Patent Application
20190286387
This application relates generally to print quality assurance for print jobs. The application relates more particularly to a printout and scan of a print job page to assess print quality prior to completing a print job.
Document processing devices include printers, copiers, scanners and e-mail gateways. More recently, devices employing two or more of these functions are found in office environments. These devices are referred to as multifunction peripherals (MFPs) or multifunction devices (MFDs). As used herein, MFPs are understood to comprise printers, alone or in combination with other of the afore-noted functions. It is further understood that any suitable document processing device can be used.
Users may have their own printer directly attached to their computer or other digital device for printing. Given the expense in obtaining and maintain more capable MFPs, these devices are frequently shared among networked users. By way of example, a user sends their print job to the MFP from their office computer, and their print job is queued and printed. A user will then walk to that MFP, which might not be close to their office, to retrieve their printout. If there is a problem with the MFP printer, such as low toner, the resultant printout may be unacceptable, or even illegible. The user will then need to return to their office and resubmit their print job to a different device, or the same device once the error condition has been addressed. The user must then go to the designated MFP and retrieve their reprinted job.
The common situation noted above has a substantial cost in wasted paper, wasted electricity, wasted toner or ink, additional mechanical wear on the device and a significant waste of human resource time. Additionally, many businesses today do not purchase MFPs, but lease them from a distributor. Cost to the business may be based on a number of printed pages. In this situation, the business is paying for extra pages for each duplicated print job.
In accordance with an example embodiment of the subject application, a system and method for interrupting printing of low quality documents includes an MFP having an intelligent controller including a processor and associated memory, and scan and print engines operable in conjunction with instructions issued from the controller. A network interface receives print job data from an associated device and stores it in memory along with print quality rule data corresponding to acceptable print job output appearance parameters. The controller commences a print of received print job data and a scan of printed print job data. The controller selectively aborts printing of the print job data in accordance with the scan data and the print quality rule data.
Various embodiments will become better understood with regard to the following description, appended claims and accompanying drawings wherein:
The systems and methods disclosed herein are described in detail by way of examples and with reference to the figures. It will be appreciated that modifications to disclosed and described examples, arrangements, configurations, components, elements, apparatuses, devices methods, systems, etc. can suitably be made and may be desired for a specific application. In this disclosure, any identification of specific techniques, arrangements, etc. are either related to a specific example presented or are merely a general description of such a technique, arrangement, etc. Identifications of specific details or examples are not intended to be, and should not be, construed as mandatory or limiting unless specifically designated as such.
In accordance with the subject application,
Also connected to cloud 108 is an administrative terminal 124 that provides rules and settings for MFP 104 as to what constitutes an acceptable image. Such rules and settings are suitably stored in database server 112 for ease in distribution to multiple MFPs, such as MFP 104. As will be further detailed below, a user suitably submits a print job from user device 116 to MFP 104 via cloud 108. MFP 104 commences printing of the user's job. Early renderings in a multipage print job, such as page one, are scanned and an electronic scan document is formed. Printing of subsequent pages is suspended while the initial page print is analyzed. Such analysis is suitably completed on any digital computing device, such as via an intelligent controller in MFP 104. The electronic scan document is analyzed relative to rules and settings received from database server 112. If it is determined that the printed page does not conform to specified standards, further printing of pages is suspended or cancelled and the user sending the job is notified. Such notification can be via electronic message to user device 116, via MFP display 128, or both.
Turning now to
Processor 202 is also in data communication with a storage interface 208 for reading or writing to a storage 216, suitably comprised of a hard disk, optical disk, solid-state disk, cloud-based storage, or any other suitable data storage as will be appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art.
Processor 202 is also in data communication with a network interface 210 which provides an interface to a network interface controller (NIC) 214, which in turn provides a data path to any suitable wired or physical network connection 220, or to a wireless data connection via wireless network interface 218. Example wireless connections include cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, wireless universal serial bus (wireless USB), satellite, and the like. Example wired interfaces include Ethernet, USB, IEEE 1394 (FireWire), Apple Lightning, telephone line, or the like. Processor 202 is also in data communication with one or more sensors which provide data relative to a state of the device or associated surroundings, such as device temperature, ambient temperature, humidity, device movement and the like.
Processor 202 can also be in data communication with any suitable user input/output (I/O) interface 219 which provides data communication with user peripherals, such as displays, keyboards, mice, track balls, touch screens, or the like. Hardware monitors suitably provide device event data, working in concert with suitable monitoring systems. By way of further example, monitoring systems may capture page counters, sensor output, such as consumable level sensors, temperature sensors, power quality sensors, device error sensors, door open sensors, and the like. Data is suitably stored in one or more device logs, such as in storage 216 of
Also in data communication with data bus 212 is a document processor interface 222 suitable for data communication with MFP functional units. In the illustrated example, these units include copy hardware 240, scan hardware 242, print hardware 244 and fax hardware 246 which together comprise MFP functional hardware 250. It will be understood that functional units are suitably comprised of intelligent units, including any suitable hardware or software platform.
Controller 201 is suitably provided with an embedded web server system for device configuration and administration. A suitable web interface is comprised of TOPACCESS Controller (sometimes referred to in the subject illustrations as “TA”), available from Toshiba TEC Corporation.
If image quality is determined to be unacceptable at block 332, quality may nonetheless be acceptable to a particular user, such as when the printout is a preliminary draft. A test to determine whether image quality is marginal, but potentially acceptable to the user submitting the job, is made at block 344. If the higher standards of block 332 are not met, a lower acceptability threshold test is made at block 344. If the image does not meet the lower acceptability threshold at block 344, the user is notified that the print job has been aborted at block 364, and printing of the remaining pages is aborted at block 356 before the process ends at block 340. If the image falls within the two levels, the printed page is fed to the user to revie bw, or an image of the printed page sent to the user device or MFP display at block 348. A prompt is generated to the user to determine whether it is acceptable and the user responds accordingly. If the image is acceptable to the user as determined at block 352, the process proceeds to block 336 to complete the print. If not, printing of the remaining pages is aborted at block 356 before the process ends at block 340.
If the lower standards of marginality are not achieved at block 344, the user is notified of an aborted print at block 364 and the process proceeds to block 356 to abort the print before ending at block 340.
While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions. Indeed, the novel embodiments described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the embodiments described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the inventions. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the spirit and scope of the inventions.
