Output device for universal data output

• US 20020097408A1
• Filed: 01/18/2002
• Published: 07/25/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Christina Ying Liu, William Ho Chang
• Original Assignee: Christina Ying Liu, William Ho Chang
• Inventors: Chang, William Ho, Liu, Christina Ying
• Application Number:
  US10/054,549
• Publication Number:
  US 20020097408A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.6
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1203 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. print management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1205 resulting in increased flexibility in print job configuration, e.g. job settings, print requirements, job tickets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1208 resulting in improved quality of the output result, e.g. print layout, colours, workflows, print preview
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/122 with regard to computing resources, e.g. memory, CPU
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1226 Discovery of devices having required properties
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1228 Printing driverless or using generic drivers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1229 Printer resources management or printer maintenance, e.g. device status, power levels
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1236 Connection management
• 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 3/1245 by conversion to intermediate or common format
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1247 by conversion to printer ready format
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1253 Configuration of print job parameters, e.g. using UI at the client
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1258 by updating job settings at the printer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/128 Direct printing, e.g. sending document file, using memory stick, printing from a camera
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1284 Local printer device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1285 Remote printer device, e.g. being remote from client or server
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1286 via local network
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1288 : in client-server-printer device configuration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1292 : Mobile client, e.g. wireless printing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 : Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/162 : Interface to dedicated audio devices, e.g. audio drivers, interface to CODECs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 : Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/02 : using printers
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/181 : Receiving print data characterized by its formatting, e.g. particular page description languages
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/1836 : Rasterization
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 : specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 : Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/30 : Distributed recognition, e.g. in client-server systems, for mobile phones or network applications
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 : Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 : Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 : Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00244 : with a server, e.g. an internet server fax-servers or the like for store and forward H04N1/324
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00283 : with a television apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00307 : with a mobile telephone apparatus constructional features of portable telephone sets H04M1/0202; mobile radio systems H04W84/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00403 : Voice input means, e.g. voice commands
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00411 : the display also being used for user input, e.g. touch screen
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00488 : providing an audible output to the user
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00854 : Recognising an unauthorised user or user-associated action
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00938 : Software related arrangements, e.g. loading applications program loading in general G06F9/445
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32534 : details of interfacing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32582 : Output interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/4413 : involving the use of passwords, ID codes or the like, e.g. PIN
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/442 : using a biometric data reading device
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0039 : Connection via a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0041 : Point to point H04N2201/0039 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0053 : Optical, e.g. using an infrared link
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0055 : By radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0082 : Image hardcopy reproducer H04N2201/0091 - H04N2201/0094 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0094 : Multifunctional device, i.e. a device capable of all of reading, reproducing, copying, facsimile transception, file transception
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/16 : Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 : Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/068 : using credential vaults, e.g. password manager applications or one time password [OTP] applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 : Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 : Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 : Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 : Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 : Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 : WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 : Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A method of operating a printing device for rendering data encoded in a raster form includes receiving by short range wireless communication an intermediate data which includes image data corresponding to at least part of the content and extracting the image data from the intermediate data. The image data is converted to data in a page description language form, and the data in the page description language is converted to the raster form rendered by a printer engine. The data in the raster form is supplied to the printer engine.

Claims

1. A method of operating a printing device that includes a printer engine for rendering data encoded in a raster form, said method comprising:

receiving by short range wireless communication an intermediate data which includes image data corresponding to at least part of the content,

extracting the image data from said intermediate data,

converting the image data to data in a page description language form,

converting the data in the page description language to the raster form rendered by the printer engine, and

supplying the data in the raster form to the printer engine.

2. An output device for rendering content, said output device including:

a communication unit to receive via short range wireless communication an intermediate output data in which includes at least part of the content encoded in image data form with a first bit depth and a first resolution, said intermediate output data including graphics or text elements exclusively encoded with image data,

an interpreter for receiving the intermediate output data and retrieving said image data from said intermediate output data,

a processor for carrying out at least one image processing operation on the interpreted data, said processing operation adjusting at least one of bit depth, color space and a combination of output size and resolution of the interpreted data, and

an output engine for receiving data from said processor and employing the data received from the processor to render the content.

3. An output device according to claim 2, wherein the output device is a printer, the output engine is a printer engine, and the processor is an image processor, and the second bit depth is less than the first bit depth.

4. A method of outputting content encoded in image data having a first bit depth and a first resolution, the content including at least part of a text or graphics element, said method comprising:

receiving an intermediate output data that include the say image data related to content,

interpreting the intermediate output data and retrieving said image data from the intermediate output data,

carrying out at least one processing operation on the interpreted image data,,said processing operation adjusting at least one of bit depth, color space and a combination of output size and resolution of the interpreted data, and

employing the data generated by the processing operation to render the content.

5. In a data output device for rendering content managed with an information apparatus, the data output device including an output engine that imparts output on a medium in accordance with output data received at the output device, a communication unit that communicates with one or more devices, and a memory storage that stores data for rendering;

the improvement comprising;

means for providing at least an indication related to one or more data formats acceptable to the controller in connection with rendering content at the output device; and

means for receiving an intermediate output data related to the content managed from the information apparatus, the intermediate output data corresponding to at least part of the content and includes data in accordance with said one or more acceptable data formats.

6. The controller as of claim 5 further comprising means for establishing a wireless communication channel with an information apparatus.

7. The output device as of claim 5 further comprising means for converting the intermediate output data into an output data that is acceptable for rendering with the output device.

8. The output device as of claim 6 including means for providing over the communication channel as said indication one or more of an output device identification, an intermediate output data indicator, a quality of service indicator, a price indicator, a status indicator, an output device attribute indicator, a rasterization parameter indicator, a format indicator, and a language indicator.

9. The output device as of claim 6 further comprising means for providing over the communication channel an output device profile.

10. The output device as of claim 5 further including means for receiving intermediate output data that includes at least one output image corresponding to at least part of the content.

11. The output device as of claim 5 wherein the means for receiving an intermediate output data includes means for receiving the intermediate output data that includes data in accordance with MRC encoding.

12. The output device as of claim 11 further comprising means for performing at least one image processing operation on the output image;

the image processing operation including one or more of a color correction operation, a color matching operation, a color space conversion, a color management operation, a scaling operation, an interpolation operation, and a halftoning operation.

13. The output device as of claim 5 further comprising means for conforming the intermediate output data into a print data that is acceptable to a printer controller associated with a printing device.

14. The output device of claim 5 in which the output medium is one or more of a substrate, a paper, a display screen, and a projector.

15. The output device of claim 5 in which the output device further comprises means for storing one or more output device profiles with one or more attributes corresponding to the output devices.

16. The output device of claim 5 further comprising means for receiving plural service requests from plural information apparatuses, the output device providing the at least part of the output device profile to each of the plural information apparatuses.

17. The output device of claim 5 in which the output device includes a printer.

18. The output device of claim 5 in which the output device further includes means for implementing payment processing as compensation for rendering of the output content on the output device.

19. The output device of claim 5 in which the output device further includes means for implementing job management functionalities with one or more of data output job queuing and spooling.

20. The output device of claim 5 in which the output device further includes means for implementing a security procedure that limits access to the rendering provided by the selected output device.

21. The output device of claim 5 in which the output device further includes means for converting the output data content into a form compatible with the output engine.