Patent Application
20180035010
The present application in general relates to printing devices, and more specifically, to a system and method that allows an individual to incorporate a user identified indicia on a banner page to allow printer administrators to manage and distribute print jobs from the printing devices to the originators of the print jobs.
When multiple print jobs are printed on a shared printer, a banner page may be used to separate the print jobs. The banner page may be printed before the sheets of each print job to act as a partition between individual print jobs. Banner pages may be generated by an application running on a host system that originates the print job, or by a print driver installed between the host and the printer. The banner pages may also be generated by the printer itself.
When the banner page is generated, predefined fields in a banner page template may be filled in with various information related to the print job. For example, the banner page may include the user name of the person originating the print job, the name of the print job, name of an information processing terminal and IP address allocated to the terminal and the date and time the job was printed. Thus, the content of the banner pages is limited to data included in the print job.
While the banner page may include a name of the originator of the print out, the printer administrator may be unfamiliar with the originator and what the originator looks like. In these situations, the printer administrator may have to ask for a picture identification of the originator to verify ownership. Further, in large corporate setting, multiple people may have the same name. Thus, the printer administrator may not know proper ownership of the print job.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a system and method that overcomes the above. The system and method would allow the printer administrators to manage and distribute the output to the originator of the print job even if they don't know that person. The system and method would alleviate the need for ID to prove ownership when collecting a printed document.
In accordance with one embodiment, a printing system generating a personalized banner page is disclosed. The printing system has a client device that transmits print data. An image forming device receives the print data transmitted by the client device. A banner creation module is in communication with the client device and the image forming device. The banner creation module transmits a user selected personalized indicia to be inserted on a banner page to be printed with the print data to identify the user.
In accordance with one embodiment, a method of generating and printing a personalized banner page is disclosed. The method comprises: accessing a banner creation module on a computing device; selecting a user personalized indicia to identify a user; and attaching the user personalized indicia to the personalized banner page to identify a printed document with the user.
In accordance with one embodiment, a computing device is disclosed. The computing device has a processor. A display is coupled to the processor. A user interface is coupled to the processor for entering data into the computing device. A memory is coupled to the processor. The memory stores program instructions that when executed by the processor, causes the processor to: access a banner creation module stored in the memory of the computing device; select a user selected personalized indicia to identify the user; and attach the user selected personalized indicia to a personalized banner page to identify a printed document with the user.
The present application is further detailed with respect to the following drawings. These figures are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention but rather illustrate certain attributes thereof.
The description set forth below in connection with the appended drawings is intended as a description of presently preferred embodiments of the disclosure and is not intended to represent the only forms in which the present disclosure can be constructed and/or utilized. The description sets forth the functions and the sequence of steps for constructing and operating the disclosure in connection with the illustrated embodiments. It is to be understood, however, that the same or equivalent functions and sequences can be accomplished by different embodiments that are also intended to be encompassed within the spirit and scope of this disclosure.
Embodiments of the exemplary system and method relates to a system and method that allows an individual to incorporate a user identified indicia on a banner page to allow printer administrators to manage and distribute print jobs from the printing devices to the originators of the print job. The system and method may allow a user to take or upload a picture of the user or other unique identifying feature as part of print initiation process. This image may then be incorporated into a banner page as part of the print job so the starting point of that print job can easily be found amongst multiple print jobs.
Referring now to
The system 10 may have an image forming device 14. The image forming device 14 may be any type of device having printing capabilities. For example, the image forming device 14 may be a printer, a copier, a fax machine, a multi-function peripheral including a scanner and one or more of functions of a copier, a facsimile device, and a printer and/or other types of rendering devices. The image forming device 14 may be used for outputting a print job and banner page as described below.
The image forming device 14 may be coupled to a print server 16. The print server 16 may be used to connect the image forming device 14 to one or more computing devices 18 over a network 22. The network 22 may be a local area network (LAN), a general wide area network (WAN), wireless local area network (WLAN) and/or a public network. The print server 16 may accept print jobs from the computing device 18 and may send the print jobs to the appropriate image forming device 14. The print server 16 may queue the jobs locally as print jobs may arrive more quickly than the image forming device 14 may be able to print.
Individuals 20 may use one or more computing devices 18 to send print jobs to the image forming device 14. The computing devices 18 may be a client computer system such as a desktop computer, handheld or laptop device, tablet, mobile phone device, server computer system, multiprocessor system, microprocessor-based system, network PCs, and distributed cloud computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and the like. The computing device 18 may be described in the general context of computer system executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer system as may be described below. In the embodiment shown in
The computing devices 18 may be loaded with an operating system. The operating system of the computing device 18 may manage hardware and software resources of the computing device 18 and provide common services for computer programs running on the computing device 18. At least one of the computing devices 18 may be loaded with a banner creation application 24. The banner creation application 24 may allow the individual 20 using the computing device 18 to incorporate a user identified indicia on a banner page to allow printer administrators to manage and distribute print jobs from the image forming device 14 to the originators of the print job as will be described below.
Referring now to
The system memory 32 may include at least one program product/utility 42 having a set (e.g., at least one) of program modules 44 that may be configured to carry out the functions of embodiments of the invention. The program modules 44 may include, but is not limited to, an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data. Each of the operating systems, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data or some combination thereof, may include an implementation of a networking environment. The program modules 44 generally carry out the functions and/or methodologies of embodiments of the invention as described herein. For example, the program modules 44 may store the banner creation application 24 which carries out the steps for the individual 20 to take and/or upload a user identified indicia to a banner page to allow printer administrators to manage and distribute print jobs from the image forming device 14 to the originators of the print job as will be described below.
The client computing system 18A may communicate with one or more external devices 46 such as a keyboard, a pointing device, a display 48, camera 54 and/or any similar devices (e.g., network card, modern, etc.). The display 48 may be a Light Emitting Diode (LED) display, Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) display, Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) display and similar display devices. Images captured by the camera 54 may be stored in the system memory 32. The external devices 46 may enable the personal computing system 18A to communicate with the image forming device 14 (
As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the disclosed invention may be embodied as a system, method or process, or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the disclosed invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, microcode, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module,” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects of the disclosed invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable media having computer readable program code embodied thereon.
Any combination of one or more computer readable media (for example, storage system 40) may be utilized. In the context of this disclosure, a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible or non-transitory medium that can contain, or store a program (for example, the program product 42) for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. A computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
As shown in
The system memory 62 may include at least one program product/utility 64 having a set (e.g., at least one) of program modules 66 that may be configured to carry out the functions of embodiments of the invention. The program modules 66 may include, but is not limited to, an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data. Each of the operating systems, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data or some combination thereof, may include an implementation of a networking environment. The program modules 66 generally carry out the functions and/or methodologies of embodiments of the invention as described herein. For example, the program modules 66 may carry out the steps for the individual 20 (
The mobile computing device 18′ may have one or more communication modules 68. The communication modules 68 may allow the mobile computing device 18′ to communicate with one or more networks 22 (
The mobile computing device 18′ may include a display unit 76. The display unit 76 may be used to show information on the mobile computing device 18′. The display unit 76 may be an LED display unit, Thin Film Transistor (TFT) display unit, LCD display unit, and similar display devices. In accordance with one embodiment, the display unit 76 may be a touch screen to allow the individual 20 (
The mobile computing device 18′ may have a camera 76. The camera 76 may be used to capture images. The images captured may be stored in the system memory 62 of the mobile computing device 18′.
In some embodiments, the mobile computing device 18′ may be configured to perform the same or similar operations as that of the client computing device 18A. For example, the mobile computing device 18A′ may be used to generate a document. The mobile computing device 18A′ may further be used to transmit the document to the image forming device 14 for printing.
As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the disclosed invention may be embodied as a system, method or process, or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the disclosed invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, microcode, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module,” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects of the disclosed invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable media having computer readable program code embodied thereon.
Any combination of one or more mobile computer readable media (for example, storage system 62) may be utilized. In the context of this disclosure, a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible or non-transitory medium that can contain, or store a program (for example, the program product 64) for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. A mobile computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
Referring now to
The system memory 82 may include at least one program product/utility 84 having a set (e.g., at least one) of program modules 86 that may be configured to carry out the functions of embodiments of the invention. The program modules 86 may include, but is not limited to, an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data. Each of the operating systems, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data or some combination thereof, may include an implementation of a networking environment. The program modules 86 may include procedures such as a page converter, rasterizer, compression code, page print scheduler, print engine manager, banner page generator, and similar printing applications. The program modules 86 generally carry out the functions and/or methodologies of embodiments of the invention as described herein.
The image forming device 14 may have one or more communication modules 88. The communication modules 68 may allow the image forming device 14 to communicate with one or more networks (i.e., network 22 shown in
The image forming device 14 may include an operation panel 94. The operation panel may include a display unit 96 and an input unit 98 for facilitating human interaction with the image forming device 14. The display unit 96 may be any electronic video display, such as a LCD display, LED display and similar display types. The input unit 98 may include any combination of devices that allow users to input information into the operation panel 94, such as buttons, a keyboard, switches, and/or dials. In addition, the input unit 98 may include a touch-screen digitizer overlaid onto the display unit 96 that can sense touch and interact with the display unit 96.
As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the disclosed invention may be embodied as a system, method or process, or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the disclosed invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, microcode, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module,” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects of the disclosed invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable media having computer readable program code embodied thereon.
Any combination of one or more computer readable media (for example, storage system 82) may be utilized. In the context of this disclosure, a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible or non-transitory medium that can contain, or store a program (for example, the program product 86) for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. A computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
Referring now to
When the banner creation application 24 is open, a banner creation page may direct the individual 20 to select an existing personalized indicia from the system memory 32 of the client computing device 18A or to add a new personalized indicia as shown in 104. If the individual 20 chooses to select an existing personalized indicia from the system memory 32 of the client computing device 18A, the banner creation application 24 may direct the individual 20 to a file directory of the client computing device 18A as shown in 106. In the file directory, the individual 20 may select a file associated with an existing personalized indicia to add to a banner page to be printed with the print job as shown in 108. The existing personalized indicia may be a photo, a personalized emoji file such as a cartoon sketch of the individual 20, or other personalized indicia which may help a print administrator or others recognize the individual 20. The selected file may then be saved in the banner creation application 24.
If the individual 20 chooses to add a new personalized indicia, the banner creation application 24 may activate a camera 54 on the client computing device 18A as shown in 112. The individual 20 may then take a new photograph (i.e., selfie) which may be used as the personalized indicia. After a new photograph has been taken, the banner creation application 24 may ask if the individual 20 would like to use the new photograph taken. If the individual 20 selects “Yes”, the new photograph taken may be saved in the banner creation application 24. If the individual 20 selects “No”, the individual 20 may then take another new photograph (i.e., selfie) which may be used as the personalized indicia. The individual 20 may continue to take new photographs until the individual 20 selects “Yes and the new photograph taken is saved in the banner creation application 24 as shown in 114 as the new personalized indicia.
When the individual 20 sends a print job to the image forming device 14, the personalized indicia saved as well as other information such as: user name, computer IP address, time sent and the like may be inserted onto a banner page 120 (
Alternatively, the file of the personalized indicia as well as other information such as: user name, computer IP address, time sent and the like may be sent to the image forming device 14. The banner page generator of the image forming device 14 may add this information as well as other information such as job number, time printed, and other print job information to the banner page 120. The image forming device 14 may then print the banner page 120 as well as the print job sent by the computing device 14.
Referring now to
When the banner creation application 24 is open, a banner creation page may direct the individual 20 to select an existing personalized indicia from the system memory 62 of the mobile computing device 18′ or to add a new personalized indicia as shown in 134. If the individual 20 chooses to select an existing personalized indicia from the system memory 32 of the mobile computing device 18′, the banner creation application 24 may direct the individual 20 to a file directory of the mobile computing device 18′ as shown in 136. In the file directory, the individual 20 may select a file associated with an existing personalized indicia as shown in 138. The existing personalized indicia may be a photo, a personalized emoji file such as an animated version of the individual 20, or other personalized indicia which may help a print administrator or others recognize the individual 20. The selected file may then be saved in the banner creation application 24.
If the individual 20 chooses to add a new personalized indicia, the banner creation application 24 may activate a camera 76 on the mobile computing device 18′ as shown in 140. After a new photograph has been taken, the banner creation application 24 may ask if the individual 20 would like to use the new photograph taken. If the individual 20 selects “Yes”, the new photograph taken may be saved in the banner creation application 24. If the individual 20 selects “No”, the individual 20 may then take another new photograph (i.e., selfie) which may be used as the personalized indicia. The individual 20 may continue to take new photographs until the individual 20 selects “Yes” and the new photograph taken is saved in the banner creation application 24 as shown in 142.
Once the file of the personalized indicia is saved in the banner creation application 24, the personalized indicia may be inserted onto a banner page (
Alternatively, the mobile computing device 18′ may transfer the banner page 120 created to the image forming device 14 prior to the computing device 18 sending the print job. The mobile computing device 18′ may transfer the banner page 120 to the image forming device 14 through wireless connections. For example, the mobile computing device 18′ may transfer the banner page 120 wirelessly through the network 22. Alternatively, the mobile computing device 18′ may transfer the banner page 120 through a direct wireless connection such as Bluetooth, Infrared or similar wireless communication protocols. Prior to the individual 20 sends a print job to the image forming device 14, the individual 20 may use the mobile computing device 18′ to send the banner page 120 created by the mobile computing device 18′ to the image forming device 14.
Alternatively, the mobile computing device 18′ may send the file of the personalized indicia to the computing device 18 which does not have the banner creation application 24. The computing device 18′ may transfer the file of the personalized indicia to the computing device 18 through wireless connections. For example, the mobile computing device 18′ may transfer the file wirelessly through the network 22. Alternatively, the mobile computing device 18′ may transfer the file of the personalized indicia to the computing device 18 through a direct wireless connection such as Bluetooth, Infrared or similar wireless communication protocols.
When the individual 20 sends a print job to the image forming device 14, the personalized indicia as well as other information such as: user name, computer IP address, time and the like may be inserted onto a banner page 120 and printed on the image forming device 14. The personalized indicia and other information may be inserted onto a banner page 120 created by the computing device 18 and sent to the image forming device 14 with the print job. Alternatively, the personalized indicia and other information may be sent to the image forming device 14 along with the print job by the computing device 14. The image faulting device 14 may insert the personalized indicia and other information onto a banner page 120 created by the image forming device 14 and print the banner page 120 and print job.
Alternatively, the mobile computing device 18′ may transfer the file of the personalized indicia directly to the image forming device 14 through wireless connections prior to the computing device 18 sending the print job to the image forming device 14. The mobile computing device 18′ may transfer the file wirelessly through the network 22 or directly through Near Field Communication (NFC) protocol. Once the mobile computing device 18′ transfers the file of the personalized indicia to the image forming device 14, the individual 20 may then send the print job from the computing device 18 to the image forming device 14.
The foregoing description is illustrative of particular embodiments of the invention, but is not meant to be a limitation upon the practice thereof. The following claims, including all equivalents thereof, are intended to define the scope of the invention.
