Zebra Technologies Corporation

Zih Corporation

Ryan E Brock

James P Van Huis

Bret M Anno

Andrew J Pekarske

Corbin P Johnson

Chris Kenley

Michael J Ringholm

Yan Zhang

Jared Coy Roundy

Gordon E Molek

Leo T Lowy

Scott Lane

Sean Patrick Winterberger

Robin West

Andy Pekarske

Jeffrey Henningson

Jim Van Huis

Jeff Henningson

A method, in a provisioning server, of provisioning a printer, includes: receiving a provisioning request from the printer, the provisioning request containing (i) a printer identifier, and (ii) an account identifier associated with the printer; obtaining, from a digital certificate issuer, a unique string; sending the unique string to the printer; receiving from the printer, in response to sending the unique string, a certificate signing request containing (i) the printer identifier, (ii) the account identifier, and (iii) an authentication token including the unique string signed with a private key of the printer; validating the certificate signing request; passing the validated certificate signing request to the digital certificate issuer; receiving, from the digital certificate issuer, a digital certificate encoding the printer identifier and the account identifier; and providing the digital certificate to the printer for storage.

Provisioning system for cloud-connected printers

A software deployment method in a server includes: obtaining a software update for deployment to a plurality of media processing devices; performing a primary deployment phase by: (i) transmitting the software update to selected media processing devices according to a primary deployment rate; (ii) responsive to the transmission, for each selected media processing device, updating a status indicator representing whether deployment of the software update succeeded; and (iii) determining, based on the status indicators, whether an update promotion condition has been satisfied; in response to determining that the update promotion condition has been satisfied, performing a secondary deployment phase by: transmitting the software update to further selected media processing devices according to a secondary deployment rate exceeding the primary deployment rate.

System and method for phased software update deployment

In some implementations, a device may receive print data associated with a printer. The device may receive an image that depicts content that is printed on media by the printer. The device may determine, using a printhead analysis model, a status of a printhead of the printer based on the print data and a characteristic of the content, wherein the printhead analysis model is trained based on reference data associated with historical printing operations associated with one or more printers, wherein the reference data includes reference images associated with printed content from the historical printing operations and corresponding resistance measurements for one or more respective printheads of the one or more printers. The device may perform, based on the status, an action associated with the printhead of the printer.

Utilization of a printhead resistance sensor and model to determine a printer status

A system for automatic fleet partitioning includes client devices and a device management server having tag definition and tag assignment repositories. The server receives and stores, in the tag definition repository, definitions with tag assignment criteria; and for each client device: obtains a client identifier and attribute set; for each tag assignment criterion satisfied by the attribute set, associates a corresponding tag name with the client identifier in the tag assignment repository; and for each tag assignment criterion not satisfied by the attribute set, disassociates the corresponding tag name with the client device identifier. The server receives a command to transmit control data to a subset of the client devices associated with a selected tag name; retrieves, from the tag assignment repository, the client identifiers associated with the selected tag name; and transmits the control data to the subset of the client devices.

System and method for automatic fleet partitioning

Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products are provided to facilitate connections between devices, such as a printer and a cloud-based server, and to implement an adaptive application framework. In the context of an apparatus, a printer is provided comprising communications circuitry configured to facilitate communications with a network; and processing circuitry configured to transmit a connection request to the network; receive requested connection parameters from the network; transmit printer connection parameters to the network; and establish a first secure connection between the printer and the network. The printer comprising processing circuitry further configured to receive requested connection parameters comprising at least a signed security certificate and a DNS name for a server on the network and to verify the signed security certificate and the DNS name for the server. The printer comprising processing circuitry further configured to transmit printer connection parameters comprising at least a signed security certificate for the printer. The printer comprising processing circuitry further configured to receive a request from the network to establish one or more communication channels over the first secure connection.

Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for implementing cloud connected printers and an adaptive printer-based application framework

Growing community of inventors

Cary, IL, United States of America

Ryan E Brock