Patent ID: 8018616

Claim:
A device information management system including a plurality of computers and a plurality of devices connected to the computers, each of the plurality of devices comprising: a storage that stores device information intrinsic to the device; and an updating system that updates the device information in association with operation of the device, each of the plurality of computers comprising: a recognition system that obtains information representing a type of the device from the device, and recognizes the type of the device; a command selecting system that selects at least one command corresponding to the type of the device recognized by the recognition system from among a plurality of commands; an information requesting system that requests the device, by transmitting the selected command, to provide the device information; an information receiving system that receives the device information which is a response to the command transmitted by the information requesting system; and a command storing system that stores the plurality of commands in relation with responsive type information indicative of device types that can respond to respective commands, wherein the command selecting system selects commands which are related to the device type recognized by the recognition system from among the plurality of commands stored in the command storing system referring to the responsive type information stored in the command storing system, wherein the command storing system includes a file storing the responsive type information in relation with each command, and wherein the command selecting system includes: a command retrieving system that retrieves the commands and the responsive type information related to the commands from the command storing system; a determining system that determines whether the command retrieved by the command retrieving system is a command to which the recognized type of device can respond with reference to the responsive type information retrieved by the command retrieving system; and a selecting system that selects a command when the determining system determines that the device of the type recognized by the recognition system is capable of replying to the command, which is retrieved by the retrieving system.