The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 18, 2000
Filed:
Aug. 06, 1997
Munenori Kimura, Kanagawa, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming system in which an energy saving mode can be canceled by an external device when the external device requests a printing operation to an image forming apparatus which is set in the energy saving mode. The external device outputs image data to be printed. Power consumption of the image forming apparatus is reduced when the image forming apparatus is waiting to receive the image data. A communication line connects the external device to the image forming apparatus. An energy saving control unit, provided in the image forming apparatus, recognizes a print request sent from the external device via the communication line when the image forming apparatus is set in the energy saving mode so that the energy saving mode is canceled when the print request is recognized. The print request can be either a strobe signal or a wakeup command. A ready command may be sent to the external device when the image forming apparatus is set in a stable state.