Abstract: A printing device is provided with an imager to capture an output image of the paper after it is printed on. The output image is compared to an input image representing the image being printed to detect any artifacts in the output image and to determine the type of the artifacts. The types of the artifacts include effects caused by dirty drum, low or missing toner, dirty or wrinkled paper, etc. The printing device performs a responsive action based on the type of artifacts detected, including displaying a diagnostic message, stopping the printing, rejecting the sheet, re-printing, printing subsequent pages with a corrective action, etc. Further, another imager is provided to capture an image of the paper before it is printed on, and the image is analyzed to detect artifacts of the input paper, including dirty or wrinkled paper, wrong paper size, paper skew or misalignment, etc.

Abstract: A method of rasterizing a print image plane for a multiple beam printer engine, which comprises the steps of receiving an image having a plurality of lines of print data for processing by the printer engine, and performing a print image plane rasterization. The print image plane rasterization includes (a) calculating a first line destination for a first line of print data; (b) moving the first line of print data to the first line destination; and (c) calculating a displaced line destination for a displaced line of print data, and continually moving the displaced line of print data to the displaced line destination until the displaced line of print data is moved to the first line and forms a loop. The process is repeated until each line of the plurality of lines has been moved to a line destination associated with each line of the image.

Abstract: A method implemented in a print shop management system for exporting print jobs from the print shop management program. The exporting method allows selection of an export job ticket format at the time of export. The export job ticket format may be a press device format suitable for consumption by a digital printing device, or an original input format that preserves the format of the original job ticket imported from an external program. For the press device format, an output job ticket in the requested format is generated from scratch based on job parameters stored in a job ticket database. For the original input format, a copy of the original job ticket is read from an input job ticket and exported; optionally, job parameters generated by the print shop management program may be incorporated into the copy of the input job ticket before exporting.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for processing pixel data is presented that includes a plurality of image forming modules coupled to a data control module. The data control module includes a plurality of memory units. Each memory unit can store a portion of an image. The data control module receives a first signal and a second signal and selects at least one of the plurality of image forming modules to send the image portions stored in the plurality of memory units based on a timing relationship between a first image alignment event on the first signal and a second image alignment event on the second signal.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for dynamically converting first color data to second color data using a look-up table, wherein the first color data is a subset of a first color space, and the second color data is a subset of a second color space. In some embodiments, at least one first color value is input in the first color data. At least one look-up table entry may be calculated for the at least one first color value in the first color data, if the look-up table entry has not been previously calculated. The at least one calculated look-up table entry may be stored. At least one value in the second color data, which corresponds to the at least one first color value, can be computed based on the at least one first color value and the stored value of the at least one look-up table entry.

Abstract: A system that facilitates enhancing security for a computer device utilizing an IPv6 network connection. The system includes a computer device having a software module, which performs the following steps: capturing outgoing IPv6 packets, the outgoing IPv6 packets having a stateless autoconfiguration IPv6 address, which is configured at least partially based on a computer device identifier; modifying the IPv6 address associated with the computer device identifier to generate a modified IPv6 address; and returning the outgoing IPv6 packet with the modified IPv6 address to a network layer of the Internet Protocol of the computer device. In accordance with an example, the computer device is an image forming apparatus.

Abstract: A method and system include using a scanner to copy a document containing an original image and an embossment. The method includes first scanning a front face of the document from which the original image is visible to form a first image, wherein the first scanning is conducted with a sensitivity such that the embossment is essentially not visible in the first image; increasing a sensitivity of the scanner; second scanning the document to create a second image, wherein the embossment is visible in the second image; combining the first and second images so as to obtain a reproduction image of the original image containing the embossment.

Abstract: A method is described to obtain a binary image from the print-and-scan process to best match the known original. A point-spread function (PSF) of the PAS process is first obtained from its knife-edge responses, and deblurring is carried out on the scanned images using deconvolution. After image deskewing and preliminary registration, a supervised adaptive thresholding procedure is utilized to binarize the scanned image such that a measure of difference (e.g. the Euclidean distance) between the original and binarized images is minimized. The supervised adaptive thresholding procedure divides the scanned images into many rectangular sub-images. Otsu's method is used to find a starting threshold for each scanned sub-image. An optimal threshold is found around the Otsu's threshold via iterative search to minimize the measure of difference between the original sub-image and scanned sub-image. The sub-images are binarized using the optimal threshold. This method may be used in document authentication.

Abstract: An image deblurring method for camera-based document image processing is described. A document image captured by a digital camera is divided into multiple overlapping or non-overlapping sub-images. A point spread function is derived for each sub-image by analyzing the gradient information along edges contained in the sub-image. Each sub-image is deblurred by using its local point-spread function. The whole deblurred image is constructed from deblurred sub-images. In cases where information of interest is located in localized parts of the document image, dividing the image into sub-images may be done by extracting the area of interest from the captured image. This deblurring method improves the quality of the deblurred image when the camera-captured image is blurred by variable amount of location-dependent defocus.

Abstract: A method is described in which metadata regarding a document is encoded as 2d barcode printed on the same recording medium as the document, where the metadata includes an access history of the document and other information. When a printed document including such barcode is copied, the copy includes new barcode containing updated metadata that replaces the original barcode, where the updated metadata includes a record of the current copying or scanning action. When a printed document including such barcode is scanned, the metadata contained in the barcode is extracted and stored. Also described is a document management system including a server connected to one or more clients, scanners, printers, and a storage device for storing documents and metadata. The server includes a digital stamp engine that generates barcode data representing metadata, and supports a variety of workflows including print, barcode generation, scan, copy, barcode update, etc.

Abstract: A document alteration detection method compares a target image with an original image using a two-step process. In the first step, the original and target images are divided into connected image components and their centroids are obtained, and the centroids of the image components in the original and target images are compared. Each centroid in the target image that is not in the original image is deemed to represent an addition, and each centroid in the original image that is not in the target image is deemed to represent a deletion. In the second step, sub-images containing the image components corresponding to each pair of matching centroids in the original and target images are compared to detect any alterations.

Abstract: In a print shop system including a plurality of printers and a print shop management server which manages print jobs, an improved method is described for detecting color components in a document page for purposes of assigning the document to appropriate printers for printing. First, each page element is analyzed without rasterizing the page. If a raster image is colored, its location and size are added to an image information list. If a non-raster graphical element overlaps a raster image previously stored in the image information list, the overlapped raster image is removed from the list. After analyzing all page elements of the page, if any raster image remains in the image information list, the page is marked as colored. Otherwise, the page is rasterized to detect colored using a conventional method. The resolution used for page rasterization may be controlled by a user.

Abstract: A system for producing continuous print jobs, which includes a printing unit which prints an image and a client computer having executable instructions for creating a print job for producing a continuous print job. The executable instructions include activating a continuous print mode from a list of print properties within a printer driver user interface, and wherein the continuous print mode stacks at least two print jobs in a print job queue until instructed to print; sending at least two print jobs to the print job queue; selecting a final print format for each of the at least two print jobs; processing and formatting each of the at least two print jobs into a single combined print job; and printing the single combined print job. The printing unit and the client computer are connected via a network and/or direct connection.

Abstract: In a print shop system including a plurality of printers and a print shop management server which manages print jobs, an improved method is described for controlling a document color detection method for purposes of assigning documents to appropriate printers for printing. A user interface is provided for the user to specify a set of criteria for selectively forwarding the color detection task to another server or for rejecting the print job. In a first embodiment, if one or more specified criteria are met, the print shop management server forwards the print job to another server to perform color detection. In a second embodiment, if one or more specified criteria are met, the print shop management server rejects the print job and notifies the user.

Abstract: A color barcode can record much more amount of information than black white barcode. However, the problem of the color barcode is that it is easy to lose integrity or authenticity in printing and copy generation. This invention provides an apparatus and a method to keep the integrity or authenticity of the color barcode. Such is accomplished by the color information portion of the color barcode representing the color information about what colors are used for color tiles of data portion of the color barcode and an apparatus and a method for producing and reproducing such color barcode.

Abstract: Systems and methods consistent with embodiments of the present invention provide a method for the configuration of peripheral devices. In some methods for configuring peripheral devices, configuration options available for a peripheral device are enumerated and listed as files associated with a virtual drive representing the peripheral device. In some embodiments the files may be given descriptive names related to the configuration options they represent. In some embodiments, icons in a user window may denote the virtual drive, and its associated files and folders. In some methods for configuring peripheral devices, when the icon for a file associated with the virtual drive is dragged onto the icon for the virtual drive, the configuration of the scanning device associated with the virtual drive is automatically changed to match the configuration associated with the file.

Abstract: Systems in accordance with the presently claimed invention use input data to create an output pulse that is a fraction of the width of an input pulse. In some embodiments, the invention accepts input data and an input signal that has pulses of a specific frequency. In some embodiments, the invention uses a phase lock loop to create multiple signals of a higher frequency than the frequency of the input signal. Each of these multiple signals is offset by a certain phase from the other signals. In some embodiments, the invention synchronizes the input data to each of these multiple signals. The invention uses the phase difference between the multiple signals to create an output pulse as a function of the input data that is a fraction of the width of the input pulse.

Abstract: The present application relates to a data bus line to secure secrecy of digital data without a complicated exchange of hardware and decreasing processing speed.

Abstract: An improved method implemented in a print job management apparatus for processing print jobs in a multiple-printer print shop environment is described. When an operator manually assigns a print job to a printer, the job ticket settings of print job are compared with capabilities of the printer to detect any constraints (i.e. incompatibilities). Messages including textual descriptions of the detected constraints are displayed in a UI, and job ticket settings that caused each constraint are displayed adjacent the corresponding message. The job ticket settings display allows the operator to change values of the job ticket settings and then re-evaluate the job assignment to detect any further constraints. The display and input steps are performed using a single UI. The changed job ticket settings are kept in a temporary version of the job ticket, and the original job ticket is updated with the changed values when the job is finally printed.

Abstract: An algorithm implemented in a print shop management system for estimating a processing time of a print job by a printer, i.e., how long the print job will take to complete printing and inline finishing, is disclosed. The algorithm takes into account the job's printing requirements and the printer' capabilities in determining the processing time. The estimated processing time is used to improve work flow management of the print shop. Practical applications include: using the estimated processing time to improve print job assignment by the management system; displaying the status of a print job that has been submitted to a printer to show a real-time estimate of when the job will complete the processing; generating an alert prior to a time by which the job must start in order to meet a deadline; and informing downstream operators when the print job will proceed to the next step in the workflow.