Patent ID: 7127451
Filing Date: 2006-10-24
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A device searching method of a device searching system for searching an output device connected to a network, the devices searching system including a host computer, a server and a plurality of output devices, said method comprising: a first input step, executed in the host computer, of indicating an input of static data of the output device as a search condition for searching the output device, the static data comprising device function information indicating an ability of the output device; a second input step, executed in the host computer, of indicating an input of dynamic data of the output device as a search condition for searching the output device, the dynamic data including at least first expendable supplies information indicating an amount of expendable supplies for a printing process; a search step, executed in the server, of searching, based on the static data input in said first input step and the dynamic data input in said second input step, a database for an output device preserving an amount of expendable supplies for the printing process larger than the amount of expendable supplies indicated by the first expendable supplies information; an update step, executed in the server, of updating device function information and expendable supplies information of the output device retained in the database in response to a notification from the output device; a notification step, executed in the server, of notifying the host computer of a search result obtained in said search step; a first transmission step, executed in the output device, of voluntarily transmitting a registration request including static data comprising the device function information indicating the ability of the output device to the server in response to initialization of the output device; a discrimination step, executed in the output device, of discriminating whether a remaining amount of expendable supplies has changed due to execution of the printing process; and a second transmission step, executed in the output device, of voluntarily transmitting a registration update command including dynamic data comprising at least the remaining amount of expendable supplies to the server, if the remaining amount has changed is discriminated in said discrimination step, wherein said update step generates a new record, in the database, including the device function information of the output device in accordance with a new registration request transmitted from the output device in said first transmission step and updates the expendable supplies information of the output device included in the generated new record in accordance with a registration update command transmitted from the output device in said second transmission step, wherein the output device has the static data comprising the device function information and the dynamic data comprising the remaining amount of expendable supplies as information to be transmitted to the server, and wherein said first transmission step transmits the static data among the information to be transmitted to the server and said second transmission step transmits the dynamic data among the information to be transmitted to the server.