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:
Dec. 21, 2004
Filed:
Mar. 05, 2003
Nobuaki Tomidokoro, Yokohama, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus supervising system includes a central control apparatus, a plurality of image forming apparatuses each having a memory and connected to the central control apparatus with a communication line, and a data communication apparatus connected to the plurality of image forming apparatuses and the central control apparatus using a communication line. An information code data transmitting device transmits information code data, having a plurality of levels in which character data is respectively included from the central control apparatus to the image forming apparatus, and a data reading device reads data corresponding to the information code data from the memory. A response data transmitting device transmits the data read from the memory to the central control apparatus via the data communication apparatus and the communication line. The central control apparatus changes all character data included in one or more levels lower than a prescribed level of the information code data with particular character data before transmitting the information code data when reading all data in the memory, which accords with character data included in one or more levels higher than the prescribed level of the information code data. Further, the data reading device reads only data of the memory which accords with the character data not changed with the particular character data when receiving the information code data.