JP3828492B2 - Interactive printer - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a printer that creates an interface surface by printing an 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.

09 / 721,895, 09 / 721,894, 09 / 722,174,
09 / 721,896, 09 / 722,148, 09 / 722,146,
6,826,547, 6,741,871, 6,927,871,
09 / 721,858, 09 / 722,142, 6,788,982,
09 / 722,141, 6,788,293, 6,946,672,
09 / 722,172, 6,792,165, 09 / 722,088,
09 / 721,862, 6,530,339, 6,631,897,
These co-pending applications are hereby incorporated by cross-reference. Each application is temporarily identified by case number. This is replaced when the corresponding USSN is available.

  Various methods, systems, and apparatus related to the present invention are disclosed in the following co-pending application filed by the assignee of the present invention on October 20, 2000.

09 / 693,415, 09 / 693,219, 6,813,558,
09 / 693,515, 6,847,883, 09 / 693,647,
09 / 693,690, 09 / 693,593, 6,474,888,
6,627,870, 6,724,374, 09 / 693,514,
09 / 693,301, 6,454,482, 6,808,330,
6,527,365, 6,474,773, 6,550,997

The disclosure of this co-pending application is incorporated herein by cross-reference. Each application is temporarily identified by its case number. This is replaced by the corresponding USSN when available.

  Various methods, systems and devices related to the present invention are disclosed in the following co-pending applications filed on September 15, 2000 by the present applicant and assignee of the present invention.

6,679,420, 09 / 663,599, 09 / 663,701, 6,720,985
The disclosure of this co-pending application is incorporated herein by cross-reference. Each application is temporarily identified by its case number. This is replaced by the corresponding USSN when available.

  Various methods, systems, and devices relating to the present invention are disclosed in the following co-pending applications filed on June 30, 2000 by the present applicant and assignee of the present invention.

6,824,044, 09 / 608,970, 6,678,499,
09 / 607,852, 09 / 607,656, 6,766,942,
09 / 609,303, 6,922,779, 09 / 609,596,
09 / 607,843, 09 / 607,605, 09 / 608,178,
09 / 609,553, 09 / 609,149, 09 / 608,022,
09 / 609,232, 09 / 607,844, 6,457,883,
6,831,682, 09 / 607,985, 6,398,332,
6,394,573, 6,622,923
The disclosure of this co-pending application is incorporated herein by cross-reference. Each application is temporarily identified by its case number. This is replaced by the corresponding USSN when available.

  Various methods, systems, and devices related to the present invention are disclosed in the following co-pending applications filed on May 23, 2000 by the present applicant and assignee of the present invention.

09 / 575,197, 09 / 575,195, 09 / 575,159, 09 / 575,132,
09 / 575,123, 6,825,945, 09 / 575,130, 09 / 575,165,
6,813,039, 09 / 575,118, 09 / 575,131, 09 / 575,116,
6,816274, 09 / 575,139, 09 / 575,186, 6,681,045,
6,728,000, 09 / 575,145, 09 / 575,192, 09 / 575,181,
09 / 575,193, 09 / 575,183, 6,789,194, 09 / 575,150,
6,789,191, 6,644,642, 6,502,614, 6,622,999
6,669,385, 6,549,935, 09 / 575,187, 6,727,996,
6,591,884, 6,439,706, 6,760,119, 6,957,768,
6,290,349, 6,428,155, 6,785,016, 6,870,966,
6,822,639, 6,737,591, 09 / 575,154, 09 / 575,129,
6,830,196, 6,832,717 09 / 575,189, 09 / 575,162,
09 / 575,172, 09 / 575,170, 09 / 575,171, 09 / 575,161,
6,428,133, 6,526,658, 6,315,399, 6,338,548,
6,540,319, 6,328,431, 6,328,425, 09 / 575,127,
6,383,833, 6,464,332, 6,439,693 6,390,591,
09 / 575,152, 6,328,417, 6,409,323, 6,281,912,
6,604,810, 6,318,920, 6,488,422, 6,795,215,
09 / 575,109, 6,859,289
The disclosure of this co-pending application is incorporated herein by cross-reference. Each application is temporarily identified by its case number. This is replaced by the corresponding USSN when available.

  Currently, users of computer systems typically interact with the system using a monitor for displaying information and a keyboard and / or mouse for entering information. Such an interface has high performance but is relatively unsuitable for carrying around. 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.

According to a first embodiment of the present invention, a printer for printing a second interface on a second surface in response to first indication data received from a sensing device, the first encoding The first indication data is sensed by the sensing device from the data, the first interface disposed on the first surface includes the first encoded data, and the printer includes:
(A) an input module,
(I) receiving first indication data at least partially representing response data from the sensing device;
(Ii) generating second instruction data representing response data at least partially based on the first instruction data;
(Iii) an input module configured to transmit the second instruction data to the computer system;
(B) a printing module including a printing mechanism,
(I) receiving response data from the computer system;
(Ii) generating a second interface based at least in part on the response data;
(Iii) a printing module including a printing mechanism configured to print the second interface on the second surface using the printing mechanism;
Is provided.

  The second interface includes second encoded data, and the printing module includes an encoded data generator configured to generate the second encoded data based on at least a portion of the response data. preferable. The response data includes second region identification data representing at least one identification, the identification is associated with a region of the second interface, and the encoded data generator represents the identification based on the second region identification data. More preferably, the second encoded data is configured to be generated.

  In a preferred embodiment, the second interface includes visual information based at least in part on the response data in addition to the second encoded data.

  The second encoded data preferably further represents at least one reference point of the region. More preferably, the at least one reference point is determined based on the coded data layout.

  The printing module is preferably configured to receive a coded data layout from a computer system.

In one embodiment, the printing module further comprises storage means for storing a plurality of encoded data layouts,
Receiving layout selection information representing one of the coded data layouts from the computer system;
The layout selection information is configured to be used to select one of the stored coded layouts for use in determining at least one reference point.

  The first indication data preferably includes position data sensed by the sensing device from the first encoded data.

  In one preferred form, the first indication data includes first region identification data sensed by the sensing device from the first encoded data, and the first region identification data is a region of the first interface. And the region represents response data at least in part.

  In another suitable portable, the first indication data includes position data sensed by the sensing device from the first encoded data, the position data represents a position within the area, and the position within the area is at least Partially represents response data.

  The second encoded data preferably includes at least one tag, each representing a region identification.

In the second embodiment,
A printer according to the first embodiment;
A system is provided that includes a sensing device for sensing first indication data and transmitting it to a printer.

  The sensing device preferably includes a wireless transmitter for transmitting instruction data to the printer, and the printer preferably includes a wireless receiver for receiving the instruction data.

  In a preferred form, the sensing device includes an optical sensor that senses the first encoded data.

In a third embodiment, according to the present invention,
A printer according to the first embodiment of the present invention;
A first interface surface disposed on the first surface and including first encoded data sensed by the sensing device and generating first indication data for transmission from the sensing device to the printer Is provided.

  In a fourth embodiment, the present invention provides an interface surface generated by the printer described in the first embodiment.

  Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description.

  Hereinafter, preferred and other embodiments of the present invention will be described by way of non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  Note: Memjet (R) is a registered trademark of Silverbrook Research, Australia.

  In a preferred embodiment, the present invention is configured to work with a netpage network computer system. The detailed outline is as follows. Needless to say, not all embodiments embody all or most of the specific details and extensions described below with respect to the basic system. However, the system has been described in its almost complete form to reduce the need for external references when trying to understand the circumstances in which the preferred embodiments and forms of the present invention work.

  In summary, the preferred form of the netpage system uses a computer interface that is in the form of a mapped surface, i.e., a physical surface that includes a reference to a map of the surface held in the computer system. . The map reference is queried by a suitable sensing device. Depending on the particular implementation, the map reference may be encoded visibly or invisible, and a local query to the mapped surface gives a clear map reference within the map and between the various maps. It may be defined as follows. The computer system can include information regarding features on the mapped surface. Such information can be retrieved 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 the computer system for the operator in response to the operator's interaction with the surface features.

  The netpage system, in its preferred form, relies on the creation of the netpage and human interaction with the netpage. These are pages consisting of text, graphics, and images printed on regular paper, but function like interactive (interactive) web pages. Information is encoded on each page using ink that is substantially invisible to the human eye. However, the ink, and thus the code data, can be detected by an optically imaged pen and transmitted to the netpage system. Substrates other than paper may be used. In the preferred embodiment, the encoded information is infrared absorbing ink, and therefore an optical sensor that senses infrared light may be used. Other wavelengths may be used as necessary, or other detection techniques other than optical detection may be used. That is, one option is to use magnetic ink and a magnetic sensor.

  In a preferred form, the hyperlink and active button on each page can be clicked with a pen to request information from the network, or the selection (preference) can be sent to a network server. In one embodiment, text written by hand on a netpage is automatically recognized and converted to netpage system computer text. This allows you to fill out the form. In another embodiment, the signature recorded on the netpage is verified (verified), thereby allowing electronic commerce to be securely authorized.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a printed netpage 1 is interactive (interactive) that allows a user to fill in physically and electronically on the printed page by communication between the pen and the netpage system. ) The form can be displayed. This example shows a “request” form that includes a name field and address field and a submit button. The netpage consists of graphic data 2 that is printed using visible ink and coded data 3 that is printed as a collection of tags 4 using invisible ink. The corresponding page description stored on the netpage network represents the individual elements of the netpage. In particular, the page description includes the type and spatial type of each interactive element (ie, the text field or button in this example) so that the netpage system can accurately determine input via the netpage. It represents the spread. For example, the submit button 6 has an area 7 corresponding to the spatial extent of the corresponding graphic 8.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the netpage pen 101 has a preferred form shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 and will be described in detail below. However, the netpage pen 101 is a netpage printer 601, ie, home, office, mobile phone. Works with any internet-connected printing device you can use. The pen is wireless and communicates securely (reliably) with the netpage printer via the short-range wireless link 9. If desired, the pen may be connected to the system with a wireless or infrared transmitter. However, both options limit the possibilities for use.

  A preferred form of netpage printer 601 is shown in FIGS. 11-13 and will be described in detail below, but will require personalized newspapers, magazines, catalogs, brochures, and other publications on a regular basis or upon request. Can be supplied according to. All of these publications are printed in high quality as interactive netpages. Netpage printers, unlike personal computers, are mounted on the wall adjacent to the area where morning news is first consumed, for example, near the user's kitchen, breakfast table, or home location where the day begins. It is a device that can. Netpage printers are also available in table top, desktop, portable and miniature versions.

  Netpages printed at a consumer location combine easy-to-use paper with the timeliness and interactivity of interactive media.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the netpage pen 101 communicates with the coded data on the printed netpage 1 and communicates the exchange to the netpage printer via the short-range wireless link 9. . The printer 601 sends an exchange to the associated netpage server 10 to make a determination. In an appropriate environment, the page server sends a corresponding message to the application computer software running on the netpage application server 13. The application server may then send a response to be printed on the original printer.

  In a preferred embodiment, the netpage system is much more convenient when used with a high speed micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) based ink jet (Memjet®) printer. In a preferred form of this technology, relatively fast and high quality printing is made at an affordable price for the consumer. Netpage publications, in their preferred form, are the physics of traditional news magazines such as a set of glossy pages of letter size that are bound together and printed in full color on both sides for easy operation and comfort. It has the characteristic.

  Netpage printers use the increased availability of broadband Internet access. Cable service is available to 95% of homes in the United States. Also, cable modem services that provide broadband Internet access are already available in 20% of homes. The netpage printer can operate with a slower connection, but the supply time is long and the image quality is low. In fact, the netpage system can be effective using existing consumer inkjet laser printers. However, the system operates more slowly and is therefore unacceptable from a consumer perspective. In other embodiments, the netpage system is employed on the personal Internet. In yet another embodiment, the netpage system is employed in a computer usable device such as a single computer or printer.

  The netpage issuance server 14 on the netpage network is configured to supply (distribute) print quality publications to the netpage printer. Periodical publications are automatically served to subscribed netpage printers via the Pointcasting Internet Protocol and the Multicasting Internet Protocol. Personalized publications are filtered and formatted according to individual user profiles.

  Netpage printers can be configured to support any number of pens. The pen can also function with any number of netpage printers. In the preferred embodiment, each netpage pen has a unique identifier. A home is a set of color netpage pens, and is assigned to each family member. Thereby, when the assigned pen is used only by each member of the family, each user can store a clear profile for the netpage issuing server or the netpage application server. However, as described below, other means may be used to identify the user.

  The netpage pen can be registered with the netpage registration server 11 and can be linked to one or more payment card accounts. This allows electronic commerce payments to be securely authorized using a netpage pen. The netpage registration server can compare the signature acquired by the netpage pen with a previously registered signature, thereby authenticating the identity of the user to the electronic commerce server. Other biometrics may be used to confirm identity. The netpage pen version includes a fingerprint scan that is verified in the same way by the netpage registration server.

  The netpage printer may supply periodic publications such as morning newspapers without user intervention, but can be configured not to supply unsolicited junk mail. Netpage printers, in their preferred form, only supply periodicals from subscribed sources or authorized sources. In this regard, a netpage printer is different from a fax machine or email account that looks like any junk mailer that knows the phone number or email address. Also, the entire system may be visible to external users, or each user may be given the ability to make their printer visible to external users. This may be achieved by selecting an external user who is allowed to send junk mail.

1. Netpage System Architecture Each object model in the system is described using a Unified Modeling Language (UML) class diagram. A class diagram consists of a set of object classes connected by multiple relationships. Here, two types of relationships are concerned: relevance and generalization. Relevance refers to some kind of relationship between objects, ie instances of a class. Generalization can be understood in the following way by relating actual classes. That is, class A is a generalization of class B when a class is considered as a set of all objects of that class. At this time, B is just a subset of A.

  Each class is drawn as a rectangle labeled with the class name. Each class includes a list of attributes of another class separated from the name by a horizontal line, and a list of actions of the class separated from the attribute list by a horizontal line. However, in the following class diagram, the behavior is never modeled.

  Associations are depicted as lines joining two classes, optionally labeled at both ends with multiple associations. There is one diversity of regulations. The asterisk (*) indicates various “many”, ie 0 or more. Each association is optionally labeled with its name and optionally labeled at both ends with the role of the corresponding class. An open diamond indicates a gathering relationship (“is-part-of”) and is drawn at the end of the collector of the relationship line.

  The generalized relationship ("is-a") is drawn as a solid line connecting the two classes using the arrows at the end of the generalization (in the form of an open triangle).

If a class diagram breaks down into multiple class diagrams, any duplicate class is shown as a dashed line except for the main diagram that defines it. A class is indicated only by the attributes that define it.
1.1 Netpage A netpage is the basis on which a netpage network is formed. Netpages provide a paper-based user interface to published information and interactive (interactive) services.

  A netpage consists of printed pages (or other surface areas) that are invisiblely tagged in connection with the online description of the page. The tag may be printed on or into the surface of the page, or it may be in or on the sublayer of the page, or it may be incorporated in the page. The online page description is permanently maintained by the netpage page server. The page description describes the visible page content and layout, including text, graphics, and images. In the page description, input elements including buttons, hyperlinks, and input fields are described on the page. Even if netpages (and corresponding page descriptions) are clearly different, page descriptions of different netpages may share components such as images. The page description in each netpage may include references to these common elements. According to the netpage, the marking formed on the surface of the netpage pen can be captured simultaneously and processed by the netpage system.

  Multiple netpages can share the same page description. However, each netpage is assigned a unique page identifier to allow entry through the same page to be distinguished. This page ID has sufficient accuracy to distinguish all netpages that are considered to be used in the usage environment. When the environment is small, the accuracy need not be as high as when the environment is large.

  Each reference to a page description is encoded with a printed tag. The tag identifies the unique page on which it appears, thereby indirectly identifying the page description. In the preferred embodiment, the tag also identifies its own location on the page. The features of the tag will be described in detail below.

  The tag is printed with infrared absorbing ink on any substrate that reflects infrared radiation, such as regular paper. Near-infrared wavelengths are not visible to the human eye, but are easily detected by a semiconductor image sensor having a suitable filter. Sensors that sense the corresponding wavelength or wavelengths may be used. In this case, no filter is required. Other wavelengths may be used with appropriate substrates and sensors.

  The tag is detected and decoded by a regional image sensor in 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 small enough to be densely arranged to ensure that the pen can image at least one tag with a single click on the page. Since the exchange is performed without a border, it is important that the pen recognizes the tag and extracts the page ID and position in every exchange with the page. The tag is encoded to be error correctable to be partially tolerant of surface damage.

  The netpage server maintains a unique page instance for each printed netpage, thereby maintaining a clear set of user supplied values for input fields in the page description for each printed netpage. be able to.

The relationship between the page description, the page instance, and the printed netpage is shown in FIG. In the preferred embodiment, a page instance is associated with both the netpage printer that printed it and the netpage user who requested it. It is essential for the functioning of the present invention that the page instance be associated with the netpage printer that printed the corresponding physical page, the netpage user who requested the page, or the netpage user who requested the printing of the page. Absent.
1.2 Netpage Tag 1.2.1 Tag Data Content In a preferred form, each tag identifies the area in which it appears and its own location within the area. The tag as a whole has a flag related to the region or a flag related to the tag. The one or more flag bits may, for example, send a signal to the tag detection device to provide feedback indicating the function corresponding to the immediate region of the tag. In this case, the tag detection device need not refer to the description of the area. For example, when the netpage pen is in the hyperlink area, the “active area” LED may be lit.

  As will be clearly described below, in the preferred embodiment, each tag has an invariant structure that is easily recognized. This invariant structure helps the initial detection and helps to minimize any warping effects caused by the surface process or detection process. The tags are preferably tiled on the entire page and arranged sufficiently small and densely to ensure that the pen can image at least one tag with a single click on the page. It is important to recognize the page ID and position whenever the pen interacts with the page.

  In the preferred embodiment, the region referenced by the tag matches all pages, 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 area referenced by the tag may be any sub-area of the page or other surface. For example, the area referred to by the tag may match the area of the bidirectional element. In that case, the region ID directly identifies the bi-directional element.

In general, each tag has a 16-bit tag ID, an area ID of at least 90 bits, and a number of flag bits. Given that the maximum density of tags is 64 / in ² (64 per square inch), a 16-bit tag ID supports a maximum region size of 1024 / in ² . By simply using adjacent regions and maps, larger regions can be mapped continuously without increasing tag ID accuracy. The difference between the region ID and the tag ID is mainly a difference in convenience. In most cases, the sequence of these two IDs can be regarded as a globally unique tag ID. Conversely, it may be convenient to introduce a structure to the tag ID, for example, to define the xy coordinates of the tag. According to the 90-bit region ID, 2 ⁹⁰ (˜10 ^27, ie, 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) different regions can be uniquely identified. Further, the tag may have type information, and a tag may be attached to the area using a tag with a mixed type. For example, a region may be tagged with a set of tag-coded x-coordinates or other sets interleaved with coded y-coordinates. It goes without saying that the accuracy of the region ID and tag ID is more or less dependent on the environment in which the system is used.
1.2.2 Tag Data Encoding In one embodiment, each tag has 120 bits of information. The 120-bit tag data is redundantly encoded using a (15, 5) Reed-Solomon code. This yields 360 encoded bits. These encoded bits consist of 6 codewords, and the codeword consists of 15 4-bit symbols. With the (15,5) code, a maximum of 5 symbol errors can be corrected for each codeword. That is, this allows a maximum symbol error rate of 33% per codeword.

  Each 4-bit symbol is represented in a tag in a spatially coherent manner. Also, the symbols of the six code words are spatially interleaved within the tag. As a result, symbol corruption due to burst errors (errors affecting a plurality of spatially adjacent bits) is suppressed to a minimum number as a whole, and to a minimum number in any one codeword. Therefore, the possibility that burst errors can be completely corrected is maximized.

(15,5) Reed-Solomon codes, such as Reed-Solomon codes having more or less redundancy and the same or different symbols and codeword sizes, other block codes, or superposition integral codes (e.g. Hall 1995, see Stephen B Wicker's "Error Control System for Digital Communications and Storage", the contents of which are optional in place of various types of code such as incorporated herein by reference. Any suitable error correction code can be used.
1.2.3 Physical Tag Structure The physical display of tags shown in FIG. 5 includes predetermined target structures 15, 16, 17 and a variable data area 18. With a predetermined target structure, a detection device such as a netpage pen can detect the tag and can estimate the three-dimensional direction of the tag relative to the sensor. The data area contains an indication of each bit of the encoded tag data.

  In order to properly duplicate (reproduce) the tag, the tag is represented with a resolution of 256 × 256 dots. When printing at 1600 dots / inch, a tag with a diameter of about 4 mm is formed. At this resolution, the tag is formed so as to be surrounded by a “static area” having a radius of 16 dots. Also, since the static region is caused by adjacent tags, it only adds 16 dots to the effective diameter of the tag.

  The tag has six target structures. The detection ring 15 allows the detection device to first detect the tag. The detection ring is easily detected because it is rotationally unchanged and removes most of the effects of perspective distortion by simple correction of its aspect ratio. The direction axis 16 allows the detection device to determine the approximate two-dimensional direction of the tag based on the yaw of the sensor. The direction axis is skewed to give a unique direction. The four perspective targets 17 allow the sensing device to infer an accurate two-dimensional perspective transformation of the tag, and thus the exact three-dimensional position and orientation of the tag relative to the sensor. Can be guessed.

  All target structures are redundantly large to increase the target structure's immunity to noise.

  The overall shape of the tag is circular. This in particular supports optimal tag packing on the irregular triangular grid required to tile any non-planar surface. However, the tag may be placed at the vertex of any polygon having n vertices. Here, n is in the range of 3 to infinity as necessary. This optimizes the circular arrangement of the data bits within the tag in combination with the circular detection ring 15. As shown in FIG. 48, each data bit is represented by a radial wedge 510 to maximize its size. The wedge 510 takes the form of a region bounded by two radial lines 512, a radially inner arc 514, and a radially outer arc 516. Each wedge 510 has a minimum dimension of 8 dots at 1600 dpi, and is formed such that its base (that is, the radially inner arc 514) is at least equal to this minimum dimension. The radial height of the wedge 510 is always equal to the minimum dimension. As clearly shown in FIG. 48, each 4-bit data symbol is represented by an array 518 of 2 × 2 wedges 510.

  In an interleaved form as shown in FIGS. 49-51, the 15 4-bit data symbols of each of the six codewords are concentric four symbol rings 18a-18d, as shown in FIG. Assigned to. The symbols of the first to sixth code words 520 to 525 are alternately arranged in a circulation number sequence (circular sequence) around the tag.

  Interleaving is performed to maximize the spatial average distance between any two symbols of the same codeword. Other configurations may be used for the codeword or its data symbols.

  The physical layout of the tags or the shape and arrangement of the data symbols in each tag are not essential for the function of the present invention. All that is required is that each tag encodes enough information for the intended use. Although it is preferable to provide a tag with redundancy (overlapping), as a basic level, it is not actually essential to the function of the present invention. Therefore, other tag configurations may be used. Examples of other tag structures are US Pat. No. 5,625,412, US Pat. No. 5,661,506, US Pat. No. 5,477,012, US Pat. No. 5,852,434, PCT application. PCT / US98 / 20597, the contents of each of which are incorporated herein by reference.

  To support “one-click” interaction with the tagged area via the sensing device, the sensing device can be located anywhere within the region or in any direction. It must be possible to see the entire at least one tag of the field of view. 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 Tag image processing and decoding of the tag of FIG. 5 performed by a sensing device such as a netpage pen is shown in FIG. While the resulting image is acquired by the image sensor, the dynamic range of the image is determined (20). Thereafter, the center of the dynamic range is selected as the binary threshold in the image (21). The image is then compared to a threshold and divided (22) into a plurality of related pixel regions (ie, shape 23). Too small shapes are removed to show the target structure of the tag. Also, the size and center of gravity of each shape are calculated.

  Thereafter, a binary shape moment 25 is calculated for each shape (24). These moments then provide a basis for positioning the target structure. The position of the central plurality of geometric moments does not change depending on their properties, and the scale, aspect ratio, and rotation can be easily changed.

  First, the location of the ring target structure 15 is found (26). The ring has the advantage that it behaves very well during perspective distortion. Matching proceeds by aspect normalizing and rotational normalizing the moment of each shape. A ring is easily recognized when its second moment is normalized, even if the perspective distortion is significant. The initial aspect and rotation 27 of the ring provides a useful approximation of the perspective transformation.

  Subsequently, the location of the axial target structure 16 is found (28). Matching proceeds by applying ring normalization to the moments of each shape and rotationally normalizing the resulting moments. An axial target is easily recognized once its second moment is normalized. Note that a 1/3 order moment is required to clarify the two possible axial directions. To make this possible, the shape is intentionally skewed (slanted) to one side. It is also possible to simply normalize the axis target after applying ring normalization to each shape moment. This is because perspective distortion can hide the axis of the axis target. The initial rotation of the axis target provides a useful approximation of the tag rotation by the pen yaw 29.

  Finally, four fluoroscopic target structure 17 locations are found (30). A good estimate of these positions is calculated based on its known spatial relationship to the ring and axis target, ring aspect and rotation, and axis rotation. Matching proceeds by applying ring normalization to each shape moment. A circular fluoroscopic target is easily recognized when its second moment is normalized. The target closest to each estimated position is acquired as a match (comparison reference). Thereafter, the initial center of gravity of the four fluoroscopic targets is taken to be a fluoroscopic distortion corner 31 of a known square size in the tag space. An 8 ° free perspective transformation 33 is also inferred by solving a general equation for four tag space-image space point pairs (32) (Master's thesis at the Faculty of EESC University in Berkeley, California, See Technical Report No. USB / CSD 89/516, “Principle of Texture Mapping and Image Wrapping” by Heckbert, P, June 1989, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

  A perspective transformation from the inferred tag space to the image space is used to project 36 each known data bit position in the tag space onto the image space. In the image space, real-valued positions are used to insert (36) the four related neighboring pixels bilinearly into the input image. The pre-calculated image threshold 21 is used to generate the final bit value 37 compared to the result.

  Once all 360 data bits 37 have been obtained in this manner, each of the six 60-bit Reed-Solomon codewords is decoded (38), resulting in 20 decoded bits 39. That is, a total of 120 decoded bits are obtained. Note that the codeword symbols are sampled in codeword order, so that the codewords are implicitly deinterleaved during the sampling process.

  As described above, the physical tag structure or encoding system is not essential in the present invention, and tags of other physical configurations may be used. It goes without saying that the process of retrieving the encoded data by recognizing and decoding the tag image depends on the system used to encode the data redundantly and the physical structure of the tag.

  The ring target 15 is only found in a sub-region of the image and becomes part of the complete tag if found due to the relationship to the image. If the complete tag is not found and cannot be decoded successfully, the pen is not recorded in the current frame. Given proper processing power and, ideally, a non-minimum field of view 193, other tags are sought in the current image as an alternative.

The obtained tag data indicates the identity of the region including the tag and the position of the tag within the region. Then, from the perspective transformation 33 observed on the tag and the known spatial relationship between the pen's physical axis and the pen's optical axis, the precise position 35 of the pen tip and the pen in the region. An overall direction 35 is estimated (34).
1.2.5 Other Tag Structures The tag structure described above is formed to allow both planar regular tiling and non-planar irregular tiling. In general, regular tiling cannot occur on a non-planar surface. In the most common case where the regular tiling of the tag can occur, i.e. a surface such as a paper sheet, a more effective tag structure that takes advantage of the regular nature of tiling can be used.

  Another tag structure that is more suitable for regular tiling is shown in FIG. 6a. The other tag 4 is square and has four perspective targets 17. The structure of this tag is similar to the tag described by Bennett et al. In US Pat. No. 5,051,746. The tag indicates 60 4-bit Reed-Solomon symbols 47, which are 240 bits in total. Each bit of the tag is represented by a dot 48. The corresponding dot is not represented in the 0 bit. As shown in FIGS. 6b and 6c, the fluoroscopic target is formed so as to be shared between adjacent tags. FIG. 6 b shows a square tiling with 16 tags and a corresponding minimum field of view 193. In this case, the minimum field of view 193 must lie on the diagonal of the two tags. FIG. 6c shows a square tiling with 9 tags having all 1 bit for illustration.

  Using the (15,7) Reed-Solomon code, 112 bits of tag data are encoded redundantly to form 240 encoded bits. Four codewords are spatially interleaved within the tag to maximize resilience to burst errors. If the 16-bit Doug ID is already described, an area ID of 92 bits at the maximum is possible.

  The dot 48 having the tag data is formed so as not to overlap the adjacent dot, and the tag group cannot make a structure similar to the target. This also saves ink. Therefore, the tag can be detected by the fluoroscopic target, and therefore no further target is required. The tag image processing proceeds as described in the previous section 1.2.4 except that steps 26 and 28 are omitted.

  The tag may have orientation characteristics that can define the four possible orientations of the tag relative to the sensor, but orientation data can also be incorporated within the tag data. For example, as shown in FIG. 6d, four codewords can be arranged so that the direction of each tag includes one codeword arranged in that direction. In this case, for each symbol, the codeword number (1-4) and the position of the symbol within the codeword (A-O) are labeled. At this time, tag decoding consists of decoding one codeword in each direction. Each codeword can include either one bit that indicates whether it is the first codeword or two bits that indicate which code it is. The latter approach has the advantage that when only one codeword data content is required, the desired data can be obtained by decoding at most two codewords. This may be the case when the region ID is not expected to change within one stroke and is therefore only decoded at the start of the stroke. At this time, only a code word having a tag ID is desirable within one stroke. Also, since the rotation of the detection device slowly changes within one stroke as expected, generally only one code word needs to be decoded for each frame.

The fluoroscopic target can be eliminated completely, and instead it can rely on self-recording data display. In this case, each bit value (or a plurality of bit values) is generally represented by an explicit symbol (glyph). That is, the absence of a bit value is represented by the absence of the symbol (glyph). This allows the data grid to occupy well, so that the grid can be reliably identified, and its perspective distortion can be detected and subsequently corrected during data sampling. Each tag data must have a marker pattern so that tag boundaries can be detected. These must be encoded redundantly to ensure reliable detection. The overhead of such a marker pattern is similar to the overhead of an explicit perspective target. One such scheme uses dots located at various points relative to the vertices of the grid to represent different symbols (glyphs) and thus represent different bit values (Anoto technology). Instructions (see Anoto 2000 April)).
1.2.6 Tag Map When a tag is decoded, the area ID, the tag ID, and the pen related to the tag are converted. Before the tag ID and the pen position associated with the tag can be converted to an absolute position within the tagged area, the tag's position within that area must be known. This can be known by a tag map, that is, a function for mapping each tag ID in a region to which a tag is attached to a corresponding position. FIG. 22 shows a tag map class diagram as a netpage printer class diagram.

  The tag map reflects the scheme used to tile the surface area. Also, the tag map can vary according to the type of surface. If multiple tagged regions share the same tiling scheme and the same tag numbering scheme, these multiple regions can share the same tag map.

The tag map for one region must be searchable via the region ID. Therefore, given the region ID, tag ID, and pen conversion, the tag map can be searched, the tag ID can be converted to the absolute tag position in the region, and the pen position related to the tag can be changed to the tag position. In addition, the absolute pen position within the region can be obtained.
1.2.7 Tagging schemes Two different surface coding schemes are of interest. Both of these schemes use the tag structure described at the beginning of this item. A preferred coding scheme uses the “position indication” tag already described. Other coding schemes use the “object display” tag.

  The position display tag has a tag ID. This tag ID gives a unique tag position in the area when converted via a tag map corresponding to the area to which the tag is attached. To this tag position is added the pen position associated with the tag, which gives the pen position within the region. It is also 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 also its location relative to the user interface element. Thus, position indication tags typically support the acquisition of absolute pen paths within the area of a particular user interface element.

  The object display tag has a tag ID that directly identifies the user interface element in the pen description associated with the region. All tags in the area of user interface elements identify a user interface that makes all of these tags identical and indistinguishable. Therefore, the object display tag does not support absolute pen path acquisition. However, the object display tag supports the acquisition of relative pen paths. As long as the position sampling frequency exceeds twice the faced tag frequency, the displacement from one sampled pen position to the next in a stroke can be clearly determined.

With either tagging scheme, the tag functions as a user interactive element in cooperation with the corresponding visual element on the netpage. Thus, the user can interact with the printed page using a suitable sensing device so that the tag data can be read by the sensing device and an appropriate response can be formed in the netpage system.
1.3 Document and Page Description A preferred embodiment of a document / page description class diagram is shown in FIGS.

  In the netpage system, a document is described (written) at three levels. At the most abstract level, document 836 has a hierarchical structure. The terminal element 839 having this structure is associated with a content object 840 such as a text object, a text style object, and an image object. When a document is printed by a printer with a specific page size and a specific user magnification selection, the document is given a page number and formatted. In some cases, the formatted terminal element 835 is associated with a content object that is different from the content objects associated with the terminal elements corresponding to these terminal elements, particularly where the content objects are associated with styles. Each instance of the printed document and page is also described separately, so that input obtained through a particular page instance 830 can be separated from input obtained through other instances of the same page description. Can be recorded.

  The presence of the most abstract document description on the page server allows the user to request a copy of the document without accepting a specific format of the source document (source document). For example, the user may request copying with a printer with different page sizes. Conversely, the presence of a formatted document description on the page server allows the page server to efficiently determine a user's behavior on a particular printed page.

  Formatted document 834 consists of a set of formatted page descriptions 5. Each page description consists of a set of formatted terminal elements 835. Each formatted terminal element has a spatial extent or area 58 on the page. This area forms the active area and input field of input elements such as hyperlinks.

  Document instance 831 corresponds to formatted document 834. This document instance consists of a set of page instances 830. Each page instance corresponds to a page description 5 of the formatted document. Each page instance 830 describes one unique net page 1 printed and records the page ID of the net page. A page instance is not part of a document instance if it represents a copy of the requested page by itself.

  A page instance consists of a set of terminal element instances 832. There is only one element instance when recording instance-specific information. Thus, a hyperlink instance exists for a hyperlink element because it records a transaction ID 55 unique to the page instance. Field instances also exist for field elements to record inputs specific to page instances. However, element instances do not exist for static elements such as text flow.

  As shown in FIG. 27, the terminal element may be a static element 843, a hyperlink element 844, a field element 845, or a page server command element 846. As shown in FIG. 28, a static element 843 includes a style element 847 having a corresponding style object 854, a text flow element 848 having a corresponding styled text object 855, and an image element having a corresponding image object 856. 849, a graphic element 850 having a corresponding graphic object 857, a video clip element 851 having a corresponding video clip object 858, an audio clip element 852 having a corresponding audio clip object 859, or a script element having a corresponding script object 860. It may be 853.

  The page instance may have a background field 833 that is used to record any digital links acquired on the page that do not apply to a particular input element.

In a preferred form of the invention, a tag map 811 is associated with each page instance so that tags on the page can be converted to positions on the page.
1.4 Netpage Network In a preferred embodiment, the netpage network comprises a distributed set of netpage servers 10 connected to each other via a network 19, such as the Internet, as shown in FIG. It comprises a netpage registration server 11, a netpage ID server 12, a netpage application server 13, a netpage issue server 14, and a netpage printer 601.

  The netpage registration server 11 is a server that authorizes various network activities by recording relationships between users, pens, printers, applications, and publications. The netpage registration server 11 authenticates the user and functions as a signature proxy related to the benefit of the user authenticated in the application transaction. Further, the netpage registration server 11 provides a handwriting recognition service as necessary. As described above, the netpage server 10 holds persistent information (fixed information) about page descriptions and page instances. The netpage network has an arbitrary number of page servers, and each page server handles a part of a page instance. Further, since the page server holds a user input value for each page instance, a client such as a netpage printer sends the netpage input to an appropriate page server. The page server interprets any such input for the corresponding page description.

  The netpage ID server 12 assigns a document ID 51 upon request, and provides load balancing of the page server by its ID assignment scheme.

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

  The netpage application server 13 is a server that performs a bidirectional netpage application. The netpage issue server 14 is an application server that issues a netpage document to a netpage printer. These will be described in detail in item 2.

Netpage servers can be employed on various network server platforms from manufacturers such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun and others. Multiple netpage servers can be run simultaneously on one host and one server can be distributed across many hosts. In addition, some or all of the functions provided by the netpage server, particularly the functions provided by the ID server and page server, can be performed in a netpage device such as a netpage printer, in a computer workstation, or in a local network. It can be provided directly on the website.
1.5 Netpage Printer The netpage printer 601 is a device that is registered in the netpage system and prints a netpage document by reservation purchase upon request. 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 (broadband connection).

  The netpage printer need not have any fixed storage except for the identity / security settings in the non-volatile memory. As long as the user is involved, “the network is a computer”. The netpage functions interactively (in both directions) over space and time using the distributed netpage page server 10 regardless of the specific netpage printer.

  The netpage printer receives a netpage document reserved and purchased from the netpage issuing server 14. Each document is distributed into two parts: the page layout and the actual text and image objects that occupy the page. By personalization (including the initials of the name), the page layout is generally specific to a particular subscriber (subscriber) and therefore points to the subscriber's printer by the appropriate page server. Cast (posted aiming). On the other hand, text objects and image objects are generally shared with other subscribers and are therefore multicast to all subscribers' printers and appropriate page servers.

  The netpage issue server optimizes the fragmentation of document contents (document contents) into pointcasts and multicasts. After receiving a pointcast of the document's page layout, the printer knows which multicast to listen to, if any.

  When the printer receives all of the page layouts and objects that form the document to be printed, it can print the document.

  The printer rasterizes and prints odd and even pages simultaneously on both sides of the sheet. For this purpose, the printer has a duplex print engine controller 760 and a print engine that uses a Memjet print head 350.

  The printing process consists of two separate stages: rasterizing the page description and enlarging and printing the page image. A raster image processor (RIP) consists of one or more standard DSPs 757 running in parallel. The double-sided print engine controller comprises a custom processor that enlarges and dithers and prints the page image in real time in synchronization with the operation of the print engine print head.

  Printers that can be used for invisible IR printing have the option of printing tags using IR-absorbing black ink, which limits the tags to free space on 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 paper sheet. More specialized netpage printers may print on more specific surfaces such as spheres or plastic sheets. Each printer supports at least one surface type and at least one tag tiling scheme or tag map for each surface type. A tag map 811 that describes the tag tiling scheme that is actually used to print the document becomes associated with the document so that the tag of the document can be accurately determined.

  FIG. 2 shows a netpage printer class diagram (classification diagram) that reflects information related to the printer held by the registration server 11 on the netpage network.

A preferred embodiment of the netpage printer will be described in detail in item 6 with reference to FIGS.
1.5.1 Memjet (R) Printhead The netpage system can operate using printers formed using a wide range of digital printing technologies including thermal ink jet, piezoelectric ink jet, laser electrophotography, and the like. However, in order to be widely accepted by consumers, it is desirable that a netpage printer has the following characteristics.

・ High-quality color printing like photos ・ High-quality text printing ・ High reliability ・ Low printing cost ・ Low ink cost ・ Low paper cost ・ Easy operation ・ Almost quiet printing ・ High-speed printing ・ Simultaneous duplex printing ・ Compact form Factors • Low power consumption Currently commercially available technologies do not have all of these characteristics.

  In order to make it possible to manufacture printers having these characteristics, the applicant has invented a new printing technology called Memjet®. Memjet (R) is a drop-on-demand inkjet technology that incorporates a page-width printhead formed using micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) technology. FIG. 17 shows one print element 300 of a Memjet® printhead. The netpage wall printer incorporates 168960 print elements 300 and forms 1600 dpi page width duplex printing. This printer simultaneously prints a paper adjusting material and an ink fixing material together with cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and infrared ink.

  Print element 300 is approximately 110 microns in length and 32 microns in width. The array of these print elements is formed on a silicon substrate 301 that incorporates a CMOS logic circuit, a data transfer circuit, a timing circuit, and a drive circuit (not shown).

  The main elements of print 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, passive actuator beam pair 309, active actuator anchor 310, passive An actuator anchor 311 and an ink injection port 312.

  The active actuator beam pair 308 is mechanically coupled to the passive actuator beam pair 309 by a coupling portion 319. Both beam pairs are fixed by respective fixing portions 310 and 311. By combining the elements 308, 309, 310, 311 and 319, a cantilevered electrothermal bending actuator 320 is formed.

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

  FIGS. 19 (a), 19 (b), and 19 (c) show the operation cycle of the Memjet® print element 300.

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

During printing, the printhead CMOS circuit distributes the data from the print engine controller to the correct print element, and that data is stored and stored 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 (1 × 10 ⁻⁶ seconds), resulting in Joule heat. As the temperature rises due to Joule heat, the beam pair 308 expands. The passive actuator beam pair 309 is not heated and therefore does not expand. Therefore, a difference in stress occurs between the two beam pairs. This difference in stress is partially eliminated by the end of the cantilever beam of the electrothermal bending actuator 320 that bends to the substrate 301. The lever arm 307 transmits this movement to the nozzle chamber 304. The nozzle chamber 304 moves approximately 2 microns to the position shown in FIG. 19 (b). As a result, the ink pressure increases, the ink 321 is ejected from the nozzle 302, and the ink half moon 316 swells. The nozzle rim 303 prevents the ink half moon 316 from spreading over the surface of the nozzle chamber 304.

  When the temperature of the beam pair 308, 309 is equal, the actuator 320 returns to its original position. This is useful for detachment of the ink droplet 317 from the ink 321 in the nozzle chamber, as shown in FIG. The nozzle chamber is refilled by the effect of surface tension at ink half moon 316.

  FIG. 20 shows a fragment of the print head 350. In a netpage printer, the length of the print head is the full width of the paper in the direction 351 (approximately 210 mm). The fragment shown is 0.4 mm long (about 0.2% of the total print head). During printing, the paper moves past a predetermined print head in direction 352. The printhead has five rows of interlocking print elements that print six colors or the type 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. There is a corresponding nozzle guard hole 331 for each nozzle 302. Ink droplets are ejected through the nozzle guard holes. During printing, filtered air is pumped through the air inlet 332 and discharged from the nozzle guard hole so that the nozzle guard hole 331 is not blocked by paper fibers or other debris. In order to prevent the ink 321 from drying, the nozzle guard is sealed during idling of the printer.
1.6 Netpage Pen The active detection device of the netpage system is generally the pen 101. The pen can use its built-in controller 134 to obtain and decode the IR position tag from the page via the image sensor. The image sensor is a semiconductor device provided with an appropriate filter so that it can be detected only by near infrared wavelengths. As described in detail below, the system can detect when the pen tip touches the surface, and the pen can detect the tag at a sufficient rate to understand human handwriting (ie, 200 dpi or more and 100 Hz or more). The information acquired by the pen is encrypted and transmitted to the printer (or base station) wirelessly. The printer or base station determines data about the (known) page or, in the preferred embodiment, sends it to the netpage to determine that information.

  The netpage pen according to the preferred embodiment functions as a marking ink pen and a non-marking stylus pen. However, the marking form is not necessary when a netpage system is used as a browsing system, such as when used as an Internet interface. Each netpage pen is registered in the netpage system and has a unique pen ID 61. FIG. 23 shows a netpage pen class diagram reflecting information about pens held by the registration server 11 on the netpage network.

  When any pen tip touches a netpage, the pen determines its position and orientation relative to the page. A nib is attached to the force sensor, and the nib force is determined against a threshold value to indicate whether the pen is “up” or “down”. Thereby, for example, in order to obtain information from the network, a bidirectional element on the page can be clicked by pressing with the pen tip. Also, for example, the force is acquired as a continuous value to allow all force relationships of the signature to be confirmed. The nib may be movable when exposed to a specific force that is greater than the force normally applied during writing. The user applies enough force to “click” to move the nib. This may provide more desirable feedback as compared to feedback provided when the pen tip does not move.

  The pen determines the position and direction of the pen tip on the netpage by imaging a page region 193 near the pen tip with an infrared spectrum. The pen decodes the nearest tag and calculates the position of the nib relative to the tag from the perspective distortion observed on the imaged tag and the known geometry of the pen optics. Since 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 quite high, exceeding the minimum resolution required for accurate handwriting recognition.

  The pen movement relative to the netpage is captured as a series of strokes. A stroke consists of a pen position on a series of time-stamped pages that begins with the action of lowering the pen and ends with the action of lifting the pen. Also, whenever the page ID changes at the start of a stroke under normal circumstances, one stroke is tagged using the page ID 50 of the netpage.

  Each netpage pen has a current selection 826 associated with it so that the user can perform copy and paste operations and the like. The current selection is time stamped so that the system can discard the current selection after a predetermined time. The current selection describes the area of the page instance. The current selection consists of the most recent digital ink stroke acquired by the pen relative to the background area of the page. When the currently selected content is attached to the application by starting the selected hyperlink, it is determined by an application specific method.

  Each pen has a current nib 824. This current nib is the last nib known to the system by the pen. In the case of the netpage pen of the above-mentioned regulation (standard setting), the pen tip of the marking ink pen tip or the stylus pen that is not marking is “current”. Each pen has a current nib style 825. This current nib style is, for example, the style of the nib last associated with the pen by the application in accordance with the user who selects a color from the palette. The default (standard) nib style is the nib style associated with the current nib. Strokes captured through the pen are tagged using the current nib style. When the stroke is subsequently reproduced, it is reproduced in the nib style used for tagging.

  Whenever the pen is in the area of a communicable printer, the pen slowly turns on its “online” LED. If the pen is not decoding a stroke for a page, it will momentarily light its “error” LED. When the pen successfully decodes the stroke for the page, it instantly lights its “OK” LED.

  The sequence of captured (acquired) strokes is referred to as digital ink. Digital ink forms the basis for plotting and handwritten digital conversion in handwritten online recognition and in online verification of signatures.

  The pen is wireless and sends digital ink to the netpage printer via a short-range wireless link. The transmitted digital ink is encrypted for privacy and security, and is packetized for efficient transmission, but the pen is lifted so that it is processed in a timely manner in the printer It will be swept out whenever

  When the pen exits the printer area, it stores digital ink in an internal memory that has a capacity that can be processed continuously for 10 minutes. When the pen reenters the printer area, it sends any stored digital links. The buffer may provide more or less buffering capacity.

  A pen can register with any number of printers, but all status data resides on paper and network netpages, so a printer communicating with one pen at any particular time Which is not so important.

A preferred embodiment of the pen is described in detail in item 6 with reference to FIGS.
1.7 Netpage Exchange When exchanging with Netpage 1 using a pen, the netpage printer 601 receives data relating to strokes from the pen 101. When performing a movement such as a stroke using the pen, the encoded data 3 of the tag 4 is read by the pen. With this data, it is possible to determine the identity of a particular page and the corresponding interactive element and to obtain an indication of the relative position of the pen relative to the page. This display data is transmitted to the printer, where the printer resolves the page ID 50 of the stroke by DNS and sets it to the network address of the netpage server 10 holding the corresponding page instance 830 (resolve). The printer then sends this stroke to the page server. If a new page is identified in the previous stroke, the printer may already have the associated page server address in its cache. Each netpage consists of a compact page layout that is permanently maintained by a netpage server (described below). Page layouts generally refer to objects such as images, fonts, and text fragments stored elsewhere on the netpage network.

  When the page server receives a stroke from the pen, the page server searches the page description to which the stroke applies and determines which element of the page description the stroke crosses. The page server can then determine the stroke in light of the type of element involved.

  A “click” is generally a stroke if both the distance and time between the position where the pen is lowered and the position where the pen is subsequently lifted are less than some small maximum. Objects that are activated by a single click generally require a single-click operation. Long strokes are therefore ignored. Pen malfunction, such as a “loose” click on a register, is indicated by a lack of response from the pen “OK” LED. However, if the netpage has a button, one “click” can be registered if both the pen down position and the lift position are within the button area.

There are two types of input elements for netpage page descriptions, hyperlinks, and form fields (format regions). Also, input via form fields can trigger activation of the corresponding hyperlink.
1.7.1 Hyperlink A hyperlink is a means of sending a message to a remote application and typically derives a printed response in a netpage system.

  The hyperlink element 844 includes an application 71 that handles activation of the hyperlink, a link ID 54 that identifies the hyperlink to the application, and an “alias request” flag that requests the system to include the application alias ID 65 of the user when the hyperlink is activated. Identify the description to be used when the hyperlink is recorded as a favorite, ie when the hyperlink appears in the user's history. FIG. 29 shows a hyperlink element class diagram.

  When the hyperlink is activated, the page server sends a request to some application on the network. The application is identified by application ID 64, and the application ID is resolved by DNS in the usual way. As shown in FIG. 30, there are three types of hyperlinks: a general hyperlink 863, a form hyperlink 865, and a selection hyperlink 864. General hyperlinks can make requests for linked documents, or simply send preferences (priorities) to the server. A form hyperlink submits the corresponding form to the application. The selection hyperlink submits the current selection to the application. If the current selection includes a word fragment of text, for example, the application may return a one page document that gives the meaning of the word within the context in which it appears or a translation into a different language. Each type of hyperlink is characterized by what information is submitted to the application.

  The corresponding hyperlink instance 862 records a transaction ID 55 that can be unique to the page instance in which the hyperlink instance appears. The transaction ID may identify user specific data for the application, eg, a pending purchase “shopping cart” maintained by the purchasing application on behalf of the user.

  The system has a pen current selection 826 when the selection hyperlink is activated. The system has the contents of the form instance 868 corresponding when the form hyperlink is activated. However, if the hyperlink has its “submit delta” attribute set, only the input after the last form submission is included. The system has a valid return path when driving all hyperlinks.

The hyperlinked group 866 is a group element having a corresponding hyperlink, as shown in FIG. When input occurs through any field element in a group, a hyperlink 844 associated with that group is activated. Hyperlinked groups can be used to associate hyperlink behavior with fields such as checkboxes. In addition, hyperlinked groups can be used with the “submit delta” attribute of a form hyperlink to provide continuous input to the application. Thus, hyperlinked groups can be used to support a “blackboard” interactive model. That is, when an input is acquired, the input is shared as soon as the input occurs.
1.7.2 Forms Forms form a collection of related input fields that are used to obtain related input sets through one or more printed netpages. The form allows the user to submit one or more parameters to an application software program that runs on the server.

  Form 867 is a group element 838 in the document hierarchy. The form eventually has a set of terminal field elements 839. Form instance 868 represents an instance of the printed form. The form has a set of field instances 70 corresponding to form field elements 845. Each field instance has one corresponding value 871, the type of which depends on the type of the corresponding field element. Each field value records input by a particular printed form instance, ie, by one or more printed netpages. FIG. 32 shows a form class diagram.

  Each form instance has a state 872 that indicates whether the form is active, frozen, submitted, invalid, or expired. The form is active when it is first printed. Also, once the form is signed, it becomes frozen. Also, if a hyperlink does not have its “submit delta” attribute set, the form will be submitted when one of the form submission hyperlinks is activated. When a user invokes an invalid form, reset form, or duplicate form page command, the form becomes invalid. The form expires when the form has been active for longer than the inherent life of the form. Form entry is allowed while the form is active. Input through an inactive form is instead captured in the background field 833 of the associated page instance. If the form is active or frozen, form submission is allowed. If the form is not active or frozen, the attempt to submit the form is completely rejected, but instead the form status report is drawn.

  Each form instance is preferably associated with any form instance derived therefrom (59). This eliminates all but the latest form version at a particular time from the search.

  All inputs are acquired as digital ink. Digital ink 873 consists of a set of time-stamped stroke groups 874. Each stroke group consists of a set of styled strokes 875. Each stroke consists of a set of time stamped pen positions 876. Each pen position includes a pen direction and a pen tip force. FIG. 33 shows a digital ink class diagram.

  The field element 845 may be a check box field 877, a text field 878, a drawing field 879, and a sign field 880. FIG. 34 shows a field element class diagram. Any digital ink acquired within the field 58 is assigned to that field.

  As shown in FIG. 35, the check box field has a corresponding Boolean value 881. Arbitrary marks (such as ticks, crosses, strokes, zigzags, etc.) acquired within the check box field area assign a true value to the field value.

  As shown in FIG. 36, the text field has a corresponding text value 882. Any digital ink acquired in the area of the text field is automatically converted to text by online handwriting recognition, and this text is assigned to the value of the field. Online handwriting recognition is well known (for example, “Online by Tapert, C., CY Suen and T. Wakahara in the August 1990 IEEE Report on Pattern Analysis and Artificial Intelligence Vol. 12 No. 8” See “State of the art of handwriting recognition”, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference). Text field specialization includes data fields and number fields.

  As shown in FIG. 37, the sign field has a corresponding digital sign 883 value. Any digital ink acquired in the area of the sign field is automatically verified for pen owner identity. In addition, a digital signature is formed of the content of the form in which the field forms part, and this digital signature is assigned to the value of the field. The digital signature is formed using the pen user's personal signature key. This sign key is unique to an application having a form. Online sign-in verification is well known (see, for example, "Automatic Signature Verification and Writer Recognition-State of the Art" by Plamondon, R and G. Lolette in 1989, Pattern Recognition, Vol. Which is incorporated herein by reference).

  A field element is hidden when its “hidden” attribute is set. A hidden field element has no input area on the page and does not accept input. A hidden field element can have a corresponding field value included in the form data when the form containing the field is submitted.

  Also, an “edit” command such as delete indicating deletion can be recognized in the form field.

  The handwriting recognition algorithm works "online" (ie, the pen movement power relationship is available) rather than "offline" (ie, only the pen marking bitmap is available), thus eliminating the writer-dependent training phase. It is possible to recognize characters written discretely by connecting a plurality of characters with relatively high accuracy. However, handwritten writer-dependent models are formed over time and can be formed in advance as needed.

  As described above, digital ink consists of a series of strokes. Any stroke that begins in a region of a particular element is applied to that element's digital ink stream in an interpretable state. Any stroke not applied to the object's digital ink stream is applied to the background field's digital ink stream.

The digital ink acquired in the background field is determined as a selection gesture. The border of one or more objects is generally determined as a selection of bounded objects, but the actual determination is application specific.
Table 2 summarizes the various interactions between netpages and pens.

システムは、現選択内容を各ペン毎に保持している。現選択内容は、背景フィールドで取得された最も最近のストロークである。予測可能な挙動を確保するため、現選択内容は、不活動のタイムアウト後に、消去される。

The system keeps the current selection for each pen. The current selection is the most recent stroke acquired in the background field. To ensure predictable behavior, the current selection is erased after an inactivity timeout.

  Raw raw digital ink acquired in all areas is kept on the netpage page server and selectively sent with the form data when the form is submitted to the application. This allows the application to query raw digital ink when it is suspected that it is an initial conversion, such as a conversion of handwritten text. This can involve human intervention at the application level, eg, for forms that fail to perform consistency checks specific to a particular application. As an extension of this, the entire background area of the form can be designated as a drawing field. The application then renders the form to a human operator based on the presence of digital ink outside the explicit field of the form, assuming that the user has instructed corrections to the completed fields outside these fields. Decide to send to.

  FIG. 38 shows a flowchart of a process for handling pen input to a netpage. The process receives the stroke from the pen (884); identifies the page instance 830 referenced by the page ID 50 in the stroke (885); receives the page description 5 (886); the formatted element that the stroke traverses its region 58 839 is identified (887); it is determined whether or not the formatted element corresponds to the field element. If so, the received stroke is applied to the digital ink having the field value 871 (892). Determining the stored field digital ink (893) and determining whether the field is part of the hyperlink group 866; if so, activate the corresponding hyperlink ( 895); instead, does the formatted element correspond to a hyperlink element? (889), if corresponding, activate the corresponding hyperlink (895); instead, if there is no input field or hyperlink, the received stroke is converted to digital ink in the background field 833. Giving (890); copying the received stroke to the current selection 826 of the current pen held by the registration server (891).

FIG. 38a shows a detailed flowchart of step 893 in the process shown in FIG. In this step, the stored field digital ink is determined according to the field type. The process determines whether the field is a check box (896) and determines whether the digital ink represents a check mark (897), and if so, sets the true value to the field value. Allocation (898); instead, determine whether the field is a text field (899), and if so, use a suitable registration server to convert the digital ink to computer text (900) Assign the converted computer text to the field value (901); instead, determine whether the field is a sign field (902), and if so, use an appropriate registration server to digitally Confirm the ink as the signature of the pen owner (903); use the registration server and Use personal signature key of the pen owner associated with the application, the corresponding form of digital signature of the contents of the form (904), consists of allocating the digital signature to the field value (905).
1.7.3 Page Server Commands Page server commands are commands that are handled locally by the page server. Page server commands work directly on forms, pages, and document instances.

  As shown in FIG. 39, the page server command 907 includes an invalid form command 908, a copy form command 909, a reset form command 910, a get form state 911, a copy page command 912, a reset page command 913, a get page state command 914, A copy document command 915, a reset document command 916, or a get document status command 917 may be used.

  The invalid form command invalidates the corresponding form instance. The duplicate form command forms an active printed copy of the current form instance with field values retained after invalidating the corresponding form instance. The copy contains the same hyperlink transaction ID as the original and is therefore indistinguishable from the original for the application. The reset form command invalidates the corresponding form instance and then forms an active printed copy of the form instance with field values discarded. The copy contains the same hyperlink transaction ID as the original. The get form status command forms a printed report based on the status of the corresponding form instance. This report includes when it was printed, who issued it, for whom it was printed, and the form status of the form instance.

  Since the form hyperlink instance contains a transaction ID, an application must be required to create a new form instance. Therefore, a button for a new form instance is generally executed as a hyperlink.

  The duplicate page command forms a printed copy of the corresponding page instance with the background field value preserved. If the page contains a form or is part of a form, the duplicate page command is determined as a duplicate form command. The reset page command forms a printed copy of the corresponding page instance with the background field value discarded. If the page contains or is part of a form, the reset page command is determined as a reset form command. The get page status command forms a printed report based on the status of the corresponding page instance. This report includes at the time of printing, who issued it, for whom it was printed, and the status of any form it contains or is part of.

  In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the netpage logo that appears on every netpage is typically associated with a duplicate page element.

  As page instances are copied with field values, the field values are printed in their original form. That is, the check mark appears as a standard check mark graphic, and the text appears as a typeset text. Only the drawing and signature appear in its original form. In this case, the signature preferably accompanies or replaces the standard graphic indicating that the signature verification was successful.

  The duplicate document command forms a printed copy of the corresponding document instance with the background field value preserved. If the document contains any form, the duplicate document command duplicates the form in the same way that the duplicate form command does. The reset document command forms a printed copy of the corresponding document instance with the background field value discarded. If the document contains any form, the reset document command resets the form in the same way that the reset form command does. The get document status command forms a printed report based on the status of the corresponding document instance. This report includes the person who issued it at the time of printing, who it was printed for, and the status of any forms it contains.

  When the “on selected” attribute of the page server command is set, the page server command functions on the page identified by the current selection of the pen, not on the page containing the command. As a result, a menu of page server commands can be printed. If the target page does not contain a page server command element for the specified page server command, the command is ignored.

  The application provides application specific processing by incorporating the associated page server command element into the hyperlink group. The page server does not execute the page server command but activates the hyperlink associated with the hyperlink group.

A page server command element is hidden when its “hidden” attribute is set. A hidden command element does not have an input area on the page and cannot be activated directly by the user. However, a hidden command element can be activated by a page server command if the page server command embedded in a different page has its “on selected” attribute set.
1.8 Standard Features of Netpages In a preferred form, each netpage is printed with a bottom netpage logo indicating that it is a netpage, and thus has bidirectional properties. The netpage logo functions as a copy button. In most cases, a “copy” of the logo will create a copy of the page. In the case of a form, the button forms a copy of the entire form. Also, in the case of a reliable (secure) document such as a ticket or coupon, the button pulls out a descriptive note or advertising page.

The default one page copy function is handled directly by the associated netpage page server. Certain copy functions are handled by linking logo buttons to the application.
1.9 User Help System In the preferred embodiment, the netpage printer has one button labeled “Help”. When this button is pressed,
-Printer connection status-Printer exhaustion status-Top-level help menu-Document menu function-Top-level netpage network directory information is extracted.

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

  The document function menu has the following functions.

• Print a copy of the document • Print a clean copy of the form • Print the status of the document The document function starts by simply pressing a button and touching any page of the document. The status of the document indicates who issued the document at what time and who was supplied to it, and then to whom and when the document was submitted as a form.

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

  Of course, if the printer cannot print, the help page cannot be used. In this case, the “error” light is lit and the user can seek remote diagnosis over the network.

2. Personalized Publication Model In the following description, news is used as an example of a standard publication to illustrate the personalization mechanism in the netpage system. News is often used with a limited sense of news in newspapers and news magazines, but the scope intended in this context is much wider.

In the netpage system, news publication article content and advertising content are personalized using various mechanisms. Article content is personalized according to the reader's explicitly stated and implicitly captured interest profile. Advertising content is personalized according to reader location and population.
2.1 Article personalization Subscribers (subscribers) use two types of news sources (information sources): news sources that deliver news publications and news sources that supply news streams. be able to. While news publications are collected and edited by publishers, new streams are collected by new publishers or by specialized news collectors. In general, news publications correspond to traditional newspapers and news magazines. On the other hand, news streams are many and varied. That is, “live” news comes from news services, band comics, freelance writer columns, friend bulletin boards, or your own email.

  The netpage publishing server supports the publishing of edited news publications and collections of multiple news streams. By processing the aggregate and thus formatting the news stream selected directly by the reader, the server may place an advertisement on a page that does not have article control (editing control). it can.

  A subscriber (subscriber) creates a daily newspaper by selecting one or more contributed news publications to form personalized versions. The resulting daily version is printed and bound into a single newspaper. Different numbers of households generally express their different interests and taste by customizing them after selecting different daily newspapers.

  The reader optionally chooses a specific section for each publication. One section is supposed to be a daily newspaper and the other is a weekly magazine. For example, the daily newspaper sections available from the New York Times Online include “Page One Plus”, “Domestic”, “Overseas”, “Opinion”, “Business”, “Art / Living”, “Technology”, “Sports”. Is included. The set of available sections is specific to the publication as well as the prescribed subset.

  Readers can extend the daily newspaper by creating multiple custom sections, each using an arbitrary news stream. Custom sections may be formed for email and friend announcements (personal), or for news feeds on specific topics (“warnings” or “cutouts”).

  For each section, the reader optionally specifies the size of the section as qualitative (eg, short, medium, long) or numerical (ie, a limit on the number of pages) and the desired ratio of the advertisement Are specified qualitatively (eg, high, normal, none) or numerically (ie, percent).

  Readers also optionally express their preference in many short articles or few long articles. To accommodate this preference, each article is ideally written in both a short or long form.

  Also, articles are written (edited) in various versions to match the reader's anticipated high education, for example to form child and adult versions. The appropriate version is selected according to the reader's age. The reader can specify a “reading age” that exceeds the biological age.

  The articles that make up each section are selected and prioritized by the editor. Each article is assigned a useful life. These articles are delivered by priority to all relevant subscribers by default and are subject to spatial constraints in the subscriber version.

  The reader may optionally be able to perform collaborative filtering in the appropriate section. This collaborative filtering is then applied to articles that have a sufficiently long lifetime. Each article suitable for collaborative filtering is printed using the last rating button in the article. This button can give a simple choice (eg, “like” and “dislike”), which will probably allow the reader to rate the article.

  Thus, articles with high priority and short lifespan are effectively determined by the editor to be extremely important readings and provided to the most relevant subscribers.

  The reader optionally designates unexpected factors qualitatively (eg, surprises or not surprises them) or numerically. A highly unexpected factor lowers the threshold used for matching during collaborative filtering. Due to the high factor, the corresponding section probably fills the reader's specific capabilities. Different unexpected factors can be specified for different days of the week.

  The reader also optionally specifies specific topics for specific interests within the section. This changes the priority assigned by the editor.

  The speed of the reader's Internet connection affects the quality and quantity at which images can be supplied. The reader optionally specifies preferences in few or small images or both. If the number or size of the images does not decrease, the images may be supplied at a low image quality (ie, at a low resolution or a high degree of compression). Also, all three of the supplied image quantity, size and quality may be adjusted.

  Readers specify how to limit quality, date, time, and monetary value to specific regions at a global level. This includes specifying whether the units are imperial or meters, and whether local time, time format, local currency, localization consists of translations or annotations on the spot. These choices are taken from the reader's location by default.

  To reduce the difficulty of reading due to weak eyesight, readers optionally specify global (global) preferences in large presentations. Thus, both text and images are scaled and less information is accommodated on each page.

The language in which the news publication is published and the encoding of its corresponding text is a characteristic of the publication and not the preference (selection) indicated by the user. However, the netpage system can be configured to provide an automatic translation service in various forms.
2.2 Advertising localization and targeting (targeting)
The personalization of the article content directly affects the advertisement content. This is because advertisements are generally arranged so as to use article contents. For example, travel advertisements are more likely to appear in the travel section than other sections. The value of the article content for the advertiser (and hence the publisher) lies in the advertiser's ability to attract many readers with appropriate demographic data.

  Effective advertisements are placed based on locality and demographic data. Locality determines the closeness to a particular service, retailer, etc., and the interests associated with a particular interest or community and environment. Demographic data determines the general interest, the greatest interest, and the type of possible consumption.

  The news publisher's most profitable, advertising “space”, multidimensional entity determined by the geographic scope of the publication, its high readership, demographic data for its readership, pages available for advertising It is an area.

  In the netpage system, the netpage publishing server publishes by taking into account the geographical scope of the publication, the number of readers of the section, the size of each reader's section, the advertising ratio of each reader, and the demographic data of each reader. Calculate the approximate multidimensional size of the advertising space per selling section of the item.

  Compared to other media, according to the netpage system, the advertising space can be defined in great detail, and a very small part of the advertising space can be sold individually. Therefore, the advertising space can be sold at a value close to its true value.

  For example, the same advertisement “slot” can be sold to a plurality of advertisers at different ratios. In this case, each reader's page randomly receives one advertiser's advertisement or the other advertiser's advertisement, and as a whole, maintains the proportion of space sold to each advertiser.

  According to the netpage system, advertisements can be directly linked to detailed product information and online purchases. Therefore, the inherent value of the advertising space can be increased.

  Since personalization and localization are handled automatically by the netpage publishing server, the ad collector can optionally provide both a wide range of geographic distribution and demographic data. Subsequent discrete is effective because it is automatic. This allows publishers to transact with ad collectors more cost-effectively than acquiring ads directly. Even if the ad collector takes a share of the advertising revenue, the publisher can benefit from the higher collection efficiency without a hitch. The advertisement collector may serve as an intermediary between the advertiser and the publisher, and may place the same advertisement in a plurality of publications.

  It should be noted that the placement of advertisements in netpage publications can be more complex than the traditional corresponding placement of publications. This is because the advertising space for publications is very complex. Neglecting all the complexity of negotiations between advertisers, ad collectors and publishers, the preferred form of the netpage system provides some automated support for these negotiations, including automated auctions of advertising space. To do. In particular, automation is desirable in advertising placements that generate a small amount of revenue, such as small advertisements or highly localized advertisements.

When the posting negotiation is made, the advertisement collector acquires and edits the advertisement, and records it on the netpage advertisement server. On the other hand, the issuer records the advertisement placement on the related netpage issue server. When the netpage publishing server lays out each user's personalized publication, it picks up relevant advertisements from the netpage advertising server.
2.3 User Profile 2.3.1 Information Filtering Personalization of news and other publications is
・ Publication customization (customization)
-Collaborative filtering vector-Contact content-Relying on various combinations of user-specific profile information including presentation selection.

  Publication customization (customization) is generally publication-specific. Therefore, the custom-made information is held by the related netpage issuing server.

  A collaborative filtering vector consists of user ratings for a number of news article items. Collaborative filtering vectors are used to relate various user interests for the purpose of making recommendations. While there are benefits to having one emphasis filtering vector independent of any particular publication, there are two reasons why it is practical to maintain a separate vector for each publication. That is, the vectors of subscribers (subscribers) for the same publication are more likely to overlap than vectors of subscriptions (subscribers) for different publications, The publication wants to provide the user's emphasis filtering vector as part of its brand value, which is probably not found elsewhere. Therefore, the collaborative filtering vector is also held by the associated netpage issuing server.

  Contact contents including name, street, address, ZIP code, status, country, and telephone number are global in nature and are maintained by the netpage registration server.

  Presentation choices including choices regarding quantity, date, and time are equally global and are retained in the same way.

  Advertising localization depends on the location indicated in the user's contact content. On the other hand, advertisement targeting (targeting) depends on personal information such as qualitative derivatives such as birthday, gender, marriage history, income, occupation, education, age range and income range.

  For users who choose to divulge personal information for advertising purposes, the information is maintained by the associated netpage registration server. In the absence of such information, the advertisement may be targeted based on demographic data associated with the user's ZIP or ZIP + 4 code.

  As shown in FIGS. 21-24, each user, pen, printer, application provider, and application is assigned its own unique identifier. In addition, the netpage registration server holds a relationship between these. For registration purposes, the publisher is a specific type of application provider and the publication is a specific type of application.

  Each user 800 may be authorized to use any number of printers 802. Further, any number of users may be able to use each printer. Each user has one default printer (66) to which periodicals are supplied by default. On the other hand, a page to be printed in response to a request is supplied to a printer that the user exchanges. The server keeps track of the issuer that the user has authorized to print to the user's default printer. The issuer does not record the ID of any particular printer, but instead resolves the ID when it is requested.

  When a user subscribes 808 to publication 807, publisher 806 (ie, application provider 803) is allowed to print on a particular printer or a user-defined printer. This authentication can be revoked at any time by the user. If each user is allowed to use a particular printer, the printer will recognize any user's pen.

  The pen ID is used to locate the corresponding user profile held by a particular netpage registration server via DNS in the usual way.

  The web terminal 809 may be allowed to print on a particular netpage printer so that web pages and netpage documents encountered during web browsing can be conveniently printed on the nearest netpage printer.

  The netpage system can collect fees and fees for the printer provider on revenue generated by publications printed on the provider's printer. Such revenue may include advertising fees, click-through fees, electronic commerce fees, and transaction fees. If the printer is owned by the user, the user is a printer provider.

Each user also includes a netpage account (netpage account) 820 (e.g., as described in the previous paragraph) used for accumulating small borrowings and deposits, as well as a name, address, and telephone number. Contact content 815, global (global) preferences 816 including privacy, delivery, localization settings, any number of biometric records 817 including user-encoded signatures 818, fingerprints 819, etc., system And a SET payment card account 821 that can perform settlement of electronic commerce.
2.3.2 Favorites List A netpage user can maintain a list 922 of “favorites” links to useful documents etc. on the netpage network. The list is maintained by the system for the benefit of the user. The list is organized as a hierarchy of folders 924. Its preferred embodiment is shown in the class diagram of FIG.
2.3.3 History List For the benefit of each user, the system preferably maintains a history list 922 that includes links to documents and the like accessed by the user via the netpage system. The system is organized as a date ordered list. Its preferred embodiment is shown in the class diagram of FIG.
2.4 Intelligent Page Layout The netpage publishing server automatically lays out each user's personalized publication page on a per-section basis. Because most advertisements are pre-formatted rectangles, these advertisements are placed on the page before the article content.

  The advertising ratio in a section is obtained with an advertising ratio that varies greatly on the individual pages in the section. The advertisement layout algorithm uses this. The algorithm places closely linked article content and advertising content in the same place, such as placing specific roofing material advertisements in publications due to specific features of roof repair that you can do yourself. It is configured.

  The article content selected for the user, including text and corresponding images and graphics, is then laid out according to various aesthetic rules.

To more precisely achieve the user-provided section size selection, as soon as the layout is concentrated, the entire process, including advertisement selection and article content selection, must be repeated. However, section size selection can be averaged to match over time so that it can vary significantly from day to day.
2.5 Document Format When a document is laid out, the document is encoded for efficient distribution and permanent storage on a netpage network.

  The main efficient mechanism is the separation of information specific to one user version and information shared between multiple user editions. Specific information consists of page layouts. Shared information consists of objects referenced by the page layout, including images, graphics, and text fragments.

  The text object contains fully formatted text, preferably expressed in Extensible Markup Language (XML) using Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL). XSL provides precise control over text formatting regardless of the range in which the text is set. In this case, text formatting is performed by layout. The text object includes embedded language code that can be automatically translated and embedded hyphenation hints that are supported using paragraph formatting.

  The image object encodes the image, preferably in a compressed image format based on JPEG2000 wavelets. The graphic object encodes 2D graphics, preferably in a scalable vector graphics (SVG) format. Other formats may be used for text, images, and graphics.

  The layout itself consists of a series of arranged images and graphics, linked text flow objects through which text objects flow, hyperlinks and input fields as described above, and a watermark area. These layout objects are summarized in Table 3.

２．６ 文書配布（文書分配）
前述したように、ネットページネットワーク上で効率的に配布（分配）して永続的に記憶する目的で、ユーザ固有のページレイアウトは、それが参照する共有されたオブジェクトから分離される。

2.6 Document distribution (document distribution)
As previously mentioned, for the purpose of efficient distribution (distribution) and persistent storage on a netpage network, a user-specific page layout is separated from the shared objects it references.

  When the subscribed publication is ready for distribution, the netpage issuing server uses the netpage ID server 12 to assign a unique ID, page instance, document, and document instance for each page.

  The server calculates a set of optimized subsets of shared content and forms a multicast channel for each subset, and then has for each user specific layout the shared content used by that layout A tag is attached using the name of the multicast channel. Thereafter, the server pointscasts the layout of each user to the user's printer via an appropriate page server, and when the pointcasting is completed, the shared content is multicast to the designated channel. Each page server and printer, after receiving the point cast, subscribes to the multicast channel specified in the page layout. During multicast, each page server and printer extracts the object referenced by its page layout from the multicast stream. The page server permanently archives the received page layout and shared content. Other techniques may be used for data distribution.

  When the printer receives all objects that reference the page layout, the printer reproduces the fully-populated layout and then rasterizes and prints it.

  Under normal circumstances, the printer prints the page at a faster rate than the page can be delivered (distributed). If a quarter of each page is covered with an image, the average page has a size below 400 KB. Thus, the printer can hold more than 100 such pages in its internal 64 MB memory, thereby enabling a temporary buffer or the like. The printer prints at a rate of 1 page per second. This corresponds to 400 KB per second or about 3 Mbits of page data, similar to the highest expected rate of page data delivery across a broadband network.

  Even under unusual circumstances, such as when the printer is out of paper, the user may be able to refill the paper before the printer's 100 page internal storage capacity is exhausted.

  However, when the printer's internal memory is full, the printer cannot use the multicast when the multicast first occurs. Therefore, the printer can issue another multicast request by the netpage issuing server. When a critical number of requests are received or time out, the server multicasts the corresponding shared object again.

When a document is printed, the printer always makes an exact copy by retrieving its page layout and content from the associated page server.
2.7 Documents on demand (on-demand documents)
Once a netpage document is requested on demand, the netpage document can be personalized and supplied in exactly the same way as a regular publication. However, since there is no shared content, the supply is made directly to the requesting printer without using multicast.

  When a non-netpage document is requested on demand, the non-netpage document is not personalized and is served via a designated netpage formatting server that reformats it as a netpage document. Netpage formatting servers have knowledge of various Internet document formats including Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). In the case of HTML, a high-resolution print page can be used to provide a multi-column format web page using a content table. HTML automatically includes a web page linked directly to the requested page. The user can adjust this behavior by selection.

The netpage formatting server has standard netpage behavior including interactivity and persistence (persistence) that can be used on any Internet, even in its origin and format. The netpage formatting server hides knowledge of various document formats from both the netpage printer and the netpage page server, and hides the knowledge of the netpage system from the web server.
3. Security 3.1 Encryption Encryption is used to protect sensitive information in storage and transit, and to authenticate parties for transactions. In a wide range of applications, there are two classes of encryption: private key encryption and public key encryption. Netpage networks use both classes of encryption.

  Secret key encryption, also called symmetric encryption, encrypts (encodes) and decrypts (decrypts) a message using the same key. The two parties wishing to exchange messages must first arrange to securely exchange the private key.

  Public key encryption, also called asymmetric encryption, uses two encryption keys (encryption keys). These two keys are mathematically related so that only any message encrypted using one key can be decrypted using the other key. Thereafter, one of these keys is made public and the other is kept secret. The public key is used to encrypt any message intended for the private key holder. If the message is encrypted using the public key, it can only be decrypted using the private key. Therefore, the two parties can securely exchange messages without first exchanging a secret key. In order to make a secret key secure, it is common that the secret key holder forms a key pair.

  Public key encryption can be used to form a digital signature. The secret key holder forms a well-known hash of the message, which can then be used to encrypt the hash. The encrypted hash then configures the “signature” of the private key holder for that particular message by decrypting the encrypted hash using the public key and verifying the hash against the message Anyone can confirm that they do. When a signature is given to a message, the recipient of the message can confirm that the message is authentic and that the message does not change in the transit.

  In order for public key encryption to work, there must be a way to prevent the public key from being distributed and impersonated. This is usually done using a certificate (authentication) and a certificate authority. The certificate authority is a trusted third party that authenticates the relationship (connection) between the public key and someone's identity (identity). The certificate authority checks the identity document to confirm the identity (identity) of the person, and forms and signs a digital certificate including the identity of the person and the public key. Anyone who believes in a certificate authority can use the certificate's public key with a high degree of certainty that it is genuine. In this case, you must make sure that the certificate whose public key is well known is really signed by the certificate authority.

  In most trading environments, only public key cryptography is used to form a digital signature and secure exchange of secret session keys. Private key encryption is used for all other purposes.

In the following description, when referring to secure information transmission between a netpage printer and a server, the printer obtains the server's certificate and authenticates it to the certificate authority. It actually happens that after the secret session key is exchanged with the server using the public key-exchange key, the message data is encrypted using the secret key. Of course, the session key may have any short lifetime.
3.2 Netpage Printer Security Each netpage printer is assigned a pair of unique identifiers stored in the printer's read-only memory and in the netpage registration server database at the time of manufacture. The first ID 62 is disclosed and uniquely identifies a printer on the netpage network. The second ID is secret and is used when the printer is first registered on the network.

  When the printer first connects to the netpage network after installation, the printer forms a pair of a signature public key (public key) and a secret key (secret key). The printer securely transmits the secret ID and public key to the netpage registration server. The netpage registration server compares the secret ID with the printer secret ID recorded in the server database and accepts the registration if the IDs match. Thereafter, the netpage registration server forms and signs a certificate including the public ID of the printer and the public sign key, and stores the certificate in the registration database.

  Since the netpage registration server can access the secret information and confirm the identity (identity) of the printer, it functions as a certificate authority for the netpage printer.

  When a user subscribes to a publication, a record is created in the netpage registration server database, allowing the publisher to print the publication on the user's default printer or a designated printer. All documents sent to the printer via the page server are signed by the issuer using the issuer's private sign key once the address is taken for the particular user. The page server confirms via the registration database that the publisher is authenticated to supply (distribute) the publication to a particular user. The page server verifies the signature using the issuer's public key obtained from the issuer's certificate stored in the registration database.

The netpage registration server accepts this request as long as the request to add print authentication to the database is initiated by the pen registered with the printer.
3.3 Netpage Pen Security Each netpage pen is assigned a unique identifier stored at the time of manufacture in the pen's read-only memory and in the netpage registration server database. The pen ID 61 uniquely identifies the pen on the netpage network.

  A netpage pen can “know” many netpage printers, and a printer can “know” many pens. Whenever the pen is in the area of the printer, it communicates with the printer by radio frequency signals. Once registered, the pen and printer regularly exchange session keys. Whenever the pen sends digital ink to the printer, the digital ink is encrypted using the appropriate session key. Digital ink never transmits without failure.

  The pen stores a session key indexed by printer ID for each printer it knows. For each pen it knows, the printer indexes the pen ID and stores the session key. Both have a large but finite storage capacity for the session key and forget the session key based on the least frequently used criteria as needed.

  When the pen enters the area of the printer, the pen and the printer determine whether they know each other. If they do not know each other, the printer determines whether it must know the pen. This is because, for example, a pen continues to a user registered to use the printer. If the printer must know the pen but does not know, the printer initiates an automatic pen registration procedure. If the printer does not need to know the pen, the printer agrees with the pen and ignores it until it is placed in the charging cup. At this time, the printer starts a registration procedure.

  The pen has a secret key-exchange key in addition to its public ID. The key-exchange key is recorded in the netpage registration server database at the time of manufacture. During registration, the pen sends its pen ID to the printer, and the printer sends the pen ID to the netpage registration server. The netpage registration server forms a session key for use by the printer and pen and securely transmits the session key to the printer. The netpage registration server also sends a copy of the session key encrypted using the pen key-exchange key. The printer stores the session key by indexing with the pen ID, and transmits the encrypted session key to the pen. The pen stores the session key in an index with the printer ID.

  A counterfeit pen can pretend to be a pen in the pen registration protocol, but only a real pen can decrypt the session key sent by the printer.

  A pen that is not pre-registered is restricted in use until it is linked to the user when it is first registered. Registered but "not owned" pens are used to request and fill out netpage users and pen registration forms, and to register new users to which new pens are automatically linked Or use to add a new pen to an existing user is allowed.

The pen uses private key encryption instead of public key encryption due to hardware performance limitations in the pen.
3.4 Reliable Documents The netpage system supports the supply (delivery) of reliable (secure) documents such as tickets and coupons. Netpage printers have the capability to print watermarks, but only print watermarks based on requests from properly authenticated issuers. The issuer displays the authority to print the watermark on the certificate that the printer can authenticate.

  In the “watermark” printing process, another dither matrix is used in the designated “watermark” area of the page. Consecutive (back-to-back) pages contain mirror image watermark regions that match when printed. The dither matrix used in the odd and even page watermark regions is formed to produce interference effects when viewing these watermark regions together. This interference effect is obtained by looking through the printed sheet.

  The interference effect is similar to a watermark in that it is not visible when looking at only one side of the page and is lost when the page is copied by normal means.

  Reliable document pages cannot be copied using the unique netpage copy mechanism described in item 1.9 above. This extends to copying a netpage with a copier that recognizes the netpage.

  Trusted documents are typically formed as part of an e-commerce transaction. Thus, the trusted document can include a picture of the user obtained when the user registers biometric information using the netpage registration server as described in item 2.

  Given a reliable netpage document, the recipient can confirm its reliability by requesting its status in the usual way. For the lifetime of the document, only the unique ID of the trusted document is valid, and the ID of the trusted document is assigned discontinuously to prevent predictions by opportunistic counterfeiters. In order to support easy presentation-of-presentation document confirmation, a trusted document confirmation pen can be developed using feedback based on lack of confirmation.

From the point of view of cryptography, it is hard to say that both watermarks and user photos are reliable. These only pose a major obstacle to casual counterfeiting. In particular, online document verification (verification) using a verification pen provides an added level of security when necessary, but it cannot be said that there is no fear of forgery.
3.5 Non-repudiation In the netpage system, the form presented by the user is reliably delivered (distributed) to the form handler and permanently archived (saved) on the netpage server. Therefore, the recipient cannot deny the supply (distribution).

Electronic commerce conducted through a system such as that described in item 4 cannot also be denied by the payee.
4). Electronic Commerce Model 4.1 Reliable Electronic Commerce (SET)
The netpage system uses a reliable electronic commerce (SET) system as one of its payment systems. The SET developed by MasterCard, VISA, is organized across payment cards, which is represented in terminology. However, many of the systems are independent of the type of account used (account). Other payment systems may also be used.

  In SET, cardholders and business partners register with a certificate authority and are issued a certificate that includes their public sign key. The certificate authority confirms the registered contents of the cardholder with the credit card issuing company as necessary, and confirms the registered contents of the business partner with the acquirer as necessary. Cardholders and business partners securely store their respective secret sign keys on their computers. During the payment process, these certificates are used to mutually authenticate business partners and cardholders and to authenticate both of them against the payment gateway.

So far, SET has not been widely adopted. This is because, in part, maintaining the keys and certificates by the cardholder is considered cumbersome. An interim solution that retains the cardholder's key and certificate on the server and allows the cardholder access by password has been somewhat successful.
4.2 SET Payment In the netpage system, the netpage registration server functions as a proxy for a netpage user (ie, cardholder) in a SET payment transaction.

  The netpage system uses biometrics to authenticate users and authorize SET payments. Since the system is pen-based, the biometric used is the user's online signature consisting of pen position and pressure that change over time. Although cost increases, fingerprint biometrics can also be used by providing a fingerprint sensor in the pen. The type of biometric used not only affects biometric acquisition, but also affects the authentication form of the system.

  The first step in making a SET payment is to register the user's biometric using a netpage registration server. This is done in a controlled environment, for example at a bank. In this case, the biometric can be acquired at the same time as the identity of the user is confirmed. The biometric is acquired and stored in a registration database linked to the user's record. In addition, user photos are optionally acquired and linked to records. When the SET cardholder registration process is complete, the resulting private sign key and certificate are stored in the database. The user's payment card information is also stored, thereby giving the netpage registration server enough information to serve as the user's proxy in any SET payment transaction.

For example, by signing the netpage order form, when the user finally supplies the biometric and completes the payment, the printer securely sends the order information, pen ID, and biometric data to the netpage registration server. Send. The server verifies the biometric for the user identified by the pen ID and acts as a proxy for the user in completing the SET payment transaction ever since.
4.3 Micro payment (small payment)
The netpage system allows the user to be conveniently billed for printing low cost documents and copying copyright documents on demand, and pays for the cost of printing advertising materials. Has a function for micropayments (small payments). The latter depends on the level of subsidy already provided to the user.

  When the user registers for electronic commerce, a network account (network account) that collects micropayments (small payments) is established. The user can be invoiced based on regular criteria and settle the outstanding loan balance using a standard payment mechanism.

Network accounts can range from collecting subscription fees for regular publications and are presented to users in the form of individual bills.
4.4 Transactions When a user requests a netpage in a specific application context (application context), the application can incorporate a user-specific transaction ID 55 into the page. Subsequent input through the page is tagged with the transaction ID, which allows the application to establish a context suitable for the user's input.

  However, when input occurs through a page that is not user-specific, the application must establish a context using the user-specific identity. A typical example involves adding items from a pre-printed catalog page to a user's virtual “shopping cart”. However, in order to protect the user's privacy, it is preferable that the unique user ID 60 known to the netpage system is not leaked to the application. This is to prevent various application providers from simply associating the accumulated behavior data alone.

  As shown in FIG. 24, the netpage registration server holds an anonymous relationship (anonymous relationship) between the user and the application via a unique alias ID 65 instead. Whenever a user archives (saves) a hyperlink tagged with a “registered” attribute, the netpage page server nets the corresponding application ID 64 into the alias ID 65 along with the pen ID 61 (translation). Ask the page registration server. The alias ID is then submitted to the hyperlink application.

  The application holds state information indexed by alias ID and can retrieve user-specific state information without requiring knowledge of the user's global identity.

  The system also maintains an independent certificate and private sign key for each user application so that application specific information can be used to sign application transactions for the user.

  In order to assist the system when starting a Routing Product Barcode (UPC) “Hyperlink”, the system records the applications that it likes for the user for any number of product types.

  Each application is associated with an application provider, and the system maintains an account for each application provider so that it can be refunded and debted to the provider for click-through fees.

An application provider may be a publisher of subscribed content for a periodic publication. The system records the user's willingness to receive a subscribed publication and the expected frequency of the publication.
4.5 Resource Description and Copyright A preferred embodiment of the resource description class diagram is shown in FIG.

  Each document and content object may be described by one or more resource descriptions 842. The resource description preferably uses a set of Dublin Core metadata elements that are configured to facilitate the discovery of electronic resources. Dublin Core metadata follows the World Wide Web Association (W3C) Resource Description Framework (RDF). Other Dublin Core metadata element sets may be used.

The resource description may identify the rights holder 920. The netpage system automatically transmits a copyright fee from the user to the rights holder when the user prints the copyrighted content.
5). Communication protocol The communication protocol specifies the exchange of ordered messages between entities. In the netpage system, entities such as pens, printers, servers, etc. handle the interaction between the user and the netpage system by using a predetermined protocol.

Each protocol is illustrated by a sequence diagram. In this sequence diagram, a horizontal dimension is used to indicate message flow and a vertical dimension is used to indicate time. Each entity is represented by a rectangle containing the name of the entity and a vertical column indicating the lifetime of the entity. During the time that an entity exists, the lifetime is indicated by a dashed line. During the time that an entity is active, the lifetime is indicated by a double line. The protocol considered here does not form or destroy the entity, so the line is generally broken once the entity's involvement in the protocol ends.
5.1 Subscription Supply Protocol A preferred embodiment of the subscription supply protocol is shown in FIG.

  Many users can subscribe to periodicals. Each user version may be laid out in various ways, but many user versions share common content such as text objects and image objects. Thus, the subscription supply protocol supplies the document structure to individual printers by pointcast, but supplies shared content objects by multicast.

  The application (ie, issuer) first obtains a document ID 51 for each document from the ID server 12. Thereafter, the application sends each document structure including the document ID and page description to the page server 10 that bears the newly assigned ID of the document. The application has its own application ID 64, subscriber alias ID 65, and associated set of multicast channel names. The application signs the message using its private sign key.

  The page server uses the application ID and alias ID from the registration server to the corresponding user ID 60 and the user's selected printer ID 62 (which may be explicitly selected for the application, or user-defined. And an application certificate.

  The application server certificate allows the page server to confirm the message signature. If the application ID and alias ID do not identify the subscription 808, the page server request for the registration server will not work.

  Thereafter, the page server assigns the document instance ID and page instance ID, and transfers the page description including the page ID 50 to the printer. The page server contains a set of associated multicast channel names so that the printer can listen.

  The page server then returns the newly assigned page ID to the application for subsequent reference.

When the application distributes all document structures to the subscriber's selected printer via the associated page server, it multicasts a subset of the various shared objects to the preselected multicast channel. Both the page server and printer monitor the appropriate multicast channel and receive their requested content objects. The page server and printer can then occupy a pre-pointcast document structure. This allows the page server to add the entire document to their database, allowing the printer to print the document.
5.2 Hyperlink Activation Protocol A preferred embodiment of the hyperlink activation protocol is shown in FIG.

  When the user clicks on the netpage using the netpage pen, the pen communicates the click to the nearest netpage printer 601. A click identifies a page and a location on the page. The printer already knows the pen ID 61 from the pen connection protocol.

  The printer determines the network address of the page server 10a that handles the specific page ID 50 by DNS. If the user has recently interacted with the same page, the address may already be in the cache. Thereafter, the printer transfers the pen ID, its own printer ID 62, the page ID, and the click position to the page server.

  The page server loads the page description 5 identified by the page ID and determines which input element region 58 the click is, if any. When the related input element is the hyperlink element 844, the page server obtains the corresponding application ID 64 and link ID 54, and determines the network address of the application server that employs the application 71 by DNS.

  The page server uses the pen ID 61 to obtain the corresponding user ID 60 from the registration server 11 and then assigns a globally unique hyperlink request ID 52 to form a hyperlink request 934. A hyperlink request class diagram is shown in FIG. The hyperlink request records the requesting user and printer ID and identifies the hyperlink instance 862 that was clicked. Thereafter, the page server sends its own server ID 53, hyperlink request ID, and link ID to the application.

  The application forms a response document according to logic specific to the application and obtains a document ID 51 from the ID server 12. After that, the application sends the document to the page server 10b that bears the newly assigned ID of the document, the ID of the requesting page server, and the hyperlink request ID.

  The second page server sends the hyperlink request ID and application ID to the first page server, and obtains the corresponding user ID and printer ID 62. If the hyperlink request is terminated, or if the hyperlink request is for a different application, the first page server rejects the request.

  The second page server assigns the document instance and page ID 50, returns the newly assigned page ID to the application, adds the entire document to its own database, and finally presents it to the printer that requests the page description.

  The hyperlink instance may have an important transaction ID 55. In this case, the first page server includes the transaction ID in the message sent to the application. This allows the application to establish a transaction-specific context for hyperlink activation.

If the hyperlink requires a user alias, ie if its “alias requested” attribute is set, the first page server sends both the pen ID 61 and the hyperlink application ID 64 to the registration server 11, Not only the user ID corresponding to the pen ID but also the application ID and the alias ID 65 corresponding to the user ID are acquired. The first page server includes the alias ID in the message sent to the application, which allows the application to establish a user specific context for hyperlink activation.
5.3 Handwriting Recognition Protocol When a user draws a stroke on a netpage using a netpage pen, the pen communicates the stroke to the nearest netpage printer. A stroke identifies a page and a path on the page.

  The printer transfers the pen ID 61, its own printer ID 62, the page ID 50, and the stroke path to the page server 10 by a normal method.

  The page server loads the page description 5 identified by the page ID and determines which input element region 58 the stroke traverses, if any. If the associated input element is a text field 878, the page server applies the stroke to the text field's digital ink.

The page server sends to the registration server 11 to determine the pen ID and pending strokes after a period of inactivity within the area of the text field. The registration server identifies the user corresponding to the pen and uses the user's accumulated handwriting model 822 to determine the stroke as handwritten text. When the registration server converts the stroke to text, it returns it to the page server requesting the text. The page server appends the text to the text value of the text field.
5.4 Signature Verification Protocol If the input element whose stroke crosses the region is the signature field 880, the page server 10 applies the stroke to the digital ink of the signature field.

  The page server sends the pen ID 61 and pending strokes to the registration server 11 after a period of inactivity within the sign field area. The registration server sends the application ID 64 associated with the form of which the sign field is a part, the form ID, and the current data content (data content). The registration server identifies the user corresponding to the pen and uses the user's dynamic signature biometric 818 to confirm (verify) the stroke as the user's signature. When the registration server verifies the signature, it uses the application ID 64 and the user ID 60 to identify the user's application-specific secret sign key. The registration server then uses the key to form a digital signature of the form data and return it to the page server requesting the digital signature. The page server assigns a digital signature to the signature field and freezes the corresponding form state.

The digital signature includes a corresponding user alias ID 65. Thereby, one form can acquire the signatures of a plurality of users.
5.5 Form Submission Protocol A preferred embodiment of the form submission protocol is shown in FIG.

  Form submission is performed by starting a form hyperlink. Thus, form submission follows the protocol specified in item 5.2 with some form-specific grants (additions).

In the case of a form hyperlink, the hyperlink activation message sent to the application 71 by the page server 10 includes the form ID 56 and the current data content (data content) of the form. If the form includes any sign field, the application verifies each sign field by extracting the alias ID 65 associated with the corresponding digital signature and obtaining the corresponding certificate from the registration server 11.
5.6 Fee Payment Protocol A preferred embodiment of the fee payment protocol is shown in FIG.

  In an electronic commerce environment, fees and fees may be paid from the application provider to the issuer via click-throughs, transactions, and sales. Further, a fee related fee and a fee related fee may be paid from the issuer to the printer provider.

  Send a fee or commission credit from the target application provider (target application provider) 70a (eg, a customer) to the source application provider 70b (eg, issuer) and from the source application provider 70b to the printer provider 72 Therefore, the hyperlink request ID 52 is used.

  As described in item 5.2, when the hyperlink is first activated (activated), the target application receives a hyperlink request ID from the page server 10. If the target application needs to deposit to the source application provider, it sends the application provider's deposit along with the hyperlink request ID to the original page server. The page server uses the hyperlink request ID to identify the source application and sends the payment to the associated registration server 11 along with the source application ID 64, its own server ID 53, and the hyperlink request ID. The registration server deposits into the corresponding application provider account 827. In addition, the registration server notifies the application provider.

  If the application provider needs to deposit with the printer provider, it sends the printer provider's deposit with the hyperlink request ID to the original page server. The page server uses the hyperlink request ID to identify the printer and sends the receipt along with the printer ID to the associated registration server. The registration server deposits into the corresponding printer provider account 814.

The source application provider is optionally informed of the identity of the target application provider, and the printer provider is informed of the identity of the source application.
6). Netpage Pen Description 6.1 Pen Mechanics Referring to FIGS. 8 and 9, the pen is indicated generally by the reference numeral 101 and has a housing 102. The housing 102 is in the form of a plastic molding having a wall 103 that forms an interior space 104 for mounting a pen part. The pen top 105 is attached to one end 106 of the housing 102 so that it can rotate during operation. A translucent cover 107 is fixed to the opposite end 108 of the housing 102. The cover 107 is made of molded plastic, and is formed of a translucent material so that the user can see the state LED 116 mounted in the housing 102. The cover 107 includes a main portion 109 that substantially surrounds the end portion 108 of the housing 102, and a protruding portion 110 that protrudes rearward from the main portion 109 and fits into a corresponding groove 111 formed in the wall 103 of the housing 102. Have. A radio antenna 112 is mounted in the housing 102 on the rear side of the protrusion 110. To receive the metal end piece 114, a screw 113 surrounding the opening 113A of the cover 107 is provided. The metal end piece 114 has a corresponding screw 115. The metal end piece 114 is removable so that the ink cartridge can be replaced.

  In the cover 107, a three-color state LED 116 is mounted on the flex PCB 117. An antenna 112 is also mounted on the flex PCB. The status LED 116 is attached to the tip of the pen 101 so that it can be seen well over the entire circumference.

  The pen can function as a normal marking ink pen and a non-marking stylus pen. In the housing 102, an ink pen cartridge 118 having a pen tip 119 and a stylus 120 having a stylus pen tip 121 are juxtaposed. The rotation of the pen top 105 can push either the ink cartridge nib 119 or the stylus nib 121 through the open end 122 of the metal end piece 114. Slider blocks 123 and 124 are attached to the ink cartridge 118 and the stylus 120. The rotatable cam barrel 125 is fixed to the pen top 105 during operation, and is provided so as to rotate together with the pen top 105. The cam barrel 125 has a cam 126 in the form of a groove formed in the wall 181 of the cam barrel. Cam followers 127 and 128 protruding from the slider blocks 123 and 124 are fitted in the cam grooves 126. As the cam barrel 125 rotates, the slider block 123 or 124 moves relatively so that either the pen nib 119 or the stylus pen nib 121 protrudes from the hole 122 in the metal end piece 114. The pen 101 has three operation states. By rotating the pen top 105 in 90 ° steps, the following three states are obtained.

The pen tip 121 of the stylus 120 comes out. The pen tip 119 of the ink cartridge 118 comes out. Neither the pen tip 119 of the ink cartridge 118 nor the pen tip 121 of the stylus 120 comes out. It is mounted on the installed electronics chassis 130. The second flex PCB 129 has an infrared LED 131 that forms infrared rays and emits the infrared rays on the surface. An image sensor 132 that receives radiation reflected from the surface is mounted on the second flex PCB. The second flex PCB 129 includes a radio frequency chip 133 having an RF transmitter and an RF receiver, and a controller chip 134 that controls the operation of the pen 101. An optical block 135 (formed by molded transparent plastic) is disposed within the cover 107 and emits an infrared beam onto the surface to receive an image on the image sensor 132. A feed wire 136 connects the components of the second flex PCB to a battery contact 137 mounted in the cam barrel 125. A terminal 138 is connected to the battery contact 137 and the cam barrel 125. A 3 volt rechargeable battery 139 is disposed within the cam barrel 125 in contact with the battery contacts. An induction charging coil 140 that can recharge the battery 139 by induction is mounted around the second flex PCB 129. The second flex PCB 129 also allows the cam barrel 125 when writing using the stylus pen 120 or the ink cartridge 118 so that the force applied to the surface by the pen nib 119 or the stylus pen nib 121 can be determined. An infrared LED 143 and an infrared photodiode 144 that detect displacement are mounted. The IR photodiode 144 detects light from the IR LED 143 via a reflector (not shown) mounted on the slider blocks 123 and 124.

The rubber grip pads 141 and 142 are provided toward the end portion 108 of the housing 102 so as to assist in gripping the pen 101. The pen top 105 has a clip 142 for hooking the pen 101 into the pocket.
6.2 Pen Controller The pen 101 is configured to determine the position of the pen tip (stylus pen tip 121 or ink cartridge tip 119) by imaging the surface area in the vicinity of the pen tip with an infrared spectrum. It is configured. The pen is configured to record position data from the nearest position tag and to calculate the distance of the pen tips 121, 119 from the position tag using the optical element 135 and the controller chip 134. The controller chip 134 calculates the pen direction and the distance between the pen tip and the tag from the perspective distortion observed on the imaged tag.

  The pen 101 can use the RF chip 133 and the antenna 112 to transmit digital ink data (encrypted for security and packaged for efficient transmission) to the computing system.

  If the pen is in the area of the receiver, the digital ink data is transmitted as it is formed. As the pen 101 moves out of the receiver area, the digital ink data is stored in the pen 101 (the circuit of the pen 101 is provided to store the digital ink data for about 12 minutes as the pen moves on the surface. Can be transmitted afterwards).

  The controller chip 134 is mounted on the second flex PCB 129 in the pen 101. FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the structure of the controller chip 134 in detail. FIG. 10 shows representative examples of the RF chip 133, the image sensor 132, the three-color state LED 116, the IR illumination LED 131, the IR force sensor LED 143, and the force sensor photodiode 144.

  The pen controller chip 134 has a control processor 145. The bus 146 allows data exchange between the components of the controller chip 134. Flash memory 147 and 512 KB DRAM 148 are also included. The A / D converter 149 is provided to convert an analog signal from the force sensor photodiode 144 into a digital signal.

  The image sensor interface 152 is connected to the image sensor 132. A transceiver controller 153 and a baseband circuit 154 are also included to connect to an RF chip 133 having an RF circuit 155 and an RF resonator / inductor 156 connected to an antenna 112.

  The control processor 145 acquires and decodes position data from the tag from the surface by the image sensor 132, monitors the force sensor photodiode 144 to control the LEDs 116, 131, and 143, and controls the LEDs 116, 131, and 143 by the wireless transceiver 153. Communicate. The control processor is a general purpose RISC processor with medium performance (~ 40 MHz).

  The processor 145, digital transceiver components (transceiver controller 153 and baseband circuit 154), image sensor interface 152, flash memory 147, 512KB DRAM 148 are integrated in one controller ASIC. Analog RF components (RF circuit 155 and RF resonator / inductor 156) are provided in a separate RF chip.

  The image sensor is a CCD of about 215 × 215 pixels with an IF filter (such an image sensor is manufactured by Matsushita Electronics Corporation, IEEE report on electronic devices, volume 47, number 1 (2000 January) Itakura, KT Nobsada, N Okusenya, R Nagayoshi, M Ozaki, is described in "1 mm 50k-pixel IT CCD image sensor for small camera systems". Incorporated herein by reference). Other types of image sensors such as CMOS type image sensors may be used. The minimum number of pixels depends more or less on the required resolution.

  If the pen 101 is not in contact with the surface, the controller ASIC 134 inputs a stationary state after an inactive time. The controller ASIC 134 incorporates a dedicated circuit 150 that monitors the force sensor photodiode 144 and causes the power manager 151 to wake up the controller 134 when the pen is lowered.

  The wireless transceiver communicates in the unlicensed 900 MHz band normally used by mobile phones or in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band and frequency hopping And use collision detection to communicate without interference.

  In other embodiments, the pen incorporates an infrared data association (IrDA) interface for short range communication with a base station or netpage printer. The pen may be connected to the printer by wire, but in this case, the application is limited.

  In a further embodiment, the pen 101 has a pair of orthogonal accelerometers mounted on a plane perpendicular to the axis of the pen 101. The accelerometer 190 is shown in phantom lines in FIGS.

  If an accelerometer is provided, the pen 101 of this embodiment can sense movement without referring to the surface position tag, thereby sampling the position tag at a low speed. Each location tag can then identify the object of interest rather than the location on the surface. For example, if the object is a user interface input element (eg, a command button), the tag ID of each position tag in the input element's area can directly identify the input element.

  The acceleration measured by the accelerometer in each of the x and y directions is summarized with respect to time to obtain the instantaneous velocity and position.

Since the starting position of the stroke is not known, only the relative position within the stroke is calculated. Accumulation of positions (integration) accumulates errors in detected acceleration, but accelerometers generally have high resolution and the stroke time in which errors are accumulating is short.
7). Netpage Printer Description 7.1 Printer Mechanism FIGS. 11 and 12 show a fully assembled netpage wall printer 601 mounted in the vertical direction. As best shown in FIGS. 12, 12a, and 68, this uses a dual 8 1/2 inch Memjet® print engine 602 and 603 to print netpages on A4 size media. To do. 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 discussed in detail below with particular reference to FIGS. 62, 63, and 64.

  Referring to FIGS. 11, 12, 12a, 13, and 53-58, the wall printer 601 consists of a main chassis 606 that houses all the main components and assemblies. As best shown in FIG. 58, 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.

  59 and 60 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 ejected 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 FIGS. 53, 65, and 66, 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 649 and Ethernet connection 650. 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. FIG. 66 shows the enlarged assembly of module 625. The interface module PCB 651 is plugged directly into the main wall printer PCB 612 via the edge connector 654 (with a gold contact engine strip). By using the tool insert 652, the modular design accommodates different connector configurations. Finger width recesses 653 on either side of module 625 allow for easy manual insertion or removal.

  Referring to FIG. 68, 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 a CPU with volatile memory (currently two 32MB DRAMs are used), flash memory, IEEE 1394 interface chip, motor controller (currently six), various sensor connectors, interface module PCB edge connector, Includes power management, internal / external data connector, and QA chip.

  FIG. 58 shows front hatch access to paper 604 and ink cartridge 627. Referring to FIG. 67, 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. Other tray designs may be used.

  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. 54 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, 12a, 59, 60, and 68, the powered media pick-up 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. 12 a, Memjet® print engines 602 and 603 include rotary capping, blotting and platen devices 669. The capping device seals the Memjet® print head 705 when not in use. 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.

  As shown in FIGS. 12, 12 a, 62, and 63, paper 604 is fed from dual print engines 602 and 603 into binder assembly 605. 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. 62 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.
7.2 Memjet-based printing The Memjet (R) 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.
7.3 Document Data Flow Due to the page width nature of the Memjet print head, 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 secured. 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 / IEC 19018-1: 1994, "Information technology-Digital compression and coding of continuous-tone still images: The contents of Requirements and guidelines in this application, the contents of this application, and the like, 1994"). Using some contone compression algorithms, contone images are compressed at a ratio of up to 10: 1 without noticeable quality loss, 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”; Using the algorithm, ten-point text is compressed at 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.
7.4 Printer Controller Architecture As shown in FIG. 14, the netpage printer controller includes a control processor 750, a factory or factory installed network interface module 625, a wireless transceiver (transceiver controller 753, baseband circuit 754). , RF circuit 755, and RF resonator and inductor 756), dual raster image processor (RIP) DSP 757, dual print engine controllers 760a and 760b, flash memory 658, and DRAM 657 (currently 64 MB).

  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 RIP DSP 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 752. Netpage / Network Internet Interface includes POTS modem, Hybrid Fiber-Coax (HFC) cable modem, ISDN modem, DSL modem, satellite transceiver, current and next generation mobile phone transceiver, wireless local loop (WLL) ) 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. 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.
7.4.1 Rasterization and Printing As shown in FIG. 52, the main processor 750 receives (in 550) the document's page layout and page objects and places them in the memory 657 (in 551), on the DSP 757. Run the appropriate RIP software.

  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.
7.4.2 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, a standard group 4 fax decoder 764, and 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 of the page (8 1/2 inches). To do. These line speeds are well within the operating frequency of the Memjet® printhead, which exceeds 30 kHz with the current design.
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.

It is a schematic diagram of the relationship between a sample printed netpage and its online page description. FIG. 3 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. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a high level structure of a printed netpage and its online page description. It is a top view which shows the structure of a netpage tag. FIG. 5b is a plan view showing the relationship between the tag set shown in FIG. 5a and the field of view of the netpage sensing device in the form of a netpage pen. It is a top view which shows another structure of a netpage tag. FIG. 6b is a plan view showing the relationship between the tag set shown in FIG. 6a and the field of view of the netpage sensing device in the form of a netpage pen. FIG. 6b is a plan view showing an arrangement of nine tags of the tags shown in FIG. 6a in which the target is shared between adjacent tags. FIG. 6b is a plan view showing the interleaving and rotation of the four codeword symbols of the tag shown in FIG. 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. 13 is an enlarged portion of FIG. 12 showing a cross section of the dual print engine and adhesive wheel assembly. 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 schematic diagram of a user class diagram. It is a schematic diagram of a printer class diagram. It is the schematic of a pen class figure. It is a schematic diagram of an application class diagram. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a class diagram for document and page descriptions. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a class diagram for document and page ownership. It is the schematic of a terminal element specialization class diagram. It is the schematic of a static element specialization class diagram. It is the schematic of a hyperlink element class diagram. It is the schematic of a hyperlink element specialization class diagram. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a class diagram of a hyperlinked group. It is a schematic diagram of a form class diagram. It is the schematic of a digital ink class diagram. It is the schematic of a field element specialization class diagram. It is a schematic diagram of a check box field class diagram. It is a schematic diagram of a text field class diagram. It is the schematic of a signature field class diagram. It is a flowchart of an input processing algorithm. It is a detailed flowchart regarding 1 step of the flowchart of FIG. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a class diagram of a page server command element. It is a schematic diagram of a resource description class diagram. It is a schematic diagram of a favorite list class diagram. It is a schematic diagram of a history list class diagram. It is the schematic of a subscription delivery protocol. It is a schematic diagram of a hyperlink request class diagram. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a hyperlink activation protocol. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a form submission protocol. It is the schematic of a commission payment protocol. FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a set of radial wedges that make up a symbol. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a ring A and B symbol allocation scheme. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a first ring C and D symbol allocation scheme. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a second ring C and D symbol allocation scheme. 6 is a flowchart of document processing in a netpage printer. It is a simple enlarged view of a wall printer. It is an enlarged view of an ink cartridge. FIG. 6 is a pair of three-quarter views of the ink cartridge. FIG. 3 is a three-quarter view of a single ink cartridge. FIG. 4 is a transverse sectional view and a longitudinal sectional view of the entire length of the ink cartridge. FIG. 4 is a transverse sectional view and a longitudinal sectional view of the entire length of the ink cartridge. FIG. 3 is a three-quarter front view of the opened media tray. FIG. 3 is a three-quarter front view of the electrical system of the printer. FIG. 3 is a rear three-quarter view of the electrical system. FIG. 4 is a three-quarter front view of the wall printer with the lower front cover removed. It is sectional drawing of a binder assembly. FIG. 3 is a three-quarter view of the back side of the opened adhesive wheel assembly. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the binding assembly and the exit hatch. It is a three-dimensional view of an interface module. It is an enlarged view of an interface module. FIG. 4 is a top three-quarter view of the media tray. It is sectional drawing of the upper part of a printer.

Explanation of symbols

601 Wall printer 606 Chassis 608 Front molding 609 Handle molding 610 Front lower molding 613, 614, 615, 616 Color LED
617 push button 619 collection tray

Claims (77)

In response to first indication data sensed by and received from a sensing device from a first encoded data included in a first interface disposed on the first surface, the first surface is A printer for printing a second interface on a different second surface,
The printer is
(A) an input module,
(I) receiving first indication data representing at least partially response data from the sensing device;
(Ii) generating second instruction data representing response data at least partially based on the first instruction data;
(Iii) an input module configured to transmit the second instruction data to a computer system;
(B) a printing module including a printing mechanism,
(I) receiving response data from the computer system;
(Ii) generating a second interface based at least in part on the response data;
(Iii) a printing module including a printing mechanism configured to print the second interface on the second surface using a printing mechanism ;
Including
The printer , wherein the first instruction data includes user identification data representing user data . The second interface includes second encoded data, and the printing module includes an encoded data generator configured to generate the second encoded data based on at least a portion of response data. The printer according to claim 1. The response data includes second region identification data representing at least one identification, the identification is associated with a region of a second interface, and the coded data generator is based on the second region identification data. The printer of claim 2, wherein the printer is configured to generate the second encoded data representative of the identification. 4. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the second interface includes visible information based at least in part on response data in addition to the second encoded data. 5. The printer of claim 3, wherein the second encoded data further represents at least one reference point of a region. The printer of claim 5, wherein the at least one reference point is determined based on a coded data layout. The printer of claim 6, wherein the printing module is configured to receive the encoded data layout from a computer system. The printing module further includes storage means for storing a plurality of coded data layouts,
Receiving layout selection information representing one of the coded data layouts from the computer system;
The printer of claim 6, wherein the printer is configured to use the layout selection information to select one of the stored coded layouts for use in determining the at least one reference point. . The printer according to claim 1, wherein the first instruction data includes position data sensed by the sensing device from the first encoded data. The first indication data includes first area identification data sensed by the sensing device from the first encoded data, and the first area identification data is associated with an area of the first interface. The printer of claim 1, wherein the area represents at least partially response data. The first indication data includes position data sensed by the sensing device from the first encoded data, the position data representing a position within an area, and the position within the area is at least partially The printer according to claim 10, which represents response data. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the second encoded data includes at least one tag each representing an identification of an area. The second coded data includes a plurality of tags, and the coded data generator is configured to check the position of each tag before printing, and each position is determined based on a coded data layout. The printer according to claim 12. The printer of claim 13, wherein the coded data generator is configured to receive the coded data layout from the computing device before printing the second coded data. And further comprising storage means for storing a plurality of encoded data layouts, the encoded data generator comprising:
Receiving layout selection information representing one of the coded data layouts from the computing device;
The printer according to claim 7, wherein the printer is configured to generate the second encoded data based on the layout selection information. Each of the tags is
First identification data defining a relative position of the tag;
The printer according to claim 13, further comprising second identification data for identifying a surface. 12. A printer according to any one of claims 1 to 3 or 5 to 11, wherein the printer is configured to print the second interface on the second surface on demand. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the second interface is printed over a plurality of pages. The printer of claim 1, wherein the first and / or second surface is defined by a substrate. The printer according to claim 19, wherein the substrate has a thin layer shape. The printer according to claim 12, wherein the tag is disposed at a predetermined position on the second surface. The printer of claim 21, wherein the tags are disposed on a surface in a non-overlapping pattern composed of a plurality of tiles, each of the tiles including a plurality of tags. 23. The printer of claim 22, wherein the tiles are interconnected to substantially cover the surface. 24. The printer of claim 23, wherein all of the tiles have a similar shape. The printer according to claim 24, wherein the tiles are triangular, quadrangular, rectangular, or hexagonal. The printer of claim 22, wherein the tag is stochastically disposed within each of the tiles. The printer according to claim 12, wherein each of the tags includes at least one common feature in addition to the second identification data. 28. The printer of claim 27, wherein at least one common feature is configured to assist in the discovery and / or recognition of the tag by an associated tag reader. 28. The printer of claim 27, wherein the at least one common feature is represented in a format incorporating information redundancy. 30. The printer of claim 29, wherein the at least one common feature is rotationally symmetric such that it is rotationally invariant. 30. The printer of claim 29, wherein the at least one common feature is a ring. The printer of claim 12, wherein each of the tags includes at least one orientation feature to allow confirmation of the rotational orientation of the tag by an associated tag reader. The printer of claim 32, wherein the at least one orientation feature is represented in a format that incorporates information redundancy. 34. The printer of claim 33, wherein the at least one orientation feature is rotationally asymmetric. 34. The printer of claim 33, wherein the at least one orientation feature is distorted along its major axis. The printer of claim 12, wherein each of the tags includes at least one watermark feature for allowing watermark distortion of the tag to be confirmed by an associated tag reader. 37. The printer of claim 36, wherein the at least one watermark feature includes at least four subfeatures that do not match. The printer according to claim 12, wherein each tag includes a plurality of tag elements, and each of the first and second identification data is defined by a plurality of elements. 40. The printer of claim 38, wherein the tag elements are arranged in one or more arcuate bands around the central area of each tag. 40. The printer of claim 39, wherein the plurality of arcuate bands are arranged concentrically with each other. 41. A printer according to claim 40, wherein each element takes the form of a dot having a plurality of possible values. 42. A printer according to claim 41, wherein the number of possible values is two. When representing one of the possible values, the tag element absorbs, reflects or emits electromagnetic radiation of a predetermined wavelength or wavelength range to a range that is a predetermined amount larger or smaller than the second surface. 41. The printer according to 41. 42. The printer of claim 41, wherein the possible values of the tag element are defined by different relative absorptions, reflections, or emission of electromagnetic radiation of a predetermined wavelength or wavelength range. 42. The printer of claim 41, wherein the tag is substantially invisible to an average human naked eye under daylight or ambient light conditions. 42. The printer of claim 41, wherein the tag is slightly visible to an average human naked eye under daylight or ambient light conditions. 40. The printer of claim 38, wherein the tag is visible to an average human naked eye under daylight or ambient light conditions. The printer according to claim 13, wherein the first identification data is expressed in a format incorporating redundancy of information. The printer according to claim 13, wherein the second identification data is expressed in a format incorporating redundancy of information. 50. The printer of claim 49, wherein the printer is an ink printer. 51. The printer of claim 50, wherein the tag is printed using ink that absorbs or reflects ultraviolet or infrared spectrum. 52. The printer of claim 51, wherein the printer includes a separate ink channel for printing the tag. 51. The printer of claim 50, wherein the printer is configured to print the second encoded data and additional information substantially simultaneously on the second surface. 54. The printer of claim 53, wherein the additional information is printed on the second surface using color ink or monochrome ink. The additional information is
CMY and
CMYK,
CMYRGB,
55. The printer of claim 54, wherein the printer is printed on the second surface using one of a combination of color inks consisting of spot colors. The printer according to claim 9, wherein at least a plurality of tags are stochastically disposed on the second surface. 12. A printer according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein the tags are arranged in a regular array on the second surface according to the coded layout data. 58. The printer of claim 57, wherein the array is triangular. 58. The printer of claim 57, wherein the array is rectangular. 58. The printer of claim 57, wherein the tag is tiled to cover the second surface. 61. The printer of claim 60, further comprising a binding mechanism that binds the pages into a bookbinding document. 54. The printer of claim 53, wherein the second surface is defined by one side of a page, and the printer further includes a duplex printing mechanism for printing both sides of the page simultaneously. 12. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the printing mechanism includes an inkjet print head for printing ink on the second surface. 13. 64. The printer of claim 63, wherein the print head is a drop-on-demand ink jet print head. The printer according to claim 64, wherein the print head is a page-width print head. 66. The printer of claim 65, wherein the print head is configured to distribute a plurality of ink colors to the second surface in a single print. 66. The printer of claim 65, wherein the print head includes an electrothermal bending actuator for discharging ink to the surface. 68. The printer of claim 67, wherein the printer includes two sets of print heads configured to print both sides of a page substantially simultaneously. 68. The printer of claim 67, including a forced filtering air distribution mechanism for keeping the print head nozzles relatively free of paper dust. 68. The printer of claim 67, wherein the print head includes a moving nozzle chamber. The printer of claim 70, wherein the printer includes two sets of printheads configured to print both sides of a page substantially simultaneously. 72. The printer of claim 71 , wherein the user identification data is provided from storage means associated with the sensing device. A printer according to any one of claims 1 to 3, 5 to 11, 15 or 16;
A sensing device for sensing said first instruction data and transmitting it to a printer. 74. The system of claim 73 , wherein the sensing device includes a wireless transmitter for transmitting the instruction data to a printer, and the printer includes a wireless receiver for receiving the instruction data. 74. The system of claim 73 , wherein the sensing device includes an optical sensor that senses the first encoded data. A printer according to any one of claims 1 to 3, 5 to 11, 15 or 16;
A first interface surface disposed on the first surface and including first encoded data sensed by a sensing device and generating first instruction data for transmission from the sensing device to the printer; Including system. An interface surface generated by a printer according to any one of claims 1 to 3, 5 to 11, 15 or 16.

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