MXPA00002424A - Method in ordering mechanism and output device - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses a way to shorten the time by receiving a request of coupon from a client and delivering a coupon of an encrypted data including names of programmable functions to the client thereby eliminating the need of a serviceman for visiting the client. Therefore, a client 24 orders 26 a specific function to an ordering mechanism 28 which generates a function coupon 30 in response to the order 26. The function coupon 30 includes a name 32 for identifying a function, and a coupon ID 34 which has eight sets of two characters divided by a hyphen for proving high possibility that the client 24 has paid the charge for that function. Function of such a function coupon 30 is encrypted using an encryption algorithm and an encrypted coupon 30 is delivered to the client. Since a serviceman is not required to visit the client, the time can be shortened significantly.

Description

METHOD OF DELIVERY OF CHARACTERISTICS. DISTANCE FOR OUTPUT DEVICES TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention is generally concerned with the output devices and more particularly with the remote delivery of features for output devices.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Customers purchase conventional digital printers with a preconfigured set of features. In this context, a "feature" is a logical grouping of functionality of programming elements, such as the ability to provide an accounting of print jobs. The features are implemented by means of instructions that are executed by processors in the printers. Unfortunately, the preconfigured set of features available for a given digital printer model may not represent the features a customer wants. A customer can add features by calling a customer service representative and placing an order. Then, a field service representative is sent to the client's site to install the requested feature. The field service representative installs the REF .: 33078 requested feature. The installation can be performed in any of a variety of different ways and can include the steps of placing floppy disks or disks in a controller unit in the digital printer or adding physical elements to the digital printer. The instructions for performing the ordered feature are read from the floppy disk and installed in the digital printer. This procedure has the disadvantages of taking a long time and being of intense labor. In addition, it is difficult for a customer to install the features quickly. A significant amount of time can elapse between the time when a client orders the characteristic and when the characteristic is installed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention addresses the limitations described above of conventional digital printers by providing a remote feature delivery method for output devices. In one embodiment of the present invention, when a customer seeks to add a new feature to a printer, the customer contacts a vendor. The seller sends the customer a feature coupon that contains a description of the characteristic and an identification of the characteristic. When the customer wants to install the feature, the customer redeems the coupon by providing the property identification and description of the property to a redemption center. The redemption center can be for example a call center or a network site (website). The redemption center returns a feature key to the client. The key to the feature can take the form of a print job that the customer prints on the printer to install the feature. Thus, there is no need for a service representative to visit the customer premises and there is no significant time delay. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a programmable characteristic is provided for installation in an output device, such as a printer or a reproduction apparatus. In accordance with this method, a coupon is provided for the installation of the programmable characteristic. The coupon contains information that includes the identification information that identifies the programmable characteristic. At least a portion of the information contained in the coupon is received at a redemption center. In response to receiving information, the redemption center sends a packet to a destination to install the programmable feature on the output device. The package can be a print job that contains instructions for installing the programmable feature. According to another aspect of the present invention, an output device includes an interface or interconnection to receive a feature key to install a programmable characteristic in the output device. The key of the feature contains encrypted information. The output device also contains a memory or storage that retains a decryption key. The output device also includes a processor to process the feature key to install the programmable characteristic. The processing includes the use of the decryption key to decrypt the encrypted information contained in the key of the characteristic. In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, a method is carried out in an order completion facility. According to this method, a request or requisition is received from a customer for a coupon. The coupon is redeemable to install a programmable feature in an output device. The coupon is obtained and contains encrypted data that provides a description of the programmable characteristic. The coupon is sent to the customer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS An illustrative embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the following drawings. Figure 1 is a flowchart that provides an overview of the steps that are carried out to provide or deliver a feature in the illustrative embodiment of the present invention. Figure 2 illustrates the flow of data between a customer and an order fulfillment installation in the illustrative mode. Figure 3 is a flowchart illustrating the steps that are carried out to generate a coupon identification ID. Figure 4 is a diagram illustrating the flow of data between a client and a redemption center to obtain a key of the characteristic. Figure 5 is a flow diagram illustrating the steps that are carried out to create an encrypted text line in the key of the characteristic. Figure 6 illustrates the flow of data between a client and a printer. Figure 7 is a flow diagram illustrating the steps that are carried out by a printer to install a feature.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The illustrative embodiment provides a method for delivering features to an output device, such as a digital printer. This procedure eliminates the need to send field service representatives to client sites to install features. The illustrative mode levels the behavior of the output device to install the feature quickly and easily. The procedure incorporates security provisions to ensure that only paying customers are able to install the requested features. In the illustrative mode, when a customer wants a feature, the customer orders or asks for the characteristic of an order fulfillment installation. The customer pays the property and a game that contains a coupon of the property is sent to the customer. The property coupon contains an identification ID of the encrypted coupon and a textual description of the property. The identification ID of the coupon is secure and contains a textual description of the feature embedded in it. The identification ID of the coupon serves as proof of purchase to show that the customer purchased the property. When the client wants to install the feature, the client contacts a redemption facility. The customer is asked to provide the identification of the coupon, the text description of the feature and an address of physical elements (hardware) for the printer. The redemption facility deciphers the identification of the coupon and compares the textual description of the feature contained therein with the textual description provided by the customer. If there is correspondence, a key of the characteristic is generated. The feature key contains an encrypted line in which the address of the physical elements of the printer and the identification ID of the feature are embedded. The key of the characteristic can be sent to the client as a print job. When the client prints the key to the feature, the feature is installed in the printer. The printer contains intelligence to decrypt the encrypted line contained in the characteristic key and to extract the address of physical elements and the identification ID of the characteristic. If the address of physical elements contained in the encrypted line corresponds to the address of physical elements of the printer, the printer installs the characteristic. For clarity, it is useful to define a few terms that are used in the discussion below. A "coupon" is an information unit that contains evidence that a customer purchased a feature. A coupon may also contain information that identifies the characteristic. A coupon can take many forms. For example, a coupon can be a printed piece of paper that contains a coupon identification ID and a description of a feature. Alternatively, a coupon can be an electronic message or another type of communication. Still further, a coupon may be a record or other variety of data structure that contains information regarding a characteristic. A "redemption center" is an installation in which a customer can redeem a coupon to receive materials to install a feature. A redemption center can be a computer system, such as a network server or alternatively it can be a call center or other physical facility through which customers interact with service representatives. An "output device" is a device that generates results or outputs, such as a printed material, audio output or video output. Output devices include but are not limited to printers, reproduction devices, copiers and facsimile machines. A "characteristic" is a logical unit of functionality of programming elements. The features are "programmable" since the features can be added or deleted in a programmed manner from an output device.

Figure 1 is a flowchart that provides an overview of the steps performed in the illustrative embodiment of the present invention to install a feature "on a client output device." For illustrative purposes, in the discussion below, it is assumed that the output device is a printer, however, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention can also be implemented with other varieties of output devices.The customer initially requests a feature from a consumer completion facility. orders (stage 10 in figure 1) .The customer can request the feature by calling the order fulfillment installation 28 (figure 2), write to the order fulfillment facility, send facsimile messages to the consumer completion facility. orders or you can still physically visit the installation 28 order completion, depending on the n aturaleza of the installation 28 of completion of orders. The order completion facility 28 can be a computer server, such as a network server, which allows the customer to interact with a vendor. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the order completion facility 28 may also take the form of an intra-network or extra-network server that is connected to an intra-network or extra-network, respectively. Thus, as shown in Figure 2, the customer 24 places an order 26 with the order fulfillment installation 28 for a particular characteristic. The order completion facility 28 generates a feature coupon in response to order 26 or pulls an inventory coupon (step 12 in figure 1). An inventory of coupons can be created in advance for use as necessary. As mentioned above, the coupon can take many forms. Figure 2 illustrates an example where the feature coupon 30 contains a textual description 32 that identifies the feature (eg "feature XYZ") and a coupon identification ID 34. The identification of the coupon is an encrypted text line in the illustrative mode. In the example shown in Figure 2, the identification ID 34 of the coupon contains eight pairs of characters separated by hyphens. This identification 34 of the coupon contains the textual description of the feature 32 embedded therein. The identification 34 of the coupon acts as a proof of purchase since a valid identification ID of the coupon evidences that the customer has a high probability offered payment for the characteristic. The synthesis of a valid coupon identification by a party that has not paid for a feature is possible but highly unlikely (that is, there is a low probability of synthesizing a valid coupon ID).

The customer 24 must pay for the property before receiving the coupon 30 of the property. A variety of different forms of payment can be used. The customer 24 can have an existing account with the seller. Alternatively, the customer can provide electronic forms of payment, such as payment by credit card, electronic funds transfer or digital cash payment. In another alternative, customer 24 can be billed (that is, an invoice is sent) for the new feature with a payment due to the time of receiving the invoice. Figure 3 is a flow chart illustrating the steps that are carried out to generate the identification ID 34 of the coupon. Initially, a random bit sequence is generated (step 40, in FIG. 3). This sequence of bits can be generated using a pseudo-random number generator. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that any of a variety of different well-known techniques for generating random bit sequences can be used. In the illustrative embodiment, the random bit sequence is 64 bits long. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the number of bits in the random bit sequence can vary. In addition, the random bit sequence may contain more bits than required to generate the coupon ID.

Each characteristic has an associated feature number. In the illustrative embodiment, feature numbers are in the range of 0 to 255, such that feature numbers can each be represented as an eight-bit number. For example, a feature for providing task accounting may have feature number 42, while a feature for scanning or scanning documents to a network may have feature number 163. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that feature numbers they do not need to be represented by numerical values, but instead they can be represented by character values or alphanumeric values. In addition, feature numbers can be specified by a different number of bits (that is, different from eight bits). The feature number for the feature ordered by the client is embedded in the block of 64 bits of random bits at an agreed site or at a determinable site (i.e., discernable for the encoder and the decoder) (step 42 in figure 3) ). The resulting sequence of bits is encrypted (step 44 in FIG. 3). Those skilled in the art will appreciate that a variety of different encryption algorithms can be employed to encrypt the block of random bits in which the feature number is embedded. An appropriate encryption algorithm is the Blowfish algorithm developed by Bruce Schneider. More generally, any number of block figures algorithms can be employed. The encryption produces a binary sequence of bits. In order to make this sequence of bits more readable by humans, the encrypted sequence is converted into characters (step 46, in figure 3). This conversion is carried out to make it easier for the customer to provide ID 34 of the coupon when required during the redemption (discussed later herein). The conversion of the encrypted sequence into characters can be carried out using a base coding scheme 18. Each block of eight data bits are converted into two characters. Thus, eight pairs of two characters are produced by applying this coding to the block of 64-bit encrypted data. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that different coding schemes can be used to generate characters from the encrypted data stream. In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conversion of data encrypted into characters is not a step required to carry out the present invention.

After the feature coupon has been generated (step 12 in Figure 1), the feature coupon is sent to the customer as part of a game 29 (step 14 in Figure 1). Game 29 may contain only the feature coupon, but may also contain other information, such as documents, floppy disks (floppies) and the like. The game 29 can be transmitted electronically to the client 24 in computer connections or modem connections (modulator / demodulator). Alternatively, game 29 can be sent to the customer via mail service, courier service or other delivery service. Once the customer 24 has received the coupon 30 of the property, the customer can redeem the coupon. However, coupon 30 of the feature has no storage life mentioned and can be redeemed when the customer wishes to redeem it. The coupon 30 of the property is self-validated in such a way that there is no need for the seller to maintain customer information regarding which customer received the coupon and when the coupon was issued. However, the seller may wish to maintain such records in some instances. When the customer wants to install the feature, the customer redeems the feature coupon 30 (step 16 in figure 1). As shown in figure 4, the client 24 redeems the coupon 30 of the feature upon contacting a redemption center 52. The redemption center 52 may be for example a call center, to which the customer calls by telephone. The redemption center 52 may instead be a computer server, such as a network server, to which the client contacts via computer connection. When the customer 24 contacts the redemption center 52, the customer is asked to provide information of the feature coupon and an address 50 of physical items for the printer in which the customer wishes to install the feature. The address of physical elements can be any of a diversity of different values. In the illustrative embodiment, the address of physical elements refers to a globally unique 12-character string that is derived from the Ethernet circuit (see 107 in Figure 6) in the printer 100. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other values of Address of physical elements can be used. In the illustrative mode, the client 24 is requested to provide the textual description of the characteristic 32 and the identification 34 of the characteristic. The redemption center 52 decodes the identification 34 of the coupon to generate the block of encrypted data. The redemption center 52 has the decryption key 53 for deciphering the identification 34 of the coupon. The redemption center 52 uses the decryption key 53 to decrypt the decoded data block. Then, the redemption center 52 can extract the feature number embedded within the data. This feature number is associated with a textual description of the characteristic. The associated textual description of the feature is compared to the textual description of feature 32 provided by client 24 to determine if there is correspondence. If there is correspondence, it is assumed that the coupon 30 of the characteristic is valid for the designated characteristic. Then, the redemption center 52 undertakes the steps to generate a key 54 of the characteristic. In the illustrative mode, the feature key is a print job built using PJL (printer job language). The PJL provides control of the printer at the job level to application programs. Figure 4 shows an example of a feature key 54 written in JPL that contains a variety of PJL commands or commands. For example, line 62 contains a PJL order that identifies the name of the print job. Line 64 contains a comment that identifies the description of the characteristic. Line 66 contains an order of introduction and line 74 contains an order of end of work (EOJ). The key 54 of the feature also contains an encrypted text line 72. The encrypted text line 72 contains an address of physical elements for the printer and a feature identification of the requested feature. This line of encrypted text is deciphered by the target printer and the address of physical elements and the identification of the feature are extracted (as discussed later in this). The address of physical elements is compared with the address of physical elements of the printer to determine if the key of the characteristic is valid or not. Figure 5 is a flow diagram illustrating the steps that are carried out to create the encrypted line 70. A 128-bit block of random numbers is generated and the address of physical elements is embedded within this 128-bit block of random numbers in an agreed site or in a discernible location (stage 80, in figure 5). Then the block is encrypted using an encryption algorithm, such as the Blowfish algorithm (step 82 in figure 5). A different encryption key is used to encrypt the feature key that is used in the encryption of the identification 34 of the coupon. Then the block is converted into characters using the base coding 19 (step 84 in figure 5). Those skilled in the art will appreciate that different encryption algorithms can be used. In addition, a different coding algorithm may be employed. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that there may be no need to convert the encrypted block of bits into characters. In addition, the number of bits used in the block can vary (that is, it is not necessary to use 128 bits to carry out the present invention). In this way, the print job of the key of the characteristic is created and sent to the client 24 (step 18 in figure 4). Then the client prints the print job to install the feature (step 20 in figure 1). Specifically, as shown in Figure 6, the client 24 receives the print job and prints the key 54 of the printing feature in the printer 100. The printer 100 includes a processor 106 for executing PJL instructions. The printer 100 also contains a controller unit 104 for floppy disks or floppy disks or other secondary storage device and includes a storage 108. The storage 108 retains the start code 101 which is executed when the printer is booted 100. In the illustrative embodiment, storage 108 also includes instructions for each of the features 103 that can be installed. The instructions are not received as part of the key 54 of the printing feature; rather, the key of the printing characteristic allows a switch, which is maintained so that the desired characteristic is activated, so that the instructions are activated and executed. Features that have not been installed have switches that are "off". Features that are "off" are not active and are not executed. The storage 108 additionally retains the decryption key 102 for deciphering the encrypted line 70 contained in the key 54 of the printing feature. The printer includes Ethernet circuits 107 which are used to derive the address of unique 12-character physical elements. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that in alternative embodiments, the instructions for performing a feature can be sent as part of the key of the printing feature. There is no need for the instructions to already reside in the printer. Figure 7 is a flowchart illustrating the steps that are carried out when the printer 100 receives the key 54 of the characteristic. The printer 100 extracts the encrypted line 80 in the key 54 of the feature, decodes the line and decrypts the decoded line using the decryption key 102. The address of physical elements that has been embedded in the random bit block is extracted together with the identification of the characteristic (step 112, in figure 7). A determination is then made as to whether the address of physical elements that has been extracted corresponds to the address of physical elements of the printer 100 (step 114, in FIG. 7). If there is correspondence, it is an indication that the key of the characteristic is valid and the switch for the associated characteristic is "on" (step 116, in figure 7). If there is no correspondence, it is an indication that the characteristic key is not valid and the characteristic switch remains "off" by the desired characteristic. The encrypted line 70 is configured in such a way that it can not be easily reproduced or deciphered. You must have the decryption key 102 in order to decipher this line. Thus, the key of the characteristic is relatively safe and can not be easily copied. The sequence of bits may vary from one job to another. further, the key of the characteristic is only valid for a particular physical element address and from here, it can not be easily plagiarized for its installation in other output devices. Once the printer has received the key to the feature and has carried out the processing to "turn on" the desired feature, the printer 100 must undertake additional steps to complete the installation. Specifically, the printer 100 must restart 92 using the boot code 101. This allows the proper configuration to be carried out to install the feature. Then you can request 94 a print test 96 to ensure that the print is working properly. It is noted that, with regard to this date, the best method known to the applicant to carry out the aforementioned invention is that which is clear from the present description of the invention.

Claims (2)

1. CLAIMS Having described the invention as above, property is claimed as contained in the following claims: 1. A method, in an order completion facility, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: receiving a request or requisition from a customer for a coupon, such coupon is redeemable to install a programmable characteristic in an output device; get the coupon, where the coupon contains encrypted data that includes a description of the programmable characteristic and send the coupon to the customer.
2. 2. An output device characterized in that it comprises: an interface or interconnection for receiving a feature key for installing a programmable characteristic in the output device, wherein the key of the characteristic contains encrypted information; a storage that holds a decryption key and a processor to process the feature key to install the programmable feature, wherein the processing covers the use of the decryption key to decrypt the information encrypted in the key of the feature.