Handheld printer

• US 20060279784A1
• Filed: 06/10/2005
• Published: 12/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Marvell International Technology, Ltd. (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Original Assignee: Marvell International Technology, Ltd. (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Inventors: Carlson, Gregory F., Simmons, Asher, McClelland, Todd A., McKinley, Patrick A., Bledsoe, James D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,812,994 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.180
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 11/008 Controlling printhead for accurately positioning print image on printing material, e.g. with the intention to control the width of margins
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 3/36 for portability , i.e. hand-held printers or laptop printers B41J3/4075 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00347 with another still picture apparatus, e.g. hybrid still picture apparatus circuits or arrangements for control or supervision between image input and image output device H04N1/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/047 Detection, control or error compensation of scanning velocity or position H04N1/0402 and H04N1/17 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/107 with manual scanning
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/04737 by detecting the scanned medium directly, e.g. a leading edge

Abstract

A handheld printer that provides an appropriate application of ink to a print medium without a bulky and complex mechanical system for positioning a print head with respect to the print medium. A handheld printer according to the present teachings includes a navigation subsystem that tracks a motion of the handheld printer with respect to a printing surface and a print head controller that causes a print head to fire ink drops onto the printing surface in response to the motion and in response to an image contained in an image buffer.

Claims

1. A handheld printer, comprising:

navigation subsystem that tracks a motion of the handheld printer with respect to a printing surface;

print head controller that causes a print head to fire ink drops onto the printing surface in response to the motion.

2. The handheld printer of claim 1, wherein the print head controller causes the print head to fire ink drops onto the printing surface in response to an image buffer.

3. The handheld printer of claim 2, wherein the print head controller determines whether to fire ink drops in response to a pixel in an image buffer.

4. The handheld printer of claim 3, wherein the print head controller determines whether to fire ink drops in response to an indication of whether the pixel has already been printed.

5. The handheld printer of claim 1, further comprising and image buffer for holding an image.

6. The handheld printer of claim 5, further comprising a user interface that enables a user to specify a set of boundaries for rendering the image.

7. The handheld printer of claim 6, wherein the print head controller scales the image to the boundaries.

8. The handheld printer of claim 5, further comprising a user interface that enables the user to specify a starting position for rendering the image.

9. The handheld printer of claim 5, further comprising an input/output subsystem that enables transfer of the image into the image buffer.

10. The handheld printer of claim 1, wherein the navigation subsystem includes a set of optical motion sensors.

11. A method for printing, comprising:

tracking a motion of print head with respect to a printing surface;

firing ink drops onto the printing surface in response to the motion.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein firing comprises firing in response to an image buffer.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein firing comprises firing in response to a pixel in an image buffer.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein firing comprises firing in response to an indication of whether the pixel has already been printed.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein firing comprises firing in response to an image in the image buffer.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising specifying a set of boundaries for rendering the image.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising scaling the image to the boundaries.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising specifying a starting position for rendering the image.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising transferring the image into the image buffer.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein tracking comprising tracking using a set of optical motion sensors.