Method and apparatus for selecting interpreter for printer command language based upon sample of print job transmitted to printer
First Claim
1. A method of operating a computing system comprising a host computer and a printer connected to receive an input stream of electrical signals defining a print job from said host computer encoded in any one of a plurality of printer control languages comprising the steps for:
- causing an application program to run upon said host computer to generate a print job encoded in a selected printer control language,transmitting the print job to said printer,sampling a portion of the print job,analyzing the sampled portion of the print job using statistical techniques using stored data sets to identify the printer control language in which it is encoded, said stored data sets comprising statistical data setting forth a measure of the ability of selected n-grams occurring in print jobs to distinguish a given printer control language from all others, andinterpreting the print job in accordance with the printer control language identified by the sampling and analyzing steps.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A printer and method of operating same which receives print jobs from a host computer encoded in any one of several printer control languages. The printer has the capability of interpreting print jobs in each printer control language. The printer samples a portion of each print job and, using a resident algorithm and data sets obtained by statistical techniques, analyzes the sampled portion of the print job to identify the printer control language in which the print job is encoded.
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Citations
29 Claims
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1. A method of operating a computing system comprising a host computer and a printer connected to receive an input stream of electrical signals defining a print job from said host computer encoded in any one of a plurality of printer control languages comprising the steps for:
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causing an application program to run upon said host computer to generate a print job encoded in a selected printer control language, transmitting the print job to said printer, sampling a portion of the print job, analyzing the sampled portion of the print job using statistical techniques using stored data sets to identify the printer control language in which it is encoded, said stored data sets comprising statistical data setting forth a measure of the ability of selected n-grams occurring in print jobs to distinguish a given printer control language from all others, and interpreting the print job in accordance with the printer control language identified by the sampling and analyzing steps.
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2. A method of operating a computing system comprising at least one host computer and at least one printer, said host computer outputting print jobs encoded in a plurality of printer control languages and said at least one printer processing print jobs encoded in more than one printer control language comprising the steps of:
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a) generating samples of print jobs encoded in various printer control languages, b) analyzing said samples using statistical techniques to build data sets defining distinguishing characteristics for each printer control language, said data sets comprising statistical data setting forth a measure of the ability of selected n-grams occurring in print jobs to distinguish a given printer control language from all others, c) storing said data sets in said printer, d) capturing the initial portion of a new print job being transmitted to said at least one printer and testing said initial portion against said data sets to identify the printer control language in which the new print job is encoded, and e) printing the new print job using an interpreter or emulation suitable for the printer control language identified in the preceding step. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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3. A method of operating a computing system comprising a host computer and a printer connected to receive an input stream of electrical signals defining print jobs from said host computer encoded by specific computer applications in a plurality of printer control languages and in pure text format comprising the steps for:
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sampling a portion of the print jobs created by a plurality of applications programs for each printer control language and in pure text format using statistical techniques to build data sets that can be used to distinguish sampled print jobs according to the printer control language in which they have been encoded, said data sets comprising statistical data setting forth a measure of the ability of selected n-grams occurring in print jobs to distinguish a given printer control language from all others, storing the data sets in the printer, running an applications program on said host computer to generate or acquire a new print job, transmitting the new print job to said printer, sampling the initial portion of the new print job being transmitted to the printer, analyzing the sampled portion of the new print job using the stored data sets to identify the printer control language or pure text format in which it is encoded, and interpreting the input stream in accordance with the printer control language, if any, identified by the sampling and analyzing steps.
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4. A method of operating a printer configured for processing print jobs encoded in more than one printer control language comprising the steps of:
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a) storing data sets obtained by statistical techniques in the printer, said data sets defining distinguishing characteristics of said more than one printer control language, said data sets comprising statistical data setting forth a measure of the ability of selected n-grams occurring in print jobs to distinguish a given printer control language from all others, b) capturing an initial portion of a new print job and testing said initial portion against said data sets to identify the printer control language in which the new print job is encoded, and c) printing the new print job using an interpreter or emulation suitable for the printer control language identified in the preceding step.
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17. In a printer for receiving an input stream of electrical signals defining a print job from a host computer, said input stream encoded by a computer application in any one of a plurality of printer control languages, said printer comprising means for interpreting each of said plurality of printer control languages to define a bit mapped image, means for converting the bit mapped image into a visual display of said image, the improvement comprising:
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means for sampling a portion of an input stream, means using a printer resident algorithm and a plurality of data sets obtained by statistical techniques for analyzing the sampled portion of the input stream to identify the printer control language in which it is coded, there being at least one data set for each printer control language, said data sets comprising statistical data setting forth a measure of the ability of selected n-grams occurring in print jobs to distinguish a given printer control language from all others, and means for directing the interpreting means to interpret the input stream in accordance with the printer control language identified by the sampling and analyzing means. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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Specification