Patents by Inventor Eric S. Nickell

Eric S. Nickell has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 6327043
    Abstract: An object optimized printing system and method comprises a page description language decomposing system, a command instruction and data generating system and an image output terminal controller. The PDL decomposition system inputs a print file defining a plurality of pages in the page description language and locates the plurality of objects forming each page and their object types. Based on the determine object types and any explicit rendering commands in the PDL file, the PDL decomposition system automatically generates rendering tags for each of the objects. The rendering tags are used to control the command instruction and data generating system, the IOT controller and/or the image output terminal to optimize the printing by the IOT on an object-by-object basis. Based on the objects and the generated rendering tags, the command instruction and data generating system generates the differing types of data and the command instructions on a scanline-by-scanline basis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 1996
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2001
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: David E. Rumph, Robert M. Coleman, Charles M. Hains, James K. Kenealy, Mark T. Corl, Russell R. Atkinson, Michael F. Plass, Eric S. Nickell, L. Dale Green, Robert R. Buckley
  • Publication number: 20010043345
    Abstract: An object optimized printing system and method comprises a page description language decomposing system, a command instruction and data generating system and an image output terminal controller. The PDL decomposition system inputs a print file defining a plurality of pages in the page description language and locates the plurality of objects forming each page and their object types. Based on the determine object types and any explicit rendering commands in the PDL file, the PDL decomposition system automatically generates rendering tags for each of the objects. The rendering tags are used to control the command instruction and data generating system, the IOT controller and/or the image output terminal to optimize the printing by the IOT on an object-by-object basis. Based on the objects and the generated rendering tags, the command instruction and data generating system generates the differing types of data and the command instructions on a scanline-by-scanline basis.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 8, 2001
    Publication date: November 22, 2001
    Applicant: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: David E. Rumph, Robert M. Coleman, Charles M. Hains, James K. Kenealy, Mark T. Corl, Russell R. Atkinson, Michael F. Plass, Eric S. Nickell, L. Dale Green, Robert R. Buckley
  • Patent number: 6256104
    Abstract: An object optimized printing system and method comprises a page description language decomposing system, a command instruction and data generating system and an image output terminal controller. The PDL decomposition system inputs a print file defining a plurality of pages in the page description language and locates the plurality of objects forming each page and their object types. Based on the determine object types and any explicit rendering commands in the PDL file, the PDL decomposition system automatically generates rendering tags for each of the objects. The rendering tags are used to control the command instruction and data generating system, the IOT controller and/or the image output terminal to optimize the printing by the IOT on an object-by-object basis. Based on the objects and the generated rendering tags, the command instruction and data generating system generates the differing types of data and the command instructions on a scanline-by-scanline basis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 1996
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2001
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: David E. Rumph, Robert M. Coleman, Charles M. Hains, James K. Kenealy, Mark T. Corl, Russell R. Atkinson, Michael F. Plass, Eric S. Nickell, L. Dale Green, Robert R. Buckley
  • Patent number: 6034700
    Abstract: A simple method of anti-aliasing for edges near the fast scan direction is to replace the pixels on both sides of the transition in a scan with pixels of varying intermediate color. Thus, if there is an edge between red and blue areas, instead of there being an abrupt change from red to blue at the edge, there will be a number of pixels that slowly vary from mostly red to mostly blue, which will tend to make the jagged edge less obvious.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 1998
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2000
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: David E. Rumph, Eric S. Nickell
  • Patent number: 6006013
    Abstract: An object optimized printing system and method comprises a page description language decomposing system, a command instruction and data generating system and an image output terminal controller. The PDL decomposition system inputs a print file defining a plurality of pages in the page description language and locates the plurality of objects forming each page and their object types. Based on the determine object types and any explicit rendering commands in the PDL file, the PDL decomposition system automatically generates rendering tags for each of the objects. The rendering tags are used to control the command instruction and data generating system, the IOT controller and/or the image output terminal to optimize the printing by the IOT on an object-by-object basis. Based on the objects and the generated rendering tags, the command instruction and data generating system generates the differing types of data and the command instructions on a scanline-by-scanline basis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 1995
    Date of Patent: December 21, 1999
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: David E. Rumph, Robert M. Coleman, Charles M. Hains, James K. Kenealy, Mark T. Corl, Russell R. Atkinson, Margaret Motamed, Matthew Tucker, Michael F. Plass, Eric S. Nickell, L. Dale Green
  • Patent number: 5960163
    Abstract: A bitmap-based digital color printing method and system is described which automatically detects when a black object is to be printed and changes the Bit Block Transfer (BitBlt) method so that the black color becomes a mixture of black plus the background colorants, limited both by a clipping of one colorant against another and by an allowed maximum value for each remaining non-black separation. More specifically, the process reads the existing background color bits, does a first clip of one separation against another assuming that for correcting certain printing defects some separations are more important than others, and then does a second clip of remaining non-black separations to a pre-set maximum allowable amount. The result is an efficient way to control total colorant while allowing some separations precedence over others; with the result that the amount of colorant in one separation is dependent on or partially correlated with the amount of colorant in another.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 1998
    Date of Patent: September 28, 1999
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Eric S. Nickell, Robert M. Coleman
  • Patent number: 5848225
    Abstract: A bitmap-based digital color printing method and system is described which automatically detects when a black object is to be printed and changes the Bit Block Transfer (BitBlt) method so that the black color becomes a mixture of black plus the background colorants, limited by an allowed maximum non-black value for each separation. More specifically, the process determines, for each non-black separation, a maximum allowable amount to be used in black printing, reads the existing background color bits, and clips them if necessary to the allowed maximum before mixing them into the black color. The result will be a limitation on the total colorant amount of the black area, which improves some printer defects caused by too much colorant. The clipping can be accomplished at the bit level during the read-modify-write process if both the maximum and actual colors are represented with the same monotonic halftone dot specification, and are ANDed together to form the clipped bits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 1996
    Date of Patent: December 8, 1998
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Eric S. Nickell, Robert M. Coleman
  • Patent number: 5113356
    Abstract: A software package is described which resides in a color printing system and which automatically intercepts and colorizes black and white documents (or re-colors color documents, if desired) that are sent to the color printer. The description includes pictorial flow charts and segments of code from an existing implementation in a Pascal-like language, implemented for documents expressed in a high-level page description language (PDL). The functionality of each major process in the software is explained in detail, including as examples the process of capturing and parsing user-specified modifications to the automatic coloring instructions, the process of coloring graphical objects according to their existing fill patterns, the process of coloring text and adding textual features such as dropshadows, and the process of coloring bitmaps.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 24, 1990
    Date of Patent: May 12, 1992
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Eric S. Nickell, Robert R. Buckley, David E. Rumph, Robert M. Coleman