a print driver is predicted and notified to a user, ending time of job is predicted and notified, and the time when consumables, e.g. toner, runs out is predicted and notified.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer for printing documents and images.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A network printer connected to a network and a local printer directly connected to a host computer are known. Both types of printers operate in response to external actions, such as when a user operates a power switch or control panel key or a host sends a command for printing or control. It is a very passive device.

[0003]

The value of the printer will be further enhanced if the printer can not only operate in response to an external action but also actively perform functions convenient for the user. For example, it is convenient if the user actively starts and warms up at an appropriate timing without particularly turning on the power.
For maintenance and error handling, it is convenient if the printer actively works and reduces the user's labor. Regarding the printing operation, it is convenient not only to perform printing as requested by the user but also to have an active function of so-called “carefulness”.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a printer that actively performs a predetermined operation.

[0005] Another object of the present invention is to reduce the user's labor concerning printer maintenance and error handling.

Another object of the present invention is to realize an active printing function.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided a printer for generating information indicating a current absolute time, obtaining an absolute time from the clock, and performing a predetermined service using the absolute time. A service unit.

The services include, for example, (1) reporting an error occurrence together with the time of occurrence, (2) adding a print time to a print result, and warming up the printer at a predetermined time (3) at a predetermined time (4) Learning a time suitable for powering on, powering off, warming up or sleeping down the printer, and performing the operation at that time. (5) Monitor the time from the previous cleaning execution to avoid excessively frequent cleaning execution. (6) Store the usage history of each user's printer and, based on the usage history at a predetermined time. Generates and outputs billing information. (7) Makes the printer function as a proxy server and caches the content. Check the oldness of the data and always provide new contents to the client. (8) Receive the time notification request and output the current time. (10) When a predetermined driver update time comes, update of the printer driver Output a message, (11) predict and report the end time of the job, (12) predict and report the time when there is no consumables,
It is possible, but not limited to this.

The present invention can be carried out by a computer with a built-in printer, and a computer program for that can be installed or loaded into the computer through various media such as a disk storage, a semiconductor memory, and a communication network.

[0010] The clock section of the present invention is typically provided in a printer, but as a variant, the printer itself does not have a clock section, but utilizes a clock section of an external device such as a host computer. Then, the absolute time may be taken into the printer as needed from the external device.

[0011]

FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The printer 1 is connected to the communication network 3 and communicates with a predetermined node (a host computer, a print server, a WWW site, etc., not shown) on the communication network 3, and a coloring agent is applied to paper. Print engine 9 as a mechanical mechanism for performing printing
Is provided. Further, the printer 1 has a clock section 7, and the clock section 7 measures time to generate information indicating the current date and time, day of the week, and time (referred to as absolute time in this specification). Further, the printer 1 includes an error reporting unit 11 and a job printing unit 1 as program modules executed by a microprocessor (not shown) built in the printer 1.
3. Warm-up unit 15, WWW patrol unit 17, learning type power saving unit 19, cleaning unit 21, billing unit 23, proxy server unit 25, time server unit 27, driver update notification unit 29, job end prediction unit 31, and consumables out It has a prediction unit 33, and all of these modules perform various operations described below using the absolute time generated by the clock unit 7.

The error reporting section 11 is for notifying the error, together with the time of occurrence, when an error occurs in the printer 1. FIG. 2 shows the operation of the error reporting unit 11.

Each time an error occurs in the printer 1 (step S1), the error reporting unit 11 obtains the current absolute time from the clock unit 7 (S2), and reports the contents of the error and the error occurrence time in the printer 1. Is stored in a volatile or non-volatile storage device (memory or storage) (S3).
At any time, the current time is acquired (S4), and when it becomes a predetermined report time (S5), the data of the set of the contents of the error and the time of the occurrence of the error are stored in a predetermined device outside the printer 1 (for example, (The predetermined host) (S7),
Then, the data of the error content and the error occurrence time stored in the printer 1 are cleared (S8). If no error content has been saved by the reporting time, the fact that there is no error is notified to the predetermined external device (S
9).

The job printing unit 13 executes a print job requested by the host, and prints a print time on a print result upon a request from a user. FIG.
The operation of the job printing unit 13 will be described.

When a print job is received from the host (S11), the job printing unit 13 acquires the current absolute time from the clock unit 7 (S12), and is requested to print a banner indicating the printing time next. (For example, whether the print job includes a command indicating the request, whether the request is set in advance from the control panel of the printer 1, or whether the request is set in advance for the type of the print job, etc. ) Is checked (S13), and if requested, a banner indicating the print time is printed at a predetermined position on the paper (for example, the top of the first page) (S1).
4). Subsequently, it is checked whether or not a print time is also required to be printed on each page of the print job (S15). If the request is made, the current absolute value is obtained from the clock unit 7 each time the print processing of each page is started. Time is acquired (S16),
After adding a time display to a predetermined location (for example, an upper margin) of a print image of each page (S17), each page is printed (S18). Steps S15 to S18 are repeated for all pages of the print job (S19).

As shown in FIG. 4, the warm-up unit 15 acquires the current absolute time from the clock unit 7 at any time, and if the current absolute time comes to the previously designated warm-up time (S21), the print engine 9 Is warmed up (S22).

As shown in FIG. 5, the WWW patrol unit 17 obtains the current absolute time from the clock unit 7 at any time, and if the present absolute time comes to the predetermined patrol time (S23), the communication network 3 to visit a number of designated WWW sites on the Internet, acquire the homepages of those sites and the resources contained in the homepages, and automatically print them (S24).

The learning type power saving unit 19 learns a time zone when the printer 1 is used and not used, and automatically turns on and off the power of the printer 1 and warms up and sleeps the print engine 9 in the time zone. It performs a down (transition to a power saving state) and the like. FIG.
Shows the operation of the learning-type warming-up unit 19.

When the power of the printer 1 is turned on by the user (S31), the learning type power saving unit 19 acquires the current absolute time from the clock unit 7 and stores it in the nonvolatile storage device in the printer 1 ( S32). At this time, the power-on time is classified and stored from the viewpoint of which day of the week and which time zone (for example, a two-hour time zone) of the day. Further, the current time is acquired from the clock unit 7 as needed, and when the current time reaches a predetermined power-on time, power-off time, warm-up time or sleep-down time (S33), the power-on, power-off, The print engine 9 warms up or the print engine 9 sleeps down (S34). The power is turned on when the printer 1 is in the power-off state. Even in this power-off state, the learning-type power saving unit 19 obtains a small amount of power from a commercial power supply or a built-in battery, etc. Checking for arrival. Also,
Each time a print job arrives from the host (S35), the learning-type power saving unit 19 obtains the current time from the clock unit 7, and the job arrival time is determined by the day of the week and the time period of the day. Are stored in a nonvolatile storage device in the printer 1 (S36). Naturally, as the power-on by the user is repeated and the arrival of the print job is repeated, the number of data of the power-on time and the job arrival time stored up to now increases. When job arrival time data is accumulated up to a predetermined number or more (S37), based on the accumulated time data, a time slot during which a print job arrives and a time slot during which no print job arrives are statistically determined for each day of the week. Power on time, power off time, warm-up start time,
Then, the printer automatically sets the sleep-down time (S38). For example, the power-on time is set at the start of a time period when the user frequently turns on the power or the time when a print job is likely to come, and the warm-up time is set at the start of the time period when the print job frequently comes. ,
A sleep-down time is set at the end of a time zone where a print job frequently comes, and a power-off time is set at the start of a time zone where a print job is unlikely to come.

The cleaning unit 21 performs cleaning of the print engine 9 and the like in response to a user's request, but controls so as not to perform too frequent cleaning. FIG.
Shows the operation of the cleaning unit 21.

The cleaning unit 21 waits for a cleaning request from an external device such as a host or a control panel of the printer 1 (S41). When the cleaning request is received, the cleaning unit 21 obtains the current time from the clock unit 7 (S43).
The current time is compared with the time when the previous cleaning was performed, and it is checked whether a predetermined time has passed (S4).
3). If the predetermined time has elapsed, the cleaning of the print engine 9 is executed (S46). On the other hand, if the predetermined time has not passed yet, a dialog for notifying the external device that issued the cleaning request or the control panel of the printer 1 that cleaning is not necessary and reconfirming whether or not to perform cleaning is performed. A box is displayed (S4), and cleaning is executed only when a request for forced execution is received from an external device or a control panel (S46). When the cleaning is performed, the execution time is obtained from the clock unit 7 and stored in the nonvolatile storage device (S47).

The billing unit 23 generates billing information according to the usage amount of the user who uses the printer 1. FIG. 8 shows the operation of the charging unit 23.

Each time a print job arrives and is executed (S52), the accounting unit 23 determines the account of the user (or host) that issued the print job and the print amount of the job (the number of pages, the number of characters of the document, The data amount is calculated and stored in a nonvolatile storage device (S54). At any time, the current time is acquired from the clock unit 7 (S51), and when it becomes a predetermined charging time (for example, a predetermined time on the last day of the month) (S5).
2), the total print amount of each user is totaled to generate information for billing, the billing information is transmitted to a predetermined external host or the like (S55), and the saved information of each user is stored. The print amount is deleted (S56).

The proxy server unit 25 performs a process for causing the printer 1 to function as a proxy server. For example, as shown in FIG. 9, on an internal network 20 such as an intranet, clients 21 and 23 are connected to a WWW on an external network 40 such as the Internet.
When a content acquisition request is issued to the server 41 or the FTP server 43, the printer 1 receives the acquisition request and sends it to the WWW server 41 or the FTP server 43 as a proxy server, and the content data sent back from the servers 41, 43 Is temporarily cached in the auxiliary storage device 1A, and then the client 21 of each request source,
Send to 23. FIG. 10 shows the operation of the proxy server unit 25 for realizing such a function.

The proxy server unit 25 waits for a content acquisition request by HTTP or FTP from the clients 21 and 23 (S61). When the request comes, the content specified by the request has already been stored in the auxiliary storage device 1A. Check whether it is in (S62), and if it is, watch part 7
Then, the current time is acquired, and it is checked whether the acquisition time of the content is older than the current time by a predetermined time or more (S63, S64). If the result is old,
Alternatively, if the requested content does not exist in the auxiliary storage device 1A in step S62, the acquisition request is transmitted to the external network 40, the target content is acquired from the corresponding server 41, 43, and the current time is acquired from the clock unit 7. And stores the time and the set of contents in the auxiliary storage device 1A.
To save. Then, the contents are sent to the requesting clients 21 and 23 (S67). If the check result in step S64 is not old, the contents in the auxiliary storage device 1A are sent to the requesting clients 21 and 23 (S67).

It should be noted that the criterion for judging whether or not the content is old in step S64 may be changed according to the type of the content. For example, a daily newspaper as content is considered old after one day, and weekly news is considered old after one week.

As shown in FIG. 11, the time server unit 27 waits for a time acquisition request from the host (S7).
1) When it comes, the current time is acquired from the clock unit 7 and returned to the requesting host (S73, S74).

The printer driver update notification section 29 predicts the time when a new version of the printer driver will be released on the home page of the driver maker and notifies the user of the time. FIG. 12 shows the operation of the printer driver update notification unit 29.

The printer driver update notification unit 29 obtains the current time from the inspection unit 7 at any time (S81), and updates it at a predetermined update time (for example, three months after one month from the factory shipment of the printer 1). After, 6 months, 1 year, and 2
(S82), the host (user) is notified that there is a possibility that the printer driver can be updated (S83). Upon receiving notification from the host (user) that the information has been updated or that the notification has been accepted (S8)
4) The next update time is designated (S85).

The job end prediction section 31 predicts a job end time for a predetermined job (or for all jobs). FIG. 13 shows the operation of the job end prediction unit 31.

The job end predicting unit 31 waits for a request to predict the end time of a specified job (or all jobs) from a host or the like (S91). When the request comes, the job end predicting unit 31 terminates the currently executing job. The required time and the time required to complete all jobs from the next scheduled job in the queue to the designated (or last) job are estimated and totaled (S92), and the total required time is calculated. A predicted job end time is calculated by adding the current time to the current time from the clock unit 7, and the predicted time is notified to the requesting host (S93).

The consumable supply out predicting section 33 predicts a time when consumables such as toner, ink, and paper in the printer 1 are exhausted. FIG. 14 shows the operation of the consumable supply out predicting unit 33 (toner is taken as a consumable product, but the same applies to other consumable products).

Each time a print job is executed (S102), the consumables out predicting section 33 obtains the amount of toner consumed in the job (S103), acquires the current time from the clock section 7 (S104), and A new toner consumption rate (for example, toner consumption per day or week) M is calculated using the toner consumption rate up to the time of job execution, the toner consumption rate in the current job, and the current time, and The data is stored in the storage device (S105). When a request for predicting the toner out timing is received from the host or the like (S101), the current total remaining amount of toner is obtained (S106), and the total remaining amount is divided by the stored toner consumption rate M to obtain a period until the toner runs out. (Number of days or weeks) is calculated (S107), this period is added to the current time from the clock unit, and the date is predicted until the toner runs out, and reported to the requesting host (S108, S1).
09).

Further, the forecast may be made a fixed time (for example, one week) before the predicted toner exhaustion day. This has the following merits as compared with the conventional toner-less forecast. That is, in the related art, the remaining amount of toner is monitored, and a warning is issued when the remaining amount reaches a certain amount. For this reason, a printer with a small amount of use issues a forecast a long time before the day when the toner runs out, for example, a few weeks before, whereas a printer with a large amount of use issues a forecast immediately before the day on which the toner runs out, for example, the previous day. Therefore, it is difficult for the user to prepare for toner supply at an optimal timing (for example, one week before). On the other hand, in the present embodiment, since the prediction is performed in consideration of the usage of the printer, regardless of the amount of usage, it is necessary to issue a forecast a proper period, for example, one week before the date when the toner runs out. Can be easily prepared for the user.

The embodiment of the present invention has been described above.
This embodiment is merely an example for explaining the present invention, and is not intended to limit the present invention to only these embodiments. Therefore, the present invention can be implemented in various forms other than the above-described embodiment.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of an error reporting unit 11;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a job printing unit 13;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the warm-up unit 15;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the WWW patrol unit 17;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of a learning-type warming-up unit 19;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the cleaning unit.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the operation of the charging unit 23.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a connection example when the printer 1 is used as a proxy server.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the operation of the proxy server unit 25.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the operation of the time server unit 27;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a printer driver update notifying unit 29;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the operation of the job end prediction unit 31.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing the operation of a consumables out prediction unit 33.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Printer 7 Clock section

Claims (26)

[Claims] 1. A printer comprising: a clock unit that generates information indicating a current absolute time; and a service unit that acquires the absolute time from the clock unit and performs a predetermined service using the absolute time. 2. A clock section for generating information indicating a current absolute time, and an absolute time is obtained from the clock section when an error occurs,
A printer comprising: an error reporting unit that outputs the acquired absolute time at the time of occurrence of an error together with the content of the error. 3. A clock section for generating information indicating a current absolute time, acquiring the absolute time from the clock section at the time of executing a print job, and using the acquired absolute time at the time of execution of the print job as a value of the print job. A printer including a job printing unit for adding to a print result. 4. A clock unit for generating information indicating the current absolute time, and acquiring the absolute time from the clock unit as needed, and, when the acquired absolute time reaches a predetermined time, warming up the printer. A printer provided with a warming-up section for performing. 5. A communication interface unit for connecting to a predetermined information providing server on a communication network; a clock unit for generating information indicating a current absolute time; and acquiring the absolute time from the clock unit as needed. A printer having an automatic network circulating unit that circulates a predetermined server on the network through the communication interface unit to acquire information provided by the server when the acquired absolute time reaches a predetermined time. 6. A clock section for generating information indicating the current absolute time, acquiring the absolute time from the clock section when a print job is received, and obtaining the absolute time acquired when a plurality of past job receptions are performed. A learning unit that performs statistical processing to determine a time suitable for performing power-on, power-off, warm-up or sleep-down of the printer, and obtains an absolute time from the clock unit as needed when a print job is not being executed. When the obtained absolute time has reached the determined time, power-on, power-off, warm-up or sleep-down of the printer, a power saving unit,
With a printer. 7. A clock section for generating information indicating a current absolute time, and when receiving a cleaning request, acquiring the absolute time from the clock section, and comparing the absolute time at the time of receiving the acquired cleaning request with the previous time. A cleaning unit that obtains a time difference from an absolute time at the time of executing the cleaning, executes the cleaning if the time difference is equal to or more than a predetermined time, and performs an operation for restricting the execution of the cleaning if the time difference is less than the predetermined time. Printer. 8. A clock section for generating information indicating the current absolute time, a use history of each user's printer is stored, and the absolute time is obtained from the clock section as needed. A charging unit that generates and outputs charging information based on the stored usage history at a predetermined charging time. 9. A communication interface unit for connecting to an external network and an internal network, a clock unit for generating information indicating the current absolute time, an auxiliary storage device for storing contents, and obtaining contents from a client on the internal network Receiving the request, obtaining the absolute time from the clock unit when receiving the acquisition request, and when the content requested by the acquisition request is already stored in the auxiliary storage device, Check whether the time of the content in the auxiliary storage device is older than a predetermined time with respect to the absolute time at the time of reception, send the content in the auxiliary storage device to the client if it is not old, and send the acquisition request if it is old. Auxiliary storage device for sending to a server on an external network to obtain the requested content from the server And a proxy server unit for storing the data in the client and sending it to the client. 10. A printer comprising: a clock unit for generating information indicating a current absolute time; and a time server unit for receiving and outputting the absolute time from the clock unit when a time notification request is received. 11. A clock unit for generating information indicating a current absolute time, and an absolute time is obtained from the clock unit as needed, and when the obtained absolute time reaches a predetermined update time, the update of the printer driver is performed. A printer including a driver update notification unit that outputs a message. 12. A clock section for generating information indicating a current absolute time, and when receiving a job end prediction request, acquiring the absolute time from the clock section, and acquiring the acquired absolute time, A printer comprising: a job end prediction unit that determines a predicted job end time from a time required to end a job waiting to be executed and outputs the determined predicted job end time. 13. A clock unit for generating time information indicating a current absolute time, acquiring the absolute time from the clock unit when each print job is executed, and determining a consumption amount of a consumable by the print job; Upon receiving a consumable out prediction request, the absolute time is obtained from the clock unit, the obtained time at the time of receiving the prediction request, the absolute time obtained at the time of receiving the past print job, and the determined consumption amount. A consumables-out predicting unit that predicts when the consumables will be exhausted based on the consumables and outputs the predicted time. 14. A method of operating a printer, comprising: obtaining a current absolute time; and performing a predetermined service using the obtained absolute time. 15. An operation method of a printer, comprising: a step of acquiring an absolute time at the time of occurrence of an error; and a step of outputting the acquired absolute time at the time of occurrence of the error together with the content of the error. 16. A method of operating a printer, comprising: obtaining an absolute time when a print job is executed; and adding the obtained absolute time when the print job is executed to a print result of the print job. 17. A method of operating a printer, comprising: a step of obtaining a current absolute time as needed; and a step of warming up the printer when the obtained absolute time reaches a predetermined time. 18. A step of obtaining a current absolute time as needed, and when the obtained absolute time reaches a predetermined time, circulates a predetermined server on a communication interface unit to obtain information provided by the server. And printing. 19. A step of obtaining an absolute time when a print job is received, and statistically processing the absolute times obtained when a plurality of past jobs are received to turn on, turn off, warm up or sleep down the printer. Determining a time suitable for performing the operation, and when the print job is not being executed, the current absolute time is obtained from time to time, and when the obtained absolute time reaches the determined time, the power supply of the printer is turned on. A power-on, power-off, warm-up or sleep-down step. 20. A step of receiving a cleaning request, a step of obtaining an absolute time when a cleaning request is received, and a time difference between the obtained absolute time at the time of receiving the cleaning request and the absolute time at the time of previous cleaning execution. A method of operating the printer, comprising: performing a cleaning if the time difference is equal to or more than a predetermined time; and performing an operation for restricting the execution of the cleaning if the time difference is less than the predetermined time. 21. A step of storing a use history of the printer of each user, a step of obtaining the current absolute time as needed, and when the obtained absolute time reaches a predetermined billing time, the stored use history is stored. Generating and outputting charging information based on the printer. 22. A step of storing content acquired from an external network in a printer; a step of receiving a content acquisition request from a client on an internal network; a step of acquiring an absolute time at the time of receiving the acquisition request; When the content requested by the acquisition request is already stored, checking whether the time of the stored content is older than a predetermined time with respect to the absolute time at the time of receiving the obtained acquisition request; and As a result, if it is not old, the step of sending the stored content to the client; and, if the check shows that it is old, sending the acquisition request to the external network to obtain the requested content from the external network. Scan and save to printer and send to client A method of operating a printer and a-up. 23. A method of operating a printer, comprising: receiving a time notification request; obtaining an absolute time when the request is received; and outputting the obtained absolute time. 24. A method of operating a printer, comprising: a step of obtaining a current absolute time as needed; and a step of outputting a message about updating a printer driver when the obtained absolute time reaches a predetermined update time. 25. A step of receiving a job end prediction request, a step of acquiring an absolute time at the time of receiving the prediction request, and a step of ending the currently executed and waiting jobs to be executed. A method for operating a printer, comprising: a step of determining a predicted job end time from a required time required; and a step of outputting the determined predicted job end time. 26. A step of obtaining an absolute time at the time of execution of each print job and determining a consumption amount of consumables by the print job; a step of receiving a consumable out prediction request; and receiving the prediction request. Obtaining the absolute time, and estimating the time at which consumables are exhausted based on the obtained time at the time of receiving the prediction request, the absolute time obtained at the time of receiving the past print job, and the determined consumption. And a step of outputting the predicted time.