Canon Denshi Kabushiki Kaisha

Minoru Okawara

Hirokazu Higuchi

Hiroshi Komuro

Nozomi Masao

Daisuke Fujita

A network scanning system has a control apparatus connected to a connection device via a network and includes a scanning application for remotely controlling a scanner, where the scanning application receives a command from the connection device and automatically transmits to a display unit of the connection device via the network without a user operation of the scanning application, a selection screen information, the connection device displays a selection menu and transmits, to the scanning application in the control apparatus, a selection item information specifying an item selected by a user of the display unit, and the scanning application automatically transmits, to the connection device without a user operation of the scanning application in the control apparatus, a control signal based on the selection item, and the scanning application in the control apparatus automatically controls the scanner remotely in accordance with the control signal via the network.

Network scanning system

An image scanner device connected to a general information processing apparatus can be used on a network at a low cost, and further, the firmware of hardware for this purpose can be a maintenance-free firmware, thus user's convenience can be improved. A scanner/network connection apparatusto connect a scannerto a networkhas an LCD server to drive a LCD as a display unit, a touch panel task to transmit a touch position on a touch panel, and a SCSI server to connect the scannerto the network. A PCto control the scanner has a virtual LCD driver, a virtual touch panel driver, and a virtual SCSI driver, operating to provide an environment as if the LCD, the touch panel and the image scanner of the scanner/network connection apparatusare connected to the PC. The virtual LCD driver draws a screen image as a user interface for various operations, and the result of drawing is displayed on the LCD of the scanner/network connection apparatus. Thus an interactive operation environment can be provided to the user.

Growing community of inventors

Saitama, Japan

Minoru Okawara