Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.p.

Hewlett-packard Company

Kenneth Lee Oakeson

Shell Sterling Simpson

Ward Scott Foster

Terry P Mahoney

Brian A Volkoff

Izhak Baharav

Patrick O Sandfort

Doron Shaked

Paul L Jeran

Darrel D Cherry

Alan Chris Berkema

David M Hall

Jeremy Bunn

Angela Kay Hanson

Elliot Lee Klosterman

Daniel Revel

Garth Frederick Schmeling

Example systems, methods, computer-readable mediums, and other forms of a secure foreign enterprise printing system are provided. An example system may include a wireless telephonic logic for communicating with a wireless network web services provider and a wireless network communication logic configured to communicate a print request to the wireless network web services provider using the wireless telephonic logic. The print item may be stored in a first enterprise and may be printed on an image forming device that is located in a second enterprise. The example system may also include an encryption logic configured to facilitate providing security for the print item as it travels from the first enterprise to the image forming device.

Secure foreign enterprise printing

A bidding service may be used to receive bid information to complete a job request, from processors coupled to a job ticket service center. The processors submit bids in response to posting of job ticket notices at the service center. A work flow controller may post the job ticket notices after receipt of the job request. The job ticket notice may include specific tasks or branches that must be completed to complete the job request. The job ticket notice may include descriptions of specific branches and their interrelationships in sufficient detail to allow the processors to bid for completion of the branches. The bidding service may select bids from the processors based on set criteria. For example, the job request may specify minimum performance requirements (e.g., a maximum cost and a completion deadline). The bidding service may reject any bids that fail to satisfy the minimum performance requirements. Where the work flow controller has established multiple branches, each such branch may include minimum performance requirements. The branch-specific performance requirements may be established by the work flow controller based on overall performance requirements for the job ticket.

Use of a job ticket service to store bid information

A system and method for authorizing electronic messages is provided. One embodiment of the system includes message receiving logic that determines whether a received message comes from an authorized sender based on a pre-assigned token. In another embodiment, a message transmission logic configures a message with a pre-assigned token for transmission to a destination address. The present system and method allows for improved control of electronic messages.

Message authorization system and method

Methods and systems enable devices to discover each other when the devices are in a common location. Unique identifiers (UIDs) are associated with one or more location and each UID uniquely identifies a location. Devices that are located in a particular location that has a UID can register to create an association between the device and the UID. In turn, this creates an association between the device and a location. Subsequently, when another device (e.g. a laptop computer or PDA) enters the location, the device can discover the UID of the location and then ascertain which other devices are associated with that location.

Methods and systems for determining local device proximity

To control concurrent access problems, the job ticket service may employ branch locking features, that is, the capability to lock a job ticket at the branch level. The branch locking may be accomplished by one of several methods. The work flow controller may assign one or more specific processors to perform the tasks identified with the branch to be locked. Where more than one processor is authorized access to the same branch, the job ticket service may lock the branch when one of the authorized processors actually acquire the branch. The job ticket service may lock the branches by setting a lock/unlock flag for each branch. Processors accessing the job ticket may then review the lock/unlock flag status to determine if the branch may be accessed. In some circumstances, the job ticket service may allow access only to those branches that are unlocked. A processor that has completed a task defined by the branch may need to have the branch unlocked in order to modify the branch.

Branch locking of job tickets to control concurrency

Systems and methods for adjusting print queues to obtain more efficient printing are disclosed. In one embodiment, a system and method for adjusting a print queue pertain to detecting proximity of a user to the printing device, determining if the user has any outstanding print jobs, and adjusting a print queue for the printing device if it is determined that the user does have an outstanding print job. By way of example, adjusting the queue can include one or more of interrupting a current print job so that the user's print job can be printed, elevating the user's print job in the order of the queue, and adding the user's print job from another queue to the queue for the printing device.

Proximity-based print queue adjustment

A job ticket service center includes features to provide security and to control access to a job ticket and related resources. The service center may include programming or servers to authenticate a processor and to authorize the processor to access a particular job ticket. An authentication server receives authentication information from a processor and an authorization server uses the information to check authorization functionality. The authorization or access rights of the processor may be carried as a part of the job ticket. Using these features, the service center may provide trusted authentication information about the processor to the authorization server, and the authorization server then performs its authority check functions. The job ticket maybe signed with an industry standard public key encryption message digest (MD) signature, and may be protected by a public key encryption system. Hence, any entity that has the public key may validate the job ticket without having to communicate with the authentication server. These features reduce communication between distributed server applications. The features also allow the job ticket to be passed from one processor to another processor, maintaining security, without communicating with the service center.

Use of job tickets to secure resource access

Mediating access to production devices. A method embodying the invention includes acquiring an access request for a production device and then retrieving an interface for the production device, the interface having user accessible controls for selecting production options for a document. Production options selected through the interface along with instructions for accessing the document are returned to the production device.

Mediated production device access in a distributed environment

A system and method of controlling a printing operation using information printed on paper or similar material. Information data is input via an input processor, such as a computer, and the information data is converted to a descriptive indicia, which can be printed on a data card. The data card can be used with a peripheral device, such as a printer to allow access to a data, such as a print job.

Printed card to control printer

A document processing system for imperceptibly encoding information in displayed images or text. Printed text or other images are modified using gray levels to encode information within existing text or images. The text is modified using digital processing to provide text or images in which adjacent portions of individual text characters, for example, have slightly different gray levels in accordance with an encoding scheme to encode addition information within the existing text. The modifications to the text is so slight that it is imperceptible to the human eye, yet is easily detectable by a machine such as a scanner.

Encoding information within text printed on a page using differing gray or color levels

A system and method are provided for printing a code on a print medium. In one embodiment, the system includes a laser printing assembly within a printer for printing on a print medium. The system also includes an ink jet head assembly attached to a printer structure of the printer for printing a code or other information on the print medium. The ink jet head assembly may be immovably or adjustably attached to the printer structure. The ink jet head assembly may be immovably attached to the printer, for example, by affixing the ink jet head assembly directly to the printer structure or by using a bracket to mount the ink jet head assembly to the printer structure. There are also several alternatives that may be employed to adjustably attach the ink jet head assembly to the printer structure including, for example, a slide assembly, a telescopic assembly, or a swivel arm assembly as well as other suitable adjustable attaching approaches.

System and method for printing on a print medium with a combination laser and ink jet printer

In a bar code encoding process, two or more images and two or more data items may be encoded together to form a bar code image. A bar code image encoding two or more images and two or more data items may also be decoded to regenerate the encoded images and data items. In addition, the bar code image is preferably a visually significant image that resembles one of the images encoded in the bar code.

Visually significant multilevel bar codes

A system and method for developing a bar code representing the encoding of a set of data, in which the bar code includes pixels having one black level, one white level and at least one gray level, generates a multi-level data representation of the set of data, the number of levels corresponding to the sum of the black level, the white level and the number of gray levels. A pixel color is determined for each component of the multi-level data representation, a pixel color for at least one of the components being one of the at least one gray levels. The determined pixel color is then printed for each component to form the bar code.

Method and system for encoding information on a printed page by modulation of the dot development

A method for printing barcode, comprising the steps of obtaining a 1D barcode for an area of a medium; obtaining a 2D bar code; combining the 1D and 2D bar codes in the area to overlap at least in part; and printing the combination of the 2D barcode with the 1D barcode in the area of the medium.

Growing community of inventors

Boise, ID, United States of America

Kenneth Lee Oakeson