Printers and printer systems having cellular input/output

• US 20040218207A1
• Filed: 05/02/2003
• Published: 11/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Biundo, Marc, Graves, Brett, Oleinik, John H.
• Granted Patent: US 7,957,014 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00132 in a digital photofinishing system, i.e. a system where digital photographic images undergo typical photofinishing processing, e.g. printing ordering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00137 Transmission
• 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 1/00307 with a mobile telephone apparatus constructional features of portable telephone sets H04M1/0202; mobile radio systems H04W84/00

Abstract

In one embodiment, a system comprises a printer configured to provide one or more print services, one or more processors associated with the printer, and a cellular interface associated with the printer and through which one or more print services can be accessed by a cellular phone. One or more computer-readable media are associated with the printer, and computer-readable instructions on the computer-readable media are executable by the processor(s) to cause the processor(s) to enable the printer to be accessed by a cellular phone and provide one or more print services for a user of the cellular phone.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a printer configured to provide one or more print services;

one or more processors associated with the printer;

a cellular interface associated with the printer and through which the one or more print services can be accessed by a cellular phone;

one or more computer-readable media associated with the printer; and

computer-readable instructions on the one or more computer-readable media which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to enable the printer to be accessed by a cellular phone and provide one or more print services for a user of the cellular phone.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the printer comprises a laser printer.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the printer comprises an ink jet printer.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the printer comprises a multi-function device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to:

receive, from the cellular phone, an indication of a resource that is to be printed; and

use the indication to retrieve and print the resource.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the printer uses the indication by accessing a network and using the indication to retrieve the resource.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the printer uses the indication by accessing the Internet and using the indication to retrieve the resource.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the indication comprises a URL.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the indication does not comprise the resource itself.

10. A method comprising:

accessing a cellularly configured printer with a cellular device;

cellularly sending the printer an indication of a resource that is to be printed by the printer, said resource comprising a network-accessible resource that does not reside on the printer and which the printer is to retrieve.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said act of accessing comprises calling the printer with a cell phone.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein said act of accessing comprises, at least in part, calling a location service that can provide a location of a nearest cellularly-configured printer.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the indication of the resource does not comprise the resource itself.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the indication comprises an identifier that can be used to retrieve the resource via the network.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the act of sending the printer the indication comprises establishing a secure dialog between the cellular device and the printer.

16. A cellular phone configured to implement the method of claim 10.

17. A method comprising:

accessing a cellularly configured printer by calling the printer with a cellular phone; and

cellularly sending the printer an indication of a resource that is to be printed by the printer, the indication comprising an identifier that can be used to retrieve the resource via the Internet.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the identifier comprises a URL.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the act of sending the printer the indication comprises establishing a secure dialog between the cellular phone and the printer.

20. A cellular phone configured to implement the method of claim 17.

21. A method comprising:

receiving, with a printer, a cellular communication from a cellular device that provides an indication of a resource that is to be printed by the printer;

accessing, with the printer, a network via which the resource can be retrieved;

using the indication to retrieve the resource via the network; and

printing the resource.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the act of receiving is performed by receiving the cellular communication from one or more cellular phones.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the act of accessing the network comprises accessing the Internet to retrieve the resource.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the act of accessing the network comprises accessing the Internet to retrieve the resource, and the indication comprises a URL.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the printer comprises a laser printer.

26. The method of claim 21, wherein the printer comprises an ink jet printer.

27. The method of claim 21, wherein the printer comprises a multi-function device.

28. The method of claim 21, wherein the act of printing is performed for a fee.

29. A method comprising:

offering at least a portion of a cellular-based service for a fee, the cellular-based service comprising a service in which one or more cellularly-configured printers can be;

cellularly accessed by a cell phone,

provided with an indication of a resource that is to be printed,

retrieve the resource, and

print the resource; and

charging a fee for said cellular-based service portion.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the service comprises retrieving the resource via the Internet.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein the service comprises retrieving the resource via the Internet, and the indication of the resource comprises a URL.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein the act of offering is performed, at least in part, by a cellular telephone network provider.

33. The method of claim 29, wherein the act of offering is performed, at least in part, by a print provider.

34. The method of claim 29, wherein the act of offering is performed, at least in part, by a merchant.

35. The method of claim 29, wherein the act of offering is performed, at least in part, by a cellular telephone network provider and a merchant.

36. A printer comprising:

a cellular interface;

a computer readable medium storing instructions for operating the printer including communicating with other devices through the cellular interface;

a processor for executing instructions stored on the computer readable medium; and

a print unit operatively coupled to the processor.

37. The printer of claim 36, wherein the cellular interface comprises a cellular port and a cellular card.

38. A printer comprising:

a cellular interface;

a web server configured to communicate with other devices through the cellular interface;

a computer readable medium storing instructions for operating the printer including communicating with other devices through the web server and the cellular interface;

a processor for executing instructions stored on the computer readable medium; and

a print unit operatively coupled to the processor.