Patent Application
20150199656
The present invention relates to managed print services, and more particularly to imaging devices and mobile computing devices, such as smart phones. It further relates to applications on mobile devices that conveniently provide notifications indicating one or more status conditions of imaging devices to generate automatic service support. Associating imaging devices and mobile devices define various embodiments.
Many modern imaging devices are capable of displaying their servicing needs on a user interface panel. Providing servicing needs to these devices such as supplies replacement and part fixtures would thus require service representatives to monitor them locally and wait for a display on the said user panel. However, monitoring the conditions of each imaging device this way provides a problem for users managing a number of imaging devices that are remotely located to each other.
In other servicing scenarios, service representatives address problems by monitoring conditions of imaging devices using external software. The software polls each imaging device at fixed intervals to determine their needs. While of limited success, polling large fleets of imaging devices in this way creates a burden on the monitoring system and increases network usage. Moreover, external software needs to be always “on” and configured correctly. It requires a certain amount of expense and can be difficult to implement or maintain.
Still, another method requires users to “subscribe” to e-mail alerts regarding conditions of their imaging devices. Whenever problems are found, an e-mail is sent to the subscribers. While e-mail is sufficient in monitoring conditions, it is not the most expedient form of digital communication. Not only can e-mails be easily dismissed, but they require organization as they may be readily confused with other e-mails in inboxes and information on the web. This wastes valuable time in knowing the status of particular imaging devices and whether they require servicing.
What is needed is a system that monitors an imaging device's condition regardless of the size of the fleet. What is also needed is a simple method of monitoring a condition of an imaging device on an at/near real-time basis and with lesser inconvenience to users. Additional benefits and alternatives are also sought when devising solutions.
The above-mentioned and other problems are solved by systems and methods involving status conditions of imaging devices requiring servicing by service technicians. In a representative embodiment, an imaging device sends its status conditions to a server. The server determines whether or not it requires servicing by a technician and, if so, delivers notice to an appropriately-paired mobile device. The mobile device comprises an operating system which hosts one or more mobile applications including a service application. The service application causes the display of the status condition of the imaging device and information thereof. The information includes make/model of the imaging device, its serial number, registered user, location, action item(s) required to resolve the condition, and the like. A positioning system on the mobile device locates the imaging device having the condition and displays it on a map. Software, executable code, interfaces, and computing system environments typify the embodiments.
Other embodiments note techniques for delivering the status conditions including associating mobile devices of the technician/s to appropriate imaging devices under their charge. Techniques include but are not limited to sending the status condition to a messaging service which converts the status condition to a format readable by the mobile device (“notification”) and in turn, delivers the notification to the mobile device. Messaging services also provide appropriate identifiers of the mobile devices that the server can assign to particular imaging devices.
These and other embodiments are set forth in the description below. Their advantages and features will become readily apparent to skilled artisans. The claims set forth particular limitations.
In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings where like numerals represent like details. The embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that changes may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. The following detailed description, therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense and the scope of the invention is defined only by the appended claims and their equivalents. In accordance with the features of the invention, systems and methods for delivering status conditions of imaging devices for generating automatic service support are described herein.
With reference to
Executable code 120 such as in a controller, microprocessor, Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), etc., in server 104 assists in determining which of the status conditions received from imaging device 102 requires the assistance of a service technician. Status conditions refer to events normally generated by an imaging device, such as printing a number of n pages, opening and closing of a cover of the imaging device, loading of paper trays, toner cartridge errors, paper jams, and the like. Status conditions in an imaging device that require the assistance of a service technician include toner cartridge replacements, persistent paper jams, and printer connection problems, to name a few. Status conditions may also include events which require assistance of a service technician as part of a set of terms predetermined by user 118 if user 118 is not the service technician. A database record having these status conditions may be referred to by server 104. Record 124 shows representative status conditions requiring assistance of a service technician.
The frequency of each status condition, as they are sent by the imaging devices, may also be monitored by server 104 to determine the severity of the status condition. Once a certain status condition's frequency reaches a threshold value or a percentage relative to the normal operation of imaging device 102, the said status condition is sent from server 104 to messaging service 112 for conversion and delivery to mobile device 114. This way, user 118 is notified of the status condition of the one or more imaging devices before the status conditions become more persistent and cause more problems (“preemptive” notification). The threshold value and the status conditions to be sent may be configured by user 118 using browser 110 or may be predetermined upon registration of imaging device 102 to system 100. Server 104 may be able to determine the status conditions requiring immediate assistance of a service technician. Alternatively, automatic service support may come in the form of status conditions that show a component that recently broke or a faulty operation therein such as failure to perform a scan or a fax operation (“already broken” notification). Skilled artisans can think of other status conditions which would require immediate assistance of the technician.
In the case where user 118 is a company managing a fleet of imaging devices each managed by respective clients, server 104 may include record 126 of clients who opted to receive the status condition of the imaging device(s) they manage (e.g. “premium client”). Record 126 may also include selected imaging devices (e.g. “premium device”) under management of a premium client that the premium client wishes to know the status condition of A premium client may have at least one premium device. For example, once a “premium client” or a “premium device” is determined by server 104, the status condition(s) of the premium device(s) under the premium client are sent to messaging service 112 for conversion and delivery to mobile device 114 on an at/near real-time basis or at a chosen interval. Given that each client has a profile (e.g. an “account’) under management of user 118, each premium client may be charged at a certain amount for the generation of automatic service support, the implementation of system 100, and/or the continual tracking and analysis of the status conditions, as is typical in a managed print services scenario. Non-premium clients continue to operate their one or more imaging devices and would not get automatic service support for those devices unless they sign up for system 100.
Status conditions sent by imaging device 102 may be stored on server 104 or on another remote storage for generating servicing reports which may be retrieved and/or referred to by user 118 at a certain period, such as weekly or monthly. Server 104 may also include action items corresponding to each status condition received from the imaging devices such as imaging device 102. Server 104 may determine the action item required for each status condition received that requires assistance of a service technician and send the action item required to messaging service 112 together with the status condition. An action item may be a site visit and/or a phone call by a service representative or technician. Other types of action items may be apparent to those skilled in the art of servicing. A site visit may be provided as an action item for a toner cartridge replacement, for example. A phone call may be provided whenever, for example, the service technician's location is very far from the imaging device in need of servicing or whenever its status condition is determined to be uncritical and can be solved through troubleshooting by the owner of the imaging device. These action items may be predetermined by user 118 and may be dependent on the severity of the status condition based on the frequency value. Other example embodiments of scenarios are apparent to skilled artisans.
Messaging service 112 is a third-party messaging service that communicates with server 104 for the status condition to be converted and delivered as a notification to mobile device 114. Messaging service 112 may include another server and/or still other computing devices for facilitating the conversion and delivery of the status condition of imaging device 102. Furthermore, messaging service 112 may be dependent on an operating system of mobile device 114. For example, Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) and Apple Push Notifications Service (APNS) may be utilized for mobile devices hosted by Android™ and Apple® operating system, respectively.
Mobile device 114 is any computing device that is portable, handheld, or pocket-sized such as a smart phone, a handheld computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a notebook computer, a tablet computer, or any other remote computing device, such as a special-purpose remote computing device (e.g. an e-book reader). It is communicatively coupled with server 104 through a service application primarily residing as executable code 120 in server 104, in client device 108, or imprinted on a computer readable medium such as a CD, smart card, USB stick, or etc., that gets installed directly in the mobile device, as is typical. In this example embodiment, user 118 may download executable code 120 onto mobile device 114 for installation therein, resulting in service application 122. Service application 122 then requests registration identifier 128 from messaging service 112. A representative registration identifier may be a string of alphanumeric characters of varying length such as r3G1D3n7if13r. Messaging service 112 issues registration identifier 128 to service application 122 and service application 122 sends or pushes it to server 104. Upon receipt, server 104 uses registration identifier 128 for assigning mobile devices 114 to imaging devices 102. Imaging devices 102 are uniquely identified to the mobile devices such as by their Internet Protocol (IP) address, MAC address, or serial number 130 (e.g. “123PTB456789”) of imaging device 102. In this way, unique mobile devices of service technicians are directly paired or tied to imaging devices in need of service, as will be described in more detail below. Of course, other kinds of identifiers for assigning mobile device 114 to imaging device 102 may be apparent to those skilled in the art. Upon association of mobile device 114 to imaging device 102, mobile device 114 receives and displays the notification on user interface 116 of mobile device 114 indicating the status condition of assigned imaging device 102.
Network 106 may be any Internet Protocol (IP) based computer network capable of communicating data and other information between imaging device 102, server 104, and mobile device 114. Network 106 may comprise a Local Area Network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN) (e.g. Internet), and may be a public or a private network. Network 106 may use any communication medium, such as cable, optical fiber, radio carriers, etc., or any combination thereof, to communicate with imaging device 102, server 104, and mobile device 114. Network 106 may include a variety of software such as an “app store” and hardware such as routers, servers, switches, desktop/laptop computers, phone transmission towers, satellites, etc. Skilled artisans know the process and appropriate environment for downloading applications and associating the devices in network 106.
With reference to
Activity log 200A includes exemplary status conditions 240 and may further include columns containing the time stamp 210 the status condition transpired, client 220 managing the imaging device having the status condition, device identifier 230, and a chronological organizer of conditions thereof (e.g. event numbers). Particular status conditions such as persistent paper jams (250) and imaging devices which have lost their connection in the last 30 minutes (260) are representative items requiring assistance of a service technician as determined by server 104 or other computing systems. For status condition 250, paper jams have been occurring irregularly between times 3:30 and 5:45, as seen, and server 104 has determined this to be so frequent as to require assistance of a service technician based on record 124. For status condition 260, on the other hand, printer Y of Customer 1 has lost its connection to system 100 for more than an hour and requires servicing by a service technician. Server 104 then determines the particular mobile device/s associated with each of printers X and Y. Upon determining that mobile device 114 is associated with printer X, for example, server 104 packages status condition 250 including information regarding printer X for delivery to messaging service 112. Messaging service 112 receives status condition 250 and information of printer X and converts these to a notification for display on mobile device 114 of the service technician, as seen at times 5:45:xx and 6:30:xx. When it has been determined by server 104 that the imaging devices in need of servicing have stopped generating the status conditions such as 250 and 260, such is indicated in activity log 200A that the service technician has resolved the problem. Of course, these are only some of the types of status conditions requiring notice of a service technician. Other types of status conditions of imaging devices and techniques of displaying a real-time activity log of the automatic service support processes are apparent to those skilled in the art.
With reference to
With reference to
A transceiver 308 also resides in mobile device 114 to communicate information from service application 122 to messaging service 112 or to any other device, such as another mobile device 114. At other elements 310, the service application 122 leverages still other modules and functionalities of mobile device 114. This includes but is not limited to functions found in address books, lists of contacts, calendars, clocks, cameras, photos, notifications, messages, compasses, push notifications, etc. Other modules and functionalities in mobile devices are apparent to those skilled in the art.
With continued reference to
With further reference back to
User interface 116 of mobile device 114 may be a touch screen display in which hand gestures are applied by user 118. Hand gestures can take the form of hook-and-drag, tap and double-tap, swipe or other gestures recognized by the service application. In another embodiment, service application 122 may send a message to server 102 (
With reference to
With reference to
Referring back again to activity log 200A of
In some cases in installing applications on both Android™ and Apple® devices, receiving notifications from mobile devices are restricted as a default setting; thus, push notification settings on mobile device (114) require to be enabled in order to receive the notifications and/or the mobile device to be online, as shown in optional step 525. To address this, server (104) determines whether the push notification settings were enabled and/or whether mobile device (114) is online prior to forwarding the status condition to the messaging service, as shown in optional step 525. Upon determining such, server (104) forwards the status condition and other information on imaging device (102) to messaging service (112), as seen at 530. Messaging service (112) then converts and delivers the status condition as a notification (530) for displaying on the associated mobile device at 535. At 540, associated mobile device (114) receives the notification as a display on its user interface as seen in 116A and 116B of
In another aspect, responding to the notification indicating the status condition of one or more imaging devices is done by a service call, such as a site visit and/or a phone call by the service technician. For example, upon receiving the notification, service technician goes to the location of the imaging device having the status condition as indicated in the notification while the server constantly determines his location by referencing GPS location of mobile device pushed to the server by the service application. Alternatively, the service technician may contact the user managing the imaging device through the contact details displayed in the notification and help in troubleshooting the status condition of the imaging device over the phone. A server also determines if the status condition is actually resolved by monitoring the status conditions in the activity log.
Relative advantages of the many embodiments should now be apparent to skilled artisans. They include but are not limited to: (1) providing a method of delivering a condition from an imaging device to a mobile device at or near real-time; (2) associating a mobile device and an imaging device in a network (3) providing an efficient method of monitoring status conditions of imaging devices under management of a user in a fleet, and (4) generating immediate and automatic service support to a preemptive and “already broken” status conditions of imaging devices.
The foregoing illustrates various aspects of the invention. It is not intended to be exhaustive. Rather, it is chosen to provide the best illustration of the principles of the invention and its practical application to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the invention. All modifications and variations are contemplated within the scope of the invention as determined by the appended claims. Relatively apparent modifications include combining one or more features of various embodiments with features of other embodiments.
