Agent and method for dynamically scheduling publication in an automated document delivery system

• US 6,826,534 B1
• Filed: 03/10/2000
• Issued: 11/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: van Zee, Pieter J., Gupta, Aloke, Miller, Robert M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Myhre, James W.
• Application Number:
  US09/523,264
• Time in Patent Office: 1,726 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/8, 345/634, 358/1.16, 358/1.14, 358/1.9, 382/233, 715/515, 719/318, 719/320
• US Class Current: 705/7.12
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• 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 3/1229 Printer resources management or printer maintenance, e.g. device status, power levels
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1279 Controller construction, e.g. aspects of the interface hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0271 Personalized advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0272 Period of advertisement exposure
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 83/543 Sensing means responsive to work indicium or irregularity

Abstract

A document delivery system comprising a data store of content objects and a publishing agent is presented. One or more of the content objects are selected and retrieved to comprise a personalized publication. The publishing agent finalizes at least a partial layout of content objects and schedules publication of the personalized publication based, at least in part, on a measure of complexity of the personalized publication.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

electronically retrieving content objects for inclusion in a publication;

measuring compilation time of at least a partial layout of the publication to develop a complexity measure for the publication; and

generating a publication schedule for the publication based, at least in part, on the developed complexity measure of the publication.

2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining one or more of a number of publications to be produced, a scheduled delivery time for the publications, a complexity measure of the publications, and whether any content objects are to be retrieved immediately prior to publication.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the step of generating a publication schedule is based, at least in part, on said determining step.

4. A method according to claim 1, further comprising:

initiating publication of the publication according to the publication schedule; and

delivering the publication to one or more requesting users through an automated document delivery system at a scheduled delivery time.

5. A method according to claim 4, further comprising:

determining when the one or more requesting users accesses the delivered publication, if possible; and

updating a user profile with the access time information the user profile including the user interests.

6. A method according to claim 5, wherein said step of generating a publication schedule is based, at least in part, on user profile information.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the user profile information includes information denoting access time information.

8. A method according to claim 4, wherein the step of generating the publication schedule is based, at least in part, on heuristic information associated with a time when a user actually accesses the delivered publication, and wherein the personalized document is based on the user'"'"'s interests.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of generating the publication schedule is based, at least in part, on media count and/or type information received from a printing device within a document delivery system, and wherein the personalized document is based on the user'"'"'s interests.

10. A storage medium comprising a plurality of executable instructions including at least a subset which, when executed, implement a publishing agent to publish a publication delivered through a data network, wherein the publishing agent performs at least a partial layout of the publication using pre-identified content objects and schedules publication of the publication based, at least in part, on a measured complexity of the publication, and wherein the publishing agent generates a measure of publication complexity by measuring a time required to complete at least the partial layout of the publication.

11. A storage medium according to claim 10, wherein the publishing agent schedules publication based, at least in part, on a quantity of publications to be generated, a complexity of the publications, a scheduled delivery time of the publications, and whether any content objects are to be retrieved immediately prior to publication.