Abstract: An ink tank comprises a housing that defines a container for ink that is substantially free from a negative pressure producing material. In various embodiments, a non-porous capillary member is disposed in the container. The capillary member may be formed by part of the housing, for example, by a channel formed in a side wall of the housing. Alternatively, the capillary member may be a capillary tube. A wick may be situated at an outlet formed in the housing and may be held there by a retaining member, for example, a rib that extends from the housing. The housing may include a cover that allows the container to vent to atmosphere. The cover may include a vent hole that communicates with the container via a tortuous path. Part of the cover may comprise an air permeable material. The housing may also define a spillover area outside of the container.

Abstract: A circuit for controlling a piezoelectric transducer includes an N-channel FET having a gate electrode, a drain electrode coupled to a high voltage signal source Vpp, wherein Vpp is a positive going pulse train, and a source electrode coupled to an output Vcntrl for controlling the transducer and a charging circuit, responsive to a low voltage input signal Vpp_sel, for charging the FET gate to a bias voltage greater than the FET's threshold voltage while Vpp is near zero volts and for maintaining the bias voltage on the FET gate while Vpp ramps up to a value greater than the bias voltage and until Vpp_sel is removed. The control circuit reduces switching time and reduces current spikes in the power supplies to the chip.

Abstract: Carbon nanotube structures which enhances handling of carbon nanotubes, enabling them to be applied in a wide variety fields such as electronic devices, functional materials, and structural materials containing carbon nanotubes, and a method for producing them are provided. A method for manufacturing carbon nanotube structures includes the step of forming liquid bridges of a liquid at gaps among plural objects and/or at plural gaps among portions of an object. The plural carbon nanotubes are dispersed in the liquid and linked together, then arranged structurally to the liquid bridges, and the carbon nanotube structures are manufactured in this way.

Abstract: An ink jet composition includes a liquid vehicle, a colorant and at least one alkyl saccharide surfactant having at least one sugar moiety head and at least one alkyl chain tail.

Abstract: Methods, systems, apparatus and program products for gathering contextual history from components in an environment and applying an operation on the gathered history to assist a user in selecting which components to use in the environment.

Abstract: A printing apparatus places multiple images on a sheet 10, at least once on one side, and at least once on an opposite side. After the first printing, the sheet is inverted by an inverter 50 and sent to a duplex path 42. Sensors 20, 40, both in a feed path 22 and the duplex path 42 detect the side edge of the sheet 10 to register the position of the sheet 10 to a image rendering device 14. A user has the option to input preferences at a user interface 26, the preferences including running average and registration options. More specifically, the user has the option to choose a number of sheets used to calculate a running average for registration of both the simplexed and duplexed sheets. The user also has the option to select between image to image registration, and image to page registration for duplex printing.

Abstract: In accordance with one aspect of the application, an optical encoder is provided having an emitter with a light source which emits a beam of light. A lens may be located to receive the beam of light generated from the light source to collimate the beam into a substantially parallel beam. A detector is positioned opposite the emitter to detect and process light received from the emitter. A coding element having a plurality of markings and spaces is positioned between the emitter and the detector, causing the light beam to be interrupted in accordance with the pattern. The markings have a length and a width, wherein at least a first edge of the length is other than a straight line.

Abstract: Techniques for estimating an average background value and an average foreground value of an image data formed by a plurality of pixels by selecting a first plurality of pixels forming a first calculation window from the plurality of pixels, determining at least first, second and third statistical moments for the first plurality of pixels, and determining at least one of average background value and average foreground value using the at least first, second and third statistical moments determined for the first plurality of pixels.

Abstract: This invention relates to a method and apparatus for processing images having color combinations. Such combinations may be embodied in, for example, a black object being printed within a color object or in a black object that includes drops of process color within the object. In these circumstances, undesired image artifacts and halos are eliminated in images that include black portions that are adjacent color portions, and/or improved printed edges are created, by offsetting the corresponding black pixels relative to the color pixels and etching preselected pixels from the image before printing.

Abstract: An inkjet printing system for printing custom colors is provided. An ink mixing station is also provided. The printing system includes multiple ink channels, an ink cartridge sensor for each channel, and a controller. A method for printing custom colors in a printing system with multiple ink cartridges is provided. In another embodiment, the printing system includes an in situ mixed ink channel for receiving two or more ink supply dispensers and a controller. The in situ mixed ink channel includes an supply dispenser sensor and supply valve member for each supply dispenser, a mixing reservoir, a pump motor, and a print head. A method for printing custom colors using an in situ mixed ink channel is provided. The station includes an in situ mixed ink channel and a controller. A method for mixing custom color inks and filling inkjet ink containers in the station is provided.

Abstract: A system and method for printer control and color balance calibration. The system and method address the image quality problems of print engine instability, low quality of color balance and contouring from the calibration. The method includes defining combinations of colorants, such as inks or toners that will be used to print images, defining a desired response for the combinations that are to be used and, in real time, iteratively printing CMY halftone color patches, measuring the printed patches via an in situ sensor and iteratively performing color-balance calibration based on the measurements, accumulating corrections until the measurements are within a predetermined proximity of the desired response. The calibration is performed on the halftones while they are in a high quantization resolution form.

Abstract: Communication systems and methods transfer information between a client device and a vendor device through a firewall between the client device and the vendor device by using a communications protocol that will normally allows pass through the firewall and/or by e embedding the information in a file format that will normally pass through the firewall. The information can be transmitted using the hypertext transfer protocol, and/or is embedded in an HTTP document or in an e-mail message. If the client device is on a secure side of the firewall and the vendor device needs to initiate communication with the client device, the vendor device can send an e-mail message to the client device asking the client device to initiate the communication session. Because the client device has initiated the communication, the firewall should allow the response to the client device's request to pass through from the vendor device to the client device.

Abstract: A toner composition includes toner particles having at least one spacer of latex particles or polymer particles attached to the toner particles, in which the latex or polymer particles have an average particle size of from about 60 nm to about 500 nm. The presence of the spacer enables improved toner transfer efficiency maintainability while maintaining excellent tribo level, tribo stability with aging, charge through performance and cohesion behavior with aging and includes forming toner particles with grinding, and following completion of the grinding step, attaching to the toner particles at least one spacer selected from the group consisting of latex particles and polymer particles, wherein the latex particles or polymer particles have an average particle size of from about 60 nm to about 500 nm.

Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed of a smooth gray component replacement strategy which utilizes the full gamut of a printer device. A CMY to CMYK gray component replacement transform is disclosed which inherently exploits the full gamut of the printer, by transforming points in CMY cube to L*a*b* color space, scaling the obtained values so they fill the maximum gamut obtainable with the printer device and calculating the CMYK values needed to obtain the scaled L*a*b* values. The CMY to CMYK transform is then smoothed with an averaging filter that does not change CMYK values at the corners. The entire color gamut is adequately sampled and small changes in CMY do not produce large jumps in L*a*b*.

Abstract: Xerox Reference No. D/A0639A system and method for improving xerographic halftoning by magnifying a threshold array, interpolating the in-between values, enabling multiple thresholds to be accessed simultaneously and presented to multiple comparators, to cause multi-bit output. A threshold array is sampled at distinct locations separated by the sparse sampling distance to allow warping of the threshold array dots by adjusting the sampling distance in small, fractional portions (deltas) of the magnified distance. By adding more thresholds, amplitude or intensity modulation is used to move dot edges in a process direction for further flexibility in printing irrational or warpable screens.

Abstract: A display medium including a plurality of electrically photosensitive particles positioned within at least one ambipolar shell to form at least one first composite particle, and a plurality of white particles encapsulated in a plurality of insulating shells to form a plurality of second composite particles. A photoelectrophoretic display and method of photoelectrophoretic imaging are also disclosed.

Abstract: A method and system for workload balancing includes determining which one of a plurality of printer devices satisfies at least one criteria and routing the job to the printer device which satisfies the criteria. The determining is carried out at one or more of the plurality of printer devices.

Abstract: Programming abstractions with at least one expression are composed to a single abstraction using a composition operator. Expressions from the abstractions are unfolded by removing the prefix of each abstraction and substituting formal parameter names in each expression with a common parameter name to define open variables. The unfolded expressions are transformed to a reduced expression using a composition pattern that tunes semantics of the composition operators. The reduced expression is nested in the single abstraction by: appending a selected prefix of the composed abstraction to the reduced expression, binding the open variables of the reduced expression to the formal parameter of the selected prefix, and computing the type of the formal parameter of the selected prefix.

Abstract: Image quality of an image generated by a xerographic or equivalent image generating process may develop non-uniform charge characteristics, in addition to other negative effects, as a result of positive over-spray, but these negative effects can be at least attenuated by exposure of the photoreceptor to fluorescent light.

Abstract: Prioritizing a printing system's basic processing resources includes providing a job contention manager (JCM) that adds a first basic job resource to queues of each basic resource which a first video capability requires to perform a first sub-job. The first basic job resources are ready for processing if they are at the top of all of the queues, of all the basic resources, required by the first video capability. The JCM adds a second basic job resource sub-job to queues of each basic resource which a second video capability requires to perform the first sub-job. The second basic job resources, are ready for processing after the first basic job resource, if the first and second basic job resources in the queue are submitted by the same job service and if the second basic job resource is for the same sub-job as the first basic job resource's sub-job.