JP2007317172A - Interaction device with network computer system, and computer system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a suitable interaction device with a network computer system, and a computer system. <P>SOLUTION: The interaction device comprises an apparatus for storing and cooling fruit and vegetables, and a printer device integrated with the apparatus. The printer device is operatively interconnectable with the network computer system and includes a printer module operable to print at least one form distributed from the network computer system and having a page width print head. The printer device is constituted to receive instruction data from a sensing device operated by a user. The sensing device senses instruction data when disposed in an operative position to at least one form. The instruction data includes control data for controlling the operation of the apparatus, and the printer device comprises an interface for monitoring the operation of the apparatus to generate control data. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus for enabling interaction with a network computer system. A particular application of the present invention relates to a system employing a printer that creates an interface surface by printing the interface on a surface.

  The main purpose of developing the present invention is to create an interface surface that allows a user to interact with networked information and obtain interactive prints on demand via a high speed network color printer. Although the present invention is described herein primarily with reference to this use, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to use in this field.

[Pending application]
The following co-pending applications filed on the same day as the present invention by the applicant or assignee of the present invention disclose various methods, systems, and devices related to the present invention.
PCT / AU00 / 01442, PCT / AU00 / 01444, PCT / AU00 / 01446, PCT / AU00 / 01445, PCT / AU00 / 01450, PCT / AU00 / 01453, PCT / AU00 / 01448, PCT / AU00 / 01447, PCT / AU00 / 01459, PCT / AU00 / 01451, PCT / AU00 / 01454, PCT / AU00 / 01452, PCT / AU00 / 01443, PCT / AU00 / 01455, PCT / AU00 / 01456, PCT / AU00 / 01457, PCT / AU00 / 01458, PCT / AU00 / 01449.

  The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.

The following co-pending applications filed October 20, 2000 by the assignee or assignee of the present invention disclose various methods, systems, and apparatus related to the present invention.
PCT / AU00 / 01273, PCT / AU00 / 01279, PCT / AU00 / 01288, PCT / AU00 / 01282, PCT / AU00 / 01276, PCT / AU00 / 01280, PCT / AU00 / 01274, PCT / AU00 / 01289, PCT / AU00 / 01275, PCT / AU00 / 01277, PCT / AU00 / 01286, PCT / AU00 / 01281, PCT / AU00 / 01278, PCT / AU00 / 01287, PCT / AU00 / 01285, and PCT / AU00 / 01283.

  The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.

The following co-pending applications filed on September 15, 2000 by the assignee or assignee of the present invention disclose various methods, systems, and apparatus related to the present invention.
PCT / AU00 / 01108, PCT / AU00 / 01110 and PCT / AU00 / 01111. The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.

The following co-pending applications filed May 24, 2000 by the assignee or assignee of the present invention disclose various methods, systems, and apparatus related to the present invention.
PCT / AU00 / 00762, PCT / AU00 / 00763, PCT / AU00 / 00761, PCT / AU00 / 00760, PCT / AU00 / 00759, PCT / AU00 / 00758, PCT / AU00 / 00764, PCT / AU00 / 00765, PCT / AU00 / 00766, PCT / AU00 / 00767, PCT / AU00 / 00768, PCT / AU00 / 00773, PCT / AU00 / 00774, PCT / AU00 / 00775, PCT / AU00 / 00776, PCT / AU00 / 00777, PCT / AU00 / 00770, PCT / AU00 / 00769, PCT / AU00 / 00771, PCT / AU00 / 00772, PCT / AU00 / 00754, PCT / AU00 / 00755, PCT AU00 / 00756 and PCT / AU00 / 00757.

  The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.

The following co-pending applications filed May 24, 2000 by the assignee or assignee of the present invention disclose various methods, systems, and apparatus related to the present invention.
PCT / AU00 / 00518, PCT / AU00 / 00519, PCT / AU00 / 00520, PCT / AU00 / 00521, PCT / AU00 / 00522, PCT / AU00 / 00523, PCT / AU00 / 00524, PCT / AU00 / 00525, PCT / AU00 / 00526, PCT / AU00 / 00527, PCT / AU00 / 00528, PCT / AU00 / 00529, PCT / AU00 / 00530, PCT / AU00 / 00531, PCT / AU00 / 00532, PCT / AU00 / 00533, PCT / AU00 / 00534, PCT / AU00 / 00535, PCT / AU00 / 00536, PCT / AU00 / 00537, PCT / AU00 / 00538, PCT / AU00 / 00539, PCT AU00 / 00540, PCT / AU00 / 00541, PCT / AU00 / 00542, PCT / AU00 / 00543, PCT / AU00 / 00544, PCT / AU00 / 00545, PCT / AU00 / 00547, PCT / AU00 / 00546, PCT / AU00 / 00554, PCT / AU00 / 00556, PCT / AU00 / 00557, PCT / AU00 / 00558, PCT / AU00 / 00559, PCT / AU00 / 00560, PCT / AU00 / 00561, PCT / AU00 / 00562, PCT / AU00 / 00563, PCT / AU00 / 00564, PCT / AU00 / 00565, PCT / AU00 / 00566, PCT / AU00 / 00567, PCT / AU00 / 00568, PCT / AU 0/00569, PCT / AU00 / 00570, PCT / AU00 / 00571, PCT / AU00 / 00572, PCT / AU00 / 00573, PCT / AU00 / 00574, PCT / AU00 / 00575, PCT / AU00 / 00576, PCT / AU00 / 00577, PCT / AU00 / 00578, PCT / AU00 / 00579, PCT / AU00 / 00581, PCT / AU00 / 00580, PCT / AU00 / 00582, PCT / AU00 / 00587, PCT / AU00 / 00588, PCT / AU00 / 00589, PCT / AU00 / 00583, PCT / AU00 / 00593, PCT / AU00 / 00590, PCT / AU00 / 00591, PCT / AU00 / 00592, PCT / AU00 / 0 0594, PCT / AU00 / 00595, PCT / AU00 / 00596, PCT / AU00 / 00597, PCT / AU00 / 00598, PCT / AU00 / 00516, PCT / AU00 / 00517 and PCT / AU00 / 00511.
The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.

  Currently, users of networked computer systems typically interact with the system by entering information, such as a monitor for displaying information and a keyboard, mouse, trackball, joystick, etc. Via a local computer terminal (e.g. a personal computer) using a control device. Such an interface is efficient but relatively bulky and cannot be carried. Information printed on paper is easier to read and more portable than information displayed on a computer monitor. However, unlike keyboards and mice, pens on paper generally lack the ability to interact with computer software.

  In many applications, typical types of terminal devices impose a number of limitations. For example, in the home environment, one of the hassles is that terminals and attached devices (printers, scanners, etc.) are generally installed in facilities specially arranged to support network terminals, such as home offices. One must mention it. Thus, in order to access the terminal, the operator must take prudent action to use dedicated equipment, for example, to enter a home office. This does not naturally integrate the computer system with other more general functions of the home device. It is further desirable to allow users to interact with the network terminal, incidentally rather than carefully.

In addition, conventional network terminals and items of computer aids are typically designed and packaged in a form that is tailored for desktop use and tends to waste valuable space.
US Pat. No. 5,625,412 US Pat. No. 5,661,506 US Pat. No. 5,477,012 US Pat. No. 5,852,434 International Patent Application No. PCT / US98 / 20597

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an interactive device with a network computer system,
Equipment for storage and cooling of fruits and vegetables for use by equipment users;
A printer device integrated with the apparatus, the printer device operatively interconnectable with the network computer system and operative to print at least one form distributed from the network computer system Including a possible printer module and configured to receive instruction data from a sensing device operated by an equipment user, the sensing device sensing instruction data when placed in an activated position relative to the at least one form. The instruction data received by the printer device includes control data for controlling the operation of the device via the network computer system, and the printer device generates the control data to generate the control data. To monitor device operation Device is provided with a sensor interface. Thus, a unique configuration is provided in which the printer device has a sensor interface, and the instruction data received by the printer device includes control data for controlling the operation of the device via the network computer system. The

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a fruit and vegetable storage and cooling device including an integrated printer.

  In addition, the present invention provides a means of incorporating network terminal capabilities into commonly used host equipment such as home refrigerators. Such devices are typically used regularly and frequently as part of the family's daily activities.

  In the home environment, the kitchen, and more specifically the refrigerator in the kitchen, can be considered the center of activity. Thus, the present invention can take advantage of the physical size and central location of this device.

  Accordingly, the present invention relates to the use of systems and methods that utilize one or more forms that can interact with a computer system. The method and system may be used with a single computer system in certain preferred forms, but is designed to operate on a computer network such as the Internet.

  As a physical entity, an interactive form is placed on any suitable structured surface medium. However, in a preferred apparatus, the form is made of sheet material such as paper, on which the encoded data is printed, allowing interaction with the computer system. The encoded data is non-exclusive, but preferably is detectable outside the visible spectrum, so that the data is machine readable, but is substantially not visible to the human eye. It is invisible. Forms may also include visible material that provides users with information such as form usage and purpose, which is recorded or interrelated in place with associated hidden coded data. It's okay.

  The system also includes a sensing device for carrying data from the form to the computer system and possibly providing additional data. The sensing device may take a variety of forms, but is preferably small and easy to carry. In certain preferred apparatus, the sensing device is configured as a pen that can physically mark an interactive form and can selectively read encoded data from the form and send it to a computer system. . The encoded data then provides control information configured to give instructions to software running on the computer system or network, as specified by the user.

  The nature of the interaction between the form, the sensing device and the data that each contributes to the computer system may be different. In one device, the encoded data on the form represents the identification of the form and at least one reference point on the form. In another embodiment, the interactive form includes coded data representing the parameters of the form, whereas the sensing device provides information about movement for the form to the computer system along with the coded data from the form. To be operated. In yet another apparatus, the form includes encoded data that at least identifies the form, and the sensing device further includes data based on the form encoded data and further data based on the data identifying the user of the device. Designed to feed the system.

  In a preferred apparatus, the system and method employs a specially designed printer for printing interactive forms. In addition, these printers are designed to form or form part of a computer system and receive data from a sensing device. As mentioned above, the system and method of the present invention are ideally suited for operation over a network. In this device, the printer is fully integrated into the network so that it can print interactive forms on demand and can distribute forms using a mix of multicast and pointcast communication protocols. .

  Accordingly, in a preferred form, the present invention provides a method and system for using paper and pen as a base for computer system interfaces. The advantage of paper is that it is widely used for displaying and recording information. Furthermore, the printed information is easier to read than the information displayed on the computer screen. In addition, paper is not battery powered, can be read in bright light, can easily accept coffee spills, and is portable and disposable. In addition, this system can capture hand-drawn and handwritten characters that give a much superior expression compared to computer keyboard and mouse input.

  Preferred and other embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of non-limiting exemplary purposes only, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  Memjet (registered trademark) is a registered trademark of Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd, Australia.

  In a preferred embodiment, the present invention is configured to operate with a netpage networked computer system, with a detailed outline as follows. It should be recognized that not all embodiments necessarily embody all or most of the specific details and extensions described below in connection with the basic system. However, in attempting to understand the circumstances in which preferred embodiments and aspects of the invention operate, the system has been described in a nearly complete form in order to alleviate the need to refer to others.

  In a brief summary, the preferred form of the netpage system uses a computer interface in the form of a mapped surface, ie, a physical surface that includes a reference to a map of the surface maintained in the computer system. The map reference may be queried by an appropriate sensing device. Depending on the particular embodiment, map references may be coded visible or invisible, and local queries of the mapped surface result in ambiguous map references both within the map and between different maps. It may be specified to occur. The computer system may include information regarding features on the mapped surface, and such information may be derived based on a map reference provided by a sensing device used with the mapped surface. Thus, the retrieved information can take the form of actions initiated by a computer system on behalf of the operator in response to interaction between the operator and surface features.

  In a preferred form, the netpage system relies on netpage generation and human interaction. These are text, graphics, and image pages printed on plain paper, but behave like interactive web pages. Information is coded on each page using ink that is hardly visible to the naked human eye. However, the ink and the data encoded thereby are sensed by the optical imaging pen and transmitted to the netpage system. Substrates other than paper may be used. Since the encoded information in the preferred embodiment is infrared absorbing ink, an infrared sensitive light sensor may be used. If desired, other wavelengths may be used, or sensing techniques other than light sensing may be used, one alternative is to use magnetic inks and sensors.

  In a preferred form, the active buttons and hyperlinks on each page can be clicked with a pen to request information from the network or signal a preference to the network server. In one embodiment, handwritten text on a netpage is automatically recognized and converted to netpage system computer text so that a form can be filled out. In another embodiment, the signature recorded on the netpage is automatically verified to allow for secure authentication of electronic commerce transactions.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the printed netpage 1 represents an interactive form in which a user can fill in on the printed page physically and electrically via communication between the pen and the netpage system. be able to. This example shows a “Request” form that includes a name and address area and a submit button. The netpage is composed of graphic data 2 printed using visible ink and coded data 3 printed as a collection of tags 4 using invisible ink. The corresponding page description 5 stored in the netpage network describes the individual elements of the netpage. More specifically, describe the type and spatial extent (zone) of each interactive element (ie text area or button in this example) so that the netpage system can correctly interpret the input through the netpage. To do. For example, the submit button 6 has a zone 7 corresponding to the spatial extent of the corresponding graphic 8.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the netpage pen 101 is in the preferred form shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 and described in further detail below, and is connected to the internet for netpage printer 601, home, office, or mobile use. Works with other printing equipment. The pen is wireless and communicates securely with the netpage printer via the short-range wireless link 9. If desired, the pen may be connected to the system using a wire or infrared transmitter, both of which limit its usefulness.

  The netpage printer 601 is a preferred form shown in FIGS. 11-13 and described in more detail below, and is a personalized newspaper, magazine, catalog, brochure, all printed in high quality as an interactive netpage. , And other publications can be delivered regularly or on demand. Unlike a personal computer, the netpage printer should be mounted on a wall near the location where you first see morning news, for example, near the user's kitchen, breakfast table, or where daily family life begins. It is a device that can. This will also be desktop, desktop, portable and small versions.

  Netpages printed at the consumption location combine the ease of use of paper with the timeliness and interactive availability of interactive media.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the netpage pen 101 interacts with the coded data on the printed netpage 1 and communicates the interaction to the netpage printer via the short-range wireless link 9. The printer 601 sends the dialog to the associated netpage page server 10 for interpretation. In the appropriate environment, the page server sends a corresponding message to application computer software running on the netpage application server 13. Subsequently, the application server may send a response printed by the original printer.

  The netpage system, in a preferred embodiment, is considerably more convenient when used in conjunction with a high speed micro electromechanical system (MEMS) based ink jet (Memjet®) printer. In a preferred form of this technology, it is easier for consumers to get high quality printing at a relatively high speed. In a preferred form, the netpage publication comprises the physical characteristics of a traditional news magazine, such as a double-sided full-color printed letter-size glossy paper set that is easy to move and handle.

  Netpage printers take advantage of the increased availability of broadband Internet access. Cable services are available in 95% of homes in the United States, and cable modem services that provide broadband Internet access are already available in 20% of these. Netpage printers can also operate with slower connections, but with longer delivery times, worse image quality, or both. In fact, the netpage system can be operated using the consumer's existing inkjet and laser printers, but the system runs slower and is not very acceptable from a consumer perspective. Absent. In other embodiments, the netpage system is hosted on a private intranet. In still other embodiments, the netpage system is hosted on a single computer or computer-enabled device such as a printer.

  The netpage publication server 14 on the netpage network is configured to deliver print quality publications to the netpage printer. Periodicals are automatically distributed to subscribed netpage printers via pointcasting and multicasting Internet protocols. Individualized publications are filtered and formatted according to individual user profiles.

  A single netpage printer may be configured to support any number of pens, and a single pen may work with any number of netpage printers. In the preferred embodiment, each netpage pen has a unique identifier. At home, it is possible to have a collection of colored netpage pens, one for each family member. This allows each user to maintain a separate profile for the netpage publication server or application server, assuming that the assigned pen is only used by each family member.

  The netpage pen may also be registered with the netpage registration server 11 and linked to one or more payment card accounts. Thereby, payment of electronic commerce can be securely authenticated using a netpage pen. The netpage registration server can authenticate the user's identity to the electronic commerce server by comparing the signature captured by the netpage pen with the previously registered signature. Also, other biometric information may be used to confirm the identification. Another netpage pen includes fingerprint scanning that is verified in a similar manner by the netpage registration server.

  Netpage printers may deliver periodicals such as morning newspapers without user intervention, but may be configured not to deliver annoying junk mail. In a preferred form, periodicals are only distributed from subscription or authentication sources. In this regard, netpage printers are different from fax machines and email accounts that can be viewed by any junk mailer that knows phone numbers and email addresses. Alternatively, the entire system may be made visible to external users, or each user may be given the ability to expose their printer to external users. This may be made to send junk mail by selecting an external user.

1. Netpage System Architecture A unified modeling language (UML) class diagram is used to describe each object model of the system. A class diagram consists of a set of object classes connected by a relationship, and here we focus on two types of relationships: association and generalization. Associations represent some kind of relationship between objects, ie between class instances. Generalization relates the actual classes and can be understood as follows: That is, if a class is considered a set of all objects of that class, and class A is a generalization of class B, then B is simply a subset of A.

  Each class is drawn as a rectangle labeled with the class name. This includes a list of class attributes separated from the name by a horizontal line and a list of class operations separated from the attribute list by a horizontal line. However, in the following class diagram, the operation is not modeled.

  Associations are drawn as lines connecting the two classes and are selectively labeled at either end with the multiplicity of associations. The default multiplicity is 1. The asterisk (*) represents “many” multiplicity, ie, zero or more. Each association is selectively labeled with its name, and is also selectively labeled with a corresponding class role at either end. An open diamond represents a collective association (“is-part-of”) and is drawn at the end of an associative line aggregator.

  The generalization relationship ("is-a") is drawn as a solid line connecting the two classes and has an arrow (open triangle shape) at the end of the generalization.

  When a class diagram is divided into multiple diagrams, any duplicated class is shown as a dashed line, except for the main diagram that defines it. This shows the attribute only if it is defined.

1.1 Netpage Netpage is the foundation on which a netpage network is built. Netpage provides a paper-based user interface for published information and interactive services.

  A netpage consists of printed pages (or other surface areas) that are invisiblely tagged with respect to the online description of the page. The tag may be printed on or within the surface of the page, may be printed on or on the sublayer of the page, or may be incorporated into the page. The online page description is permanently maintained by the netpage page server. The page description describes the visual layout and content of the page, including text, graphics, and images. It also describes the input elements on the page, including buttons, hyperlinks, and input areas. Page descriptions of different netpages may share components such as images, but netpages (and related page descriptions) are visually different. The page description for each netpage may include references to these common components. With the netpage, the marking created on the surface with the netpage pen can be simultaneously captured and processed by the netpage system.

  Multiple netpages can share the same page description. However, each netpage is assigned a unique page identifier so that the input of the same page can be distinguished. This page ID has an accuracy capable of distinguishing between all netpages scheduled to be used in the use environment. If this environment is small, it is not necessary to be as accurate as when the environment is large.

  Each reference in the page description is encoded in a printed tag. The tag indirectly identifies the page description by identifying the unique page on which the tag appears. In the preferred embodiment, the tag identifies its own location on the page. Tag characteristics are described in further detail below.

  The tag is printed with infrared absorbing ink on any infrared reflective substrate such as plain paper. Near-infrared wavelengths are invisible to the human eye, but are easily sensed by solid-state image sensors with appropriate filters. Sensors that sense one or more relative wavelengths may be used, in which case no filter is required. Other wavelengths may be used with appropriate substrates and sensors.

  The tag is sensed and decoded by the area image sensor of the netpage pen, and the data encoded by the tag is preferably sent to the netpage system via the nearest netpage printer. The pen is wireless and communicates with the netpage printer via a short-range wireless link. The tags are sufficiently small and densely arranged that the pen can reliably image at least one tag with a single click on the page. Since the dialogue is insubstantial, it is important that the pen recognizes the tag and extracts the page ID and location each time it interacts with the page.

  The netpage page server maintains a unique page instance for each printed netpage so that in the page description of each printed netpage, the user supplied values for the input area are separate. Will be able to maintain a set of.

  FIG. 4 shows the relationship between the page description, the page instance, and the printed netpage. In the preferred embodiment, a page instance is associated with both the netpage printer that printed it and, if known, the netpage user who requested it. Associating a page instance with either the netpage printer that printed the corresponding physical page, the netpage user that requests it, or the netpage user for which the page is printed is a basic form of implementation of the invention Is not essential.

1.2 Netpage Tags 1.2.1 Tag Data Content In a preferred form, each tag identifies the area in which it appears and the position of that tag within the area. Moreover, you may include the flag relevant to the whole area | region or a tag. For example, one or more flag bits may signal the tag sensing device to provide feedback that represents a function associated with the middle region of the tag without the sensing device having to reference the region description. For example, a netpage pen may illuminate an “active area” LED when in a hyperlink zone.

  As described more clearly below, in a preferred embodiment, each tag includes an invariant structure that is easily recognized, which aids in initial detection and any warping effect induced by the surface or sensing process. Helps to minimize. The tags are preferably tiled on the entire page and are sufficiently small and densely arranged to ensure that the pen can image at least one tag with a single click on the page. Since the dialogue has no substance, it is important that the pen recognizes the page ID and position each time the pen interacts with the page.

  In the preferred embodiment, the region referenced by the tag matches the entire page, so the region ID encoded in the tag is synonymous with the page ID of the page in which the tag appears. In other embodiments, the region to which the tag refers can be any sub-region or other surface of the page. For example, this may correspond to the zone of the interactive element, in which case the region ID can directly identify the interactive element.

  Each tag typically includes a 16-bit tag ID, at least a 90-bit region ID, and a number of flag bits. Assuming a maximum tag density of 64 square inches, a 16-bit tag ID supports a maximum area size of 1024 square inches. By simply using adjacent areas and maps, larger areas can be mapped continuously without increasing the accuracy of the tag ID. The distinction between the region ID and the tag ID is mainly one of convenience. For most purposes, these two chains can be considered generically as unique tag IDs. Conversely, it may be convenient to introduce a structure to the tag ID, for example, to define the x-axis and y-axis of the tag. A 90-bit region ID can uniquely identify 290 (1027 or 1000) different regions. The tag may include type information, and the region may be tagged with a combination of tag types. For example, a region may be tagged with one set of tags encoding the x-axis and another set interleaved with it and encoding the y-axis. It should be appreciated that the accuracy of the region ID and tag ID may be approximately the same as described above, depending on the environment in which the system is used.

1.2.2 Encoding Tag Data In one embodiment, each tag contains 120 bits of information. The 120-bit tag data is redundantly encoded using a (15.5) Reed-Solomon code. This results in 360 coded bits consisting of 6 codewords of 15 4-bit symbols each. With the (15,5) code, up to 5 signal errors can be corrected for each codeword, i.e. resistant to a symbol error rate of up to 33% per codeword.

  Each 4-bit symbol is represented in a spatially coherent manner in the tag, and the symbols of the six codewords are spatially interleaved within the tag. This allows burst errors (errors that affect multiple spatially adjacent bits) to damage the smallest number of symbols and the smallest number of symbols in any one codeword, thereby completely eliminating the burst error. The possibility that it can be corrected is maximized.

Instead of the (15,5) Reed-Solomon code, any suitable error code can be used, for example different types of codes such as the same or different symbols and codeword sizes, different block codes, or convolutional codes. Reed-Solomon codes with some redundancy provided may be used (see, for example, Stephen B. Wicker, “Error Control Systems for Digital Communication and Storage”, Parente-Hall 1995, the entire contents of which are hereby cross-referenced). It shall be incorporated.)
1.2.3 Physical Tag Structure The physical display of tags shown in FIG. 5 includes fixed target structures 15, 16, 17 and a variable data area 18. The fixed target structure allows a sensing device such as a netpage pen to detect the tag and infer a three-dimensional orientation relative to the sensor. The data area contains an indication of individual bits of the encoded tag data.

  In order for the tag to play properly, the tag is rendered with a resolution of 256 × 256 dots. As a result, a tag having a diameter of about 4 mm is obtained when printed at 1600 dots per inch. At this resolution, the tag is designed to be surrounded by a “quiet area” with a radius of 16 dots. The quiet area is also contributed by the adjacent tag, so only 16 dots are added to the effective diameter of the tag.

  The tag includes six target structures. The sensing ring 15 allows the sensing device to first detect the tag. The ring is rotation invariant, and is easy to detect because the effect of perspective distortion is almost eliminated by simple correction of the aspect ratio. The orientation axis 16 allows the sensing device to determine the approximate planar orientation of the tag due to sensor shaking. The orientation axis is beveled to provide a unique orientation. The four fluoroscopic targets 17 allow the sensing device to infer the exact two-dimensional fluoroscopic deformation of the tag, so that the exact three-dimensional position and orientation of the tag relative to the sensor can be inferred.

  All target structures are redundantly large in order to increase noise immunity.

  The overall shape of the tag is circular. This is required, among other things, to support optimal packing of tags on an irregular triangular grid, for example, to tile any non-planar surface. However, tags may be placed at the vertices of any polygon having n vertices as needed, where n ranges from 3 to infinity. In combination with the circular detection ring 15, the circular configuration of the data bits in the tag is optimized. To maximize this size, each data bit is represented by a radial wedge in the form of a region defined by two radial lines, a radial arc and a radial arc. The Each wedge has a minimum dimension of 8 dots at 1600 dpi and is designed so that its base (i.e., arcuate) is at least equal to this minimum dimension. The radial height of the wedge is always equal to the smallest dimension. Each 4-bit data symbol is represented by an array 518 of 2 × 2 wedges.

  The symbols of 15 4-bit data in each of 6 code words are allocated to the four concentric symbol rings 18a to 18d shown in FIG. 5 in an interleaved manner. The symbols of the first to sixth codewords 520-525 are assigned to a circular sequence around the tag.

  Interleaving is designed to maximize the average spatial distance between any two symbols of the same codeword. Other configurations of codewords or their data symbols may be utilized.

  The physical layout of the tags and the shape and / or arrangement of the data symbols within each tag are not essential to the practice of the invention. It is only necessary that each tag encode enough information for its intended use. Although it is preferable to use redundancy for tags, at a basic level, it is not actually essential to the practice of the invention. Thus, other tag arrangements may be utilized. In Patent Documents 1 to 5, examples of other tag structures are described, and the entire contents of each are incorporated herein by reference.

  In order to support a “single click” interaction with the tagged area via the sensing device, the sensing device can be viewed in any region or in any orientation. At least one entire tag must be visible. Thus, the required field diameter of the sensing device is a function of tag size and spacing.

Assuming that the tag shape is circular, the minimum diameter of the sensor field of view is obtained when the tag is tiled on an equilateral triangular grid, as shown in FIG.
1.2.4 Tag Image Processing and Decoding FIG. 7 shows tag image processing and decoding of the tag of FIG. 5 performed by a sensing device such as a netpage pen. While acquiring the captured image from the image sensor, the dynamic range of the image is determined (at 20). The center of this range is then selected as the binary threshold for image 21. The image is then thresholded and segmented (at 22) into connected pixel regions (ie, shape 23). Shapes that are too small to represent the target structure of the tag are discarded. The size and centroid of each shape is also calculated.

  Then, for each shape, a binary shape moment 25 is calculated (at 24), which provides a reference for the target structure to be identified later. The central shape moment is inherently position invariant and can easily be made invariant with respect to scale, aspect ratio, and rotation.

  Initially identified is the ring target structure 15 (at 26). The ring has the advantage that it behaves very well when it is in perspective strain. Matching proceeds by aspect normalizing and rotational normalizing each shape moment. When the second moment is normalized, the ring is easily recognized even if the perspective distortion is significant. Both the original aspect of the ring and the rotation 27 give a useful approximation of the perspective transformation.

  Next identified is the axial target structure 16 (at 28). Matching proceeds by applying ring normalization to each shape moment and rotationally normalizing the resulting moments. Once the second moment is normalized, the axis target is easily recognized. Note that one third moment is required to remove ambiguity from the two possible orientations of the axis. To make this possible, the shape is intentionally inclined to one side. It should also be noted that the perspective target can only rotationally normalize the axis target after applying ring normalization, since perspective distortion can mask the axis of the axial target. The original rotation of the axis target gives a useful approximation of the tag rotation due to pen sway 29.

  Lastly identified are four perspective target structures 17 (at 30). A good estimate of their position is calculated based on the known spatial relationship between the ring and axis target, the ring aspect and rotation, and the axis rotation. Matching proceeds by applying ring normalization to each shape moment. When the second moment is normalized, the circular perspective target is easily recognized and the target closest to each estimated position is considered aligned. The original centroid of the four fluoroscopic targets is then considered to be a positive sized fluoroscopic strain end 31 of known size in tag space, and a known equation relating the four tag space and image space point pairs. (See 32) Heckbert, P. “Fundamental of Texture Mapping and Image Warping, Masters Theis,” Dep. Of EEC, U. .. See UCB / CSD 89/516, June 1989, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by cross reference.) Perspective of tag space for inferred image space The shape is used to project the position of each known data bit in tag space into the image space (at 36), where the real-valued position is used to add four related neighboring pixels to the input image. Next interpolate (at 36). The previously calculated image threshold 21 is used to threshold the result and finally generate a bit value 37.

  Once all 360 data bits 37 have been acquired in this way, each of the six 60-bit Reed-Solomon codewords is decoded (at 38) to 20 decoded bits 39, or a total of 120 decoded bits. Produce a bit. Note that by sampling the codeword symbols in codeword order, the codeword is implicitly deinterleaved during the sampling process.

  As mentioned above, the physical tag structure or encoding system is not essential to the present invention, and other physical arrangements of each tag may be used. It is understood that the process for recognizing and decoding the tag image to derive the encoded data depends on the physical structure of the tag and the system used to redundantly encode the data. I want.

  The ring target 15 is determined only in the sub-region of the image that ensures that the relationship to the image is part of the complete tag when the ring is found. If the complete tag cannot be found and decoded continuously, the pen position relative to the current frame is not recorded. Given adequate processing power and ideally a non-minimum field of view 193, an alternative method is to look for another tag in the current image.

  The acquired tag data indicates the identification of the area including the tag and the position of the tag within the area. Then, from the perspective deformation 33 observed on the tag and the known spatial relationship between the physical axis of the pen and the optical axis of the pen, the exact position 35 of the pen nib in the region and the overall Correct orientation 35 is assumed (at 34).

1.2.5 Alternative Tag Structure The tag structure described above is designed to allow both regular tiling of flat surfaces and irregular tiling of non-planar surfaces. Regular tiling is generally not possible on non-planar surfaces. In the more general case of flat surfaces where regular tiling of tags is possible, i.e. for surfaces such as paper, a more efficient tag structure that takes advantage of the regular nature of tiling may be used. it can.

  FIG. 6a shows an alternative tag structure that is more suitable for regular tiling. The substitution tag 4 is square and has four perspective targets 17. This is structurally similar to the tag described in US Pat. No. 5,051,746 to Bennett et al. The tag represents 60 4-bit Reed-Solomon symbols 47 that total 240 bits. The tag represents each 1 bit as a dot 48 and represents each 0 bit by the absence of a corresponding dot. The fluoroscopic target is designed to be shared between adjacent tags, as shown in FIGS. 6a and 6c. FIG. 6b shows a square tiling of 16 tags and a corresponding minimum field of view 193, which must span the diagonal of the two tags. FIG. 6c shows a square tiling of 9 tags that all contain 1 bit for purposes of illustration.

  By using the (15, 7) Reed-Solomon code, 112-bit tag data is redundantly encoded to generate 240 encoded bits. The four codewords are spatially interleaved within the tag to maximize resilience to burst errors. As described above, assuming that the tag ID is 16 bits, this allows an area ID of up to 92 bits.

  Since the tag data holding dots 48 are designed so as not to overlap with the vicinity thereof, the group of tags cannot create a structure similar to the target. This saves ink. Therefore, since the tag can be detected by the fluoroscopic target, no further target is required. Except for omitting steps 26 and 28, tag image processing proceeds as described in section 1.2.4 above.

  The tag may include orientation features to allow ambiguity to be removed from the four possible orientations of the tag relative to the sensor, but it is also possible to embed orientation data in the tag data. For example, four codewords may be arranged such that each tag orientation includes one codeword located in that orientation, as shown in FIG. 4) and the symbol positions (A to O) in the codeword are labeled. Tag decoding consists of decoding one codeword in each orientation. Each codeword may include either a single bit that indicates it is the first codeword and two bits that indicate which codeword it is. The latter approach has the advantage that, for example, if the data content of only one codeword is required, at most two codewords need to be decoded to obtain the desired data. This may be the case when the region ID is not predicted to change within one stroke and is therefore decoded only at the start of the stroke. Only one codeword containing a tag ID is desired within one stroke. Furthermore, since the rotation of the sensing device changes slowly and predictably within a stroke, typically only one codeword needs to be decoded per frame.

  It is possible to eliminate all fluoroscopic targets and instead rely on self-aligning data displays. In this case, each bit value (or multi-bit value) is typically represented by a distinct symbol, i.e., there will be no bit value represented by the absence of the symbol. This allows the data grid to be well populated so that the grid can be reliably identified and the perspective distortion detected during data sampling and subsequently corrected. In order to be able to detect tag boundaries, each tag data must contain a marker pattern, which must be coded redundantly to ensure detection. Such marker pattern overhead is similar to the overhead of a clear fluoroscopic target. In one such scheme, dots with different points relative to the lattice vertices are used to represent different symbols and thus different multi-bit values (see AnotoTechnology Description, Annot April 2000).

1.2.6 Tag Map By decoding a tag, a region ID, a tag ID, and a pen deformation for the tag can be obtained. Before the tag ID and pen position relative to the tag can be converted to an absolute position within the tagged area, the position of the tag within the area must be known. This is given by the tag map, which is a function that maps each tag ID in the tagged area to the corresponding location.

  The tag map reflects the scheme used to tile the surface area with the tag, which can vary depending on the type of surface. If multiple tagged regions share the same tiling scheme and the same tag numbering scheme, they can also share the same tag map.

  The area tag map must be searchable via the area ID. Thus, given a region ID, tag ID, and pen deformation, the tag map can be searched, the tag ID can be converted to an absolute tag position within the region, and the pen position relative to the tag is Added to the tag position, the absolute pen position within the region can be obtained.

1.2.7 Tagging Schemes Focusing on two distinct surface encoding schemes, both of which use the tag structure described earlier in this section. A preferred encoding scheme uses a “location indicator” tag as described above. An alternative encoding scheme uses an “object indication” tag.

  The location tag includes a tag ID that, when converted via a tag map associated with the tagged region, results in a unique tag location within the region. The position of the pen relative to the tag is added to this tag position to obtain the position of the pen within the region. This is then used to determine the position of the pen relative to the user interface element in the page description associated with the region. Not only is the user interface element itself identified, but the location relative to the user interface element is also identified. Thus, the location tag obviously supports the absolute pen path capture in the zone of a particular user interface element.

  The object indication tag includes a tag ID that directly identifies the user interface element in the page description associated with the region. All tags in the zone of the user interface element identify the user interface elements and make them all identical and therefore indistinguishable. Thus, object indication tags do not support absolute pen path capture. However, it supports relative pen pathway uptake. As long as the position sampling frequency exceeds twice the encountered tag frequency, the displacement from one sampled pen position to the next in one stroke can be clearly determined.

  Using either tagging scheme, the user interacts with the printed page using an appropriate sensing device so that the tag data is read by the sensing device and generates an appropriate response to the netpage system. In that it can work as a user interactive element in cooperation with the associated visual element on the netpage.

1.3 Netpage Network In a preferred embodiment, the netpage network includes a netpage page server 10 and a netpage registration server connected via a network 19 such as the Internet, as shown in FIG. 11, a netpage ID server 12, a netpage application server 13, a netpage publication server 14, and a netpage printer 601.

  The netpage registration server 11 is a server that authorizes various network activities by recording relationships among users, pens, printers, applications, and publications. This authenticates the user and acts as a signature proxy on behalf of the authenticated user in the application transaction. In addition, a handwriting recognition service is provided as necessary. As described above, the netpage page server 10 maintains persistent information about page descriptions and page instances. A netpage network includes any number of page servers, each handling a subset of page instances. Since the page server maintains user input values for each page instance, clients such as netpage printers send netpage input directly to the appropriate page server. The page server interprets any such input to the corresponding page description.

  The netpage ID server 12 allocates the document ID 51 on demand, and balances the load of the page server through an ID allocation scheme.

  The netpage printer uses the Internet Distributed Name System (DNS) or the like to resolve the netpage page ID 50 into the network address of the netpage page server that handles the corresponding page instance.

  The netpage application server 13 is a server that serves as a host for an interactive netpage application. The netpage publication server 14 is an application server that publishes netpage documents to a netpage printer.

  The netpage server can act as a host on various network server platforms of manufacturers such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun. Multiple netpage servers run simultaneously on a single host, and a single server can be distributed across multiple hosts. Some or all of the functions provided by the netpage server, particularly those provided by the ID server and page server, may also be provided directly to a netpage device such as a netpage printer, a computer workstation, or a local network. Is possible.

1.4 Netpage Printer The netpage printer 601 is a device that prints a netpage document on demand by registering and subscribing with the netpage system. Each printer has a unique printer ID 62 and is connected to the netpage network via a network such as the Internet, ideally via a broadband connection.

  In addition to the identification and security settings that are in non-volatile memory, the netpage printer need not include any permanent storage. As far as the user is concerned, “the network is a computer”. Netpages function interactively across time and space with the help of the distributed netpage page server 10 regardless of the particular netpage printer.

  The netpage printer receives the subscribed netpage document from the netpage publication server 14. Each document is distributed in two parts: the page layout and the actual text and image objects that populate the page. For reasons of personalization, the page layout is usually pointcast to the subscriber's printer via an appropriate page server, since it is specific to a particular subscriber. On the other hand, text and image objects are usually shared with other subscribers, so they are multicast to all subscribers' printers and appropriate page servers.

  Netpage publication servers optimize the segmentation of document content into pointcasts and multicasts. After receiving a pointcast of the document's page layout, the printer knows which multicast to follow, if any.

  When the printer receives the complete page layout and objects that define the document to be printed, it can print the document.

  The printer rasterizes odd and even pages and prints them on both sides of the sheet at the same time. The printer includes a dual print engine controller 760 and print engine that utilizes a Memjet print head 350 for this purpose.

  The printing process consists of two decomposed stages: rasterizing the page description and enlarging and printing the page image. The raster image processor (RIP) consists of one or more standard DSPs 757 running in parallel. The dual print engine controller consists of a custom processor that magnifies, dithers, and prints page images in real time and is synchronized with the operation of the print engine print head.

  Printers that are inactive for invisible IR printing have the option to print tags using IR-absorbing black ink, which limits the tags to empty areas of the page. Such pages are more limited in function than invisible IR printed pages, but are still classified as netpages.

  A normal netpage printer prints a netpage on a sheet of paper. Furthermore, the special netpage printer may print on a more special surface such as a sphere or a plastic sheet. Each printer corresponds to at least one surface type, and for each surface type corresponds to at least one tag tiling scheme and thus a tag map. A tag map 811 that describes the tag tiling scheme that is actually used to print the document will be associated with the document so that the tag of the document is correctly interpreted, so that the tag of the document is correctly interpreted. can do.

  FIG. 2 shows a class diagram of a netpage printer reflecting printer related information maintained by the registration server 11 on the netpage network.

  With reference to FIGS. 11 to 16, in the following section 6, a preferred embodiment of a netpage printer is described in more detail.

1.4.1 Memjet (R) Print Head The Netpage system can operate with printers manufactured using a wide range of digital printing technologies, including thermal ink jet, piezoelectric ink jet, laser electrophotography, and the like. . However, for acceptance by a wide range of consumers, it is desirable for a netpage printer to have the following features:
・ Photo quality color printing ・ High quality text printing ・ High reliability ・ Low printer cost ・ Low ink cost ・ Low paper cost ・ Easy operation ・ Silent printing ・ High printing speed ・ Simultaneous duplex printing ・ Compact form factor ・ Low Power consumption Printers with printing technology that meet all these features are not currently commercially available.

  In order to be able to manufacture printers with these features, the Applicant has invented a new technology called Memjet® technology. Memjet (R) is a drop-on-demand inkjet technology that incorporates a page-width printhead manufactured using micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) technology. FIG. 17 shows a single print element 300 of a Memjet® printhead. The netpage wall printer incorporates a 168960 printing element 300 to form a 1600 dpi page width duplex printer. This printer prints cyan, magenta, yellow, black and infrared ink, paper conditioner and ink fixer simultaneously.

  The length and width of the printing element 300 is about 110 microns × 32 microns. These arrays of printing elements are formed on a silicon substrate 301 that incorporates CMOS logic circuits, data transfer, timing, and drive circuits (not shown).

  The main elements of the printing element 300 are nozzle 302, nozzle rim 303, nozzle chamber 304, fluid seal 305, ink channel rim 306, lever arm 307, active actuator beam pair 308, and passive actuator beam pair 309. Active actuator anchor 310, passive actuator anchor 311, and ink inlet 312.

  Active actuator beam pair 308 is mechanically joined to passive actuator beam pair 309 at joint 319. Both beam pairs are fixed at their respective anchor points 310 and 311. The combination of elements 308, 309, 310, 311, and 319 forms a cantilever electrothermal bending actuator 320.

  FIG. 18 shows a small portion of an array of printing elements 300 that includes a cross-section 315 of the printing elements 300. To clearly show the ink inlet 312 penetrating the silicon wafer 301, the cross section 315 is shown without ink.

  19 (a), 19 (b), and 19 (c) illustrate the operating cycle of the Memjet® printing element 300. FIG.

  FIG. 19A shows the rest position of the ink meniscus 316 before printing ink drops. Ink is held in the nozzle chamber by an ink meniscus 316 and a fluid seal 305 formed between the nozzle chamber 304 and the ink channel rim 306.

  During printing, the printhead CMOS circuit distributes data from the print engine controller to the correct printing element, latches the data, buffers the data, and drives the electrodes 318 of the active actuator beam pair 308. This causes current to flow through beam pair 308 for about 1 microsecond, generating Joule heat. The temperature rises due to Joule heat, and the beam pair 308 expands. The passive actuator beam pair 309 is not heated and therefore does not expand, resulting in a stress difference between the two beam pairs. This difference in stress is partially eliminated by the cantilevered end of the electrothermal bending actuator 320 that bends toward the substrate 301. The lever arm 307 transmits this movement to the nozzle chamber 304. The nozzle chamber 304 moves about 2 microns to the position shown in FIG. As a result, the ink pressure increases, the ink 321 is ejected from the nozzle 302, and the ink meniscus 316 expands. The nozzle rim 303 prevents the ink meniscus 316 from spreading on the surface of the nozzle chamber 304.

  As the temperature of beam pairs 308 and 309 are equal, actuator 320 returns to its original position. This helps to break the ink droplet 307 from the ink 321 in the nozzle chamber, as shown in FIG. The nozzle chamber is refilled by the action of surface tension at the meniscus 316.

  FIG. 20 shows a portion of the print head 350. In a netpage printer, the length of the print head is the entire width of the paper in the direction 351 (usually 210 mm). The length of the portion shown is 0.4 mm (about 0.2% of the total print head). When printing, the paper passes through a fixed print head in the direction 352. The print head has six rows of printing elements 300 in mesh with each other and prints six colors or types of ink supplied by the ink inlet 312.

  A nozzle guard wafer 330 is attached to the print head substrate 301 to protect the fragile surface of the print head during operation. For each nozzle 302 there is a corresponding nozzle guard hole 331 through which ink drops are ejected. During printing, filtered air is ejected from the nozzle guard holes through the air inlet 332 so that the nozzle guard holes 331 are not blocked by paper fibers or other strips. The nozzle guard is sealed during printer idling to prevent ink 321 from drying.

1.5 Netpage Pen The active sensing device of the netpage system is typically the pen 101, which uses the embedded controller 134 to capture and decode IR positions from the page via the image sensor. Can do. An image sensor is a solid state device with a suitable filter and can only sense at near infrared wavelengths. As described in further detail below, the system can sense when the nib contacts the surface and the pen can sense the tag at a rate sufficient to capture human handwriting (ie, 200 dpi or more and 100 Hz or more). The information captured by the pen is encrypted and transmitted wirelessly to the printer (or base station), which interprets the data for a (known) page or a preferred implementation In the form, information is sent to the netpage server for interpretation.

  The preferred embodiment of the netpage pen operates as both a marking ink pen and a non-marking stylus. However, the marking feature is not necessary for using the netpage system as a browsing system, such as when used as an internet interface. Each netpage pen is registered with the netpage system and has a unique pen ID 61.

  When any nib is in contact with the netpage, the pen determines the position and orientation of the nib relative to the page. The nib is attached to a force sensor and the force applied to the nib is interpreted against a threshold to indicate whether the pen is “up” or “down”. This allows the interactive elements on the page to be “clicked” with a pennib, for example, requesting information from the network. Furthermore, the force can be captured as a continuous value, for example, to confirm a complete dynamic change in the signature. A nib may be moved when it receives a specific force that is stronger than that normally applied when writing. The user applies enough force to move the nib to “click”. This may give the user more desirable feedback than that provided by a stationary nib.

  The pen determines the position and orientation of the nibs on the netpage by imaging the area of the page 193 around the nibs in the infrared spectrum. It decodes the nearest tag and calculates the nib position relative to the tag from the observed perspective distortion for the imaged tag and the known geometry of the pen's optical properties. Because the tag density on the page is inversely proportional to the tag size, the tag position resolution may be low, but the adjusted position resolution is very high and is the minimum resolution required for accurate handwriting recognition. Over.

  The pen movement on the netpage is captured as a series of strokes. A stroke consists of a sequence of time-stamped pen positions on a page that begin by lowering the pen and then completed by raising the pen. Also, whenever a page ID changes, the stroke is tagged with the page ID 50 of the netpage, and under normal circumstances this is the starting point of the stroke.

  Each netpage pen has a current selection 826 associated with it, which allows the user to perform copy and paste operations and the like. The selection is time stamped so that the system can discard it after a predetermined time period. The current selection describes the page instance area. This consists of the latest digital ink strokes captured via the pen against the background area of the page. This is interpreted in an application-specific manner when submitted to the application via selective hyperlink activation.

  Each pen has a current nib 824. This is the nib that the pen last notified to the system. For the default netpage pen described above, either marking ink nibs or non-marking stylus nibs are current. Each pen also has a current nib style 825. This is, for example, the nib style last associated with the pen by the application in response to the user selecting a color from the palette. Strokes captured through the pen are tagged with the current nib style. If the stroke is played later, it will be played in the nib style where the stroke is tagged.

  Whenever the pen is within range of a communicable printer, the pen slowly flashes its “online” LED. When the pen is unable to decode the stroke for the page, the pen instantly activates the “error” LED. When the pen is able to decode the stroke for the page, the pen instantly activates the “ok” LED.

  The sequence of captured strokes is called digital ink. Digital ink digitally exchanges drawings and handwriting, forms a standard for online recognition of handwriting and signature verification online.

  The pen is wireless and sends digital ink to the netpage printer via a short-range wireless link. Transmitted digital ink is encrypted for privacy and security and packetized for efficient transmission, but always flashes when the pen is raised to ensure timely processing in the printer The

  When the pen is out of range of the printer, the pen buffers the digital ink in an internal memory having a capacity for continuous handwriting for 10 minutes or more. When the pen is again within range of the printer, the pen transfers the buffered digital ink. The buffer may provide some buffer capacity.

  The pen can register with any number of printers, but all status data is present on both the paper and network netpages, so the pen communicates with which printer at any particular time It ’s not that important.

  With reference to FIGS. 8-10, the preferred embodiment of the pen is described in further detail in section 6 below.

1.6 Netpage Dialog The netpage printer 601 receives data about strokes from the pen 101 when the pen is used to interact with the netpage 1. When a pen is used to perform a movement, such as a stroke, the encoded data 3 of the tag 4 is read by the pen. With this data, the identification of interactive elements associated with a particular page can be determined and an indication of the relative position of the pen relative to the page can be obtained. The indication data is sent to the printer, where the printer resolves the page ID 50 of the stroke via DNS to the network address of the netpage page server 10 that maintains the corresponding page instance 830. The printer then sends the stroke to the page server. If the page was recently identified in a previous stroke, the printer may already have the address of the page server associated with the cache. Each netpage consists of a compact page layout that is permanently maintained by a netpage page server (see below). A page layout refers to objects such as images, fonts, and text that are typically stored in any of the netpage networks.

  When the page server receives a stroke from the pen, it retrieves the page description to which the stroke applies and determines which element of the page description the stroke intersects. The page server can then interpret the stroke in the context of the type of element involved.

  A “click” is a stroke in which both the distance and time between the position where the pen is lowered and the position where the pen is subsequently raised are below some small maximum value. An object that is activated by a click typically requires that the click be activated, so longer strokes are ignored. Failure to register a pen action, such as a “miscellaneous” click, is indicated by the absence of a response from the pen “ok” LED. However, if the netpage includes a button, a “click” can be registered when both the pen down position and the pen up position are within the button area.

  There are two types of input elements in a netpage / page description: hyperlinks and form fields. Associated hyperlinks can also be activated by input via form fields.

1.7 Standard features of netpages In a preferred form, each netpage has a netpage logo on the bottom to indicate that it is a netpage and interactive. Printed. The logo also acts as a copy button. In most cases, a “click” on the logo will produce a copy of the page. For forms, the button generates a copy of the entire form. In the case of secure documents such as tickets and coupons, the button pulls out descriptive annotations and advertising pages.

  The default single page copy function is handled directly by the associated netpage page server. Special copy functions are handled by linking the logo button to the application.

1.8 User Help System In a preferred embodiment, the netpage printer has a single button labeled “Help”. When you press it,
-Printer connection status-Printer consumable status-Top level help menu-Document function menu-Top level netpage-A single page of information including the network directory is pulled out.

  The help menu provides a hierarchical manual on how to use the netpage system.

The document function menu includes the following functions.
• Printing a document • Printing a blank copy of a form • Printing a document status The function of a document is activated by simply pressing a button and then touching any page of the document. The status of the document indicates who issued it, when it was delivered to whom, and when it was later submitted as a form.

  The netpage network directory allows the user to navigate through the hierarchy of publications and services on the network. Alternatively, the user can call the “yellow page” of the netpage network “900” and talk to a human operator. The operator can locate the desired document and route it to the user's printer. Depending on the type of document, the issuer or user pays a small “yellow page” service fee.

  It is clear that the help page is not available when the printer cannot print. In this case, the “error” light is turned on and the user can request remote diagnosis over the network.

2. 2. Description of Netpage Printer 2.1 Printer Mechanism FIGS. 11 and 12 show a state in which a netpage wall printer 601 mounted in the vertical direction is completely assembled. As best shown in FIGS. 12, 35, and 30, this uses a dual 81/2 inch Memjet® print engine 602 and 603 to print netpages on A4 size media. . This uses a straight paper path, and paper 604 passes through dual print engines 602 and 603 that print simultaneously on both sides of the sheet in full color and full bleed. A multi DSP raster image processor (RIP) rasterizes pages into internal memory, and a pair of custom print engine controllers enlarges and dithers the page images and prints them in real time on a dual print head.

  The one-piece binding assembly 605 can be glued as it is pressed against the preceding sheet by applying a strip of adhesive along one side of each printed sheet. This creates a final bound document 618 with a thickness ranging from one sheet to several hundred sheets. The binding assembly is considered in detail below with particular reference to FIGS. 26, 27, and 28.

  Referring to FIGS. 11, 12, 35, 13, and 21-23, the wall printer 601 comprises a main chassis 606 that houses all the main components and assemblies. As best shown in FIG. 23, it has a swiveling media tray 607 in the upper front portion covered by the front molding 608 and handle molding 609. Front molding 608, handle molding 609, and front lower molding 610 may differ in color, texture, and finish to make the product more attractive to consumers. These are simply held in front of the wall printer 601.

  24 and 25 show the wall printer electrical system alone. A flexible printed circuit board (flex PCB) 611 advances from the media tray 607 to the main PCB 612. This includes four color LEDs 613, 614, 615, and 616 and a push button 617. The LEDs are shown along the front molding and indicate “on” 613, “out of ink” 614, “out of paper” 615, and “error” 616. Push button 617 retrieves the printed “help” in the form of usage instructions, printer and consumable status information, and a directory of resources on the netpage printer.

  The printed and bound document 618 passes through the bottom of the wall printer 601 and is discharged to a removable collection tray 619 made of transparent plastic. This will be described in more detail below with particular reference to FIG.

  The wall printer 601 is supplied with electric power from an internal 110V / 220V power source 620 and has a metal mounting plate 621 fixed to a wall surface or a stable vertical surface with four screws. The recessed keyhole slot detail 622 in the metal plate 621 allows for four plugs to be mounted on the back of the printer for fastening on the plate. The wall printer 601 is prevented from being detached by a screw for installing the chassis molding 606 on the plate 621 at a position behind the medium tray 607.

  Referring to FIG. 21, the side of the wall printer 601 includes a module bay 624 that houses a network interface module 625 that allows the printer to connect to a netpage network and a local computer or network. The interface module 625 may be selected and installed at the factory or shop floor to provide the interface required by the user. The module may include common connector options such as an IEEE 1394 (firewire) connection, a standard Centronics printer port connection, or a combination of USB2 and Ethernet connections. Thus, the consumer can connect the wall printer 601 to the computer and use it as a network printer. Other types of connections may be used. The interface module PCB is plugged directly into the main wall printer PCB 612 via an edge connector (with a gold contact engine strip). By using tool inserts, the modular design accommodates different connector configurations. Finger width recesses on either side of module 625 allow for easy manual insertion or removal.

  Referring to FIG. 30, the main PCB 612 is attached to the back of the chassis 606. The circuit version 612 serves as an interface with the interface module 625 via the chassis molding 606. The PCB 612 guides essential peripheral electronic components to the Memjet (registered trademark) print head 705. This includes volatile memory (currently two 32MB DRAMs are used), flash memory, IEEE1394 interface chip, motor controller (currently six), various sensor connectors, interface module PCB edge connector, power management, internal / Includes external data connector and QA chip.

  FIG. 23 shows front hatch access to paper 604 and ink cartridge 627. Referring to FIG. 29, paper 604 is placed in a hinged upper tray 607 and pressed against a spring-loaded platen 666. The tray 607 is attached to the chassis 606 by a hinge 700. Each hinge has a bottom, a hinge lever, and a hinge side. A pivot on the bottom and paper / media tray 607 engages the lever and side so that the paper / media tray 607 rotates without twisting the supply hose 646.

  After the paper 604 is placed under the edge guide 667, the guide is closed and automatically aligned to one side of the tray 607 by the action of the metal spring portion 668. An ink cartridge 627 connects into a swiveling ink connector molding 628 through a series of self-sealing connectors 629. The connector 629 sends ink, air, and adhesive to different positions. The ink connector molding 628 includes a sensor that detects the QA chip on the ink cartridge and confirms the identification before printing. When it is sensed that the front hatch is closed, the release mechanism allows the spring loaded platen 666 to press the paper 604 against the powered media pickup roller assembly 626.

  FIG. 22 shows the complete assembly of the removable ink cartridge 627. It has a bladder or chamber that stores a fixer 644, an adhesive 630, cyan 631, magenta 632, yellow 633, black 634, and infrared 635 ink. The cartridge 627 includes a micro air filter 636 in the base molding 637. As shown in FIG. 13, the micro air filter 636 serves as an interface of an air pump 638 without a printer via a hose 639. This provides filtered air to the print head 705 to prevent microparticles that can clog the nozzles from entering the Memjet® print head 705. By incorporating the air filter 636 into the cartridge 627, the operational life of the filter is effectively tied to the life of the cartridge. This allows the filter to be replaced with the cartridge rather than relying on the user to clean and replace the filter at the required intervals. Furthermore, the frequency of interrupting the operation of the printer is reduced by eliminating the consumables by supplying the adhesive and the infrared ink together with the visible ink and the air filter.

  The cartridge 627 has a thin wall casing 640. Ink bladders 631-635 and fixer bladder 644 are suspended in the casing by pins 645 that hold the cartridge together. A single adhesive bladder 630 is housed in the base molding 637. This is a fully reproducible product with the ability to print and bond 3000 pages (1500 sheets).

  Referring to FIGS. 12, 35, 24, 25, and 30, the powered media pickup roller assembly 626 moves the top sheet from the media tray 607 to the paper sensor on the first print engine 602 (FIG. (Not shown) and press directly into the duplex Memjet® printhead assembly.

  Two Memjet® print engines 602 and 603 are provided in opposing inline continuous configurations along a straight path of paper. The paper 604 is drawn into the first print engine 602 by an integral power-supplied pickup roller 626. The position and size of the paper 604 are detected, and full bleed printing is started.

  The fixer is printed simultaneously to facilitate drying in the shortest possible time.

  As best shown in FIG. 35, Memjet® print engines 602 and 603 include rotary capping, blotting and platen devices 669. The capping device seals it when not using Memjet®. This unscrews and rotates to produce an integrated blotter that is used to absorb ink ejected from the print head 705 during routine printer start-up maintenance. This moves the internal capping device in the Memjet® print head 705 simultaneously, thereby allowing air to flow into the protective nozzle shield area. A third rotation of the device moves the platen surface to a fixed position, thereby supporting one side of the sheet 604 during printing.

  The paper passes through a set of powered exit spike wheels (aligned along the straight path of the paper) that act against a rubber coated roller, and the first Memjet® print engine 602. Discharged from. These spike wheels continue to feed the sheet 604 into the second Memjet® print engine 603 in contact with the “wet” printing surface.

  A second print engine 603 is mounted opposite to the first to print the underside of the sheet 604.

  Paper 604 is fed into the binder assembly 605 from the duplex print engines 602 and 603 as shown in FIGS. The page to be printed passes between a powered spike wheel shaft 670 having a fibrous support roller and another movable shaft having a spike wheel and an instantaneous motion adhesive wheel 673. The movable shaft / adhesive assembly 673 is attached to the metal support bracket and is moved forward to interface with the electric shaft 670 by the operation of the camshaft 642. Another motor 675 powers this camshaft. Both motors 676 are controlled by a Memjet® print head.

  The adhesive wheel assembly 673 consists of a partially hollow shaft 679 with a rotating coupling 680 for the adhesive supply hose 641 from the ink cartridge 627. This shaft 679 is connected to an adhesive wheel 681 that absorbs the adhesive by capillary action due to radial holes. A molded housing surrounds the adhesive wheel 681 and has an opening in the front. A pivoting side molding 683 and a spring-loaded outer door 684 are attached to the metal support bracket and the hinges are released sideways when the rest of the assembly 673 is pushed forward. By this action, the adhesive wheel 681 is exposed from the front surface of the molded housing. A tension spring 685 closes the assembly and effectively caps the adhesive wheel 681 during periods of inactivity.

  As sheet 604 passes through adhesive wheel assembly 673 and is lowered and transferred into binding assembly 605, adhesive is applied to one vertical edge on the front side (away from the first sheet of document). The It should be understood that with this configuration, the movement of the paper through the printer is not interrupted or stopped at a separate bonding station because adhesive is applied to each page during printing. This increases the speed of the printer, but requires that the page be moved in a “portrait” configuration (ie, in a direction parallel to the long side). As a result, the paper tray, the binding station, and the collection station need to have a portrait configuration. This makes the overall length of the printer too long to fit conveniently within the limited space area. In these situations, the media tray, binding station, and collection station can be arranged in the “landscape” direction (with the short side parallel to the direction of paper movement) to reduce the length of the printer. However, it must be possible to apply the adhesive along the long side of the adhesive assembly paper. In such a wall printer (not shown), adhesive is applied to the long sides of each page using a reciprocating adhesive strip.

  FIG. 26 best illustrates a “portrait” binder assembly 605. This includes a metal support chassis 686, a spring-formed binding platen 687 that moves over four crossing rods, a molded inclined platen 689 that supports the document 618 after the sheet 604 has moved, and an outlet having a support bracket 691. And a hatch 690. The printed page 604 is fed until it is placed on the exit hatch 690. The binding platen 687 is propelled forward at high speed via a loop system of wheels 692 and a spring-loaded steel cable 693 attached to a powered cable winder shaft 694. As the cable winder shaft 694 rotates, the cable loop 693 shortens and transports the binding platen 687 forward. This powered shaft 694 has a slip clutch mechanism and provides the speed necessary to push the seat 604 forward to the rear of the previous seat, which is glued / bonded together to act as a return spring 699. Return to position and accept the next printed sheet. The time taken for a single operating cycle of the reciprocating platen is less than 2 seconds.

  The binding assembly 605 creates a bound document without significantly increasing the time it takes to print separate pages of the document by binding the pages one page at a time into a bound document. In addition, the assembly applies the adhesive directly before pressing against the preceding page. This is more effective than applying an adhesive to the back of each page and pressing each page in succession to the next page, which is the last time the printing process is interrupted, such as by replenishing paper supplies. This is because the adhesive applied to the adhesive page deteriorates and the effect is reduced.

  The cable 693 is of a spring type so that a positive pressure can be applied to the preceding sheet so that bookbinding is easy. Further, the inclined platen 689 is shallower at the top than the bottom to support the document 618 in an over-axis configuration.

  A sensor (not shown) operably connected to the control of the stepper motor determines the position of the last page spelled in the document so that the platen can accurately glue the next page to it May be used.

  The paper tapper 643 causes the sheet 604 to collide with one side surface of the binder 605 when moving to the inclined platen 689. Main PCB 612 controls motors 695, 696, and 697 with respect to cable winder shaft 694, tapper 643, and outlet hatch 690, respectively.

  When the document 618 is bound and finished, the powered outlet hatch 690 opens. A tamper sensor (not shown) is provided to detect document jams and other obstructions that act to keep the exit hatch 690 from closing. Further, the tapper 643 aligns the printed document 618 by lightly tapping during discharging from the binder 605 to the collection tray 619. A plastic foil 698 on the lower front molding 610, in cooperation with the hatch 690, guides the finished document 618 to the back of the collection tray 619 and feeds additional documents into the tray so that it does not hit an existing document. To do. In order to accommodate documents of different page sizes, a plurality of flexible foils each having a different length may be provided. The collection tray 619 is molded into transparent plastic and removed from the socket under a certain load. Access to retrieve documents is given on three sides.

2.2 Memjet-based printing The Memjet® printhead produces a bi-level CMYK of 1600 dpi. On low diffusion paper, each ejected drop forms a 22.5 μm diameter dot that is almost perfectly circular. Dots are easily generated individually and can take full advantage of distributed dot dithering.

  A page layout may include a combination of images, graphics, and text. Continuous tone (contone) images and graphics are reproduced using stochastic distributed dot dithering. Unlike collective dot (or amplitude modulation) dithering, distributed dot (or frequency modulation) dithering, when spatially integrated in the eye, reproduces low spatial frequencies down to full color depth at the same time, while providing near-dot resolution. Play high spatial frequencies (ie image details) to the limit. The stochastic dithering matrix is carefully designed so that there are no objectionable low frequency patterns when the image is tiled. In this way, this size typically exceeds the minimum size required to accommodate a specific number of intensity levels (eg, 16 × 16 × 8 bits for 257 intensity levels).

  Human contrast sensitivity drops logarithmically after reaching the apex at a spatial frequency of about 3 cycles per viewing angle, and decreases by 100 over about 40 cycles per degree and over 60 cycles per degree. Measurement becomes impossible. At a normal viewing distance of 12 inches (approximately 300 mm), this is roughly 200-300 cycles per inch (cpi) on the printed page, or 400-600 samples per inch according to Nyquist theorem It will be.

  In practice, contone resolution above about 300 ppi is of limited utility other than special applications such as medical imaging. For example, magazine offset printing uses a contone resolution in the range of 150-300 ppi. The higher resolution contributes slightly to the color error due to dithering.

  Black text and graphics are played directly using bi-level black dots and are therefore not anti-aliased (ie, low pass filtered) before being printed. Thus, the text is supersampled beyond the perceptual limits mentioned above and produces a smoother edge when spatially integrated with the eye. Text resolutions up to about 1200 dpi continue to contribute to perceived text sharpness (assuming of course low diffusion paper).

The netpage printer uses 267 ppi contone resolution (ie, 1600 dpi / 6) and 800 dpi black text and graphic resolution.
2.3 Document Data Flow Due to the page width nature of the Memjet® printhead, each page must be printed at a constant speed so as not to create visible artifacts. That is, the print speed cannot be changed to match the input data speed. Therefore, the rasterization of the document and the printing of the document are separated, and a constant supply of data to the print head is ensured. The page is not printed until it is all rasterized. This is accomplished by storing a compressed version of each rasterized page image in memory.

  Also, with such separation, when rasterizing a simple page, a raster image processor (RIP) can be executed before the printer to obtain time for rasterizing a more complicated page.

  Contone color images are played with stochastic dithering, but black text and line graphics are played directly using dots, so the compressed page image format is a separate foreground by level black. And a background contone color layer. The black layer is composited over the contone layer after the contone layer is dithered.

  The netpage tag is rendered on a separate layer and finally printed using infrared absorbing ink.

  At 267 ppi, the letter size page of the contone CMYK data has a size of 25 MB. JPEG (ISO / IEC19018-1: 1994, "Information technology-Digital compression and coding-of-continuous-tonestile images: Requirements and guidelines", the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference). Using a certain contone compression algorithm, contone images are compressed at a ratio of up to 10: 1 without significant loss of quality, giving a compressed page size of 2.5 MB. Lossless compression algorithms may be used, but using them generally does not provide a high compression ratio compared to lossy compression algorithms.

  A bi-level data letter size page at 800 dpi has a size of 7 MB. Coherent data such as text is compressed very well. Group 4 Facsimile (ANSI / EIA 538-1988, “Facsimile Coding Schemes and Coding Control Functions for Group 4 Facsimile Equipment”, August 1988, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference) , The ten point text is compressed in a ratio of about 10: 1, giving a compressed page size of 0.8 MB.

  When dithered, the letter-size page of CMYK contone image data consists of 114 MB of bi-level data. Using a lossless bi-level compression algorithm on this data is completely meaningless because optimal dithering is stochastic, i.e. it introduces irregularities that are difficult to compress.

  Thus, the two-layer compressed page image format takes advantage of the relative strength of lossy JPEG contone image compression and lossless bi-level text compression. This format is compact enough to be storage efficient and simple enough to perform simple real-time magnification during printing.

  Since text and images usually do not overlap, the normal worst page image size is 2.5 MB (ie, only images), whereas the normal best page image size is 0.8 MB (ie, only images). Text only). The absolute worst page image size is 3.3 MB (ie the text on the image). If a quarter of the average page contains an image, the average page image size is 1.2 MB.

2.4 Printer Controller Architecture As shown in the block diagram of FIG. 14, the netpage printer controller includes a control processor 750, a factory or shop floor network interface module 625, and a wireless transceiver (transceiver controller 753, base Band circuit 754, RF circuit 755, and RF resonator and inductor 756), dual raster image processor (RIP) DSP 757, duplex print engine controllers 760a and 760b, flash memory 658, DRAM 657 (currently 64 MB) Consists of.

  The control processor handles communication between the network 19 and the local wireless netpage pen 101, senses the help button 617, controls the user interface LEDs 613-616, and supplies and synchronizes the RIPDSP 757 and the print engine controller 760. This consists of a medium performance general purpose microprocessor. Control processor 750 communicates with print engine controller 760 via high speed serial bus 659.

  The RIP DSP rasterizes the page description and compresses it into the compressed page format of the netpage printer. Each print engine controller enlarges and dithers the page image and prints it on the associated Memjet print head 350 in real time (ie, 30 pages per minute or more). The dual print engine controller prints both sides of the sheet simultaneously.

  The master print engine controller 760a controls paper transport and monitors ink use in cooperation with the master QA chip 665 and the ink cartridge QA chip 761.

  The printer controller flash memory 658 holds configuration data along with software for both the processor 750 and the DSP 757. This is copied to the main memory 657 at boot time.

  The processor 750, DSP 757, and digital transceiver components (transceiver controller 753 and baseband circuit 754) are integrated into a single controller ASIC 656. Analog RF components (RF circuit 755 and RF resonator and inductor 756) are provided on a separate RF chip 762. The network interface module 625 is separate because the netpage printer allows the network connection to be factory-selective or worksite-selective. The flash memory 658 and 2 × 256 Mbit (64 MB) DRAM 657 are also off-chip. The print engine controller 760 is provided in another ASIC.

  Various network interface modules 625 are provided, each providing a netpage network interface 751 and, optionally, a local computer or network interface (not shown). Netpage network Internet interface includes POTS modems, Hybrid Fiber-Coax (HFC) cable modems, ISDN modems, DSL modems, satellite transceivers, current and next generation mobile phone transceivers, and wireless local loop (WLL) Including a transceiver. Local interfaces include IEEE 1284 (parallel port), 10Base-T and 100Base-T Ethernet, USB and USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 (firewire), and various emerging home network interfaces. Including. If an internet connection is available on the local network, the local network interface can be used as a netpage network interface.

  The wireless transceiver 753 typically communicates in the unlicensed 900 MHz band used by cordless phones, or alternatively in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz industrial scientific and medical (ISM) band, with frequency hopping and Use collision detection to provide interference-free communication.

  The printer controller selectively incorporates an infrared data communications standardization organization (IrDA) interface for receiving “spouted” data from devices such as netpage cameras. In an alternative embodiment, the printer uses an IrDA interface to communicate over a short distance with a properly configured netpage pen.

2.4.1 Rasterization and Printing The main processor 750 receives and verifies (at 550) the page layout and page objects of the document, puts them into the memory 657 (at 551), and then executes the appropriate RIP software on the DSP 757. Execute.

  The DSP 757 rasterizes each page description (at 552) and compresses the rasterized page image (at 553). The main processor stores (at 554) each compressed page image in memory 657. The simplest way to balance the load of multiple DSPs is to have each DSP rasterize a separate page. In general, the DSP is always busy because any number of rasterized pages can be stored in memory. This method results in only potentially poor DSP usage when rasterizing short documents.

  The watermark area of the page description is compressed to a negligible size without loss and rasterized into a contone resolution bi-level bitmap that forms part of the compressed page image.

  The infrared (IR) layer of the printed page contains approximately 6 densities of encoded netpage tags per inch. Each tag encodes a page ID, tag ID, and control bits, and the data content of each tag is generated during rasterization and stored in a compressed page image.

  Main processor 750 passes back-to-back page images to duplex print engine controller 760. Each print engine controller 760 stores the compressed page image in local memory 769 and initiates a page expansion and printing pipeline. Since it is impractical to store the entire 114 MB bilevel CMYK + IR page image in memory, page expansion and printing are pipelined.

  The print engine controller enlarges the compressed page image (at 555), dithers the enlarged contone color data into bi-level dots (at 556), and on the dithered contone layer (at 557). Combine the enlarged bi-level black layer, render the enlarged netpage tag data (at 558), and finally print (at 559) the fully rendered page, and print the printed netpage 1 Is generated.

2.4.2 Print Engine Controller The page expansion and printing pipeline of the print engine controller 760 includes a high-speed IEEE 1394 serial interface 659, a standard JPEG decoder 763, and a standard group 4 fax decoder as shown in the block diagram of FIG. 764, a custom half toner / compositor unit 765, a custom tag encoder 766, a line loader / formatter unit 767, and a custom interface 768 with the Memjet (registered trademark) print head 350.

  The print engine controller 360 operates in a double buffer system. While a page is loaded into DRAM 769 via high speed serial interface 659, the previously loaded page is read from DRAM 769 and passes through the print engine controller pipeline. After the page finishes printing, the page just loaded is printed while loading other pages.

  The first stage of the pipeline expands (at 763) the JPEG compressed contone CMYK layer, expands (at 764) the group 4 fax compressed bilevel black layer, and (at 766) at section 1.2. Render the bi-level netpage tag layer according to the defined tag format, all in parallel. The second stage dithers (at 765) the contone CMYK layer and composites (at 765) the bilevel black layer on the resulting bilevel CMYK layer. The resulting bilevel CMYK + IR dot data is buffered and formatted for printing on the Memjet® printhead 350 via a set of line buffers (at 767). Most of these line buffers are stored in off-chip DRAM. In the final stage, 6-channel bi-level dot data (including the fixing agent) is printed on the Memjet (registered trademark) print head 350 via the print head interface 768.

  When several print engine controllers 760 are used simultaneously, such as in a duplex configuration, they are synchronized via a shared line synchronization signal 770. Only one print engine 760 selected via the external master / slave pin 771 generates the line synchronization signal 770 on the shared line.

  The print engine controller 760 includes a low speed processor 772 for synchronizing the page enlargement and rendering pipelines, configures the print head 350 via the low speed serial bus 773, and controls the stepper motors 675, 676.

  In the 81/2 inch version of the netpage printer, each of the two print engines gives a line speed of 8.8 kHz at 1600 dpi along the long side of the page (11 inches) per minute. Print 30 letter pages. In the 12-inch version of the netpage printer, each of the two print engines prints 45 letter pages per minute, giving a 10.2 kHz line speed along the short side (81/2 inches) of the page. . These line speeds are well within the operating frequency of the Memjet® printhead, which exceeds 30 kHz with the current design.

2.5 Netpage Refrigerator A particular device of the present invention is a system for home or industrial use that combines the capabilities of an electrical device such as a refrigerator and an interactive printer device. For brevity, this device will be referred to hereinafter as a “netpage refrigerator” and will be described in connection with the netpage system. However, it should be understood that other suitable household equipment may be equipped in a similar manner, and that another computer system may be used to operatively interact with the refrigerator or other equipment.

  Because the netpage printer of the present invention is remote interactive (typically via wireless transmission from the netpage pen to the printer device), there is a risk of collision between the use of the printer and the use of the refrigerator itself. There is almost no. In addition, the refrigerator is already powered and can be easily augmented with a network connection, and its doors are ideal for netpage printers that are vertically long and thin.

  31, FIG. 32, and FIG. 33 show a state where the netpage refrigerator is completely assembled, and FIG. 34 shows a cross-sectional view thereof. The netpage refrigerator 1001 has a wall that defines an internal section suitable for storage and refrigeration of fruits and vegetables, a rectangular upper enclosure 1034 that serves as a first environmental control room, and a second enclosure suitable for storage and freezing of fruits and vegetables. And a rectangular lower enclosure 1036 that serves as an environmental control room. Further, the refrigerator heat exchange pipe 1030 and the system compressor pump / motor assembly 1032 are shown in the sectional view of FIG. The storage sections 1034, 1036 of this equipment are accessed through an upper door 1012 and a lower door 1014, respectively, which also serve to provide a mechanical structure to accommodate the functions of the interactive printer device. Such a mechanical arrangement provides convenient access to interactive printer functions for operational and maintenance purposes and meets ergonomic design principles.

  FIG. 32 illustrates the accessibility of the consumable access hatch 1016, ie, a hatch for accessing to replenish parts that typically require periodic replacement, such as paper or ink. This access hatch 1016 is provided as a hinged assembly on the upper door 1012 of the netpage refrigerator 1001 and is attached so as to be bent downward and outward for easy access by the user. Those components of the interactive printer that do not require regular access are neatly hidden in the door assembly and made accessible by the maintenance operator when needed. The cross-sectional view of FIG. 34 illustrates print engines 602, 603 for generating both media tray 607, PCB 612, paper supply sections, and visually and invisible encoded print information, as needed. , Shows the relative position of the functional elements of the printer device, including the binding assembly 605 closed at the lower end by an exit hatch 690 to generate a bound multi-page document 618. At the lower door 1014 of the netpage refrigerator 1001, a discharge tray assembly is provided that facilitates access to the print output of the netpage printer. The discharge tray assembly includes a collection tray 619 that receives gravity-supplied output from the exit hatch of the binding assembly 605, which is easily accessible so that printed bookbinding document 618 can be removed. It is.

  In a preferred embodiment, the netpage refrigerator 1001 is configured to operate with the netpage networked computer system described in detail in the above and previously filed patent applications. Thus, the netpage refrigerator is registered in the netpage system and is either on demand or by subscribing according to the process described above and described in detail in the applicant's earlier patent application PCT / AU00 / 00561. Print the document. Each netpage refrigerator has a unique ID and is ideally connected to a netpage system via a network such as the Internet via a broadband connection. Network interconnection is supported via a network interface that forms part of the Netpage refrigerator. A receiver for receiving signals from the netpage pen is incorporated into the printer device at the upper door of the netpage refrigerator. FIG. 33 schematically shows two leads 1022, 1028, which pass through the upper door 1012 of the refrigerator, the upper door hinge mechanism of the refrigerator, and the side wall of the upper portion of the refrigerator cabinet to the back of the appliance. Appears and provides a connection between a main power source 1026 for supplying power to the netpage printer device and a network line 1024 such as a residential telephone line for connection to the Internet.

In a preferred form of netpage refrigerator, the function of the refrigerator and the function of the interactive printer are interdependent. That is, certain capabilities of the interactive printer function are invariably linked with certain functional features of the refrigerator function. Thus, in addition to the inherent capabilities of refrigerators, netpage refrigerators have inherent additional capabilities that supplement the inherent capabilities of the device. Additional functional capabilities include, but are not limited to:
a: Automatic inventory monitoring and control b: Device control c: Fault diagnosis and reporting 2.5.1 Automatic inventory monitoring and control Along with an external sensing device such as a netpage pen, the netpage refrigerator is Has the ability to monitor inventory. This feature allows the device to have the ability to encourage replenishment, monitor expiration dates, and suggest recipes using available ingredients. The user's netpage pen can be easily augmented to accommodate bar code scanning, and the netpage system provides a device that converts bar code input into appropriate shopping cart updates. As considered, the netpage system itself can record each user's favorite usage for each of the product type sets.

2.5.2 Device Control Netpage refrigerators have the ability to control other refrigerators such as home theater systems, air conditioners, security systems as well as the ability to control the refrigerator, such as temperature control. Netpage refrigerators can generate printed control buttons in the form of remote control devices, which can later be used to control the proper functioning of the appropriate equipment. Netpage refrigerators are suitable systems for incorporating device control capabilities because they are typically located in a central location that is easily accessible.

2.5.3 Fault Diagnosis and Reporting Netpage with one or more thermal sensors 1018 located in the storage section of the Netpage refrigerator and monitored via a sensor interface embedded within the interactive printer device function The refrigerator has the ability to diagnose and report faults. For example, if a temperature above a certain threshold level is detected, the netpage refrigerator may print a printed report to indicate that the temperature in one or other storage section has exceeded a predetermined threshold level. create. Similarly, if a power supply outage to the refrigerator is detected at the power source, the netpage refrigerator creates a detailed report regarding supply interruption to provide information to the user of the device.

CONCLUSION The present invention has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment and a number of specific alternative embodiments. However, one of ordinary skill in the art appreciates that many other embodiments different from those specifically described are within the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, it should be understood that the invention is not intended to be limited to the specific embodiments described in the invention, including documents incorporated by reference as appropriate. The scope of the invention is limited only by the claims.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of the relationship between a sample printed netpage and its online page description. 6 is a schematic diagram of an interaction between a netpage pen, a netpage printer, a netpage / page server, and a netpage / application server. It is a figure which shows the aggregate | assembly of the netpage server and printer mutually connected via the network. Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a high level structure of a printed netpage and its online page description. It is a figure for demonstrating the structure of a netpage tag. It is a figure for demonstrating another structure of a netpage tag. It is a flowchart of a tag image processing decoding algorithm. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a netpage pen and associated tag sensing field cone. It is an expansion perspective view of the netpage pen shown in FIG. FIG. 10 is a schematic block diagram of a pen controller for the netpage pen shown in FIGS. 8 and 9. It is a perspective view of a wall-mounted netpage printer. It is sectional drawing along the length of the netpage printer of FIG. FIG. 13 is a detailed view of the ink cartridge, ink, air and adhesive paths, and print engine of the netpage printer of FIGS. 11 and 12. FIG. 13 is a schematic block diagram of a printer controller for the netpage printer shown in FIGS. 11 and 12. FIG. 15 is a schematic block diagram of a dual print engine controller and Memjet® print head associated with the printer controller shown in FIG. 14. FIG. 16 is a schematic block diagram of the print engine controller shown in FIGS. 14 and 15. FIG. 13 is a perspective view of a single Memjet print element for use with the netpage printer of FIGS. 10-12, for example. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a small portion of an array of Memjet® printing elements. FIG. 14 is a series of perspective views showing an operation cycle of the Memjet® printing element shown in FIG. 13. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a short segment of a page width Memjet print head. It is a simple enlarged view of a wall printer. It is an enlarged view of an ink cartridge. FIG. 4 is a front three-quarter view of the media tray in an open state. FIG. 3 is a front quarter view of the printer electrical system. FIG. 3 is a rear three-quarter view of the electrical system. It is sectional drawing along a binder assembly. FIG. 4 is a rear three-quarter view of the adhesive wheel assembly in an open state. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view along the binder assembly and outlet hatch. FIG. 4 is a top three-quarter view of the media tray. It is sectional drawing along the upper part of a printer. It is a perspective view of the refrigerator incorporating the netpage printer by this invention. FIG. 32 is a perspective view of the refrigerator of FIG. 31 with the consumable access hatch in an open state. It is a perspective view of the refrigerator of FIG. 31 which shows a thermal sensor, a network, and electric power connection. It is sectional drawing of the refrigerator of FIG. 13 is an enlarged portion of FIG. 12 showing a cross section of the dual print engine and adhesive wheel assembly.

Explanation of symbols

618 Multi-page document 619 Collection tray 1001 Netpage refrigerator 1012 Upper door 1014 Lower door 1016 Consumable access hatch

Claims (18)

A device that enables interaction with a network computer system,
Equipment for storage and cooling of fruits and vegetables for use by equipment users;
A printer device integrated with the device,
The printer device is operably interconnectable with the network computer system, the printer device is operable to print at least one form delivered from the network computer system and page width printing A printer module with a head, wherein the printer device is configured to receive instruction data from a sensing device operated by an equipment user, the sensing device being in an activated position relative to the at least one form. Instruction data is detected,
The instruction data received by the printer device includes control data for controlling the operation of the device via the network computer system, and the printer device generates the control data in order to generate the control data. A device comprising a sensor interface for monitoring the operation of the device. The at least one form includes information communicated to the device user and encoded data representing the form identification and at least one reference point of the form, the sensed data being in an activated position relative to the form. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein when placed, the apparatus senses instruction data using at least some encoded data, eg, to sense a position relative to a form. The at least one form includes information communicated to the device user and encoded data representing the identity of the form, the sensing data being at least some The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instruction data is sensed using the encoded data to generate data relating to the position of the sensing device relative to the form. The at least one form includes encoded data representing form identification, the sensing device includes data relating to the identification of the equipment user, and uses at least some encoded data to provide data relating to form identification. The device of claim 1, wherein the device senses. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising the sensing device. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the sensing device comprises a marking nib. 6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the sensing device includes identification means that provides a unique identification to the sensing device and identifies that the sensing device is associated with a particular equipment user. The system of claim 5, wherein the sensing device and the printer device are configured to wirelessly communicate the instruction data therebetween. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the printer module is integrated into a door of the device in a location that is easily accessible to the device user. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the printer module prints encoded data simultaneously with printing a form. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the encoded data is substantially invisible in the visible spectrum. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the printer module includes binding means for binding pages to provide a form printed on multiple pages. The apparatus includes at least one sensor for measuring an operating parameter, and the at least one sensor and the printer device are interconnectable by the sensor interface provided in the printer device. The apparatus according to 1. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one form includes information regarding device usage, and the computer system includes means for identifying at least one parameter regarding device usage from instruction data. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the at least one parameter related to device usage is associated with at least one zone of the form. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the at least one parameter relating to equipment usage is a control parameter for equipment usage. The device includes an upper storage section and a lower storage section, each storage section being accessible by a hinged door, and the printer module is provided on a door of the upper storage section, the door of the lower storage section 10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the apparatus provides a collector adapted to receive a printed document ejected from the printer module when both of the doors are in a closed position. A computer system comprising at least one device according to claim 1.

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