Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Taisei Fukada

Satoshi Kaneko

Tokuharu Kaneko

Shinichi Nakamura

Hiroshi Ozaki

Satoshi Kuroyanagi

Hideki Adachi

Hisatsugu Tahara

Mitsuharu Takizawa

Naoyuki Ohki

Masanori Miyata

Hirokazu Takahashi

Keizo Isemura

Noriaki Matsui

Masahiro Serizawa

Yoshio Mizuno

Masayoshi Taira

Akihiko Satoh

Hirohiko Kishimoto

Yoshihiro Hosomi

Mitsuhiko Sato

Hideto Kohtani

Yukimasa Iseki

Miho Nakayama

An equipment controlling apparatus is composed of a counter for counting the operational number of the equipment, memories for storing data indicating the state of the equipment, a communication device for communicating on the stored data with a centralized control apparatus, which controls the communicated data intensively, and a controlling device for causing the stored data to be transmitted to the centralized control apparatus when the counter has counted a predetermined value.

Equipment control apparatus

An equipment control apparatus in a system having an input unit for entering data on the conditions of equipment from the equipment, a communication unit for communicating with the apparatus located at a distance, and a control unit for exerting control in such a way as to transmit the data to the apparatus located at a distance through the steps of interrupting communication once on receiving a call from the apparatus requesting the data and then calling the apparatus located at a distance via the communication unit.

A plurality of image processing apparatuses connected to a network share an external storage device such as a CDROM with each other to indicate a guidance when a trouble happens. Each image processing apparatus, when the troubles happens, outputs a request for transferring display data corresponding to a type of the trouble to the external storage device. This facilitates changing the guidance displayed. If the image processing apparatuses are used as peripheral units to a plurality of computers, and when a construction of the peripheral unit is varied, a driver program corresponding thereto is transferred to the plurality of computers.

Display control method

The apparatus reads an original by an image reader, and if it recognizes caption(s) included in the original, stores a page number of the original into a memory, thereafter, performs copying based on the stored page number such that the original page including the caption is transferred onto the front side of a recording sheet.

Image forming apparatus

An image processor rotates an image in conformity with the orientation of an original, thereby enhancing user convenience. An original conveyed by an automatic conveyance device is read by an image reader and the image is stored in an image memory. A character in the stored image is subsequently recognized by a character recognition unit and the orientation of the character is discriminated. The image is rotated by an image editor in conformity with a stapling position, and the rotated image is recorded by an image recording unit. Sheets of paper on which images are recorded are stapled at the stapling position by a staple provided in a sorter.

Copier which rotates an image based on the recognition of an extracted

A method and apparatus for recognizing character information in an original document with high recognition accuracy regardless of the size of a character to be recognized. An input image is processed by an image processing circuit and stored in an image recording unit. A character region in the recorded image data is detected by a recognition section, and the image corresponding to the detected character region is read with a predetermined magnification. Character recognition is performed on the image of the character region read at the predetermined magnification, in the recognition section. If the recognition accuracy does not satisfy a predetermined criterion, the same image is read again with a modified magnification wherein the magnification is determined on the basis of preset sizes and the size of the character pattern of a character to be recognized. The image obtained in this way is subjected again to character recognition processing until the recognition accuracy satisfies the predetermined criterion. A character pattern corresponding to the recognized character is generated, and recorded together with the image recorded in the image recording unit in an image recording section. Thus, an image is read with a magnification optimized depending on a character size of an original document image and on a recognition accuracy.

Method and apparatus for recognizing character information at a variable

An image processing apparatus comprises: an inserting unit to insert a memory medium such as IC card or floppy disc which can be freely attached or detached and in which programs to control the image processing apparatus have been stored; a memory to store the program which has been read out from the memory medium and kind data indicative of the kind of program; a loading circuit to load the program stored in the memory medium into the memory; and a control unit to control the image processing apparatus in accordance with the program stored in the memory. In the case where the program has already been stored in the memory, the control unit controls the loading circuit in a manner such that when the kind data stored in the memory is the data indicative of a special program, the loading of the program from the memory medium to the memory is inhibited and, when the kind data stored in the memory is not the data indicative of the special program, the loading of the program from the memory medium to the memory is executed.

Image processing apparatus which can update program

Equipment control apparatus having means to communicate with a

An equipment control unit is composed of equipment control means for controlling the operation of an equipment, communication control means for controlling the transmission and reception of data to and from an external device, and transfer means for transferring the data between the equipment control means and the communication control means.

Control of equipment and of communication with plural units of equipment

A method of managing an image forming apparatus by a remote computer comprises the steps of detecting an abnormal state in the image forming apparatus, transferring an error code corresponding to the kind of the detected abnormal state to the computer, selecting a predetermined program according to the transferred error code by the computer, transferring the selected predetermined program to the image forming apparatus by the computer, and executing the transferred predetermined program by the image forming apparatus. The predetermined program is a diagnosing program to examine the causes of a failure in the image forming apparatus.

Image forming apparatus for forming images in accordance with process

A machine monitoring apparatus includes an input device for receiving data from a machine, the data being indicative of a condition of the machine, a storage device for storing the received data, a communication device for communicating between the storage device and an external apparatus installed at a position separate from the machine, and a control device for inhibiting the communication device from transmitting the data stored in the storage device when a power supply for supplying the machine with electric power is turned off while the data is being received by the input device.

Communication control apparatus for monitoring a condition of an image

A power supply control apparatus includes an input device for receiving data from a machine, the data being indicative of a condition of a malfunction occurring in the machine; a communication device for communicating between the input device and an external apparatus installed at a position separate from the machine; and a power supply control device for controlling a supply of electric power to the machine. The communication device transmits the received data to the external apparatus, and based on the malfunction condition indicated by the data, the external apparatus transmits an instruction to the communication device to interrupt the supply of power to the machine. The power supply control device interrupts the supply of power to the machine in accordance with the instruction from the external apparatus.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Taisei Fukada