Patents by Inventor Stephen L. Schafer
Stephen L. Schafer has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Patent number: 10387757Abstract: The disclosure is directed towards a system and method for using a multicore processor to process a printer definition language (PDL). The system improves efficiency by supporting parallel processing of many commonly used PDLs, while also supporting serial processing of many legacy PDLs. When processing a PDL, the system relies on several stages, including a parsing stage, a printer drawings services stage, and a graphic services stage, which includes order generation. The system provides flexibility by permitting function calls of common PDLs to be either asynchronous requests or blocking synchronous requests. Because legacy PDLs are executed serially, legacy PDL requests are considered to be blocking synchronous requests. The system provides a level of abstraction at the PDL level by allowing multiple requests to be combined into a compound asynchronous request. The system also improves accuracy by notifying the original caller of a request about an error during error handling.Type: GrantFiled: September 14, 2017Date of Patent: August 20, 2019Assignee: KYOCERA DOCUMENT SOLUTIONS INC.Inventors: Stephen L. Schafer, Jayant Bhatt
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Publication number: 20180005092Abstract: The disclosure is directed towards a system and method for using a multicore processor to process a printer definition language (PDL). The system improves efficiency by supporting parallel processing of many commonly used PDLs, while also supporting serial processing of many legacy PDLs. When processing a PDL, the system relies on several stages, including a parsing stage, a printer drawings services stage, and a graphic services stage, which includes order generation. The system provides flexibility by permitting function calls of common PDLs to be either asynchronous requests or blocking synchronous requests. Because legacy PDLs are executed serially, legacy PDL requests are considered to be blocking synchronous requests. The system provides a level of abstraction at the PDL level by allowing multiple requests to be combined into a compound asynchronous request. The system also improves accuracy by notifying the original caller of a request about an error during error handling.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 14, 2017Publication date: January 4, 2018Inventors: Stephen L. Schafer, Jayant Bhatt
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Patent number: 9860427Abstract: An example embodiment may involve obtaining an m×n pixel cell from an input image. Each of the m×n pixels in the m×n pixel cell may be associated with at least one color value. An m×n attribute cell may be determined, elements of which may be associated in a one-to-one fashion with respective pixels in the m×n pixel cell. The m×n pixel cell may be compressed in a lossy fashion, and the m×n attribute cell may be compressed in a lossless fashion. Compression of the m×n pixel cell may be based on at least part of the m×n attribute cell. An interleaved representation of the compressed m×n pixel cell and the compressed m×n attribute cell may be written to an output medium.Type: GrantFiled: May 10, 2016Date of Patent: January 2, 2018Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.Inventors: Michael M. Chang, Kenneth A. Schmidt, Dongpei Su, Sheng Li, Kendrick Wong, Larry Lubman, Alfred Abkarian, Stephen L. Schafer
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Patent number: 9792537Abstract: The disclosure is directed towards a system and method for using a multicore processor to process a printer definition language (PDL). The system improves efficiency by supporting parallel processing of many commonly used PDLs, while also supporting serial processing of many legacy PDLs. When processing a PDL, the system relies on several stages, including a parsing stage, a printer drawings services stage, and a graphic services stage, which includes order generation. The system provides flexibility by permitting function calls of common PDLs to be either asynchronous requests or blocking synchronous requests. Because legacy PDLs are executed serially, legacy PDL requests are considered to be blocking synchronous requests. The system provides a level of abstraction at the PDL level by allowing multiple requests to be combined into a compound asynchronous request. The system also improves accuracy by notifying the original caller of a request about an error during error handling.Type: GrantFiled: March 31, 2015Date of Patent: October 17, 2017Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.Inventors: Stephen L. Schafer, Jayant Bhatt
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Patent number: 9667839Abstract: An example embodiment may involve obtaining an a×b pixel macro-cell from an input image. The a×b pixel macro-cell may contain 4 non-overlapping m×n pixel cells. The a×b pixels in the a×b pixel macro-cell may have respective color values and may be associated with respective object type tags. The example embodiment may also include selecting a compression technique to either (i) compress the a×b pixel macro-cell as a whole, or (ii) compress the a×b pixel macro-cell by compressing each of the 4 non-overlapping m×n pixel cells separately. The example embodiment may further include compressing the a×b pixel macro-cell according to the selected compression technique, and writing a representation of the compressed a×b pixel macro-cell to a computer-readable output medium.Type: GrantFiled: November 16, 2016Date of Patent: May 30, 2017Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.Inventors: Michael M. Chang, Kenneth A. Schmidt, Dongpei Su, Sheng Li, Kendrick Wong, Alfred Abkarian, Stephen L. Schafer
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Patent number: 9596383Abstract: An example embodiment may involve obtaining an a×b pixel macro-cell from an image with one or more color planes, and an a×b attribute macro-cell. The a×b pixel macro-cell may contain 4 non-overlapping m×n pixel cells, and the a×b attribute macro-cell may contain 4 non-overlapping m×n attribute cells. The pixels in the a×b pixel macro-cell may be associated with respective color values. The example embodiment may also involve determining 4 attribute output values associated respectively with the 4 non-overlapping m×n attribute cells. The example embodiment may further involve determining 1 to 4 color-plane output values for the non-overlapping m×n pixel cells, and writing an interleaved representation of the 4 attribute output values and the determined color-plane output values.Type: GrantFiled: March 15, 2016Date of Patent: March 14, 2017Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.Inventors: Michael M. Chang, Kenneth A. Schmidt, Dongpei Su, Sheng Li, Kendrick Wong, Larry Lubman, Alfred Abkarian, Stephen L. Schafer
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Publication number: 20170064153Abstract: An example embodiment may involve obtaining an a×b pixel macro-cell from an input image. The a×b pixel macro-cell may contain 4 non-overlapping m×n pixel cells. The a×b pixels in the a×b pixel macro-cell may have respective color values and may be associated with respective object type tags. The example embodiment may also include selecting a compression technique to either (i) compress the a×b pixel macro-cell as a whole, or (ii) compress the a×b pixel macro-cell by compressing each of the 4 non-overlapping m×n pixel cells separately. The example embodiment may further include compressing the a×b pixel macro-cell according to the selected compression technique, and writing a representation of the compressed a×b pixel macro-cell to a computer-readable output medium.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 16, 2016Publication date: March 2, 2017Inventors: Michael M. Chang, Kenneth A. Schmidt, Dongpei Su, Sheng Li, Kendrick Wong, Alfred Abkarian, Stephen L. Schafer
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Patent number: 9531920Abstract: An example embodiment may involve obtaining an a×b pixel macro-cell from an input image. The a×b pixel macro-cell may contain 4 non-overlapping m×n pixel cells. The a×b pixels in the a×b pixel macro-cell may have respective color values and may be associated with respective object type tags. The example embodiment may also include selecting a compression technique to either (i) compress the a×b pixel macro-cell as a whole, or (ii) compress the a×b pixel macro-cell by compressing each of the 4 non-overlapping m×n pixel cells separately. The example embodiment may further include compressing the a×b pixel macro-cell according to the selected compression technique, and writing a representation of the compressed a×b pixel macro-cell to a computer-readable output medium.Type: GrantFiled: January 30, 2015Date of Patent: December 27, 2016Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.Inventors: Michael M. Chang, Kenneth A. Schmidt, Dongpei Su, Sheng Li, Kendrick Wong, Alfred Abkarian, Stephen L. Schafer
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Publication number: 20160292542Abstract: The disclosure is directed towards a system and method for using a multicore processor to process a printer definition language (PDL). The system improves efficiency by supporting parallel processing of many commonly used PDLs, while also supporting serial processing of many legacy PDLs. When processing a PDL, the system relies on several stages, including a parsing stage, a printer drawings services stage, and a graphic services stage, which includes order generation. The system provides flexibility by permitting function calls of common PDLs to be either asynchronous requests or blocking synchronous requests. Because legacy PDLs are executed serially, legacy PDL requests are considered to be blocking synchronous requests. The system provides a level of abstraction at the PDL level by allowing multiple requests to be combined into a compound asynchronous request. The system also improves accuracy by notifying the original caller of a request about an error during error handling.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 31, 2015Publication date: October 6, 2016Inventors: Stephen L. Schafer, Jayant Bhatt
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Publication number: 20160255247Abstract: An example embodiment may involve obtaining an m×n pixel cell from an input image. Each of the m×n pixels in the m×n pixel cell may be associated with at least one color value. An m×n attribute cell may be determined, elements of which may be associated in a one-to-one fashion with respective pixels in the m×n pixel cell. The m×n pixel cell may be compressed in a lossy fashion, and the m×n attribute cell may be compressed in a lossless fashion. Compression of the m×n pixel cell may be based on at least part of the m×n attribute cell. An interleaved representation of the compressed m×n pixel cell and the compressed m×n attribute cell may be written to an output medium.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 10, 2016Publication date: September 1, 2016Inventors: Michael M. Chang, Kenneth A. Schmidt, Dongpei Su, Sheng Li, Kendrick Wong, Larry Lubman, Alfred Abkarian, Stephen L. Schafer
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Publication number: 20160227075Abstract: An example embodiment may involve obtaining an a×b pixel macro-cell from an image with one or more color planes, and an a×b attribute macro-cell. The a×b pixel macro-cell may contain 4 non-overlapping m×n pixel cells, and the a×b attribute macro-cell may contain 4 non-overlapping m×n attribute cells. The pixels in the a×b pixel macro-cell may be associated with respective color values. The example embodiment may also involve determining 4 attribute output values associated respectively with the 4 non-overlapping m×n attribute cells. The example embodiment may further involve determining 1 to 4 color-plane output values for the non-overlapping m×n pixel cells, and writing an interleaved representation of the 4 attribute output values and the determined color-plane output values.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 15, 2016Publication date: August 4, 2016Inventors: Michael M. Chang, Kenneth A. Schmidt, Dongpei Su, Sheng Li, Kendrick Wong, Larry Lubman, Alfred Abkarian, Stephen L. Schafer
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Publication number: 20160227076Abstract: An example embodiment may involve obtaining an a×b pixel macro-cell from an input image. The a×b pixel macro-cell may contain 4 non-overlapping m×n pixel cells. The a×b pixels in the a×b pixel macro-cell may have respective color values and may be associated with respective object type tags. The example embodiment may also include selecting a compression technique to either (i) compress the a×b pixel macro-cell as a whole, or (ii) compress the a×b pixel macro-cell by compressing each of the 4 non-overlapping m×n pixel cells separately. The example embodiment may further include compressing the a×b pixel macro-cell according to the selected compression technique, and writing a representation of the compressed a×b pixel macro-cell to a computer-readable output medium.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 30, 2015Publication date: August 4, 2016Inventors: Michael M. Chang, Kenneth A. Schmidt, Dongpei Su, Sheng Li, Kendrick Wong, Alfred Abkarian, Stephen L. Schafer
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Patent number: 9363416Abstract: An example embodiment may involve obtaining an m×n pixel cell from an input image. Each of the m×n pixels in the m×n pixel cell may be associated with at least one color value. An m×n attribute cell may be determined, elements of which may be associated in a one-to-one fashion with respective pixels in the m×n pixel cell. The m×n pixel cell may be compressed in a lossy fashion, and the m×n attribute cell may be compressed in a lossless fashion. Compression of the m×n pixel cell may be based on at least part of the m×n attribute cell. An interleaved representation of the compressed m×n pixel cell and the compressed m×n attribute cell may be written to an output medium.Type: GrantFiled: January 30, 2015Date of Patent: June 7, 2016Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.Inventors: Michael M. Chang, Kenneth A. Schmidt, Dongpei Su, Sheng Li, Kendrick Wong, Larry Lubman, Alfred Abkarian, Stephen L. Schafer
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Patent number: 9319565Abstract: An example embodiment may involve obtaining an a×b pixel macro-cell from an image with one or more color planes, and an a×b attribute macro-cell. The a×b pixel macro-cell may contain 4 non-overlapping m×n pixel cells, and the a×b attribute macro-cell may contain 4 non-overlapping m×n attribute cells. The pixels in the a×b pixel macro-cell may be associated with respective color values. The example embodiment may also involve determining 4 attribute output values associated respectively with the 4 non-overlapping m×n attribute cells. The example embodiment may further involve determining 1 to 4 color-plane output values for the non-overlapping m×n pixel cells, and writing an interleaved representation of the 4 attribute output values and the determined color-plane output values.Type: GrantFiled: January 30, 2015Date of Patent: April 19, 2016Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.Inventors: Michael M. Chang, Kenneth A. Schmidt, Dongpei Su, Sheng Li, Kendrick Wong, Larry Lubman, Alfred Abkarian, Stephen L. Schafer
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Patent number: 8848250Abstract: Based on an m×n halftone matrix and an m×n pixel block of an image, an m×n halftone version of the m×n pixel block may be determined. An n-way interleave may be performed on rows of the m×n halftone version to create an mn×1 halftone segment. The mn×1 halftone segment may be compared to one or more halftone segments in a buffer. Based on the comparison, a literal code word and a representation of the mn×1 halftone segment may be output, and the representation of the mn×1 halftone segment may be written to the buffer. Alternatively, a repeat code word and a repeat value may be output, and at least one representation of the mn×1 halftone segment may be written to the buffer.Type: GrantFiled: October 23, 2012Date of Patent: September 30, 2014Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.Inventors: Dongpei Su, Kendrick Wong, Larry Lubman, Michael M. Chang, Stephen L. Schafer
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Patent number: 8805069Abstract: An m×n pixel cell may be obtained from an input image, each of the pixels having a respective color value. A characterization of the cell may be determined, including determining a lowest color value and a highest color value of the pixels cell. A difference between the highest color value and the lowest color value may be calculated. If the difference is less than or equal to a threshold difference, an output color value inclusively between the highest color value and the lowest color value may be selected, and a first representation of the output color value may be written to an output medium. If the difference is greater than the threshold difference, multiple output color values may be selected, and a second representation of the multiple output color values may be written to the output medium.Type: GrantFiled: June 12, 2012Date of Patent: August 12, 2014Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.Inventors: Guo Li, Kenneth A. Schmidt, Dongpei Su, Stephen L. Schafer, Alfred Abkarian, Sheng Li, Michael M. Chang
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Publication number: 20140111830Abstract: Based on an m×n halftone matrix and an m×n pixel block of an image, an m×n halftone version of the m×n pixel block may be determined. An n-way interleave may be performed on rows of the m×n halftone version to create an mn×1 halftone segment. The mn×1 halftone segment may be compared to one or more halftone segments in a buffer. Based on the comparison, a literal code word and a representation of the mn×1 halftone segment may be output, and the representation of the mn×1 halftone segment may be written to the buffer. Alternatively, a repeat code word and a repeat value may be output, and at least one representation of the mn×1 halftone segment may be written to the buffer.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 23, 2012Publication date: April 24, 2014Applicant: KYOCERA DOCUMENTS SOLUTIONS, INC.Inventors: Dongpei Su, Kendrick Wong, Larry Lubman, Michael M. Chang, Stephen L. Schafer
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Publication number: 20130329237Abstract: An m×n pixel cell may be obtained from an input image, each of the pixels having a respective color value. A characterization of the cell may be determined, including determining a lowest color value and a highest color value of the pixels cell. A difference between the highest color value and the lowest color value may be calculated. If the difference is less than or equal to a threshold difference, an output color value inclusively between the highest color value and the lowest color value may be selected, and a first representation of the output color value may be written to an output medium. If the difference is greater than the threshold difference, multiple output color values may be selected, and a second representation of the multiple output color values may be written to the output medium.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 12, 2012Publication date: December 12, 2013Applicant: KYOCERA DOCUMENT SOLUTIONS INC.Inventors: Guo Li, Kenneth A. Schmidt, Dongpei Su, Stephen L. Schafer, Alfred Abkarian, Sheng Li, Michael M. Chang
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Patent number: 5793937Abstract: A method and system which enables the printing of all pages that an interpreter of a page description language can image at the highest print quality that can be maintained while ensuring that all pages will print regardless of complexity. A memory manager is responsible for allocation of memory for rendering pages and a fallback manager is responsible for handling memory overflow and video underrun exceptions.Type: GrantFiled: March 29, 1996Date of Patent: August 11, 1998Assignee: Peerless Systems CorporationInventors: David J. Chura, Stephen L. Schafer