Systems and methods for configuring mobile devices for printing to wireless printers

• US 8,572,304 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2010
• Issued: 10/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Wellala Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Wellala Incorporated
• Inventors: Nichols, Timothy C., Chatterton, Geoffrey W., Khanna, Ramaneek, Bauswell, Eric D., Chvala, Anthony R.
• Primary Examiner(s): SHIN, CHRISTOPHER B
• Application Number:
  US12/960,740
• Publication Number:
  US 20120075664A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,058 Days
• Field of Search: 710 8- 14, 710/104, 709/220, 358/1.15
• US Class Current: 710/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1204 resulting in reduced user or operator actions, e.g. presetting, automatic actions, using hardware token storing data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1228 Printing driverless or using generic drivers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1292 Mobile client, e.g. wireless printing

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed to systems and methods for configuring mobile communication devices to identify and communicate with wireless printing devices. These systems and methods may include determining available wireless printing devices, selecting a desired wireless printing device, attempting to establish communication between the mobile communication device and the wireless printing device using a first communication protocol, prompting a user to indicate the successfulness of the first communication protocol, and configuring the mobile communication device for printing to the wireless printing device using the first communication protocol if the first communication protocol successfully communicated with the wireless printing device. The systems and methods may further include prompting the user to indicate that the first communication protocol was not successful if the first communication protocol did not successfully communicate with the wireless printing device and repeating the method using another available communication protocol.

Claims

1. A method of configuring a wireless device for communicating with a wireless printing peripheral, the method comprising:

determining, by the wireless device, available wireless printing peripherals, wherein the available wireless printing peripherals include one or more wireless printing peripherals;

selecting a desired wireless printing peripheral from the available wireless printing peripherals;

identifying a first test protocol from a plurality of predetermined protocols for wireless communication between the wireless device and the desired wireless printing peripheral;

sending, by the wireless device, a first test communication from the wireless device to the desired wireless printing peripheral using the first test protocol, wherein the first test communication includes a first success indicator associated with the first test communication, and further wherein the desired wireless printing peripheral producing an output that includes the first success indicator is indicative of a successful communication between the wireless device and the desired wireless printing peripheral;

displaying, by the wireless device, a first plurality of indicators on a user interface of the wireless device, wherein the first plurality of indicators includes the first success indicator and at least one mock indicator;

prompting, by the wireless device, a user to indicate the successfulness of the first test communication to produce the output; and

configuring the wireless device to communicate with the desired wireless printing peripheral using a valid protocol that includes the first test protocol responsive to the user indicating that the first test communication was successful, wherein the valid protocol produces a desired visual output from the desired wireless printing peripheral when a communication is sent from the wireless device to the desired wireless printing peripheral using the valid protocol.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless device is a wireless communication device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the wireless communication device does not include a print driver for the desired wireless printing peripheral.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the method does not include installing a print driver for the desired wireless printing peripheral on the wireless device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the output is a visual output.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein prompting the user to verify the successfulness of the first test communication includes prompting the user to verify that the first success indicator is present in the output from the desired wireless printing peripheral by selecting the first success indicator from the first plurality of indicators.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein producing an output that includes the first success indicator includes printing the first success indicator with the desired wireless printing peripheral.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first success indicator includes at least one of a letter, a number, a symbol, an icon, and an image, and further wherein the first success indicator is randomly selected.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein, concurrent with prompting the user to indicate the successfulness of the first test communication to produce the output, the method further includes prompting the user to indicate that the first test communication was not successful responsive to the output not being produced by the desired wireless printing peripheral.

10. The method of claim 9, the method further comprising:

identifying a second test protocol from the plurality of predetermined protocols for wireless communication between the wireless device and the desired wireless printing peripheral;

sending, by the wireless device, a second test communication from the wireless device to the desired wireless printing peripheral using the second test protocol, wherein the second test communication includes a second success indicator associated with the second test communication, and further wherein the desired wireless printing peripheral producing an output that includes the second success indicator is indicative of a successful communication between the wireless device and the desired wireless printing peripheral;

displaying, by the wireless device, a second plurality of indicators on the user interface of the wireless device, wherein the second plurality of indicators includes the second success indicator and at least one mock indicator;

prompting, by the wireless device, the user to verify the successfulness of the second test communication to produce the output; and

configuring the wireless device to communicate with the desired wireless printing peripheral using the valid protocol that includes the second test protocol responsive to the user indicating that the second test communication was successful.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein prompting the user to verify the successfulness of the second test communication includes prompting the user to verify that the second success indicator is present in the output from the desired wireless printing peripheral by selecting the second success indicator from the second plurality of indicators.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein producing an output that includes the second success indicator includes printing the second success indicator with the desired wireless printing peripheral.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the second success indicator includes at least one of a letter, a number, a symbol, an icon, and an image, and further wherein the second success indicator is randomly selected.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the desired wireless printing peripheral includes a wireless printer.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining includes determining the available wireless printing peripherals using a service discovery protocol.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining includes prompting the user to input an IP address of the desired wireless printing peripheral.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further includes displaying, by the wireless device, a list of available wireless printing peripherals on a user interface of the wireless device, and further wherein the selecting includes selecting the desired wireless printing peripheral from the list of available wireless printing peripherals displayed on the user interface of the wireless device.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of predetermined protocols for wireless communication between the wireless device and the desired wireless printing peripheral includes a wireless communication standard.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of predetermined protocols for wireless communication between the wireless device and the desired wireless printing peripheral includes a page description language.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of predetermined protocols for wireless communication between the wireless device and the desired wireless printing peripheral includes a network printing protocol.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of predetermined protocols for wireless communication between the wireless device and the desired wireless printing peripheral includes protocols for communication with a print server.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one mock indicator is not associated with any of the plurality of predetermined protocols for wireless communication between the wireless device and the desired wireless printing peripheral, and further wherein the at least one mock indicator is different from the first success indicator.

23. The method of claim 1, further including storing, by the wireless device, the valid protocol on the wireless device;

utilizing, by the wireless device, the valid protocol for a future communication between the wireless device and the desired wireless printing peripheral; and

automatically configuring, by the wireless device, the wireless device to utilize the valid protocol responsive to a future selection of the desired wireless printing peripheral by the user.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further includes transmitting, by the wireless device, the valid protocol to a remote information storage location as a stored valid protocol.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein, prior to identifying the first test protocol, the method further includes:

communicating, by the wireless device, with the remote information storage location;

searching, by the wireless device, for the stored valid protocol for the desired wireless printing peripheral on the remote information storage location; and

configuring, by the wireless device, the wireless device to communicate with the desired wireless printing peripheral using the stored valid protocol for the desired wireless printing peripheral and ceasing the method responsive to the stored valid protocol for the desired wireless printing peripheral being available on the remote information storage location.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further includes receiving, by the wireless device, user input regarding an object to be printed;

copying, by the wireless device, an image of the object to be printed to a temporary image storage location on the wireless device;

communicating, by the wireless device, the image of the object to be printed from the image storage location to the desired wireless printing peripheral; and

printing, by the desired wireless printing peripheral, the object to be printed.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting includes the wireless device prompting the user to select.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying includes the wireless device prompting the user to identify.

29. A wireless device, comprising:

a memory device including computer-executable instructions that, when executed, direct the wireless device to perform the method of claim 1;

a wireless communication link;

a user interface; and

a user input mechanism configured to receive user inputs.