Patents Examined by Arthur G. Evans
  • Patent number: 6618166
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus is provided with an interface connected to a network so as to send or receive data; a memory to store a resident communication program to communicate with another image forming apparatus through the network, wherein the resident communication program establishes channel information regarding data communication among a plurality of image forming apparatus connected with the network based on data regarding other image forming apparatus sent through the network; a recording device to form an image on a recording medium based on image data; and an overall control device to control overall the image forming apparatus comprising the interface, the memory and the recording device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2003
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventor: Tadashi Suzue
  • Patent number: 6618167
    Abstract: This invention provides a scheduling scheme that uses an estimated rasterization execution time (RET) to improve the productivity of printers, particularly color printers. Because print jobs have different levels of complexities, a longer RET may be require for some jobs than for others. For example, a print job which includes color graphics, color print, different font changes or a variety of style formats such as, italic, bold and other styles, will have a longer RET than a simple black and white print job. If a print job is pre-scanned to estimate the RET before the print job arrives at the printer, it is possible to schedule those print jobs with a shorter RET ahead of those print jobs with a longer RET, thus improving productivity of the printer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2003
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventor: Dinesh S. Shah
  • Patent number: 6614550
    Abstract: An information processing apparatus is aimed at changing the settings of plural items registered on an individual icon or an overall icon to the data to be processed by selecting and designating the individual icon or the overall icon as intended by the user. Each of the individual icons and the overall icons stored on an external memory are indicated on the same selection setting screen of the display device of the apparatus. Then, the central processing unit of the apparatus discriminates the icon selection status on the selection setting screen thus displayed when a pointing device or the like used to point out the icon. For this apparatus, the structure is arranged to automatically change the attribute setting conditions with respect to the data in accordance with the result of such discrimination.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 2, 2003
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Tomonori Minagawa
  • Patent number: 6611350
    Abstract: A printer control system that is provided with a print server capable of acquiring the state information of the printer controlled by the various sorts of protocol and a method of controlling the printer system are disclosed. The server is constructed with system control section, LAN/WAN communication control section, request processing section, printer information storing section, protocol processing section, and printer state acquiring section. The respective sections are connected to each other through the system bus. The state acquiring request is received by the LAN/WAN communication control section, and the communication control section notifies the printer state acquiring section, of the received request. The printer information storing section stores the access protocol to the printer in the printer information table. The protocol processing section performs the communication and the analysis of the respective protocols.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2003
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: Yoshiaki Watanabe
  • Patent number: 6608693
    Abstract: Apparatus and method for generating a print job from a device driver interface command stream (command stream) is described. The command stream describes multiple collated copies of a document but is in an undifferentiated form. The print job that is generated includes print data that describes only a single copy of the document and a command that indicates the number of printed copies that are to be printed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 19, 2003
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Gerald A. Loyd, Shell S. Simpson, Richard Detweiler
  • Patent number: 6603566
    Abstract: In order to stabilize image quality in both a copier mode and a printer mode without placing a significant burden on a user, there is provided an image forming apparatus including a reading device for reading an original document and producing first image signals; an input device for inputting second image signals from an external apparatus; an image forming device for forming an image on a recording medium on the basis of the first and second image signals produced by the reading device and input by the input device, respectively; a calibration device for calibrating image processing conditions corresponding to image forming characteristics in a copier mode; and a production device for producing image processing conditions in a printer mode on the basis of the calibrated image processing conditions, wherein the image forming apparatus has the copier mode in which an image is formed by using the reading device and the image forming device and the printer mode in which an image is formed by using the input dev
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2003
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Seita Shono
  • Patent number: 6603567
    Abstract: A plurality of sheets of photofixed-recording medium are stacked on top of each other and stored in a cartridge. An EEPROM is attached to the cartridge. The EEPROM is connecting to a memory connection section. A central processing unit is connected to the memory connecting section. The central processing unit can write information to the EEPROM of the cartridge or read information therefrom. Access to EEPROM can be correctly obtained only when the cartridge is properly inserted into a printing apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2003
    Assignees: Panasonic Communications Co., Ltd., Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Taichi Itoh, Akira Takeoka, Hidemi Sasaki, Yutaka Aoki
  • Patent number: 6597472
    Abstract: An image processing device and image processing method for discriminating whether or not input image data are a halftone dot image and whether or not the input image data are a color image or a monochrome image, and subjecting the input image data to optimum image processing in accordance with the discrimination results. The image processing device and image processing method outputs images without color bleed or color muddiness by performing optimum image processing on the image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2003
    Assignee: Minolta Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Suzuki, Kenichi Sawada, Atsushi Ishikawa
  • Patent number: 6594033
    Abstract: Additional information can be combined only on a page unit basis with a page layout in which a plurality of pages are combined to one sheet. In case of outputting spooled print data, the additional information is first divided into the additional information in which an object to be added is logical pages and the additional information in which an object to be added is a physical page. When a plurality of logical pages are combined into one physical page, additional information is combined every logical page. When the formation of one physical page is finished, additional information of each physical page is combined.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2003
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yasuhiro Kujirai, Koji Nakagiri, Satoshi Nishikawa, Yasuo Mori
  • Patent number: 6594031
    Abstract: A printer control system including a printer control device for controlling plural printers connected thereto via a network and providing image data transmission to plural printers by using a single bitmap memory. The printer control system provides high compression of image data when the bitmap memory is used by any of the printers thereby producing an empty area in the bitmap memory for image data transmission to other printers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2003
    Assignee: Minolta Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Katsuyuki Taima
  • Patent number: 6594027
    Abstract: In one aspect, the invention encompasses a method of identifying the location of interchangeable media handling devices relative to one another and relative to an image forming device. A data communication path is provided in parallel data communication with a plurality of media handling devices, and also in data communication with a processor. A power connection path is provided and configured to provide power sequentially to the media handling devices. The media handling devices are initially in an lower power state. Power is provided through the power connection path to the individual media handling devices to change the power state of the media handling devices from the lower power state to an higher power state. The power travels sequentially through the power connection path to each of the media handling devices, and the individual media handling devices send a signal to the processor after they receive power.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2003
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company
    Inventors: Gustavo M. Guillemin, Ricardo Osuna Leyva, Lawrence Bert Newell, Jr.
  • Patent number: 6590672
    Abstract: A printing system includes intelligence for balancing throughput, image quality and memory requirements. The printing system includes intelligence for determining whether to print a page in an interleaved mode or in a single page mode. Color pages containing poorly compressed color separations are printed in a single page mode so as to ensure that all of the color separations of the page may fit into the available memory and that system throughput is sufficient. The pages that are not printed in an interleaved mode are printed in a single page mode. The resolution of color data contained in a page that is to be printed in a single page mode may be reduced to fulfill system throughput and memory requirements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2003
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Marc Raymond Grosso, Craig D. Woodward, Joseph M. Grassi
  • Patent number: 6590675
    Abstract: A printing method for a print system operating with an operating system, which includes the steps of providing, storing, selecting, and executing. The providing steps provide an application for generating print data and a print station. The storing step stored form data. The selecting step selects at least one of a first form overlay instruction for assigning the print data as a background image and the form data as a foreground and a second form overlay instruction for assigning the print data as a foreground image and the form data as a background. The executing executes a first form overlay operation, and includes the steps of adding and transmitting. The adding step adds the form data immediately after each page of the print data when the selecting step selects the first form overlay instruction and the form data in front of each page of the print data when the selecting step selects the second form overlay instruction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2000
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2003
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: Kunio Tomiyasu
  • Patent number: 6587216
    Abstract: There are provided an image-forming method and device. There are defined a plurality of conversion modes to be selectively employed for converting character codes to character image data items each representative of a character image based on an outline font. The conversion modes including at least one partial conversion mode for carrying out conversion of each of the character codes such that only a required portion of each of the character image data items corresponding to the each of the character codes is obtained when at least one of at least one fully-converting condition peculiar to each of the conversion modes is not fulfilled in converting the each of the character codes. A selected one of the conversion modes is set to an actual conversion mode. An image-forming range is set in a whole image represented by whole image data to be created by converting at least one character code to character image data and arranging the character image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2003
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Tsutomu Yamada
  • Patent number: 6574004
    Abstract: A system and method converts color data to gray data by allowing target values to be set for the color components and combinations of the color components to provide high quality gray data output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 1999
    Date of Patent: June 3, 2003
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Steve A. Jacob, Kurt R. Bengtson
  • Patent number: 6574001
    Abstract: A method and a system are used to manage fonts in print jobs with more than one context where at least some of the contexts include text strings. Print jobs may be divided into portions, called contexts, so that they are easier for a print manager to manage. These larger contexts are called graphic sets. Each of these graphic sets is sent to the printer driver consecutively. Each text string has a font associated with it. The font data for each text string is read from the operating system and cached into memory at the time each string is received by the printer driver. After all individual text strings elements of a given graphic set have been received by the printer driver, the context is stored and the cached fonts are stored with the context. After all of the contexts of the print job have been received by the printer and stored, each context is restored and rendered. The graphics sets may be restored in any order. The fonts stored with a context are also restored when the context is restored.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 1999
    Date of Patent: June 3, 2003
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Co., L.P.
    Inventors: Elliot Lee Klosterman, Shane Konsella, Chris R. Gunning, Nolan Glen Rosenbaum
  • Patent number: 6570668
    Abstract: A method for altering the operation of a printer driver. A printer driver initially creates a database file. During operation of the printer driver, it accesses the database file and searches for the application that called the printer driver. If the application name is located under a heading in the database file, the printer driver modifies its operation in accordance with the heading.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 1999
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2003
    Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America, Incorporated
    Inventor: James I. Misner
  • Patent number: 6567181
    Abstract: A printing processing method and an apparatus therefor, wherein clients 1 set printing starting conditions for objects to be printed and issue a printing request, a job control section 43 starting subjecting the object to be printed to a printing process when a printing condition control section 42 of a print server 4 has detected that the printing starting conditions have been satisfied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 1999
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2003
    Assignee: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Hiroshi Onozawa
  • Patent number: 6567182
    Abstract: This invention cures many inefficiencies with known scan conversion methods. This invention employs a edge array rather than a set linked list from an array of pointers equal in number to the number of scan lines. This invention thus eliminates storage of linked list pointers which in the prior art included many null pointers resulting in better memory utilization. es on-chip memory when employing a single chip microprocessor. This invention sorts the active edge table only at edge intersections and vertices, thus eliminating much unneeded sorting. This invention permits integrated clipping of a subject polygon by a clip polygon and forming trapezoids filling the clipped area by activating trapezoid formation at every vertex of either polygon and at every edge intersection. This process saves code space and computer processing time. This invention efficiently utilizes the resources of a multiprocessor integrated circuit by spawning of subtasks from a RISC type processor to one or more DSP type processors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 1999
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2003
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventors: Suvarna Harish Kumar, Sadhana Gupta, Lowell Boggs, Venkat V. Easwar, Arunabha Ghose
  • Patent number: 6563600
    Abstract: A basic hardware platform of a copier or printer is selectably enabled to operate at different speeds, such as 40 ppm or 30 ppm, by a combination of entering a password into non-volatile memory within the machine, and also altering a state of a hardware switch within the machine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 1999
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2003
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventor: David K. Young