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. 08, 2008
Filed:
Aug. 31, 2000
Jun Oida, Kawasaki, JP;
Jun Oida, Kawasaki, JP;
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
In a system in which an image input apparatus and image forming apparatus are directly connected, the operation of the image input apparatus may stop during the operation of the image forming apparatus. The performance between the apparatuses is unbalanced, and the total throughput is low. According to this invention, in a system in which a plurality of apparatuses are connected via a serial bus, an apparatus having the node ID=0 upon bus reset in connection calculates a time required for each process in each apparatus for a plurality of processes forming a series of image processes. For a plurality of patterns (process roots) for distribution of image processing between the apparatuses, the processing time is calculated for each pattern. A series of image processes are executed based on a distribution pattern exhibiting the shortest time. In the image input apparatus, the format of image data to be transferred is switched in accordance with the empty state of a buffer in the image output apparatus. This enables efficient image forming processing in the system to increase the total throughput.