Printers and printer systems having cellular input/output

• US 8,390,865 B2
• Filed: 05/08/2012
• Issued: 03/05/2013
• 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:
  US13/466,800
• Publication Number:
  US 20120218603A1
• Time in Patent Office: 301 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.15
• 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 accessing a cellularly configured printer with a cellular device; and cellularly sending the printer an indication of a resource that is to be printed by the printer, said resource comprising a network-accessible resource that does not reside on the printer and which the printer is to retrieve.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

accessing a cellularly configured printer with a cellular device, said accessing comprising calling a phone number associated with a cellular interface of the printer; and

cellularly sending the printer an indication of a resource that is to be printed by the printer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said resource comprising a network-accessible resource that does not reside on the printer and which the printer is to retrieve.

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

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said accessing comprises, at least in part, calling a location service that provides a location of a nearest cellularly-configured printer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication of the resource comprises the resource itself.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication comprises an identifier that can be used to retrieve the resource via a network.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the printer the indication comprises establishing a secure dialog between the cellular device and the printer.

8. The method of claim 3, further comprising encrypting the password with a public key associated with the printer prior to sending the encrypted password to the printer.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising encrypting the resource with a public key associated with the printer prior to sending the resource to the printer for printing.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said resource comprises an email sent to a user of the cellular device.

11. A method comprising:

accessing a cellularly configured printer by calling the printer with a cellular phone; and

cellularly sending the printer an indication of a resource that is to be printed by the printer, the indication comprising an identifier that can be used to retrieve the resource via the Internet.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the identifier comprises a Universal Resource Locator (URL).

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the act of sending the printer the indication comprises establishing a secure dialog between the cellular phone and the printer.