Patent ID: 6173422
Filing Date: 2001-01-09
Classification: G06F,H04H,H04N

Abstract:
An error monitoring system for conducting error monitoring of a plurality of video/audio devices, comprising:processing means for executing an error monitoring process by detecting errors occurring in said video/audio devices;communication means connecting said video/audio devices to said processing means, said communication means comprising a plurality of communication ports, each of said video/audio devices being connected to said processing means via one of said communication ports; anddisplay means connected to said processing means to simultaneously display on a common display plane a plurality of images indicating said video/audio devices and to give an error indication in accordance with a result of the error monitoring process by said processing means;said processing means automatically executing the error monitoring process against respective said video/audio devices by circularly issuing an error detection signal to said video/audio devices, each said video/audio device in receipt of said error detection signal sending back an error signal, including an error code, indicating the nature of an error that exists therein, and controlling said display means to give said error indication by emphasizing one of said images corresponding to one of said video/audio devices from which an error signal is detected by said processing means;wherein each said video/audio device is associated with at least one information file containing information concerning the error monitoring process and including at least historical information regarding prior errors for each said video/audio device so that the likelihood and frequency of types of errors are determined, thereby allowing for the efficient dealing with these errors, and a database management file for managing said information files, said database management file comprising information listing each of said plurality of communication ports, information regarding video/audio devices connected to respective ones of said plurality of communication ports, and said historical information associated with each of said video/audio devices and wherein for each said video/audio device said communication port is linked to said database management file by respective device identifying information and said database management file is linked to said information files by respective information file pointers.