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:
May. 22, 2001
Filed:
Sep. 03, 1997
Applicant:
Inventors:
Assignee:
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F 1/5173 ; G06F 1/5163 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F 1/5173 ; G06F 1/5163 ;
Abstract
An image forming system which freely combines functions of a plurality of devices connected on a network in accordance with necessity, and a control system for the system. Each of the plurality of devices stores information indicating functions which can be provided by the device in advance. A functional unit which serves as a supervisor collects these stored information and analyzes a combination of functions to perform operation designated by a user, based on the collected information. Then the supervisor combines the functions based on the result of analysis and performs the desired processing operation by the combination of functions.