Patent ID: 7865089

Claim:
An apparatus for monitoring printing devices of a printing devices network, the apparatus comprising: a family of usage models representing typical usage of the printing devices of the printing devices network, each usage model comprising a state model that assigns an operational state to each printing device depending upon usage of the printing device, the assigned state of each printing device being selected from the group consisting of (i) an unavailable state in which the printing device is not available, (ii) a normal state in which the printing device is working normally, and (iii) one or more discrete or continuous intermediate states intermediate between the unavailable and normal states in which the printing device is experiencing a soft failure intermediate between being unavailable and working normally; an adaptation procedure allowing selection of one model within that family, based on a printing devices usage log maintained by the printing devices network; and a printing usage monitor configured to detect deviation of logged usage of a printing device from the usage model indicative of a soft failure on that device, the printing usage monitor comprising a display configured to plot as a function of time print jobs logged to a displayed printing device in the printing devices usage log, and further configured to plot as a function of time the state of the displayed printing device.