Patent Application
20200310727
The present disclosure generally relates to a method and system for providing meeting attendees preferred print setting using responses received by the presenter, for example, via a response to an invitation email.
When a group of people attending a conference and/or meeting, everyone has their preferred print results for printed materials, for example, in consideration of color blindness adjustments, font size adjustments, duplex or simplex printing choices and so on. If an attendee has a copy of the materials prior to the conference and/or meeting, the attendee can print a copy of the materials with the attendee's preferred print results and/or favorite settings.
However, when conference material is distributed to the attendees by the presenter, attendees, for example, may ask for reprinting of the printed material before, during and/or after the conference, if the printed materials do not match their preferred setting.
In consideration of the above, it would be desirable to have a method and system for printing each attendees preferred choice of print results based on the received response of each of the attendees. In addition, the method and system provides that the presenter print only the material for the actual meeting attendees, rather than printing for a large generic group, which may or may not attend the presentation or meeting. In addition, the method and system can manually track attendees by printing identifiers (IDs) on the printed material, which can be used to determine if an attendee actually was present during the meeting or presentation.
A printing method is disclosed comprising: receiving a result of an invitation to one or more users; transferring an identifier to an image forming apparatus for the one or more users having accepted the invitation; transferring a material to be printed to the image forming apparatus; printing the material based on a print preference setting when the image forming apparatus has the print preference setting for the one or more users; and printing the material based on an original print setting of the material when the image forming apparatus does not have the print preference setting for the one or more users.
A non-transitory computer readable medium (CRM) storing computer program code executed by a computer processor that performs a printing method is disclosed, the method comprising: receiving a result of an invitation to one or more users; transferring an identifier to an image forming apparatus for the one or more users having accepted the invitation; transferring a material to be printed to the image forming apparatus; printing the material based on a print preference setting when the image forming apparatus has the print preference setting for the one or more users; and printing the material based on an original print setting of the material when the image forming apparatus does not have the print preference setting for the one or more users.
A printing system is disclosed, the system comprising: one or more client devices configured to: receive a result of an invitation to one or more users; transfer an identifier to an image forming apparatus for the one or more users having accepted the invitation; and transfer a material to be printed to the image forming apparatus; and the image forming apparatus configured to: print the material based on a print preference setting when the image forming apparatus has the print preference setting for the one or more users; and print the material based on an original print setting of the material when the image forming apparatus does not have the print preference setting for the one or more users.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, a method and system is disclosed, which provides a solution to printing meeting material for the attendees based on print preferences of the attendees (for example, font style, font size, color blindness adjustment, etc.), and wherein the materials are printed prior to the presentation by the presenter (or individual or organizer hosting the meeting or presentation) based on responses received from the attendees, for example, to a meeting invite. For example, the printing of the material based on the users' print preference setting can include E-print, that is, sending electronic data of the meeting material to a user, which has selected E-print as their print preference setting. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the meeting invite (or invitation) is an invitation email.
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, each attendee's (for example, an employee's) preferred print setting can be stored in a multi-function printer (MFP), printer, or server. When the presenter sends the print job to the MFP with a list of meeting attendees, the printer or MFP will automatically retrieve the attendee's print preference settings and the corresponding print settings will be applied to the print output for each of the attendees at the meeting.
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the presenter of the meeting can print each attendee's (or individual's) preferred print results based on their acceptance for the meeting invitation. In addition, by storing each attendee's or individual's print preferences on the MFP or a server, the presenter or administrator is not required to manually enter the attendee's or individual's personal identifier (ID) nor manually count the number of attendees, which plan to attend the meeting, before printing the material(s) for the meeting. For example, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the method and system as disclosed can print the material for the meeting upon each of the attendee's acceptance, or alternatively, the materials can be printed in a single print job at the request of the presenter (or organizer of the event). In accordance with the method and system as disclosed, extra print copies of meetings materials can be avoided since the only copies that are printed are for the attendees, rather than for each invitee or an entire group or division, for example, of a company, without regard to an actual number of employees attending the meeting.
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the method and system as disclosed provide the presenter of the meeting with a method or process for using the meeting invitee's responses and printing the material of attendees in accordance with the attendees' preferred print settings. For example, each employee's preferred print setting can be stored in the image forming apparatus, for example, a printer or a MFP, or alternatively, in a separate server. When the presenter sends the print job to MFP with these meeting attendees, the image forming apparatus, for example, the printer or MFP will automatically retrieve the attendee's preferences and the corresponding print settings will be applied to the print output for the presenter and the meeting attendees.
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, if the system administrator has set policies for the materials to be printed by the presenter, for example, requirements that the materials be printed use of duplex or monochrome printing, if the print policies conflicts with the attendees preferences, the polices set by the administrator can be implemented. For example, the material will not be printed in color. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, alternatively, the attendee's preferences can take precedence over a presenter's individual policy set by the administrator, and the material can be printed per the attendee's preferred print settings.
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, each of the one or more client devices 20a, 20b, 20c, 20d can be, for example, a personal computer (PC), a laptop, a mobile computing device (e.g., tablet PC, smartphone, etc.), a server, a mainframe, or a kiosk. As shown in
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the colorimeter 380 can be an inline colorimeter (ICCU) (or spectrophotometer), which measures printed color patches in order to generate color profiles. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, for example, the colorimeter (or spectrophotometer) 380 can be one or more color sensors or colorimeters, such as an RGB scanner, a spectral scanner with a photo detector or other such sensing device known in the art, which can be embedded in the printed paper path, and an optional finishing apparatus or device (not shown). A bus 392 can connect the various components 310, 320, 330, 340, 350, 360, 370, 380, and 390 within the printer 30a, 30b, 30c. The printer 30a, 30b, 30c also includes an operating system (OS), which manages the computer hardware and provides common services for efficient execution of various software programs. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, it can be within the scope of the disclosure for the printer 30a, 30b, 30c to be a copier.
For example, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment, an image processing section within the printer 30a, 30b, 30c can carry out various image processing under the control of a print controller or CPU 310, and sends the processed print image data to the print engine 360. The image processing section can also include a scanner section (scanner engine 350) for optically reading a document, such as an image recognition system. The scanner section receives the image from the scanner engine 350 and converts the image into a digital image. The print engine 360 forms an image on a print media (or recording sheet) based on the image data sent from the image processing section. The central processing unit (CPU) (or processor) 310 and the memory 320 can include a program for RIP processing (Raster Image Processing), which is a process for converting print data included in a print job into Raster Image data to be used in the printer or print engine 360. The CPU 310 can include a printer controller configured to process the data and job information received from the one or more client device or client computer 20a, 20b, 20c, 20d, for example, received via the network connection unit and/or input/output section (I/O section) 390.
The CPU 310 can also include an operating system (OS), which acts as an intermediary between the software programs and hardware components within the multi-function peripheral. The operating system (OS) manages the computer hardware and provides common services for efficient execution of various software applications. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the printer controller can process the data and job information received from the one or more client device or client computer 20a, 20b, 20c, 20d to generate a print image.
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the network I/F 390 performs data transfer with the client device or client computer 20a, 20b, 20c, 20d. The printer controller can be programmed to process data and control various other components of the multi-function peripheral to carry out the various methods described herein. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the operation of printer section commences when the printer section receives a page description from the one or more client device or client computer 20a, 20b, 20c, 20d via the network I/F 390 in the form of a print job data stream and/or fax data stream. The page description may be any kind of page description languages (PDLs), such as PostScript® (PS), Printer Control Language (PCL), Portable Document Format (PDF), and/or XML Paper Specification (XPS). Examples of printers 30a, 30b, 30c consistent with exemplary embodiments of the disclosure include, but are not limited to, a multi-function peripheral (MFP), a laser beam printer (LBP), an LED printer, a multi-function laser beam printer including copy function.
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the printer 30a, 30b, 30c can also include at least one auto tray or paper tray 370, and more preferably a plurality of auto trays or paper trays 372. Each auto tray or paper tray 372 can include a bin or tray, which holds a stack of a print media (not shown), for example, a paper or a paper-like product. The printer engine or print engine 360 has access to a print media of various sizes and workflow for a print job, which can be, for example, stored in the input tray. A “print job” or “document” can be a set of related sheets or printed materials, usually one or more collated copy sets copied from a set of original print job sheets or electronic document page images, from a particular user, or otherwise related.
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the print media is preferably a paper or paper-like media having one or more print media attributes. The print media attributes can include, for example, paper color, coating, grain direction, printing technology, brightness, CIE, tint, whiteness, labColor, etc. In order to maximize print quality, the print media attributes of each type of print media should be input into or hosted on the printer 30a, 30b, 30c, for example, on printer configuration settings of the printer 30a, 30b, 30c, to obtain the highest quality output. Most print media is provided in reams or other known quantities, which are packaged with indicia such as information on the manufacture, size, type and other attributes of the print media. In addition, most bundles or reams of paper include a UPC (Universal Product Code) or bar code, which identifies the type of print media including manufacture of the print media.
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the identifier (or ID) can be assigned to a group of users or a plurality of users. For example, ID1 can be assigned to executives, ID2 could be assigned to managers, and ID-n to staff. Thus, rather than individual users, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the print preference settings can be assigned by an administrator to one or more groups ID1, ID2, . . . 410.
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the print preferences for each individual (or attendee) can include one or more preference settings, for example, each individual (or attendee) can have a setting for different types of documents, i.e., based on the number of pages, type of document, for example, multi-page handout, brochure, pamphlet, etc., or alternatively, the individual's (or attendee's) preference settings can be for all types of print job or materials presented at meetings. In addition, the preference settings for each of the individuals or attendees can be based on the type of meeting, for example, board meeting having a limited number of attendees, or a general meeting, for example, open to an entire company.
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the “must have setting” can be a preference of the attendee or individual user, for example, font size, or a color blindness setting that can override settings set by the presenter in the printing of the materials. Alternatively, for some print jobs, the “must have settings” may not be able to applied to the print job, for example, the printer 30a may not be able to reproduce the requested print setting and the printed materials will not include the “Must have setting” of the user. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the print job can be sent to another printer 30b, 30c, which can print the material with the “must have settings”.
In addition, the preference registration 510 can include a default setting, which set the attendee's or individual's preference to a default setting, an “OK” button to approve of the settings, and a “cancel” button, if the user wishes to reset the options and input new or different print preferences.
In step 638, the presenter creates a print email, for example, as shown in
In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the methods and processes as disclosed can be implemented on a non-transitory computer readable medium. The non-transitory computer readable medium may be a magnetic recording medium, a magneto-optic recording medium, or any other recording medium which will be developed in future, all of which can be considered applicable to the present invention in all the same way. Duplicates of such medium including primary and secondary duplicate products and others are considered equivalent to the above medium without doubt. Furthermore, even if an embodiment of the present invention is a combination of software and hardware, it does not deviate from the concept of the invention at all. The present invention may be implemented such that its software part has been written onto a recording medium in advance and will be read as required in operation.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variation can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
