Printer with anonymous printer registration in a cloud-based print service

• US 8,867,070 B2
• Filed: 03/04/2011
• Issued: 10/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Jazayeri, Mike, Kalamkar, Abhijit, Pawliger, Marc, Byer, Scott, Gutnik, Yevgeniy, Dolgov, Yuri, Odean, Tyler, Ferraris, Paolo, Radhakrishnan, Sanjeef
• Primary Examiner(s): Backer, Firmin
• Assistant Examiner(s): BECKLEY, JONATHAN R
• Application Number:
  US13/041,038
• Publication Number:
  US 20110235085A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,327 Days
• Field of Search: 358 113- 116, 358/400, 358/401, 358/405, 358/507, 358/407, 709/203, 709/206, 709/223, 713/155, 713/152, 713/161, 713/182, 713/183
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/608 Secure printing
• 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 3/1206 resulting in increased flexibility in input data format or job format or job type
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1209 resulting in adapted or bridged legacy communication protocols, e.g. emulation, protocol extension
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1225 Software update, e.g. print driver, modules, plug-ins, fonts
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1228 Printing driverless or using generic drivers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1238 Secure printing, e.g. user identification, user rights for device usage, unallowed content, blanking portions or fields of a page, releasing held jobs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1247 by conversion to printer ready format
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1288 in client-server-printer device configuration

Abstract

A printer may include a registration requester configured to receive an initiation request from a user to initiate a registration of the printer, and further configured to send a registration request to a cloud print service over a network. The printer may include a claim facilitator configured to receive a registration response from the cloud print service over the network, the registration response including a claim code, and further configured to provide, using printer functionality, the claim code to the user. The printer also may include an authentication manager configured to request an authentication credential issued by the cloud print service in response to a matching of the printer with a user account of the user within the cloud print service, the matching based on a receipt of the claim code from the user at the cloud print service, and further configured to receive and store the authentication credential at the printer.

Claims

1. A cloud-enabled printer, comprising:

a registration requester configured to receive an initiation request from a user to initiate a registration of the cloud-enabled printer, and further configured to send a registration request to a cloud print service over a network, the cloud-enabled printer being configured to support communication with the cloud print service;

a claim facilitator configured to receive a registration response from the cloud print service over the network, the registration response including a claim code and a polling uniform resource locator (URL), wherein the claim code is provided to the user by the cloud-enabled printer or communicated from the cloud-enabled printer to a device of the user; and

an authentication manager configured to periodically transmit, over the network, an authentication request based on the polling URL,

the authentication manager configured to receive, over the network, an authentication credential in response to a recently-transmitted authentication request and a successful matching of the cloud-enabled printer with a user account of the user at the cloud print service, the matching being based on a receipt of the claim code at the cloud print service,

the authentication manager configured to store the authentication credential at the cloud-enabled printer.

2. The cloud-enabled printer of claim 1, wherein the initiation request includes a selection of the cloud print service received from the user from among a plurality of available cloud print services.

3. The cloud-enabled printer of claim 1, the registration request includes printer characteristics of the cloud-enabled printer.

4. The cloud-enabled printer of claim 1, wherein the claim code is human-readable.

5. The cloud-enabled printer of claim 1, wherein the claim code is machine-readable by a user device of the user.

6. The cloud-enabled printer of claim 1, wherein the claim code is associated with a time-to-live, after which the claim code expires and becomes invalid.

7. The cloud-enabled printer of claim 1, wherein the claim facilitator is further configured to receive a claim URL configured to receive the claim code, and configured to provide the claim URL to the user using printer functionality of the cloud-enabled printer.

8. The cloud-enabled printer of claim 7, wherein the printer functionality includes one or more of a print functionality for printing a page with the claim code and the claim URL, and/or a display functionality for displaying the claim code and the claim URL.

9. The cloud-enabled printer of claim 7, wherein the printer functionality includes one or more of a print functionality for printing an invitation URL at which the claim code and claim URL are available, and/or a display functionality for displaying the invitation URL at which the claim code and claim URL are available.

10. The cloud-enabled printer of claim 1, wherein the registration response includes a printer ID assigned to the cloud-enabled printer by the cloud print service, and each authentication request that is periodically transmitted includes the printer ID.

11. The cloud-enabled printer of claim 1, wherein the authentication manager is configured to periodically transmit the authentication request by periodically polling the cloud print service using the polling URL.

12. The cloud-enabled printer of claim 1, wherein the registration response includes the polling URL, the claim code, a printer ID assigned to the cloud-enabled printer, and a claim URL.

13. The cloud-enabled printer of claim 1, wherein the registration requester is configured to send the registration request over a secure connection using a pre-configured URL associated with the cloud print server.

14. The cloud-enabled printer of claim 1, wherein the authentication manager is configured to provide an authentication confirmation to the user using printer functionality and indicating that the authentication credential has been successfully received and stored.

15. The cloud-enabled printer of claim 1, wherein the authentication credential is used within a header of a subsequent message to be transmitted over the network from the cloud-enabled printer to the cloud print service.

16. A method for registering a cloud-enabled printer with a cloud print service, the method being performed by at least one processor at the cloud-enabled printer, the method comprising:

receiving, at the cloud-enabled printer, an initiation request from a user to initiate a registration of the cloud-enabled printer, the cloud-enabled printer being configured to support communication with a cloud print service;

sending, from the cloud-enabled printer, a registration request to the cloud print service over a network;

receiving, at the cloud-enabled printer, a registration response from the cloud print service over the network, the registration response including a claim code and a polling uniform resource locator (URL);

providing the claim code to the user, wherein the claim code is provided to the user by the cloud-enabled printer or communicated from the cloud-enabled printer to a device of the user;

periodically transmitting, over the network, an authentication request based on the polling URL;

receiving, over the network, an authentication credential in response to a recently-transmitted authentication request and a successful matching of the cloud-enabled printer with a user account of the user at the cloud print service, the matching being based on a receipt of the claim code at the cloud print service; and

storing the authentication credential at the cloud-enabled printer.

17. A computer program product tangibly embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and including executable code that, when executed, is configured to cause a cloud-enabled printer to:

receive, at the cloud-enabled printer, an initiation request from a user to initiate a registration of the cloud-enabled printer, the cloud-enabled printer being configured to support communication with a cloud print service;

send, from the cloud-enabled printer, a registration request to the cloud print service over a network;

receive, at the cloud-enabled printer, a registration response from the cloud print service over the network, the registration response including a claim code and a polling uniform resource locator (URL);

provide the claim code to the user, wherein the claim code is provided to the user by the cloud-enabled printer or communicated from the cloud-enabled printer to a device of the user;

periodically transmit, over the network, an authentication request based on the polling URL;

receive, over the network, an authentication credential in response to a recently-transmitted authentication request and a successful matching of the cloud-enabled printer with a user account of the user at the cloud print service, the matching based on a receipt of the claim code at the cloud print service; and

store the authentication credential at the cloud-enabled printer.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the initiation request includes a selection of the cloud print service received from the user from among a plurality of available cloud print services.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the executable code, when executed, is further configured to cause the cloud-enabled printer to receive a claim URL that is itself configured to receive the claim code, and to provide the claim URL to the user using printer functionality of the cloud-enabled printer.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the executable code, when executed, is further configured to cause the cloud-enabled printer to provide an authentication confirmation to the user using printer functionality and indicating that the authentication credential has been successfully received and stored.