Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Ziling Zhang

Mikel J Stanich

Nikita Gurudath

Walter F Kailey

Scott Richard Johnson

Brandon Skogen

William Edward Manchester

Nathan Young

Farnaz Hajiahmadi Foomani

Pallavi Premkumar

James Anthony Chauvin

Samuel Hopper

Burke Larsen

Soraya Terrab

Kara Larsen

Farnaz HajiahmadiFoomani

Jiwon Gim

Patrick Gonzalez

Carlie Charp

Systems and methods of recommending replacement of printheads. In an embodiment, a system trains a first neural network to generate anomaly scores for printheads using an unsupervised learning algorithm based on first training samples of conforming printhead data from a pool of conforming printheads. The system generates a training dataset for a recurrent second neural network by identifying training printhead data for a pool of training printheads, inputting second training samples of the training printhead data into the first neural network to generate training anomaly scores for the training printheads over a plurality of time units, and formatting third training samples for the training printheads. The system trains the recurrent second neural network to generate scaled anomaly scores for printheads using a supervised learning algorithm based on the second training dataset.

Printhead maintenance for recommending printhead replacement

Systems and methods are provided for. One embodiment is a system that includes an interface configured to receive an image of media printed on with print data, and memory configured to store defect reference data of nozzles belonging to printheads of a printer. The system also includes a print defect controller configured to detect a nozzle defect in the image based on a comparison of the image with the print data, and to determine a type of the nozzle defect based on a comparison of the nozzle defect with the defect reference data.

Enhanced print defect detection

A printing system is disclosed. The printing system includes at least one physical memory device to store compensation logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device to execute the compensation logic to receive measurement data corresponding to a print medium printed with a plurality of pel forming elements in adjacent printheads and a plurality of tint levels, wherein the plurality of pel forming elements comprise gap adjacent pel forming elements that print with applied compensation transfer functions and non-gap adjacent pel forming elements, associate measurement data values with the gap adjacent pel forming elements, the applied compensation transfer functions and the plurality of tint levels and determine optimal compensation by selecting the compensation transfer functions that have corresponding measurement data values closest to compensation target values for each of the plurality of tint levels.

Automatic tuning compensation mechanism

A printing system is disclosed. The printing system includes at least one physical memory device to store compensation logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device to execute the compensation logic to receive measurement data corresponding to a print medium printed with a plurality of non-functioning pel forming elements, a plurality of functioning pel forming elements and a plurality of tint levels; wherein adjacent ones of the plurality of functioning pel forming elements print with compensated halftone designs applied to pels adjacent to the plurality of non-functioning pel forming elements, associate measurement data with the plurality of non-functioning pel forming elements, corresponding compensated halftone designs and the plurality of tint levels and determine optimal compensation by selecting the compensated halftone designs that have corresponding measurement data values closest to compensation target values for each of the plurality of tint levels.

A printing system is disclosed. The printing system includes at least one physical memory device to store defective print element determination logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device to execute the defective print element determination logic to receive a print image comprising evaluation marks and locator marks applied to a print medium by a plurality of pel forming elements according to print instructions and identify pel forming elements associated with print defect pels in the print image among the plurality of pel forming elements based on the evaluation marks, the locator marks and the print instructions.

Defective nozzle locating mechanism

A printing system is disclosed. The printing system includes at least one physical memory device to store compensation logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device to execute the compensation logic to receive measurement data corresponding to a print medium printed with a plurality of pel forming elements in adjacent printheads and a plurality of tint levels, wherein the plurality of pel forming elements comprise gap adjacent pel forming elements that print with applied compensation halftone design and non-gap adjacent pel forming elements, associate measurement data values with the gap adjacent pel forming elements, the applied compensation halftone design and the plurality of tint levels and determine optimal compensation by selecting the compensation halftone design that has corresponding measurement data values closest to compensation target values for each of the plurality of tint levels.

A printing system is disclosed. The printing system includes at least one physical memory device to store compensation logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device to execute the compensation logic to receive measurement data corresponding to a print medium printed with a plurality of non-functioning pel forming elements, a plurality of functioning pel forming elements and a plurality of tint levels; wherein adjacent ones of the plurality of functioning pel forming elements print with compensation transfer functions applied and are located adjacent to the plurality of non-functioning pel forming elements, associate measurement data with the plurality of non-functioning pel forming elements, the compensation transfer functions and the plurality of tint levels and determine optimal compensation by selecting the compensation transfer functions that have corresponding measurement data values closest to compensation target values for each of the plurality of tint levels.

Automatic tuning compensation system that determines optimal compensation target values for each of plurality of tint levels

A system is disclosed. The system includes at least one physical memory device to store compensation logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device to execute the compensation logic to generate transfer functions for each of a plurality of color planes to compensate for overlapping pel forming elements of adjacent printheads, wherein the transfer functions are generated based on ink deposition functions for groups of pel forming elements including non-overlapping pel forming elements and the overlapping pel forming elements, wherein the transfer functions transform input digital counts, and wherein the ink deposition functions represent output ink amount versus input digital count.

Print artifact compensation mechanism using transfer functions for each color generated based on ink deposition functions for groups of nozzles

A system is disclosed. The system includes at least one physical memory device to store compensation logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device to execute the compensation logic to generate transfer functions for each of a plurality of color planes to compensate for non-functioning pel forming elements, wherein the transfer functions are generated based on ink deposition functions for groups of pel forming elements including functioning pel forming elements and the non-functioning pel forming elements, wherein the transfer functions transform input digital counts and the ink deposition functions represent output ink amount versus input digital count.

Print artifact compensation mechanism

Systems and methods are provided for reporting printhead conditions. One embodiment is a system that includes a user interface, a display, and a controller configured to present a Graphical User Interface (GUI) via the display. The GUI includes a first area depicting an array of printheads. Each printhead of the array is represented by a first visual indicator that signifies a frequency of printhead conditions detected at that printhead over a period of time. In response to receiving a selection of at least one of the printheads via the user interface, the controller presents a second area of the GUI via the display. The second area depicts locations of printhead conditions detected at the selection over the period of time. Each of the locations is represented by a second visual indicator that signifies a frequency of printhead conditions detected at that location over the period of time.

Graphical user interfaces depicting historical printhead conditions

A system is disclosed. The system includes at least one physical memory device to store compensation logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device to execute the compensation logic to generate first ink deposition function representing a first output ink amount versus input digital count for each of a plurality of color planes, generate second ink deposition function representing a second output ink amount versus input digital count for each of the plurality of color planes and generate transfer functions for each of the plurality of color planes based on the first ink deposition function and the second ink deposition function, wherein the transfer functions transform input digital counts.

Artifact compensation mechanism

A system is disclosed. The system includes at least one physical memory device to store compensation logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device to execute the compensation logic to generate first ink deposition function representing a first output ink amount versus input digital count for each of a plurality of color planes without pel forming element artifacts, generate second ink deposition function representing a second output ink amount versus input digital count for each of the plurality of color planes with the pel forming element artifacts and generate compensated halftones for each of the plurality of color planes based on the first ink deposition function and the second ink deposition function.

A system is disclosed. The system includes at least one physical memory device to store drop size logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device to execute the drop size logic to receive first ink usage drop fraction data for each of a plurality of color planes associated with a first halftone design, a first transfer function, and print job data, wherein ink usage drop fraction data represents the fraction of ink drops for each instructed drop size corresponding to each input digital count for a halftoning module, receive first ink drop size data for each of a plurality of color planes associated with the first halftone design and the first transfer function, receive second ink usage drop fraction data for each of the plurality of color planes associated with the first halftone design, a second transfer function and the print job data and generate second ink drop size data for each of the plurality of color planes based on the first ink usage drop fraction data, the first ink drop size data and the second ink usage drop fraction data.

Drop size monitoring mechanism

A printing system is disclosed. The printing system includes at least one physical memory device to store drop size logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device to execute the drop size logic to generate drop size data associated with a printing system based on ink deposition data for a print medium and ink drop count data.

Ink model generation mechanism

A system is disclosed. The system includes at least one physical memory device to store drop size logic and one or more processors coupled with the at least one physical memory device to execute the drop size logic to receive first ink drop size data for each of a plurality of color planes associated with a first halftone design, generate first ink drop count data for each of the plurality of color planes based on the first halftone design and print job data, generate second ink drop count data for each of the plurality of color planes based on a second halftone design and the print job data and generate second ink drop size data for each of the plurality of color planes associated with the second halftone design based on the first ink drop count data, the first ink drop size data and the second ink drop count data.

Growing community of inventors

Boulder, CO, United States of America

Ziling Zhang