Printers and printer systems having cellular input/output

• US 7,957,014 B2
• Filed: 05/02/2003
• Issued: 06/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• 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.
• Primary Examiner(s): EBRAHIMI DEHKORDY, SAEID
• Application Number:
  US10/428,610
• Publication Number:
  US 20040218207A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,958 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.15, 358/1.13, 358/1, 358/16, 358/468, 358/402, 358/444, 358/401, 358/1.18, 705/1, 705/2, 705/52, 709/203, 709/218, 709/204, 709/207, 455/557, 455/551, 455/41.1, 455/552.1, 455/420, 455/418, 455/419, 455/3.03, 455/70
• 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;

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 resource received directly from the cellular phone; and

a location service capable of providing a location of a nearest cellularly-configured printer to a cellular user.

2. 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.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the printer uses the indication by accessing a network and using the indication to retrieve the resource.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the printer uses the indication by accessing the Internet and using the indication to retrieve the resource.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the indication comprises a URL.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the indication does not comprise the resource itself.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the cellular interface is configured to facilitate direct communication to the printer via a cellular telephone network.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the locations service provides a location of a nearest printer having a cellular card.

9. 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 to receive, format, and print resources received directly from a cellular device via the cellular interface;

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

a print unit operatively coupled to the processor.

10. The printer of claim 9, wherein the cellular interface comprises a cellular port and a cellular card.

11. The printer of claim 9, wherein the resources received directly from the cellular device via the cellular interface comprise images to be printed by the printer.

12. 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;

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 resource to be printed; and

a location service capable of providing a location of a nearest cellularly-configured printer to a cellular user.