Patents Examined by Thomas J. Lett
  • Patent number: 7982905
    Abstract: An apparatus for reproducing a visible image depicted in a photograph carrying digitally encoded data printed in invisible ink. The digitally encoded data having pixel values for all pixels in the visible image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2011
    Assignee: Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd
    Inventors: Kia Silverbrook, Paul Lapstun, Simon Robert Walmsley
  • Patent number: 7973955
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and/or techniques (“tools”) for specifying and managing consolidated ticket packages in workflows are provided. In some aspects, the tools may request and receive indications of capabilities of devices that may participate in a workflow, and may generate ticket packages based on the device capabilities, with the ticket packages being consolidated across the workflow. In other aspects, the tools may provide the device capabilities upon request, and may receive job requests that include the ticket packages. In still other aspects, the tools may present a user interface that includes representations of one or more workflows, may receive from a user a selection of one of the workflows, and may present information from a ticket package related to the selected workflow.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2011
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Daniel F. Emerson
  • Patent number: 7973944
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes: a document image generating portion that generates a document image which is instructed to be printed; a code image generating portion that generates a code image indicating a position on a medium; an accepting portion that accepts information indicating at least one of a first mode and a second mode, wherein a print image including the document image and the code image being printed in the first mode and a print image including the code image but not including the document image being printed in the second mode, and a printing portion that prints the print image on the medium in the mode pointed by information that the accepting portion accepts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2011
    Assignee: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Kimitake Hasuike
  • Patent number: 7969600
    Abstract: Print data is input from a computer, and a main translator of an image processing apparatus analyzes the print data, and performs an output data process. In addition, a sub-translator analyzes the print data, performs an external reference data obtaining process through a network, holds the obtained external reference data in a storage device, and manages the data in a resource management table. When the main translator requires the external reference data, it performs the output data process using the external reference data managed in the resource management table. Thus, the output data process and the external resource pre-reading process are simultaneously performed, thereby improving the throughput of the entire system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2011
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hiroyoshi Takamiya
  • Patent number: 7965401
    Abstract: In order to shorten the waiting time and to prevent confidential data from being seen by others, an MFP has a distance measuring portion to communicate with a radio communication terminal and measure a distance between the MFP and the radio communication terminal, a print-job acquiring portion to acquire print data, an image-forming portion to form an image, and an image forming control portion to start a preparation operation to cause the image-forming portion to form an image, upon reduction of the measured distance equal to or below a first threshold value, and to cause the image-forming portion to form an image based on the acquired print data, upon reduction of the measured distance equal to or below a second threshold value smaller than the first threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2011
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Kohji Ishimaru
  • Patent number: 7965403
    Abstract: When an inquiry of a device state is received at a first communication port from an information processing terminals, a corresponding printer determines whether a second communication port that is communicably connected to the information processing terminal is present besides the first communication port, and if the second communication port is present, determines whether the first communication port is a communication port of the highest priority among the communication ports currently connected to the communicable terminals, and if the second communication port is not present or the first communication port is the communication port of the highest priority, makes the status information expressing the operation state of the device be sent from the first communication port to the information processing terminal that inquired the device state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2011
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Masahiro Murakami
  • Patent number: 7957017
    Abstract: A document managing apparatus includes a determining unit which determines whether a document print image can be generated or not when the document is entered in file managing information in which a data file is entered, the data file constituting the document which is a managing target, a print image generating unit which generates the document print image when the determining unit determines that the document print image can be generated, the document print image being entered as the file in the file managing information, an application start-up unit which starts up an application program according to the document when the determining unit determines that the document print image cannot be generated, and a screen dump generating unit which generates a screen dump of the document entered as the file in the information based on the document displayed on a display unit by the application program started.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2011
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Noriyuki Komamura, Nobuhiro Shimogori, Yoshikuni Matsumura
  • Patent number: 7952754
    Abstract: A print data generating apparatus, comprising a background color designating system, wherein at least one background color of pixels in a background area of the image to be printed is designated, a usable color designating system, wherein a color to be used to print the at least one background color of the pixels is designated among a plurality of color options including a transparent color and a specific color, a color substituting system, wherein color information of the at least one background color is substituted with color information of the color designated in the usable color designating system, and a print data creating system, in which print data to be used for printing is created based on the image data wherein the color information of the at least one background color is substituted with the color designated in the usable color designating system in the color substituting system, is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2011
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takeshi Watanabe
  • Patent number: 7952730
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for controlling printing including setting a print attribute to a specific page or a specific page range in a print job, permitting an application to produce print data, analyzing the print data and searching for a page break code in a case where the application is permitted to produce the print data and the print attribute in the print job is set, and inserting, into the print data, a print attribute command to specify the print attribute, wherein the print attribute command is inserted according to the result of the search for the page break code.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2011
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Masayuki Sakura
  • Patent number: 7948654
    Abstract: The present invention provides a display screen based on a display pattern of an image processing apparatus. Instruction data in which process information representing as a series of processes at least one process performed to document data and UI information for setting execution contents of the processes are described is acquired, and the UI information is extracted. A screen structure is generated on the basis of the UI information, and a screen of screen information obtained by reflecting the setting information on the screen structure is displayed. In this manner, a display screen having versatility and expandability can be provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2011
    Assignee: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hidekazu Ozawa, Akihiro Enomoto, Yukio Tajima, Yuji Hikawa, Kazuko Kirihara
  • Patent number: 7940408
    Abstract: Apparatuses and methods are provided for bi-directional status and control between image capture devices and backend devices in a document processing system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2011
    Assignees: Ricoh Company, Ltd., Ricoh Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroshi Kitada, Lana Wong
  • Patent number: 7940417
    Abstract: Data of at least one component of a printing machine, that comprises several components and at least one communications network, is stored. Data from one of these components, and which characterizes that component, is stored in a memory unit which belongs to that component, and which memory unit is linked to the communications network. The printing machine may have at least two different control levels that are hierarchically organized. The data from the at least one component may be provided on a lower-order control level. It is transmitted from its memory unit to at least one of the printing machine components on a higher-order control network. The data so transmitted is linked, during its transmission, to the next higher-order control level, with local information regarding the arrangement of the components transmitting data in their respective control levels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2011
    Assignee: Koenig & Bauer Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Andreas Stefan Birkenfeld, Fred Buttner
  • Patent number: 7933029
    Abstract: A printer receives changes to printing conditions by a user when executing reprinting. The printer selects whether to execute reprinting based on application data held in a host computer, or execute reprinting based on printing data held in the printer. If the printer selects executing of reprinting based on application data, the reprint request is sent to the host computer. If the printer selects executing of reprinting based on printing data held in the printer, reprinting is performed based on printing data held in the printer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2011
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Satoshi Tanaka
  • Patent number: 7929173
    Abstract: If a print job is designated to interrupt print, processing of any print job currently being processed is interrupted, print processing of the instructed print job is immediately performed and resumption of the interrupted print job is automatically performed afterward. Further, if an interrupt print occurs, the sending source of the interrupted print jobs (host computers, etc.) are notified that an interrupt occurred.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2011
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Naoki Tuchitoi, Yuichi Higuchi, Hideki Sakai, Junichi Mori
  • Patent number: 7929166
    Abstract: A PC includes: a data acquiring portion to acquire from an MFP connected to a network at least part of the data stored therein as editing data; a data editing portion to edit the editing data; a detecting portion to detect edited part different between a pre-editing version of the editing data and an edited version of the editing data; a selecting portion to select either a rewrite-all mode or an individual rewrite mode, based on the number of records included in the edited part; if the rewrite-all mode is selected, a batch rewriting portion to send a rewrite-all command to the MFP to rewrite the pre-editing version of the editing data with the edited version thereof, and if the individual rewrite mode is selected, an individual rewriting portion to send at least one individual rewrite command to the MFP to rewrite all records of the edited part one by one.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2011
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Kenichi Nagasawa
  • Patent number: 7929177
    Abstract: An image forming device includes an image generating section that generates an image including a plurality of screen types, an image processing section that performs a grayscale screen process on the image and generates grayscale data and screen type data for each pixel, a line head to which the grayscale data for each pixel section is sequentially transmitted, and a light intensity correction circuit that corrects light intensity of each pixel. The image processing section transmits the screen type data for each pixel to the light intensity correction circuit. The light intensity correction circuit transmits a light intensity correction value for each pixel to the line head. The light intensity correction value for each pixel is obtained based on the corresponding screen type data so that pixels of different screen types of the image are corrected in accordance with the corresponding screen types.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Nozomu Inoue, Kiyoshi Tsujino
  • Patent number: 7924447
    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.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2011
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventor: Khalid M. Rabb
  • Patent number: 7916325
    Abstract: This invention provides appropriate information of the next action or operation to be taken by the user on the basis of the property of a print job and status sent from a printer when paper-out information is sent from the printer while the print job is output to the printer having a plurality of paper supplying ports. To this end, it is monitored whether or not a paper-out message is received during output of a print job to the printer having the plurality of paper supplying ports. If a paper-out state has occurred, when the user has explicitly designated one paper supplying port, it is determined that the paper supplying port cannot be switched, and information that prompts the user to re-set paper sheets is displayed. On the other hand, when the user has not explicitly designated any paper supplying port, information indicating that another paper supplying port is selectable is displayed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2011
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kazuhisa Ebuchi
  • Patent number: 7907300
    Abstract: There are provided an image processing apparatus and its control method in which sheet size/type and options can be set every image without reducing the number of images written onto one index sheet. The options include image processes such as addition of a date, VIVID-photo, noise cancellation, automatic photograph correction, face-brightening correction, red-eye correction, etc. Only for the user who desires, a sheet SH2 is used in addition to a conventional index sheet. In the sheet SH2, there can be set every image the sheet size/type and the options of the image processes such as addition of a date, VIVID-photo, noise cancellation, automatic photograph correction, face-brightening correction, red-eye correction, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2011
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takeshi Suzuki
  • Patent number: 7903279
    Abstract: Adjustment processing is suitably executed in accordance with the type of post processing. To accomplish this, an image forming apparatus includes, for example, an adjustment part, specifying part, and control part. The adjustment part performs at least one of adjustment operation for an image formation position and adjustment operation for an image formation density by forming adjustment patterns using a developing material on an image carrier and measuring the adjustment patterns. The specifying part specifies the size of an image to be formed on a sheet and the content of post processing in case of executing a job which requires post processing on the sheet. The control part controls, in accordance with the size of the image and the content of the post processing, whether to perform the adjustment operation by the adjustment part concurrently with the formation of an image made from a job requiring post processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2011
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Junichi Noguchi, Yoritsugu Maeda