Patents Examined by Eric A Rust
  • Patent number: 9507551
    Abstract: An information processing apparatus includes a unit that, upon receiving from an application a print instruction for outputting document data to an image forming apparatus for printing without performing a process on the document data, obtains a print job name relating to the document data and changes the print job name in accordance with a predetermined rule.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2016
    Assignee: FUJI XEROX CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Kazuhiko Sakurai
  • Patent number: 9501728
    Abstract: A method for minimizing power consumption of a laser printer includes receiving page description language (PDL) data corresponding to a printing task, identifying commands corresponding to the received PDL data, computing a total predicted rendering time corresponding to the identified commands, computing a print deferral time according to the total predicted rendering time wherein the print deferral time corresponds to an amount of time by which printing drum initialization can be deferred without delaying completion of the printing task, and configuring a printing drum to begin operation according to the print deferral time. A computer program product and computer system corresponding to the method are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2016
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Takuya Ishikawa
  • Patent number: 9503592
    Abstract: Aspects of the disclosure provide systems, methods, and apparatuses for leveraging near field communications (NFC) in conjunction with printer devices. Examples of the disclosure provide for novel methods of interfacing with printers configured to use near field communications using NFC enabled readers and output media. Examples include using a smart phone to access data stored on an NFC tag associated with the printer. The data provided by the NFC tag may include printer status information, printer configuration information, network information, or other data relating to operation and maintenance of the printer. The printer may also encode the NFC tag dynamically, including encoding data to NFC tags included on print media. The printer may encode an NFC tag associated with media with a variety of information in support of various use cases.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2016
    Assignee: ZIH Corp.
    Inventors: Michael Fein, Dean H. Lodwig, Joseph Sargon Sayad
  • Patent number: 9495121
    Abstract: A device control system has a terminal 3 with an application 31, and a printer 5 that controls a device. The terminal 3 sends a request written in XML generated by the application 31. The printer 5 receives the XML request, the terminal 3 sends an XML response, and if the terminal 3 requested control of the device in the XML request, controls the device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2016
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Kazuhiro Takasu, Koichiro Tsutsumi, Shigeo Ikeda
  • Patent number: 9481186
    Abstract: A method for automatically adjusting the setting(s) of a printer having a control circuit in communication with a sensory system and a database. The database is located in a storage medium and the data in the database includes one or more defined parameter settings corresponding to one or more media types. The sensory system is used to obtain a media identifier from media loaded into the printer. The control circuit determines the type of media from the media identifier. The media type is then compared to the database entries and used to retrieve any defined parameter setting(s) corresponding to the media type identified by the media identifier. Instructions to adjust the printer setting(s) according to the defined parameter setting(s) are determined at the control circuit. The control circuit then sends the instructions to the appropriate systems of the printer to adjusted the printer setting(s) according to the defined parameter setting(s).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2016
    Assignee: Datamax-O'Neil Corporation
    Inventors: William M. Bouverie, Mark Allen Hitz, Richard Hatle, Marjorie Hitz
  • Patent number: 9485367
    Abstract: An image forming device includes a selection unit and an acquisition unit. The selection unit selects a bridge device from among multiple other connected image forming devices. The acquisition unit causes the bridge device to access another image forming device other than the bridge device, causes the bridge device to acquire information related to image data being stored in the other image forming device other than the bridge device, and acquires, from the bridge device, image data respectively being stored in the other image forming device other than the bridge device and in the bridge device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2016
    Assignee: FUJI XEROX CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Masaru Fujii
  • Patent number: 9479658
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus, including: a display device; a coordinate detecting portion which detects a directed coordinate in a display area including a first area in which is displayed a hierarchy image including uppermost-level images and lower-level images; a first display control section; a second display control section to display at least one first button image; and a third display control section, the uppermost-level images including: a first image in which is displayed at least one second button image; a second image in which is displayed at least one third button image; and a third image, wherein, where the directed coordinate is one of coordinates corresponding to the first through third button images, the third control section displays a lower-level image corresponding to a button image corresponding to the directed coordinate, and wherein the first control section executes processing to display the one uppermost-level image so as to be changed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2016
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Takatoshi Ono
  • Patent number: 9465569
    Abstract: Provided is a cloud print method using an automatic response system, the cloud print method including: receiving a call, by the automatic response system, from a user terminal; providing the user terminal, by the automatic response system, with an automatic response voice guidance message regarding a printable document via the automatic response system; selecting, by the automatic response system, a document to be printed via the user terminal; identifying, by the automatic response system, a destination phone number to which the selected document is to be transmitted; transmitting, by the automatic response system, the selected document and destination phone number from the automatic response system to a cloud print server; and transmitting, by the cloud printer server, the selected document from the cloud print server to an image forming apparatus corresponding to the destination phone number.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Chang-seok Choi
  • Patent number: 9462149
    Abstract: Provided is a parameter setting system, including a storage unit that memorizes a history of parameter values in an image forming apparatus in association with a type of paper, an acquiring unit that acquires a trend of parameter values in plural image forming apparatuses of the same type with the image forming apparatus with respect to each type of plural other paper sheets in which the number of types of switched paper and the number of histories are greater than or equal to a threshold value, and a calculating unit that calculates a parameter value to be set with respect to the type of switched paper based on the trend of parameter values acquired with respect to the type of switched paper and each type of the plural other paper sheets, and the history corresponding to each type of the plural other paper sheets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignee: FUJI XEROX CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Koji Adachi
  • Patent number: 9451111
    Abstract: A method of determining a media class using an optical translucence sensor (OTS) in an imaging device. A media sheet for processing by a media processing device (MPD) in the imaging device passes through an OTS positioned on a media path prior to the MPD. The OTS has an output that is periodically sampled in several predefined interest zones to provide a plurality of intrinsic variables related to the media sheet. The intrinsic variables are combined with extrinsic variables to form a variables data set that is normalized then fed to a controller having a predefined set of media class determining equations for determining a media class for the media sheet. A media class determining equation is provided for each class of media expected to be used in the imaging device. The determined media class is then used to set one or more operating parameters for the media processing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: Lexmark International, Inc.
    Inventors: Ryan Thomas Bradley, James Lee Combs, Niko Jay Murrell, Franklin Joseph Palumbo, Daniel Steinberg, Julie Ann Gordon Whitney
  • Patent number: 9444954
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus includes a determining unit that determines a possibility that image data is determined to contain specific information and a display control unit that determines a display mode of a preview image of the image data in accordance with the level of the possibility determined by the determining unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2016
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masaaki Muraishi, Yasuyuki Nakamura
  • Patent number: 9436419
    Abstract: To reduce the workload involved in rearranging and printing a Web page in a desired layout, style sheets for realizing desired print layouts are saved in association with the URLs of Web pages, and when subsequently printing a Web page having the same domain name or a similar URL, a print layout to which a saved style sheet has been applied is presented as a candidate, and applied when printing the Web page.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2016
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroaki Nakata
  • Patent number: 9417828
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus capable of scanning document includes a scanner to generate document image by scanning document, and a display to display an alarm screen to alert a size change of a recording medium to a user when print magnification ratio of document image is changed and then a print operation is instructed without changing a size of recording medium to be printed with document image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2016
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: Kaori Sakata
  • Patent number: 9412055
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus that stores print data in a cache memory while preventing performance from being degraded by cache flushing. The image processing apparatus includes a cache for storing print data, and an SD card for storing the print data stored in the cache. A cache controller of a CPU transmits an SD card write request for storing the print data stored in the cache into the SD card to a secondary storage device access controller. When the SD card write request is received after printing of the print data has been normally terminated, the secondary storage device access controller disables execution of the storage processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Tadashi Kawaguchi
  • Patent number: 9413924
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a processor-readable medium stores code representing instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to receive a selected destination to which to send a job of a particular type, and pass the job, including the selected destination as a job parameter, to a job engine whose function matches the particular job type. The processor further matches the selected destination with a delivery agent that supports destination data associated with the selected destination and that is registered to receive a notification of the selected destination. The processor passes to the delivery agent, the destination data and a document reference to identify a document generated by the job engine from the job, and uses the document reference and the destination data to direct the delivery agent to retrieve the document and transmit it to the selected destination.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventor: John T. Bergstrand
  • Patent number: 9405252
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes an image forming unit which performs an image forming job, a communication unit which forms a wireless network according to a predetermined wireless communication standard, a control unit which, if at least one terminal device is connected to the communication unit through the wireless network, determines whether it is required to perform warming-up of the image forming apparatus and performs warming-up of the image forming apparatus, and a storage unit which stores information regarding a connection status of the terminal device. Accordingly, stand-by time for performing an image forming job may be reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2016
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Sung-joon Park
  • Patent number: 9400626
    Abstract: A printing control server includes an acquisition section and a printing control section. The acquisition section is configured to acquire posting data containing a specific character string in a posted content from a service offering server which provides a posting service. The printing control section is configured to make a printing device execute printing based on the posting data acquired.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2016
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Kohei Shiratori
  • Patent number: 9396420
    Abstract: An event detecting unit detects a specific error event or a specific warning event. An event notice transmitting unit transmits an event notice of the detected event to another image forming apparatus. An event notice receiving unit receives an event notice from another image forming apparatus. A status control unit is capable of changing the operation mode among a normal mode and a sleep mode. The status control unit changes the operation mode to the sleep mode or an out-of-service expression mode if the event notice is received in the normal mode. The out-of-service expression mode includes at least one of (a) putting off a light of the display device, (b) stopping a part or all of internal devices that make operation noise sound, and (c) denying reception of an execution request to a part or all of functions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2016
    Assignee: Kyocera Document Solutions Inc
    Inventor: Yohei Yamada
  • Patent number: 9395672
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a first conveying path guiding a sheet such that the sheet passes through the image forming portion, a second conveying path guiding the sheet on which the image is formed by the image forming portion to the first conveying path. A document is fed to the second conveying path and the image forming apparatus includes a first drive transmission portion transmitting a drive force to the image forming portion and a second drive transmission portion transmitting the drive force to a document feeding portion, a conveyance portion and a document discharge portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2016
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Daisuke Kaneko, Ichiro Yasumaru, Atsushi Ogata, Kazushi Ino, Hiroshi Kato, Tomoyuki Iwakoshi, Masaru Aoki
  • Patent number: 9389813
    Abstract: A method for minimizing power consumption of a laser printer includes receiving page description language (PDL) data corresponding to a printing task, identifying commands corresponding to the received PDL data, computing a total predicted rendering time corresponding to the identified commands, computing a print deferral time according to the total predicted rendering time wherein the print deferral time corresponds to an amount of time by which printing drum initialization can be deferred without delaying completion of the printing task, and configuring a printing drum to begin operation according to the print deferral time. A computer program product and computer system corresponding to the method are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2016
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Takuya Ishikawa