JP3951103B2 - Control device for electronic equipment - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to electronic device control, and more particularly to a technique for automatically dealing with errors and the like that occur in an electronic device.
[0002]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In electronic devices such as printers and scanners, various errors and warnings occur during use. In particular, when an error occurs, the error state must be cleared. In order to eliminate the error state, it is necessary to identify the cause of the error and take appropriate measures.
[0003]
Here, the identification of the cause of the error and the coping method for eliminating the error are difficult for a user who does not have some knowledge about the printer or the like. In particular, it is extremely difficult for a beginner user to identify an error cause and resolve the error by himself. Therefore, it is convenient if an error can be automatically eliminated or an error elimination method can be presented to the user when an error occurs.
[0004]
Generally, when an error or the like occurs in an electronic device such as a printer, an error code is notified to the printer host device. It is conceivable to use this error code to identify the cause of the error, but the error cause cannot always be uniquely identified by the error code alone.
[0005]
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a technique for automatically performing processing for eliminating an abnormal state that has occurred in an electronic device.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
A control device that controls an electronic device according to one aspect of the present invention includes a storage unit that stores a plurality of processing information indicating a processing procedure to be performed in order to eliminate an abnormal state that occurs in the electronic device; Based on an operation state of the control device related to control and a status code indicating an abnormal state notified from the electronic device, any one of the processing information stored in the storage unit is selected, and the abnormality And an abnormal state elimination processing unit that executes processing for eliminating an abnormal state.
[0007]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0008]
As shown in FIG. 1, the printing system according to the present embodiment includes a host device 1, a printer 2, a server 3, and a network 9. The host device 1 is configured by, for example, a general-purpose computer system, and each component or function described below is realized by executing a computer program, for example.
[0009]
The host device 1 includes an interface processing unit 11, an electronic manual system 12, an error analysis unit 13, a printer driver 17, and a resource information storage unit 18. The host device 1 is connected to a display device 4 such as a CRT or a liquid crystal display and an input device 5 such as a keyboard and a mouse.
[0010]
The interface processing unit 11 performs communication between the printer 2 and the server 3 connected to the host device 1.
[0011]
The printer driver 17 generates a printer control command based on the print data or a control command for performing maintenance of the printer 2, and transmits it to the printer 2 via the interface processing unit 11 to control the printer 2. When executing printing or maintenance, the printer driver 17 may display a GUI (Graphical User Interface) on the display device 4 and accept input from the user for the GUI. The GUI at this time is, for example, the print condition setting screen 100 shown in FIG. The setting screen 100 includes tags 501, 601, 701, and 801, a printing paper selection area 810, printing copy selection areas 831 and 832, a color ink selection area 841 as an ink type, and a black ink selection area 842. And a scale 850 for designating the print mode and buttons 892, 893, and 894 are arranged. Here, the above-described selection areas arranged on the setting screen 100 are collectively referred to as “parts”.
[0012]
The electronic manual system 12 stores the operation manual information and help information of the printer 2 in an electronic form, displays the information on the display device 4, and provides it to the user of the printer. Manual information and the like are also displayed on the GUI.
[0013]
There are a plurality of GUIs to be displayed by the printer driver 17 or the electronic manual 12 for each purpose such as environment setting, maintenance, test printing, and the like, and identification information for uniquely identifying each GUI is attached. Further, identification information is attached to each component arranged on the GUI and accepting an input operation from the user.
[0014]
The error analysis unit 13 analyzes an abnormal state including an error such as a paper jam or a communication abnormality occurring in the printer 2 or a warning such as when the remaining amount of ink or toner is low, and eliminates the abnormal state. Execute the process. The analysis of the abnormal state is performed based on the code indicating the abnormal state of the printer 2 and the operation state of the host device 1 (the “abnormal state” includes a state such as “warning” in addition to “error”. Then, “a code indicating an abnormal state” is referred to as an “error code”).
[0015]
The error code of the printer 2 is acquired from the printer 2 together with the model ID for identifying the model of the printer 2.
[0016]
The operation state of the host device 1 is an operation state related to the control of the printer 2. This is because the process performed by the printer is limited according to the operation state related to printer control, and the cause of the error can be easily identified. Here, the operation state related to the printer control corresponds to, for example, identification information of a GUI being displayed or identification information of an operation received immediately before an error or the like among components displayed on the GUI. This is because the processing that each GUI or component on each GUI requests to the printer 2 is determined in advance, so that the operation state can be specified by the GUI or component on the GUI.
[0017]
The error analysis unit 13 stores a plurality of solution matrices 14 and a plurality of scripts 15. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the solution matrix 14 is a matrix in which a script name 143 (denoted by only one place in the figure) describing a coping method according to the error code 141 and the operation stage 142 is determined. The operation stage 142 is identification information of a GUI displayed on the display device 4 or a component on the GUI, and is a code indicating a state immediately before an error or the like occurs in the printer 2. The script name 143 is any name of the script 15 described below. The solution matrix 14 may be provided for each printer model ID or each printer driver.
[0018]
The script 15 is processing information indicating a procedure to be performed to eliminate an abnormal state that occurs in the printer 2. An example of the script 15 is shown in FIG. For example, the script may cause the display device 4 to display a procedure of processing performed by the user in order to solve an abnormal state of the printer 2 or may cause the printer 2 to execute error recovery processing. The script 15 can be downloaded from the server 3 or read or added by a reading device (not shown) from a CD-ROM, a flexible disk, or the like.
[0019]
The resource information storage unit 18 stores information related to hardware resources or software resources of the host device 1. For example, information related to the CPU processing performance, main memory capacity, RAM capacity, presence / absence of specific image processing software, and the like is stored.
[0020]
When the error analysis unit 13 receives notification of an error code from the printer 2, if the error that has occurred in the printer is a specific error (for example, an error that print data wait states occur frequently in the print execution stage). Based on this resource information, improvement proposals for the host device 1 such as memory expansion may be made.
[0021]
Finally, a processing procedure for automatically dealing with an error or warning that has occurred in the printing system according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
[0022]
When any error or warning occurs in the printer 2, the error analysis unit 13 receives a notification of an error code and a model ID from the printer 2 (S1, S2). The error analysis unit 13 acquires the operation stage at that time from the electronic manual system 12 or the printer driver 17, and specifies the script name 143 by referring to the solution matrix (S3, S4). When the solution matrix 14 is by model or printer driver, the error analysis unit 13 acquires the model ID or the printer driver ID and uses the corresponding solution matrix 14. Then, the error processing unit 13 executes the script 15 with the script name 143 (S5).
[0023]
As a result, when the printer is in an abnormal state, it is possible to automatically perform a process for solving it.
[0024]
The above-described embodiments of the present invention are examples for explaining the present invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention only to those embodiments. Those skilled in the art can implement the present invention in various other modes without departing from the gist of the present invention.
[0025]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, it is possible to automatically perform processing for eliminating an abnormal state that has occurred in a printer.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an example of a print condition setting screen that is an example of a GUI.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a solution matrix 14;
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a script 15;
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a procedure for automatically handling an error or warning when it occurs.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Host device 2 ... Printer 3 ... Server 4 ... Display device 5 ... Input device 11 ... Interface processing part 12 ... Electronic manual system 13 ... Error analysis part 14 ... Resolution matrix 15 ... Script 17 ... Printer driver 18 ... Resource information storage part

Claims (3)

A control device for controlling an electronic device,
A plurality of scripts for causing a display device to display a procedure of processing performed by a user in order to eliminate an abnormal state occurring in the electronic device, or to execute processing for eliminating the abnormal state in the electronic device are stored. Storage unit
Displayed on the display device when the abnormal state occurred in the electronic device, or displayed on the display device that received a user operation immediately before the abnormal state occurred in the electronic device Based on the GUI or GUI component identification information and the status code indicating the abnormal status notified from the electronic device, select one of the scripts stored in the storage unit, An electronic apparatus control device comprising script execution means for executing a selected script. A plurality of scripts for causing a display device to display a procedure of processing performed by a user in order to eliminate an abnormal state occurring in the electronic device, or to execute processing for eliminating the abnormal state in the electronic device are stored. Storing in the means;
Displayed on the display device when the abnormal state occurred in the electronic device, or displayed on the display device that received a user operation immediately before the abnormal state occurred in the electronic device Selecting any one of the scripts stored in the storage unit based on the identification information of the GUI or a component on the GUI and the status code indicating the abnormal status notified from the electronic device;
Executing the selected script; and a method for dealing with an abnormal state of the electronic device. When executed on a computer,
A plurality of scripts for causing a display device to display a procedure of processing performed by a user in order to eliminate an abnormal state occurring in the electronic device, or to execute processing for eliminating the abnormal state in the electronic device are stored. Storing in the means;
Displayed on the display device when the abnormal state occurred in the electronic device, or displayed on the display device that received a user operation immediately before the abnormal state occurred in the electronic device Selecting any one of the scripts stored in the storage unit based on the identification information of the GUI or a component on the GUI and the status code indicating the abnormal status notified from the electronic device;
A computer program for executing the selected script and coping with an abnormal state of the electronic device.

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