Printers and printer systems having cellular input/output

• US 8,154,756 B2
• Filed: 04/25/2011
• Issued: 04/10/2012
• 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.
• Primary Examiner(s): EBRAHIMI DEHKORDY, SAEID
• Application Number:
  US13/093,538
• Publication Number:
  US 20110199643A1
• Time in Patent Office: 351 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.15, 358/1.13, 358/1.14, 358/1.16, 358/1.18, 358/402, 358/444, 358/468, 358/401, 709/203, 709/204, 709/207, 709/218, 455/551, 455/557, 705/1, 705/2, 705/52
• 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

A method includes 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.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, with a printer, a cellular phone call 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.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving is performed by receiving the cellular phone call from one or more cellular phones.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the network comprises accessing the Internet to retrieve the resource.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the network comprises accessing the Internet to retrieve the resource, and the indication comprises a URL.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein printing is performed for a fee.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, with the printer, a password needed to access the resource via said network, such that the printer can securely access the resource for printing.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising receiving the password encrypted with a public key associated with the printer and decrypting the password using a private key associated with the printer.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the resource encrypted with a public key associated with the printer and decrypting the resource using a private key associated with the printer prior to printing the resource.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a query requesting the location of a nearest cellularly-configured printer to said cellular device based on a current location of the cellular device as determined using operation of the cellular device within a distributed cellular system.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising notifying the cellular device of the location of the nearest cellularly-configured printer.

11. 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 phone call from a cell phone to a phone number associated with that printer,

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.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the service comprises retrieving the resource via the Internet.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the service comprises retrieving the resource via the Internet, and the indication of the resource comprises a URL.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein offering is performed, at least in part, by a cellular telephone network provider.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein offering is performed, at least in part, by a print provider.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein offering is performed, at least in part, by a merchant.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein offering is performed, at least in part, by a cellular telephone network provider and a merchant.

18. A printer comprising:

a cellular interface for receiving cellular phone calls;

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.

19. The printer of claim 18, wherein said processor receives a password via a cellular phone call for accessing a designated resource to be printed.

20. The printer of claim 18, wherein said processor has public and private keys for encrypting and decrypting data.