Printer pen

• US 7,196,825 B2
• Filed: 11/08/2004
• Issued: 03/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/16/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Rydbeck, Nils, Johansson, Orjan, Danielsson, Peter, Gabrielsson, Jan, Hellqvist, Stefan
• Primary Examiner(s): Lamb; Twyler
• Assistant Examiner(s): Safaipour; Houshang
• Application Number:
  US10/983,556
• Publication Number:
  US 20050141060A1
• Time in Patent Office: 869 Days
• Field of Search: 358/424, 358/475, 358/474, 358/472, 358/473
• US Class Current: 358/424
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/315 characterised by selective application of heat to a heat sensitive printing or impression-transfer material B41J2/385, B41J2/435 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 29/393 Devices for controlling or analysing the entire machine ; Controlling or analysing mechanical parameters involving printing of test patterns
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 3/36 for portability , i.e. hand-held printers or laptop printers B41J3/4075 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/002 Specific input/output arrangements not covered by G06F3/01 - G06F3/16 other optical apparatus G02B27/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0321 by optically sensing the absolute position with respect to a regularly patterned surface forming a passive digitiser, e.g. pen optically detecting position indicative tags printed on a paper sheet constructional details of pen-shaped pointing devices G06F3/03545, G06F3/03542, G06F3/037
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03545 Pens or stylus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/028 by thermal printers
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 2215/0005 Accepting output data; Preparing data for the controlling system
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10 by electromagnetic radiation, e.g. optical sensing; by corpuscular radiation
• 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 1/047 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 2201/04712 using unbroken arrays of detectors, i.e. detectors mounted on the same substrate
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/04717 on the scanned sheet, e.g. a reference sheet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/04734 Detecting at frequent intervals, e.g. once per line for sub-scan control
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/04737 by detecting the scanned medium directly, e.g. a leading edge
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/08 : between user and terminal device

Abstract

A method and system for generating output from an electronic reading device is based on a detected position of the electronic reading device relative to a predefined address pattern on a specially formatted paper. Based on a periodic detection of successive positions of the electronic reading device, a printer on the electronic reading device is activated in a manner such that stored text or graphics are printed on the specially formatted paper. The printing can be accomplished, for example, using a thermo-print head of the electronic reading device in connection with a thermal sensitive paper. Either as an alternative to or in addition to printing, the electronic reading device can also generate an audio output based on the detected location of the electronic reading device.

Claims

1. An electronic input/output (I/O) device, comprising:

an electronic pen;

an electronic pen client coupled to the electronic pen,

the electronic pen client adapted to;

load an application from an application server;

receive new grid requests and action requests from the electronic pen;

respond to the requests by contacting an appropriate entity within a system to properly respond to the request from the electronic pen; and

store the application and any corresponding data received from the electronic pen to facilitate the processing and use of the application;

a control node coupled to the electronic pen;

a name server coupled to the electronic pen;

a base translator coupled to the electronic pen and to an application server;

a position sensor integrated with the electronic pen for detecting a position of the electronic pen on a specially formatted paper based on a predefined address pattern of the specially formatted paper; and

a printer integral to the electronic pen for printing on the specially formatted paper based on the detected position of the electronic pen.

2. The electronic I/O device of claim 1, further comprising a memory for storing information to be printed.

3. The electronic I/O device of claim 2, further comprising a local wireless link receiver for receiving the information to be printed.

4. The electronic I/O device of claim 2, wherein the information to be printed is loaded into the memory using the electronic pen client.

5. The electronic I/O device of claim 4, wherein the electronic pen client comprises a web browser.

6. The electronic I/O device of claim 2, further comprising a microprocessor for receiving detected positions from the position sensor and for controlling the printer based on the received positions.

7. The electronic I/O device of claim 2, wherein the information to be printed comprises text.

8. The electronic I/O device of claim 2, wherein the information to be printed comprises graphics.

9. The electronic I/O device of claim 1, wherein the printer is capable of printing a similar dot at a particular position each time the electronic pen moves over the particular position.

10. The electronic I/O device of claim 1, wherein the printer comprises a thermo-print head and the specially formatted paper comprises a thermal paper.

11. The electronic I/O device of claim 1, wherein the position sensor performs angle-sensitive positioning detection.

27. The electronic I/O device of claim 1, further comprising the electronic pen client being adapted to receive an action from the electronic pen when an application has been loaded by the electronic pen client, the action consisting of one from the group of:

forwarding the action to the base translator;

forwarding a request to the control node;

submitting a current form to an application server;

requesting the load of a new grid; and

updating a current form and sending an action reply to the electronic pen.

12. A method for generating output with an electronic reading device, comprising the steps of:

establishing a communication channel between the electronic reading device and a device client;

requesting an application by the device client from an application server;

loading the application by the device client;

receiving, by the device client, grid requests and action requests from the electronic reading device;

responding, by the device client, to the requests by contacting an appropriate entity within a system to properly respond to the request from the electronic reading device;

storing the application and any corresponding data received from the electronic reading device to facilitate the processing and use of the application;

determining a position where the electronic reading device is located on a specially formatted surface based on a detection of a predefined address pattern of the specially formatted surface;

generating an output based on the detected position of the electronic reading device;

responding by the device client to requests of the electronic reading device; and

storing by the device client, the application and any corresponding data recieved from the electronic reading device to facilitate the processing and use of the application.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of generating output comprises printing information on the specially formatted surface.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the generated output is determined for each detected position using an image stored in the electronic reading device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the image is loaded into the electronic reading device using the device client.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the device client includes a web browser used for loading the image.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising the step of selectively adjusting a size of the image before printing.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the information is printed by activating a thermo-print head of the electronic reading device, wherein the specially formatted surface comprises a thermal paper.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

modifying an image printed with the electronic reading device using a writing function of the electronic reading device; and

storing the modified image.

20. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

modifying an image printed with the electronic reading device using a separate electronic writing reading device; and

storing the modified image.

21. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

writing information using a writing mode of an electronic reading device;

collecting the written information by detecting a plurality of positions of the electronic reading device relative to the address pattern; and

storing the written information, wherein the printing of information on the specially formatted surface comprises printing a representation of the stored written information.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising the step of adjusting a size of the stored written information prior to said printing.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the device client is integral to the electronic reading device.

24. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of generating output comprises generating audio sound.

25. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of determining a position includes detecting an angle of the electronic reading device relative to the specially formatted surface.

26. The method of claim 12, wherein the output generated when the electronic reading device is at a particular location is substantially similar each time the electronic reading device is located at the particular location.

28. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving an action by the device client from the electronic reading device when the electronic reading device is in an application loaded state, the action consisting of one from the group of:

sending the action to a base translator;

forwarding a request to a control node;

submitting a current form to an application server;

requesting the load of a new grid; and

updating a current form and sending an action reply to the electronic reading device.