Autonomous secure printing

• US 10,133,525 B2
• Filed: 08/06/2015
• Issued: 11/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Nathani, Venu Gopal, Ingale, Mukund, Wesley, Ian Russell, Cao, Lin
• Primary Examiner(s): Poon, King
• Assistant Examiner(s): Burleson, Michael
• Application Number:
  US14/819,626
• Publication Number:
  US 20170039007A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,202 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/60 Protecting data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/608 Secure printing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1222 Increasing security of the print job
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1238 Secure printing, e.g. user identification, user rights for device usage, unallowed content, blanking portions or fields of a page, releasing held jobs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1267 Job repository, e.g. non-scheduled jobs, delay printing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1292 Mobile client, e.g. wireless printing

Abstract

Methods and systems for virtual printing are described herein. A user may print to a virtual printer via a user device, and the user device may send print creation data to a server. The server may generate a print job based on the print creation data and store the print job in a print queue associated with the user. When the user approaches the location of one or more physical printers, a device handled by the user may detect a location sensor at the location and send a corresponding identifier to the server. The server may identify the one or more physical printers based on the identifier and send the print job stored in the print queue to one of the physical printers.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a server, print creation data associated with a user;

responsive to receiving the print creation data, generating, by the server, a print job and storing, by the server, the print job in a virtual print queue corresponding to the user;

responsive to the server receiving an identifier from a user device associated with the user, determining, by the server, a printer corresponding to the received identifier, wherein the user device is configured to determine the identifier from a location sensor when the user device is within range of the location sensor, wherein the location sensor is associated with a location of the printer, wherein the user device is configured to determine a signal strength of a signal received by the user device and from the location sensor and determine a distance between the location sensor and the user device based on the signal strength of the signal received by the user device and from the location sensor, and wherein the user device is configured to send the identifier responsive to a determination that the distance between the location sensor and the user device is less than a threshold; and

sending, by the server and based on the determination that the distance between the location sensor and the user device is less than the threshold, the print job stored in the virtual print queue to the determined printer.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a request for permission to send the print job to the determined printer, wherein the request is displayable on the user device; and

receiving, from the user device, permission to send the print job to the determined printer,

wherein sending the print job is performed responsive to receiving the permission to send the print job to the determined printer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the printer comprises a plurality of printers at a same location, the method further comprising:

generating a request for a selection of one of the plurality of printers, wherein the request is displayable on the user device; and

receiving, from the user device, a selection of one of the plurality of printers,

wherein sending the print job is performed responsive to receiving the selection of the one of the plurality of printers.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a request to authenticate the user, wherein the request is displayable on the user device; and

authenticating the user based on user credentials received from the user device,

wherein sending the print job is performed responsive to authenticating the user based on the user credentials.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the location sensor comprises a short-range wireless sensor.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the print creation data comprises receiving the print creation data from a second user device associated with the user.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after determining the printer corresponding to the received identifier, sending, by the server and to the user device, a request for the user to authenticate via the user device;

receiving, by the server and from the user device, user credentials; and

authenticating the user based on the received user credentials,

wherein sending the print job stored in the virtual print queue to the determined printer is performed in response to authenticating the user based on the received user credentials.

8. A method comprising:

sending, to a server, print creation data for an item, wherein the server is configured to generate a print job for the item to be printed and store the print job in a print queue corresponding to a user;

detecting, by a user device associated with the user, a location sensor, wherein the location sensor is associated with a location of a printer;

after detecting the location sensor, receiving, by the user device and from the location sensor at the location of the printer, a signal;

determining a signal strength of the signal received by the user device and from the location sensor;

determining, based on the signal strength of the signal received by the user device and from the location sensor, a distance between the location sensor and the user device;

responsive to detecting the location sensor and determining that the distance between the location sensor and the user device is less than a threshold, determining, by the user device, an identifier from the location sensor; and

sending, by the user device and to the server, the identifier, wherein the server is configured to send the print job to a printer corresponding to the identifier.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

generating for display on a display of the user device a request for permission to send the print job to the printer; and

sending, to the server, permission to send the print job to the printer,

wherein the server is configured to send the print job to the printer responsive to sending the permission to the server.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the printer comprises a plurality of printers at a same location, the method further comprising:

generating for display on a display of the user device a request for a selection of one of the plurality of printers; and

sending, to the server, the selection of one of the plurality of printers,

wherein the server is configured to send the print job to the printer responsive to sending the selection.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

generating for display on a display of the user device a request to authenticate the user; and

sending, to the server, user credentials,

wherein the server is configured to send the print job to the printer responsive to authenticating the user based on the user credentials.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the location sensor comprises a short-range wireless sensor.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein:

the user device comprises a mobile device, and

sending the print creation data for the item is performed by a second user device.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the location sensor comprises a bluetooth location sensor, and wherein the signal received by the user device comprises a bluetooth signal.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein determining the distance between the location sensor and the user device comprises determining a first range of distances, of a plurality of ranges of distances, between the location sensor and the user device.

16. The method of claim 8, wherein the location sensor is associated with a plurality of printers at the location, and wherein the plurality of printers includes the printer, the method further comprising:

sending, by the user device and to the server, a selection of the printer, of the plurality of printers at the location,

wherein the server is configured to send the print job to the printer responsive to sending the selection.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when read by a computing device, cause the computing device to:

receive print creation data associated with a user;

responsive to receiving the print creation data, generate a print job and store the print job in a virtual print queue corresponding to the user;

responsive to receiving an identifier from a user device associated with the user, determine a printer corresponding to the received identifier, wherein the user device is configured to determine the identifier from a location sensor when the user device is within range of the location sensor, wherein the location sensor is associated with a location of the printer, wherein the user device is configured to determine a signal strength of a signal received by the user device and from the location sensor and determine a distance between the location sensor and the user device based on the signal strength of the signal received by the user device and from the location sensor, and wherein the user device is configured to send the identifier responsive to a determination that the distance between the location sensor and the user device is less than a threshold; and

send, based on the determination that the distance between the location sensor and the user device is less than the threshold, the print job stored in the virtual print queue to the determined printer.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 storing instructions that, when read by the computing device, cause the computing device to:

generate a request for permission to send the print job to the determined printer, wherein the request is displayable on the user device; and

receive, from the user device, permission to send the print job to the determined printer,

wherein sending the print job is performed responsive to receiving the permission to send the print job to the determined printer.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the printer comprises a plurality of printers at a same location, the non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when read by the computing device, cause the computing device to:

generate a request for a selection of one of the plurality of printers, wherein the request is displayable on the user device; and

receive, from the user device, a selection of one of the plurality of printers,

wherein sending the print job is performed responsive to receiving the selection of the one of the plurality of printers.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 storing instructions that, when read by the computing device, cause the computing device to:

generate a request to authenticate the user, wherein the request is displayable on the user device; and

authenticate the user based on user credentials received from the user device,

wherein sending the print job is performed responsive to authenticating the user based on the user credentials.