Remote management system for photographic equipment

Assignee: Fujifilm Holdings Corp

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Filing: 1991-02-14

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Granted: —

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Expires: 2011-02-14

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Abstract

Abstract A printer processor (11a,11e), a film processor (11b,11f), and a densitometer (11c) are connected to a personal computer (13) via a port controller (12). For diagnosing the operation condition of a photographic equipment, a check sample is formed by the photographic equipment. The check sample is set to the densitometer to fetch the measured density data into the personal computer (13). If the operation condition of the photographic equipment is abnormal, the personal computer fetches the operation data under management in the photographic equipment to determine a countermeasure against the abnormal state. The countermeasure is transferred to the photographic equipment to automatically adjust the adjust failure element. In order to remotely control a plurality of lab shops, each lab shop is provided with a sub-computer connected to the photographic equipment. The headquarters are provided with a main computer (191) storing therein a management program. The main computer (191) fetches the data of the sub-computer via a communication line. In accordance with the fetched data, the headquarters (190) remotely control the quality, production state, and stock state of consumable goods at each lab shop (180,182). The port controller (12) finds an idle time of a CPU at each lab shop, and fetches the data from the photographic equipment during the idle time.

Inventors

👤 Fumio Matsumoto
👤 Tooru Mori

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —

Jurisdiction EP

Data Source google_patents

Last Synchronized 2026-11-09 11:51

CPC Classifications

G; G03; G03D; G03D13/00; G03D13/007; G03B; G03B27/00; G03B27/32

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 5

Claim 1

Independent Claim 102 words

A management method for remotely managing the production conditions at a plurality of lab shops, said system comprising the following steps: connecting at least one photographic apparatus, which includes a printer processor and a film processor, to a sub-computer installed at each of said lab shops; performing production management by fetching into said sub-computer the production data of said photographic apparatus; and determining the consumed state of consumable goods in accordance with said production data for ordering on-line said consumable goods to a main computer at the headquarters via a communication line if a predetermined amount of said consumable goods are consumed.

Claim 2

Dependent Claim 22 words

A management method according to claim 1, wherein said production data includes an amount of processed paper and the number of prints.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 26 words

A management method according to claim 1, wherein said printer processor, said film processor, and said densitometer are connected to said sub-computer via a port controller.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 158 words

A management method according to claim 3, wherein said port contoller comprises: a switch unit for selecting one device from said printer processor, said film processor, and said densitometer, for performing data communication: a first communication control unit for finding an idle time of a CPU incorporated in said selected device, and performing data communication at the data transfer speed of said CPU during said idle time; a buffer memory for storing said data fetched irregularly from said selected device; a subject communication discriminator unit for discriminating whether said data in said buffer memory to be transferred to said sub-computer is the data of said selcted device requested by said sub-computer; a data format converter unit for converting said data read from said buffer memory into a data format of said sub-computer; and a second communication control unit for transferring said format-converted data in units of block to said sub-computer at the data transfer speed of said sub-computer.

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 166 words

A port controller interposed between a computer and a plurality of photgraphic apparatus for performing data communication therebetween, said port controller comprising: a switch unit for selcting one of said plurality of photographic apparatus, for performing data communication; a first communication control unit for finding an idle time of a CPU incorporated in said selected photographic apparatus, and performing data communication at the data transfer speed of said CPU during said idle time; a buffer memory for storing said data fetched irregularly from said selected photgraphic apparatus; a subject communication discriminator unit for discriminating whether said data in said buffer memory to be transferred to said computer is the data of said selected photographic apparatus requested by said computer; a data format converter unit for converting said data read from said buffer memory into a data format of said computer; and a second communication control unit for transferring said format-converted data in units of block to said computer at the data transfer speed of said computer.

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