Canon Information Systems, Inc.

Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Canon U.s.a., Inc.

John D Barnard

Don Francis Purpura

Don Hideyasu Matsubayashi

Richard Alexander Wilson, Jr

Allison Bajo

Ravichandran Ragunathan

Steve Yasuhiro Muto

Richard Wilson

Christopher John Carcerano

Donald Parke Gibson

Hye-Sook Kim Lee

Managing a plurality of printing devices on a network, including detecting a printing device connected on the network, requesting information from the detected printing device, receiving the requested information from the printing device, and creating a print queue for the printing device based on the received information.

Print queue manager

Providing a virtual device container to virtually extend the functionality of a network device on a network for supporting a plurality of functional application modules residing in a server on the network, including receiving a function request sent from one of the functional application modules, the function request corresponding to the network device, and selecting one of a plurality of functional component modules in response to the function request, each of the functional component modules corresponding to a respective one of the functional application modules, the selected functional component module corresponding to the functional application module which sent the function request. The virtual device container also includes executing the selected functional component module according to the function request, wherein each functional component module communicates with the corresponding functional application module through a first interface and communicates with the network device through a second interface.

Object-based architecture for supporting network devices

Managing a plurality of network devices on a network, including detecting an address assignment message sent from an address server over the network to a network device, the address assignment message containing an assigned address corresponding to the network device, sending an information request message, in response to the detection of the address assignment message, over the network from the network management device to the network device, the information request message containing the assigned address corresponding to the network device, receiving information, in response to the information request message, from the network device, and creating an entry corresponding to the network device in a device management directory, the entry containing the assigned address corresponding to the network device and the information received from the network device.

Discovery and management of network printers

Interfacing a plurality of virtual device container modules to a third-party application, each of the virtual device container modules being in communication with a tracker module through a software bus, including receiving an interface command at the interface module from the third-party application via a third-party connection, the interface command relating to a designated one of the plurality of virtual device container modules, establishing a direct connection between the interface module and the designated virtual device container module by using an address pointer, receiving information data, at the interface module, from the designated virtual device container module via the direct connection, the information data relating to the designated virtual device container module, and sending the information data from the interface module to the third-party application via the third-party connection.

Command interface to object-based architecture of software components for extending functional and communicational capabilities of network devices

Viewing and updating a configuration of at least one of a plurality of network devices connected to a network. Each of the network devices is repeatedly polled over the network by a network management server for configuration information, which is stored in a database. A first URL-encoded request is received from a requesting station, which is preferably a web browser. The first request identifies a targeted one of the network devices. Responsive to the first request, a response is dynamically generated. The response is representative of a visual display of the configuration information for the targeted one of the network devices based at least in part on the configuration information stored in the database. The response is sent to the requesting station, and a second URL-encoded request is received from the requesting station, the second request including configuration data for the targeted one of the network devices. Responsive to the second request, the database is updated based on the configuration data. The configuration of the targeted one of the network devices is updated by the network management server based on the updated database.

Browser-based network management allowing administrators to use web browser on user's workstation to view and update configuration of network devices

A method and apparatus for launching a multimedia player from an operating windowing application such that the multimedia player operates as a child window of the operating windowing application. The method and apparatus operate to launch the multimedia player in response to a user-selection of a predefined function in the operating windowing application, identify a main window within the operating windowing application from which the predefined function was selected, locate, within the main window, a target child window having both a specific class-type and a specific dimension, create, in the case that the child window is located, a playback window and overlaying the playback window onto the target child window, and play, within the playback window, a multimedia selection corresponding to the user-selected predefined function.

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Orange, CA, United States of America

John D Barnard