KR100837470B1 - Method for reading machine-readable coded data - Google Patents

Abstract

Machine-readable coded data arranged on or on a substrate in accordance with the arrangement, and a method for generating the encoded data, the arrangement having a six-fold rotational symmetry structure, which is about 1 / around the center of the rotational symmetry structure of the arrangement. Six rotated and separated six identical sub-batches. The encoded data is arranged in accordance with each sub-batch comprising rotation-display data that distinguishes the rotation of the sub-batch from the rotation of at least one other sub-batch in the batch. In one embodiment, the symbols of the sub-batches are inserted into each other.

Placement, Rotary Symmetry, Subposition

Description

Method for reading machine-readable coded data

The present invention relates to a method of reading machine-readable coded data in positional coding of a surface.

Various methods, systems and apparatuses of the present invention are disclosed in the following pending applications filed on October 15, 2002 by the applicant or assignee of the present invention:

PCT / AU02 / 01391, PCT / AU02 / 01392, PCT / AU02 / 01393, PCT / AU02 / 01394 and PCT / AU02 / 01395.

The contents of these pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.

Various methods, systems and apparatuses of the present invention are disclosed in the following pending applications filed on November 26, 2001 by the applicant or assignee of the present invention:

PCT / AU01 / 01527, PCT / AU01 / 01528, PCT / AU01 / 01529, PCT / AU01 / 01530 and PCT / AU01 / 01531.

The contents of these pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.

Various methods, systems and apparatuses of the present invention are disclosed in the following pending applications filed on October 11, 2001 by the applicant or assignee of the present invention: PCT / AU01 / 01274. The contents of these pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.

Various methods, systems and apparatuses of the present invention are disclosed in the following pending applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention on August 14, 2001: PCT / AU01 / 00996. The contents of these pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.

Various methods, systems and apparatuses of the present invention are disclosed in the following pending applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention on November 27, 2000:

The contents of these pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.

Various methods, systems and apparatuses of the present invention are disclosed in the following pending applications filed on October 20, 2000 by the applicant or assignee of the present invention:

The contents of these pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.

Various methods, systems and apparatuses of the present invention are disclosed in the following pending applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention on September 15, 2000: PCT / AU00 / 01108, PCT / AU00 / 01110 And PCT / AU00 / 01111. The contents of these pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.

Various methods, systems and apparatuses of the present invention are disclosed in the following pending applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention on June 30, 2000:

The contents of these pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.

Various methods, systems and apparatuses of the present invention are disclosed in the following pending applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention on May 24, 2000:

The contents of these pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.

Background Technology

Methods are known for providing one or more encoded data structures on a surface that can be read and decoded by a suitable sensing device. Various features of the device, including an optical sensor, are described cross-reference to a number of documents included in this application.

The encoded data structures described in these documents include target features that enable the sensing device to identify the location of each structure. The relative positions of the features in each structure can also be interpreted to determine the perceived torsional distortion of the structure and to enable the perspective correction performed on the sensed data.

However, in order for the sensing device to be able to decode the data in the structure, the rotational orientation of this structure needs to be determined. Typically, this is accomplished by providing at least one feature that is rotationally asymmetric in some way. For example, in one feature, a feature in the form of a keyhole that can be positioned with respect to other features is provided and then recognized to ensure the rotational orientation of the structure relative to the sensing device. Then, since the position in the data structure can be hindered from the position of the structure and the rotational orientation determination, the actual data encoded in the data structure can be decoded.

This arrangement disadvantage is the need to devote space to one or more orientation measurement features and the difficulty of including the redundant features for the purpose of allowing rotational orientation measurement in the presence of damage to the features.

Therefore, it is desirable to encode azimuth measurement information in both space-efficient, error-detectable and / or error-correctable formats.

According to a first aspect of the invention, machine-readable coded data is disposed on a substrate according to a layout, the layout having a six-rotational symmetrical structure and a distance of one sixth rotation with respect to the center of the rotational symmetrical structure. Including six identical sub-batches rotated at a distance, the coded data disposed in accordance with the sub-batteries, such that the rotation of the sub-batches is rotated by at least one other sub- batch in the layout. And rotational-display data to distinguish from.

The rotation-display data preferably distinguishes the rotation of the sub-batch from the rotation of each of the other sub-batches in the batch.

In a preferred form, the encoded data is redundantly encoded, and the encoded data of each sub-batch includes at least one coded data code name. More preferably, the encoded data is redundantly encoded using Reed-Solomon encoding.

Each sub-arrangement defines the positions of a plurality of data elements, wherein the sub-arrangements are preferably inserted with each other any two data elements without overlapping each other.

In a preferred form, the layout is repeated on the substrate. More preferably, the layout is bundled together on a substrate.

The layout is preferably hexagonal.

In a preferred form, the coded data includes one or more target features that enable rotation and preliminary positioning of the layout as determined by the machine used to read the coded data. The target features are formed to enable perspective correction of the encoded data of the or each batch upon reading by the machine, the plurality of batches sharing some of the same target features.

According to a second aspect of the invention, a surface is provided having machine-readable encoded data according to the first aspect.

The surface preferably includes additional visual indications.

The surfaces are particularly preferably formed for use as an interface surface to enable a user to interact with the computer.

According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of generating an interface surface comprising the following steps:

Receiving user data at the printer;

Generating machine-readable encoded data comprising the user data;

Printing the encoded data on a substrate;

The method preferably further comprises printing visible marks on the substrate concurrently with the encoded data.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for reading machine-readable encoded data according to previous features of the invention, the method comprising the following steps:

(a) detecting the encoded data using a sensing device;

(b) determining at least one rotation-display data of the sub-batch by decoding at least one coded data of the plurality of sub-batch in the sensed coded data;

(c) using the rotation-display data to determine at least one rotational position among the remaining sub-dispositions to be decrypted;

Step (a) preferably comprises the following steps:

Imaging the substrate to generate the image;

Processing the image to locate one or more target features of the encoded data;

Based on the located target features, determining at least one of the sub-batches.

Preferred and other embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings by way of non-limiting example only:

1 is a schematic diagram of the interaction between a simple printed netpage and its online page description;

2 is a schematic diagram of the interaction between a netpage pen, a netpage printer, a netpage server, a netpage application server;

3 illustrates a set of netpage servers and printers connected to one another via a network;

4 is a schematic diagram of the high level structure of a printed netpage and its online page description;

5A is a plan view illustrating insertion and rotation of symbols of four code names of a tag;

FIG. 5B is a plan view showing a macro dot arrangement for tags on FIG. 5A; FIG.

FIG. 5C is a plan view showing an arrangement of nine of the tags on FIGS. 5A and 5B, with targets being shared between adjacent tags;

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing a relationship between a set of tags on FIG. 5A and is a field diagram of a netpage sensing device in the form of a netpage pen; FIG.

7 is a flowchart of tag image processing and decoding operations;

8 is a perspective view of a Netpage pen and its associated tag-sensing field-of-view cone;

9 is an exploded perspective view of the netpage pen on FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a schematic block diagram of the pen controller for the Netpage pen on FIGS. 8 and 9;

11 is a perspective view of a wall mounted netpage printer;

12 is a sectional view in the longitudinal direction of the netpage printer of FIG. 11;

FIG. 12A is an enlarged view of FIG. 12 showing a cross section of a dual print engines and glue wheel assembly; FIG.

FIG. 13 is a detailed view of the ink cartridge, ink, air and glue path, print engines of FIGS. 11 and 12;

14 is a schematic block diagram of a printer controller for a netpage printer on FIGS. 11 and 12;

FIG. 15 is a schematic block diagram of Memjet ^™ print heads associated with dual print engine controllers and the printer controller on FIG. 14;

FIG. 16 is a schematic block diagram of the print engine controller on FIGS. 14 and 15;

17 is a perspective view of, for example, a single Memjet ^™ printing component used in the netpage printer of FIGS. 10-12;

18 is a perspective view of a small portion of the arrangement of Memjet ^™ printing components;

19 is a series of perspective views illustrating the operating cycle of the Memjet ^™ printing component on FIG. 13;

20 is a perspective view of a short portion of a page width Memjet ^™ print head;

21 is a schematic diagram of a user class diagram;

22 is a schematic diagram of a printer class diagram;

23 is a schematic diagram of a pen class diagram;

24 is a schematic diagram of an application class diagram;

25 is a schematic diagram of a document and page description class diagram;

26 is a schematic diagram of a document and page ownership class diagram;

27 is a schematic diagram of a terminal component specialization class diagram;

28 is a schematic representation of a positive component specialization class diagram;

29 is a schematic diagram of a hyperlink component class diagram;

30 is a schematic diagram of a hyperlink component specialization class diagram;

31 is a schematic diagram of a hyperlink group class diagram;

32 is a schematic diagram of a foam class diagram;

33 is a schematic diagram of a digital ink class diagram;

34 is a schematic representation of a field component specialization class diagram;

35 is a schematic diagram of a checkbox field class diagram;

36 is a schematic diagram of a text field class diagram;

37 is a schematic diagram of a signature field class diagram;

38 is a flowchart of an input processing operation;

FIG. 38A is a detailed flowchart of step 1 of the flowchart of FIG. 38;

39 is a schematic diagram of a page server command component class diagram;

40 is a schematic diagram of a subscription delivery protocol;

41 is a schematic diagram of a hyperlink request class diagram;

42 is a schematic diagram of a hyperlink activation protocol;

43 is a schematic diagram of a form submission protocol;

Figure 44 illustrates a triangular macro dot enclosed in an outlined 4-bit symbol device for use in an embodiment of the present invention;

45 shows square macro dots enclosed in an outlined 4-bit symbol device for use in embodiments of the present invention as described in connection with FIGS. 5A-5C;

46 shows hexagonal macro dots enclosed in an outlined 4-bit symbol device for use in embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 47 shows a 1/6 portion of a hexagon tag having a portion containing up to eleven 4-bit symbols with a triangular macro dot package on FIG. 44;

FIG. 48 shows a 1/6 portion of another hexagon tag having a portion containing up to 17 4-bit symbols with a triangular macro dot package on FIG. 44;

FIG. 49 shows a quarter portion of a square tag having a portion containing up to 15 four-bit symbols with the square macro dot package on FIG. 45;

FIG. 50 shows a 1/6 portion of a hexagon tag having a portion containing up to fourteen four-bit symbols with the hexagonal macro dot package on FIG. 46;

Figure 51 is a six insertion -2 ^quaternary (11, k) represents the logical layout of a hexagonal tag having a code name, using the tag portion of Figure 47;

FIG. 52 shows a macro dot arrangement of hexagon tags on FIG. 51;

FIG. 53 shows an arrangement of seven adjacent tags of the configuration of FIGS. 51 and 52;

Figure 54 shows the four inserted -2 ^quaternary (15, k) the logical arrangement of the alternative of the square tag using the tag portion of the code having a name, 49;

FIG. 55 shows a macro dot arrangement of the rectangular tag of FIG. 54;

Figure 56 is an insert having three ^tertiary -2 (7, k) code name, it shows a logical layout of a triangular tag;

FIG. 57 shows a macro dot arrangement of the triangular tag of FIG. 56;

Figure 58 is an insert having two ^tertiary -2 (7, k) code name, it shows a logical arrangement of the linear double rotary symmetric tags;

FIG. 59 shows a macro dot arrangement of the linear tag of FIG. 58;

FIG. 60 shows an alternative macro dot arrangement based on the arrangement of the linear tag of FIG. 58 having a purely one-dimensional structure similar to that of a conventional barcode;

[Characteristic]

Note: Memjet ^TM is a trademark of Silver Brook Institute of Australia.

In a preferred embodiment, the present invention is designed to operate in a netpage network computer system, a detailed overview of which follows. It will be understood that not all embodiments necessarily embody all or most of the specific details and details discussed below in connection with the base system. However, when attempting to understand the text in which the preferred embodiments and features of the present invention operate, the system is described in its most complete form to reduce the need for external references.

In summary, the preferred form of the netpage system uses a computer interface in the form of a map surface, ie, the physical surface includes a reference to a map of the surface maintained in the computer system. This map reference is queried by the appropriate sensor. Based on a particular implementation, map references may be encoded either visually or invisibly, and defined in such a way that local questions on the map surface generate clear maps both within the map and between other maps. The computer system may include information regarding features on a map surface, which information may be retrieved based on a map reference supplied by a sensing device used with the map surface. Thus, this retrieved information may take the form of actions initiated by the computer system on behalf of the operator in response to the operator's interaction with surface features.

In its preferred form, the netpage system relies on human interaction with the netpages, production of the netpages. These usually work like text, graphics and images printed on paper, or interactive web pages. The information is encoded on each page using ink that is almost invisible to the naked eye. However, this ink can be detected by the data encoded by it, the optical imaging pen and delivered to the netpage system.

In its preferred form, the active buttons and hyperlinks on each page can be clicked with the pen to request information from the network or to signal a preference to the network. In one embodiment, the handwritten text on the netpage is automatically recognized and converted into the computer text in the netpage system, allowing the forms to be filled. In other embodiments, the signatures recorded on the netpage are automatically verified, allowing the e-commerce transaction to be securely authorized.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the printed netpage 1 is interactively populated on the printed page, physically and “electronically”, via communication between the pen and the netpage system. It can represent a form. This example shows a "Request" form that includes name and address fields and a suggestion button. This netpage consists of graphic data (2) printed using visible ink and coded data (3) printed using a set of tags (4) using invisible ink. This corresponding page description (5) stored in the netpage network describes the individual components of the netpage. In particular, it describes the type and spatial extent (region) of each interacting component (ie text field or button in this example), allowing the netpage system to interpret the input correctly through the netpage. For example, the suggestion button 6 has an area 7 corresponding to the spatial extent of the corresponding graphic 8.

As illustrated in Fig. 2, the Netpage pen 101, shown in Figs. 8 and 9 and described in more detail below, is a netpage printer 601 for home, office or mobile use, the Internet. It works in conjunction with a connected printing machine. The pen is wireless and communicates securely with a Netpage printer via a short-range radio link (9).

The netpage printer 601, in the preferred form shown in FIGS. 11 and 13 and described in more detail below, is printed personally, as high quality as interactive netpages, both periodically and as claimed. Deliver newspapers, magazines, catalogs, booklets and other publications. Unlike a personal computer, the netpage printer is a device that can be wall mounted adjacent to the area where the morning news is first consumed, such as in the user's kitchen, near the breakfast table, or near the family's starting point for the day. . It is also available in tabletops, desktops, portables and compacts.

Netpages printed at their consumption points combine the ease of use of paper with the timeliness and interaction of interactive media.

As shown in FIG. 2, the netpage pen 101 interacts with the encoded data printed on the printed netpage 1 and, via a short-range radio link 9, to the netpage printer. Communicate the interaction. The printer 601 sends the interaction to the relevant netpage server 10 for interpretation. In a suitable environment, the page server sends the message to application computer software running on the netpage application server 13. The application server may in turn send a response that is printed on the starting printer.

The netpage system is made significantly more convenient in the preferred embodiment by being used in combination with a high speed electromechanical system based on Inkjet (Memjet ^™ printers). In a preferred form of this technology, relatively high speed and high quality Printing is more suited to consumers In its preferred form, Netpage Publishing has the physical characteristics of a traditional magazine, such as a set of letter-sized glossy pages printed on both sides in full color. Combined for easy navigation and convenient operation.

The netpage printer leverages the increasing availability of wide area Internet access. Cable servers are available for 95% of homes in the United States, and cable modem services that provide wide-area Internet access are already available for 20% of these US homes. The netpage printer can also operate on slower connections, but with longer transfer times and lower image quality. The system is slower and therefore less acceptable from the consumer's point of view, but the netpage system can be built using truly existing consumer inkjet and laser printers. In other embodiments, the netpage system is hosted on a private intranet. In still other embodiments, the netpage system is hosted on a computer-connected device such as a single computer or printer.

Netpage publishing servers 14 on a netpage network are configured to deliver print-quality publications to netpage printers. Periodic publications are automatically delivered to subscribing netpage printers via point casting and multicast Internet protocols. Personal publications are filtered and formatted according to individual user profiles.

The netpage printer can be configured to support any number of pens, and the pen can work with any number of netpage printers. In a preferred embodiment, each netpage pen has a unique identifier. A home may have a set of colored netpage pens and one netpage pen assigned to each member of the family. This allows each user to maintain a separate profile for the netpage publishing server or application server.

The netpage pen can also be registered with the netpage registration server 11 and can be linked to one or more payment card accounts. This allows e-commerce payments to be securely authorized using the Netpage pen. The netpage registration server compares the signature signed by the netpage pen with a previously registered signature, allowing the merchant server to authenticate the identity of the user to the e-commerce server. Other biometrics can also be used to verify identity. The version of the netpage pen includes fingerprint scanning, verified in a similar manner by the netpage registration server.

Although netpage printers may deliver periodic things such as morning news without user intervention, they may never be configured to deliver unnecessary bulk advertising mailings. In its preferred form, it only delivers periodic from subscribing or otherwise authorized sources. In this regard, the netpage printer is not like an e-mail account visible to a fax machine or any bulk advertising mailer who knows a phone number or email address.

1 Netpage System Architecture

Each objective model in the system is described using a unified modeling language (UML) class diagram. Class diagrams consist of a set of destination classes connected by relationships, and two types of relationships are of interest here: association and generalization. Associations represent some kind of relationship between objectives, that is, some kind of relationship between examples of classes. Generalization relates to actual classes, and can be understood in the following way: If a class is thought to be a set of all the objectives of the class, then A class is a generalization of B class, then B is only a subset of A to be. The UML does not directly support secondary modeling-ie classes of classes.

Each class is drawn as a rectangle labeled with the class name. This includes a list of classes 'attributes, separated from the name by a horizontal line, and a list of classes' operations, separated from the attribute list by a horizontal line. However, in the following class diagrams, the operations are never modeled.

Associations are drawn as lines joining two classes, optionally labeled with the diversity of associations at either end of the two. The default variety is one. An asterisk (*) indicates a "many" variety, ie zero or more. Each association is optionally labeled by its name, and also optionally labeled by the role of the class at either end. Open diamonds represent an "is-part-of" and are drawn at the collective end of the union line.

The generalization relationship ("is-a") is a thick line that joins two classes and is represented by an arrow (in the form of an open triangle) in the generalization stage.

When a class diagram is broken up into multiple diagrams, any doubled class is represented by a dashed outline on everything except the main diagram that defines it. This is represented by attributes only when it is defined.

1.1 netpages

Netpages are the basis on which the netpage network is built. These provide a paper-based user interface to services that interact with published information.

Netpages consist of printed pages (or other surface areas) that are invisibly tagged with reference to the online description of the page. The online page description is steadily maintained by the netpage server. The page description describes the content of the page and its visible layout, including text, graphics and images. It also describes the input components on the page, including buttons, hyperlinks, input fields. Netpages allow marks drawn on the surface with a netpage pen to be drawn and processed simultaneously by the netpage system.

Multiple netpages can share the same page description. However, to allow input to be distinguished through other identical pages, each page is assigned a unique page recognizer. This page ID has enough accuracy to distinguish between a large number of netpages.

Each reference to a page description is encoded in a printed tag. The tag recognizes the unique page appearing thereon, thereby indirectly recognizing the page description. The tag also recognizes its own location on the page. The characteristics of the tags are described in more detail below.

Tags are usually printed with infrared-absorbing ink on any substrate that is infrared-reflective, such as paper. Near infrared wavelengths are also visible to the naked eye, but are easily detected by solid-state image sensors with appropriate filters.

The tag is detected by the local image sensor in the Netpage pen, and the tag data is passed to the netpage system through the nearest netpage printer. The pen is wireless and communicates with the netpage printer via a short range radio link. The tags are small enough and tightly arranged so that the pen can reliably image at least one tag with a single click on the page. Since the interaction is not nationality, it is important that the pen recognizes the page ID and location at every interaction with the page. Tags are coded with error correction to be partially resistant to surface damage.

The netpage server maintains a unique page case for each printed netpage and allows maintaining a separate set of user-supplied values for input fields in the page description for each printed netpage.

The page description, the page case, the relationship between the printed netpages is shown in FIG. This printed netpage may be part of a printed netpage document 45. The page case is associated with both the netpage printer that printed it and, if known, the netpage user who requested it.

1.2 Netpage Tags

1.2.1 Tag Data Content

In a preferred form, each tag knows the area in which it appears and the location of the tag within that area. In addition, the tag may include all or tags related to the area as the tag. One or more flag bits may, for example, signal the tag sensing device to provide feedback indicative of the function associated with the adjacent area of the tag without mentioning the description of the area. The Netpage pen may, for example, illuminate an “active area” LED when in the area of the hyperlink.

As will be described more clearly below, in a preferred embodiment, each tag includes an easily recognized invariant structure that aids in initial detection and helps to minimize the effects of any warpage induced by the surface or sensing process. . The tags preferably cover the entire page and are sufficiently small and compact so that the pen can reliably image at least one tag with a single click on the page. Since the interaction is difficult to recognize, it is important that the pen recognizes the page ID and location at every interaction with the page.

In a preferred embodiment, the area referred to by the tag corresponds to the entire page, so that the area ID encoded in the tag has the same meaning as the page ID of the page on which the tag appears. In other embodiments, the region referred to by the tag may be any subregion of a page or other surface. For example, it may match a region of the interaction component, in which case the region ID may directly recognize the interaction component.

Table 1-Tag Data         field       Accuracy (bits)       Zone ID           100       Tag ID            16       Flags            4         all           120

In one form, each tag contains 120 bits of information and is typically assigned as shown in Table 1. Assuming a tag density of 64 per square inch, the 16-bit tag ID supports area sizes up to 1024 square inches. Larger areas can be mapped continuously by using only adjacent areas and maps without increasing the tag ID accuracy. The 100-bit region ID allows 2 ¹⁰⁰ (~ 10 ³⁰ or million trillion trillion) different regions to be uniquely recognized.

1.2.2 Encoding Tag Data

In one embodiment, 120 bits of tag data are redundantly encoded using a (15,5) Reed-Solomon code. This generates 360 encoded bits consisting of six code names of each of the fifteen 4-bit symbols. The (15,5) code allows up to five symbol errors that are corrected per code name, i.e., it can tolerate up to 33% symbol error rate per code name.

Each 4-bit symbol is represented in a spatially close manner in a tag, and the symbols of six code names are spatially inserted in the tag. This ensures that a burst error (an error affecting multiple bits in spatial proximity) corrupts the whole minimum number of symbols and the minimum number of symbols in any one code name. Maximize the possibility that the burst error can be completely corrected. In the specification and claims, "inserted" (and related words) is defined as meaning that at least one symbol of the code name is spatially arranged such that none of the symbols adjacent to it belong to the same code name as the symbol. do.

Any suitable error-correction code may be used in place of the (15, 5) Reed-Solomon code, for example: the code may have some redundancy, having the same or different symbol and code name size. Reed-Solomon code having; Another block code; Such as a rotation sign (see, eg, Stephen B. Wicker, Error Control Systems for Digital Communication and Storage, Prentice-Hall 1995, which is incorporated herein by reference) or another kind of sign.

In order to support "single-click" interaction with the tagged area through the sensor, the sensor must be able to see at least one full tag in its field of view, regardless of the area or in the orientation in which it is located. do. Thus, the required diameter of the field of view of the sensing device is a function of the size and space of the tags.

Physical tag structure

The tag structure described above is designed to support the tagging of non-planar surfaces where regular tiling of tags may not be possible. In the more common case of planar surfaces capable of regular tiling of tags, ie surfaces such as paper, more efficient tag structures can be used to take advantage of the regularity of tiling.

5A shows a typical tag 4, in the form of a tag 726 with four perspective targets 17. This is similar in structure to the tags described by Bennett et al. In US Pat. No. 5051746. The tag 726 refers to sixty four-bit Reed-Solomon symbols 747 (see the description of FIGS. 44-46 below for symbols) for a total of 240 bits. Indicates. The tag represents each "1" bit due to the presence of the indication 748, referred to as a macro dot, and each "0" bit due to the absence of that macro dot. 5C shows a rectangular tiling 728 of nine tags, including all "1" bits for illustrative purposes. It should be noted that striking targets are designed to be shared between adjacent tags. FIG. 6 shows a rectangular tiling of sixteen tags and a minimum corresponding field of view 193 tying the diagonals of two tags.

Using the (15, 7) Reed-Solomon code, 112 bits of tag data are redundantly coded to generate 240 coded bits. The four code names are spatially inserted within the tag to maximize resilience to burst errors. Assuming a 16-bit tag ID as before, this allows an area ID of up to 92 bits.

The data-containing macro dots 748 of the tag are designed to not overlap their neighbors, so that groups of tags cannot generate structures that resemble targets. This also saves ink. These perspective targets allow detection of the tag so that the targets are no longer needed.

The tag may include orientation determination features to allow for clarity of four possible orientation determinations of the tag for the sensor, but the present invention relates to orientation determination data in tag data. For example, four code names can be arranged such that each tag orientation (in rotational sense) includes one code name located at that orientation, as shown in FIG. 5A, and each symbol is represented by its code name (1-4). The number of) and the position of the symbol in its code name (AO) are labeled. Next, tag decoding consists of decoding one code name in each rotation direction. Each code name may contain a single bit indicating whether it is the first code name or two bits indicating which code name it is. The latter approach has the following advantages, i.e., if only one code name is required for the data content, at most two code names need to be decrypted to obtain the desired data. This may be the case if only the area ID is decoded at the start of the stroke if it is desired that the area ID does not change within the stroke. Only the code name containing the tag ID in the stroke is required. In addition, since the rotation of the sensing device changes slowly and as expected in the stroke, only one code name typically needs to be decoded frame by frame.

Instead of relying on self-registered data representations, it is possible to distribute the perspective targets together. In this case, each bit value (or multi-bit value) is typically represented by a clear picture mark, ie no bit value is displayed without a picture mark. This ensures that the data grid is well planted, allowing the grid to be reliably recognized and its temporal distortions can be detected and corrected continuously during data sampling. In order to allow tag boundaries to be detected, each tag data must include a marker pattern, which must be redundantly coded to allow for reliable detection. The overhead of the marker patterns is similar to the overhead of obvious perspective targets. One such structure uses various dotted dots for grid vertices to represent different pictorial markers and thus different multi-bit values (Anoto Technology Descript-ion, Anoto 2000). April).

The arrangement 728 of FIG. 5C may be used for the rectangular tag 726 to completely tile or tessellate any size plane, without gaps or overlapping.

In a preferred embodiment, the tagging structures described herein encode a single data bit using the presence or non-existence of a single undifferentiated macro dot, but they also use 2001 to represent single bit or multi-bit values. Undifferentiated picture markers of the set may be used, such as the picture markers of the set illustrated in Applicant's pending PCT application PCT / AU01 / 01274, filed Oct. 11, 2011.

Macro Dot Packing Structures

에 의해 주어지며, 여기서, s 는 인접한 매크로 도트들의 간격이다. 도 45는 개요된 4-비트 기호 장치(706)를 갖는 사각 매크로 도트 패킹 (704) 을 도시하고 있다. 상기 기호 장치의 영역은

에 의해 주어진다. 도 46은 개요된 4-비트 기호 장치(710)를 갖는 육각 매크로 도트 패킹(708)을 도시하고 있다. 상기 기호 장치의 영역은

에 의해 주어진다. 이들 패킹 구조들중, 삼각 패킹 구조는 특정 매크로 도트 간격 s 에 대한 가장 큰 매크로 도트 밀도를 준다.FIG. 44 shows a triangular macro dot packing 700 having an outlined 4-bit symbol device 702. The area of the sign device is

Is given by s is the spacing of adjacent macro dots. 45 shows a square macro dot packing 704 with the outlined 4-bit symbol device 706. The area of the sign device is

Is given by 46 shows hexagonal macro dot packing 708 with outlined 4-bit symbol device 710. The area of the sign device is

Is given by Of these packing structures, the triangular packing structure gives the largest macro dot density for a particular macro dot spacing s.

In preferred embodiments, s has a value between 100 μm and 200 μm,

Tag configurations

While other embodiments have been described, the six rotary versions of symmetry (ie, the hexagonal cases described below) are preferred embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 47 shows a 1/6 portion 712 of a hexagon tag having a portion including up to eleven 4-bit symbols with triangular macro dot packing on FIG. 44. The target 17 shares with adjacent parts. Each tag portion supports, by way of example, a (11, k) Reed-Solomon code, that is, a code name of a perforated (15, k) code, and detects μ = 11-k symbolic errors, or t Has the ability to correct = [(11-k) / 2] sign errors. For example, if k = 7, μ = 4 and t = 2.

Equation 1 represents the area of the hexagon tag. Equation 2 represents the radius of the field of view required. Equation 3 represents the area of the required field of view. Equation 4 represents the recovered bit data density for the field of view.

FIG. 48 shows a 1/6 portion 716 of another hexagon tag having a portion including up to 17 4-bit symbols with triangular macro dot packing on FIG. 44. Each tag portion supports, by way of example, a (17, k) Reed-Solomon code, i.e. an increased (15, k) sign, code name, and detects μ = 17-k symbolic errors, or t Has the ability to correct = [(17-k) / 2] symbol errors. For example, if k = 7 then μ = 10 and t = 5.

Equation 5 represents the area of the hexagon tag. Equation 6 shows the radius of the required field of view. Equation 7 represents the area of the field of view required. Equation 8 shows the recovered bit data density for the field of view.

FIG. 49 shows a quarter portion 718 of a rectangular tag, with a portion including up to fifteen four-bit symbols with square macro dot packing on FIG. Each tag portion can, by way of example, support the code name of the (15, k) Reed-Solomon code, detect μ = 15-k symbolic errors, or t = [(15-k) / 2] Has the ability to correct symbolic errors. For example, if k = 7, then μ = 8 and t = 4.

Equation 9 represents the area of the rectangular tag. Equation 10 represents the radius of the required field of view. Equation 11 represents the area of the required field of view. Equation 12 represents the recovered bit data density for the field of view.

FIG. 50 shows a 1/6 portion 720 of a hexagon tag, with a portion including up to fourteen four-bit symbols with hexagonal macro dot packing on FIG. 46. Each tag portion can, by way of example, support a (14, k) Reed-Solomon code, that is, a code name of a perforated (15, k) code, detect μ = 14-k symbolic errors, or t Has the ability to correct = [(14-k) / 2] symbol errors. For example, if k = 6, then μ = 8 and t = 4.

Equation 13 represents the area of the hexagon tag. Equation 14 represents the radius of the field of view required. Equation 15 represents the area of the required field of view. Equation 16 represents the recovered bit data density for the field of view.

Of the tag configurations considered, hexagonal tag configurations using the tag portions on FIGS. 47 and 48 produce field of views with the highest recovered bit data densities. Square and hexagonal tag configurations using the tag portions shown in FIGS. 49 and 50 respectively produce field of views with lower recovered bit data densities.

Hexagon Tag Composition

Figure 51 shows a logical arrangement of 6 inserted car ²⁴ (11, k) the hexagonal tag 722 using the tag portion of the code having a name, 47 (712). FIG. 52 illustrates a macro dot arrangement of the hexagon tag 722 of FIG. 51. FIG. 53 shows an arrangement 724 of seven adjacent tags 722 of the configuration of FIG. 52, with shared targets 17. The arrangement 724 shows that the hexagon tag 722 can be used to tessellate any size.

Alternative rectangular tag configuration

54 is inserted with four ²³ car (7, k) code name, it shows a logical arrangement of different square tag 730. Each 3-bit symbol 732 is represented by an L-shaped arrangement of three macro dots. FIG. 55 shows a macro dot arrangement of the rectangular tag 730 of FIG.

Triangle tag configuration

56 is inserted with three ²³ car (7, k) code name, it shows a logical layout of a triangular tag 734. Each 3-bit symbol 736 is represented by a triangular arrangement of three macro dots. FIG. 57 shows a macro dot arrangement of the triangular tag 734 of FIG. Like the square and hexagon tags described above, the triangular tag 734 can be used to tessellate a plane of any size.

Linear tag configuration

58 is 2 shows a logical arrangement of the insert 2 of the ^third (7, k) code having a name and a double rotary symmetric linear tag 738. Each 3-bit symbol 740 is represented by a linear arrangement of three macro dots. FIG. 59 illustrates a macro dot arrangement of the linear tag 738 of FIG. 58.

FIG. 60 shows an alternative macro dot arrangement based on the arrangement of the linear tag of FIG. 58, having a completely one-dimensional structure similar to that of a conventional barcode. Although the arrangement is based on the arrangement of the linear tag of FIG. 58, the target structures 17 are linear rather than circular. This embodiment is particularly suitable for use with conventional barcode scanners (suitable software variations) used for linear scanning rather than area scanning.

1.2.4 Tag Image Processing and Decoding

7 shows a tag image processing and decoding process flow. The vivid image 202 of the tag pattern is acquired (at 200), for example, via an image sensor, such as a CCD image sensor, a CMOS image sensor, or a scanning laser and photodiode image sensor. The vivid image is then typically enhanced (at 204) to produce an enhanced image 206 with improved contrast and more uniform pixel intensity. Image enhancement may include extending, equalizing, etc., of the entire or regional scope. The enhanced image 206 is then typically filtered (at 208) to generate the filtered image 210. The image filter may constitute a low pass filter that obscures macro dots but has a low pass filter kernel size tuned to protect targets. The filter step 208 may include additional filters (such as edge detection) to improve target features. The filtered image 210 is then processed to locate target features 212, producing a set of target points. This may constitute a search for target features whose spatial correlation matches the known shape of the tag. As described in US patent application Ser. No. 09 / 575,154, candidate targets may be recognized directly from the maximum in the filtered image 210, or their (binary or gray scale) shape moments (filtered image 210 May be the subject of further characterization and registration, such as through (typically calculated from pixels in the enhanced image 206) based on a local maximum. The search typically starts with a field of vie -w. The target points 214 found by the search step 212 indirectly recognize the position of the tag in the three-dimensional space occupied by the image sensor and its associated optics. Since the target points 214 are derived from the (binary or gray scale) centers of the targets, they are typically defined with sub-pixel precision.

It may be useful to determine by the actual 3D transformation of the tag 216 and the 3D transformation (or pose) 218 of the sensing device for the tag. This is an analytic, or as described in US patent application Ser. No. 09 / 575,154, analytically, or isochronous-twisted targets observed in parameter values (PR Wolf and BA Dewitt, Elements of Photogrammetry with Applications in GIS, 3rd Edition). As described in McGraw Hill, February 2000, the contents may be performed using a maximum likelihood evaluator (such as squared adjustments) to fit a 3D transformation given in Verification. . The 3D transformation includes the 3D translation of the tag, the 3D orientation (rotation) of the tag, the focal length and view port size of the sensor, so that if the focal length and view port size are known (e. 8 parameters or 6 parameters to be customized). Each target point produces a pair of observation equations, relating the observed coordinates to known coordinates. If eight parameters are matched, five or more target points are needed to supply enough spare to allow for maximum likelihood measurement. If six parameters are matched, four or more target points are needed. If the tag configuration contains more targets than are needed minimally to allow maximum likelihood measurement, the tags can be recognized and decoded, even if many of those targets are damaged beyond recognition.

In order to allow macro dot values to be sampled correctly, the transient conversion of the tag must be inferred. Four of the target points are taken to be striking twisted corners of a rectangle of known size in tag space, and the eight-degree-of-freedom perspective transform (222) (four at 220) provides four tag-spaces and images. Based on solving well known equations relating to spatial point pairs (Heckbert, P., Funda men -tals of Texture Mapping and Image Warping, Masters Thesis, Dept. of EECS, U. of California at Berkeley, Technical Report No. See UCB / CSD 89/516, June 1989, which is hereby incorporated by reference. The perspective transformation may alternatively be derived from the 3D transformation 218, if available.

The tag-space inferred for the image-space perspective transformation 222 is the position of each known data bit in the tag-space in four (or more) in the input image 206 where the actual value is enhanced. It is used to project adjacent related pixels into the image-space used to interpolate 224 in bi-linear (or higher order) in the enhanced input image 206. The resulting macro dot value is compared with a suitable threshold to determine whether it represents 0 bits or 1 bit.

Once the complete code name of one or more bits has been sampled, the code names are decoded (at 228) to obtain the desired data 230 encoded in the tag. The redundancy in the code name may be used to detect or correct errors in sampled data.

As discussed in US Patent Application Serial No. 09 / 575,154, the acquired tag data 230 may directly or indirectly recognize a surface area including the tag and the location of the tag within the area. The exact location of the sensor relative to the surface area may thus be derived from tag data 230 and the 3D transform 218 of the sensor relative to the tag.

1.2.6 Tag Map

Decrypting the tag results in the area ID, tag ID, tag-related pen conversion. Before the tag ID and tag-related pen position can be translated into an absolute position within the tagged region, the position of the tag within that region must be known. This is given by a tag map, a function that draws each tag ID in the tagged region to that location. The tag map class diagram is shown in FIG. 22 as part of a netpage printer class diagram.

The tag map reflects the structure used to tile the surface area with tags, which can vary depending on the surface shape. When multiple tagged regions share the same tiling structure and the same tag numbering structure, they may also share the same tag map.

The tag map for the region must be retrieved via the region ID. Therefore, given the area ID, tag ID and pen conversion, the tag map can be retrieved, the tag ID can be translated into an absolute tag location in the area, and the tag-related pen location generates an absolute pen location in the area. To the tag position.

The tag ID may have a structure to help translation through the tag map. For example, Cartesian coordinates or polar coordinates may be encoded depending on the surface shape in which they appear. The tag ID structure is known to the tag map, and tag IDs associated with other tag maps may therefore have other structures. For example, the tag ID may simply simplify a pair of x and y coordinates of a tag, in which case the tag map may only constitute a record of coordinate precision. If the coordinate precision is fixed, the tag map may be implicit.

1.2.7 tagging structures

Two distinct surface coding structures are of interest, both using the tag structure already described in this section. The preferred coding structure uses the "position-marking" tags already discussed. An alternative coding scheme uses purpose-marking tags.

When translated through a tag map associated with a tagged region, the location-indicating tag includes a tag ID that generates a unique tag position within that region. The tag-related position of the pen is added to this tag position to generate the position of the pen within the area. This, in turn, is used to determine the pen's position relative to the user interface component in the page description associated with that region. Not only the user interface component itself is recognized, but also the position relative to the user interface component. Location-marking tags thus typically support the capture of absolute pen paths in the region of a particular user interface component.

The purpose-presenting tag includes a tag ID that directly recognizes a user interface component in the page description associated with the region. All tags in the region of the user interface component recognize the user interface component and make them all the same and thereby indistinguishable. Thus, purpose-marking tags never support the capture of a pen path. However, they support the capture of relative pen passes. As long as the position sampling frequency exceeds twice the tag frequency encountered, the displacement from one sampled pen position in the stroke to the next can be clearly determined.

In either tagging structure, the tags are tagged in that the user can interact with the printed page using an appropriate sensor to ensure that tag data is read into the sensor and that an appropriate response is generated in the netpage system. As user interface components it functions in conjunction with the associated visible components on the netpage.

1.3 Document and Page Descriptions

Document and Page Descriptions A preferred embodiment of the class diagram is shown in FIGS. 25 and 26.

In the netpage system the document is described at three levels. At the most abstract level, document 836 has a hierarchical structure in which terminal components 839 are associated with content objects 840 such as text purposes, text style purposes, image objects, and the like. Once a document has a particular page size and is printed on a printer according to a particular user's scale factor preference, the document is paginated and otherwise initialized. The initialized terminal components 835 will in some cases be associated with content objectives other than those associated with their corresponding terminal components, in particular where the content objectives are style-related. In addition, the printed instances of each document and page are separately described to allow input obtained through a particular page instance 830 to be recorded separately from input obtained through other instances of the same page description. do.

The presence of the most abstract document description on the page server allows the user to request a copy of the document without forcing the specific format of the source document. The user may, for example, request a copy through a printer having a different page size. Conversely, the presence of an initialized document description on the page server allows the page server to efficiently interpret user actions on a particular printed page.

The initialized document 834 constitutes one set of initialized page descriptions 5, each of which constitutes one set of initialized terminal components 835. Each initialized component has a spatial extent or region 58 on the page. This defines the active area of input components such as hyperlinks and input fields.

Document instance 831 corresponds to initialized document 834. This constitutes a set of page instances 830, each of which corresponds to a page description 5 of the initialized document. Each page instance 830 describes a single unique printed netpage 1 and records the page ID 50 of that netpage. If it represents a copy of the requested page at detach time, the page instance is not part of the document instance.

The page instance constitutes a set of terminal component instances 832. If the component instance records instance-specific information, the component instance only exists. Thus, a hyperlink instance exists for the hyperlink component because it records a process ID specific to the page instance, and a field instance exists for the field component because it records input specific to the page instance. However, no component instance exists for static components such as text flows.

The terminal component may be a positive component 843, a hyperlink component 844, a field component 845, or a page server instruction component 846, as shown in FIG. 27. Positive component 843 includes a style component 847 with an associated style object 854, a text flow component 848 with an associated style text object 855, and an associated image, as shown in FIG. 28. Image component 849 with component 856, graphics component 850 with associated graphics objective 857, video clip component 851 with associated video clip objective 858, and associated audio clip objective 859. Audio clip component 852, or script component 853 with associated scripting purpose 860.

The page instance has a background field 833 used to record any digital ink embedded on the page that does not apply to a particular input component.

In a preferred form of the invention, the tag map 811 is associated with each page instance to allow tags on the page to be translated to locations on the page.

1.4 Netpage Network

In a preferred embodiment, the netpage network is a distributed set of netpage page servers 10, netpage registration servers 11, netpage ID servers 12, net as shown in FIG. Configure page application servers 13, netpage publishing servers 14, netpage printers 601 connected via a network 19 such as the Internet.

The netpage registration server 11 is a server that authorizes various network activities by recording a relationship between users, pens, printers, applications and publications. This acts like authenticating the users and signing the surrogate instead of the authenticated users in the application processes. It also provides handwriting recognition services. As described above, netpage page servers 10 maintain consistent information about page descriptions and page instances. The netpage network includes any number of page servers, each manipulating a subset of page instances. Also, because the page server maintains user inputs for each page instance, customers such as netpage printers send netpage input directly to the appropriate page server. The page server interprets any of the above inputs related to the description of the page.

The netpage ID server 12 assigns the requesting document IDs 51 and provides load-balancing of the page servers via its ID allocation structure.

The netpage printer uses the Internet Distribution Name System (DNS), or similarly, to resolve the netpage page ID 50 to the network address of the netpage page server that operates the page instance.

The netpage application server 13 is a server hosting interactive netpage applications. The netpage publishing server 14 is an application server for publishing netpage documents to netpage printers. These are described in detail in Section 2.

Netpage servers can be hosted on network server platforms from various manufacturers such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Sun. Multiple netpage servers can run consistently on a single host, and a single server can be distributed over multiple hosts. Some or all of the functionality provided by the netpage servers, and in particular the functionality provided by the ID server and page server, may also be provided directly to a netpage apparatus, such as a netpage printer, at a computer workstation, or directly on a local network.

1.5 Netpage Printer

The netpage printer 601 is an organization registered with the netpage system and prints netpage documents through request and subscription. Each printer has a unique printer ID 62 and is connected to a netpage network via a network such as the Internet, ideally via a broadband connection.

Congestion and safety settings in nonvolatile memory are separate issues, and the Netpage printer does not include any continuous storage. As far as the user is concerned, "the network is a computer". Netpages function interactively in space and time with the help of distributed netpage page servers 10, regardless of the particular netpage printers.

The netpage printer receives subscribed netpage documents from netpage publishing servers 14. Each document is distributed in two parts: page layouts, actual text and image purposes for planting pages. Because of personalization, page layouts are typically pointcast to a subscriber's printer through a page server that is specific to a particular subscriber. Text and image purposes, on the other hand, are typically shared with other subscribers and are multicast to the printers and appropriate page servers of all subscribers.

The netpage publishing server optimizes the division of document content into pointcast and multicast. After receiving a pointcast of page batches of the document, the printer knows which multicast (t) if it is listening to.

Once the printer has received the complete page layouts and the goals of defining 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 paper. This includes print engines utilizing dual print engine controller 760 and Memjet ^™ print heads 350 for this purpose.

The printing process consists of two separate steps: rasterization of page descriptions, expansion and printing of page images. The raster image processor (RIP) consists of one or more standard DSPs 757 operating in parallel. The separate print engine controllers consist of customer processors that expand, confuse and print page images in real time, synchronized with the operation of the print heads in the print engines.

Printers that are not IR capable limit the tags to blank areas of the page, but have the option to print tags using IR-absorbing black ink. The pages have a more limited function than IR-printed pages, but they are still classified as netpages.

A normal netpage printer prints netpages on paper. More specialized netpage printers may print onto more specialized surfaces, such as globes. Each printer supports at least one surface type and at least one tag tiling structure, and therefore supports tag maps for each surface type. The tag map 811, which describes the tag tiling structure actually used to print a document, is associated with the document so that the tags of the document can be correctly interpreted.

Fig. 2 shows a netpage printer class diagram, which reflects the printer-related information maintained by the registration server 11 on the netpage network.

A preferred embodiment of a netpage printer is described in more detail in section 6 below, with reference to FIGS. 11-16.

1.5.1 Memjet ^TM Print heads

The netpage system can operate using printers made with a wide range of digital printing technologies, including thermal inkjet, piezoelectric inkjet, laser electrophotographic, and others. However, for wide consumer acceptance, it is desirable for a Netpage printer to have the following features:

* Photo quality color printing

* High quality text printing

* High reliability

* Low printer cost

* Low ink cost

* Low paper cost

* Simple operation

* Almost quiet printing

* High speed printing

* Simultaneous double sided printing

* Concise factor

* Low power consumption

Commercially available printing techniques do not have all these features.

In order to enable the production of printers with these features, Applicants have developed Memjet ^™ Invented a new printing technology called technology. Memjet ^TM Is a drop-on-demand inkjet technology that includes page width print heads manufactured using electromechanical system (MEMS) technology. 17 is Memjet ^™ The single print component 300 of the print head is shown. The netpage wall printer shows 168960 printing components 300 for forming a 1600 dpi page width dual printer. Like paper conditioners and ink dyes, the printer prints cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and infrared inks simultaneously.

The printing component 300 is approximately 32 microns wide and 110 microns long. Arrangements of such printing components are formed on a silicon substrate 301 that includes CMOS logic, data transfer, timing, and drive circuits (not shown).

The main components of the printing component 300 are nozzle 302, nozzle rim 303, nozzle chamber 304, fluid seal 305, ink channel rim 306, lever arm 307, and active actuator beam pair. 308, passive actuator beam pair 309, active actuator anchor 310, passive actuator anchor 311, and ink inlet 312.

The active actuator beam pair 308 is mechanically coupled to the passive actuator beam pair 309 at join 319. Both beam pairs are anchored at their respective anchor points 310, 311. The combination of components 308, 309, 310, 311, and 319 forms a cantilevered electrothermal bend actuator 320.

18 illustrates a small portion of the arrangement of printing components 300, including the cross section 315 of printing component 300. The cross section 315 is shown without ink to clearly show the ink inlet 312 through the silicon layer 301.

19 (a), 19 (b) and 19 (c) show the Memjet ^™ The operating cycle of the print component 300 is shown.

19 (a) shows the apex of the ink meniscus 316 before printing a small drop of ink. Ink is retained in the nozzle chamber by surface tension in the fluid chamber 305 formed between the ink meniscus 316 and the nozzle chamber 304 and the ink channel rim 306.

During printing, the print head CMOS circuit distributes the data from the print engine controller to the correct print component, then latches and buffers the data to drive the electrodes 318 of the active actuator beam pair 308. . This causes current to pass through the active actuator beam pair 308 for about 1 microsecond, resulting in Joule heating. The increase in temperature due to Joule heating causes the beam pair 308 to expand. Since the passive actuator beam pair 309 is not reversible, it does not expand, resulting in a stress difference between the two beam pairs 308. This stress is relieved by the cantilevered end of the electrothermal bend actuator 320 which is partially curved towards the substrate 301. The lever arm 307 transfers this movement to the nozzle chamber 304. The nozzle chamber 304 moves by about 2 microns to the position on FIG. 19 (b). This increase increases the ink pressure, pushing ink 321 out of the nozzle 302, causing the ink meniscus 316 to expand. The nozzle rim 303 prevents the ink meniscus 316 from spreading along the surface of the nozzle chamber 304.

As the temperatures of the beam pairs 308 and 309 become equal, the actuator 320 returns to its original position. This helps stop the ink drop 317 from the ink 321 in the nozzle chamber, as in FIG. 19 (c). The nozzle chamber is refilled by the action of surface tension in the meniscus 316.

20 shows a portion of print head 350. In a netpage printer, the length of the print head is the total width of the paper in the direction 351 (typically 210 mm). The portion shown is 0.4 mm long (about 0.2% of a full print head). In printing, the paper moves behind a fixed print head in direction 352. The print head has six rows of printing components 300 engaged with each other and prints six colors or shapes of ink supplied by the ink inlets 312.

To protect the fragile surface of the print head during operation, a nozzle guard layer 330 is attached to the print head substrate 301. For each nozzle 302 there is provided a corresponding nozzle guard hole 331 from which ink droplets emerge. To prevent the nozzle guard hole 331 from being blocked by paper fibers or other debris, filtered air is pumped through the air inlets 332 and exits from the nozzle guard holes during printing. In order to prevent the ink 321 from drying out, the nozzle guard is sealed while the printer is resting.

1.6 Netpage Pen

The active sensing device of the Netpage pen is typically a pen 101, using its mounted controller 134 to capture and decode IR location tags from the page via an image sensor. The image sensor is a solid state device provided with a suitable filter to allow detection only at wavelengths near the infrared. As described in more detail below, the system can detect when the nib is in contact with a surface, and the pen can detect tags at a sufficient rate to capture the handwriting (ie 200 dpi or larger and 100 Hz or faster). The information captured by the pen is encoded and transmitted wirelessly to a printer (or base station), a base station that interprets data about the printer or page structure.

Preferred embodiments of the netpage pen operate as both a normal display ink pen and a non-display stylus. However, display features are not necessary for using a netpage system as a browsing system, such as when used as an internet interface. Each netpage pen is registered with the netpage system and has a unique pen ID 61. 23 shows a netpage pen class diagram, which reflects pen-related information maintained by the registration server 11 on the netpage network.

When either one of the nibs contacts a netpage, the pen determines its position and orientation with respect to the page. The nib is attached to a force sensor and the force on the nib is interpreted against a threshold to indicate whether the pen is "up" or "down". This allows the interactive component on the page to be clicked by pressing the pen nib, ie to request information from the network. In addition, this force is captured, ie as a continuous value, to allow the entire dynamics of the signature to be proved.

The pen determines the position and orientation of the nib on the netpage by imaging an area 193 of the page near the nib in the infrared spectrum. This decodes the closest tag and calculates the position of the nib relative to the tag from the known geometries of the specular torsional and pen optics on the imaged tag. The location resolution of the tag may be low, but since the tag density on the page is inversely proportional to the tag size, the adjusted location resolution is very high, exceeding the minimum resolution required for accurate handwriting recognition.

Pen actions on the netpage are captured as a series of strokes. The stroke consists of a series of time-stamped pen positions on the page, initiated by a pen-down event and terminated by a successive pen-up event. The stroke is also tagged with the page ID 50 of the netpage whenever the page ID changes and, under normal circumstances, at the start of the stroke.

Each Netpage pen has a current selection 826 associated with it, allowing the user to perform copy and paste operations and the like. This selection is time-stamped to allow the system to discard it after a defined time period. This current selection describes the area of the page instance. This consists of the most recent digital ink stroke captured through the pen against the background area of the page. Once it is submitted to the application via optional hyperlink activation, it is interpreted in an application-specific manner.

Each pen has a current nib 824. This is the nib last noticed to the system by the pen. For the default netpage pen described above, either a flowing black ink nib or an unmarked stylus nib flows. Each pen also has a current nib style 825. This is the nib style associated with the pen by the application, for example corresponding to the user selecting a color from the palette. The default nib style is the nib style associated with the current nib. When the strokes are reproduced successively, they are reproduced in the nib style to which they are tagged.

Whenever the pen is within range of the printer with which it communicates, the pen slowly glows its "online" LED. When the pen fails to decode the stroke for that page, it momentarily activates the "error" LED. When the pen succeeds in decoding the stroke for the page, it momentarily activates its "ok" LED.

The series of captured strokes is called digital ink. Digital inks form the basis for the digital exchange of drawing and handwriting, for online recognition of handwriting, for online certification of signatures.

The pen is wireless and delivers digital ink to the netpage printer via short range radio ink. This transferred digital ink is encoded for privacy and safety and bundled for efficient transmission, but is always ejected on pen-up events to ensure proper operation in the printer.

When the pen is out of range of the printer, it buffers the digital ink in the internal memory and has a continuous handwriting capacity of 10 minutes or more. Once the pen is back in range of the printer, it delivers any buffered digital ink.

The pen can be registered with any number of printers, but since all state data is contained in netpages on both paper and the network, the printer with which the pen is communicating at any time is not very important.

Preferred embodiments of the pen are described in more detail in section 6 below with reference to FIGS. 8 to 10.

1.7 Netpage Interaction

When the pen is used to interact with the netpage 1, the netpage printer 601 receives data about the stroke from the pen 101. The encoded data 3 of the tags 4 are read by the pen when it is used to carry out a movement such as a stroke. The data allows the interaction component associated with the density of a particular page to be determined and allows an indication of the relative positioning of the pen relative to the page. This presentation data is passed to the printer, where it resolves, via DNS, the page ID 50 of the stroke to the network address of the netpage page server 10 holding the page instance 830. Next, it passes the stroke to the page server. If the page is recently recognized at the initial stroke, the printer may already have the address of the associated page server in its cache. Each netpage consists of a small page layout maintained steadily by the netpage page server (see below). The page layout refers to purposes such as images, fonts and several texts, typically stored elsewhere on the netpage network.

When the page server receives a stroke from the pen, it retrieves the page description that the stroke applies to and determines the components of the page description that the strokes intersect. Next, the stroke in the context of the form of the relevant component can be interpreted.

"Click" is the stroke when both the distance and time between the pen down position and the continuous pen up position are less than the slightly smaller maximum. The purpose of being activated by the click requires the click to be activated, so that longer strokes are ignored. Failure of a pen action, such as a "sloppy" click to register, is indicated by a lack of response from the pen's "ok" LED.

There are two kinds of input components in a netpage page description: hyperlinks and form fields. Input through form fields can trigger activation of the associated hyperlink.

1.7.1 Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks are a means of sending a message to a remote application and typically drive a printed response in a netpage system.

The hyperlink component 844 includes an application 71 that manipulates the activation of the hyperlink, a link ID 54 that recognizes the hyperlink to the application, and an application alias ID 65 of the user when the system activates the hyperlink. Recognizes an alias request flag requesting to include), and a description used when the hyperlink is recorded as a preference or appears in the user's history. The hyperlink component class diagram is shown in FIG.

When the hyperlink is activated, the page server sends a request to any application on the network. The application is recognized by the application ID 64, which is decrypted in the normal way via DNS. There are three kinds of hyperlinks: general hyperlinks 863, form hyperlinks 865, selection hyperlinks 864, as shown in FIG. 30. Ordinary hyperlinks can fulfill requests for linked documents, or simply signal a preference for the server. Form hyperlinks provide the corresponding form for the application. The selection hyperlink provides the current selection for the application. If the current selection includes a single word fragment of the text, for example, the application may return a single page document that provides the meaning of the word in the context in which it appears, or a translation into another language. Each type of hyperlink is characterized by what information is provided to the application.

The hyperlink instance 862 records a process ID 55 that may be specific to the page instance appearing thereon. The process ID may recognize, for example, a customer cart of pending purchases held by the purchase application on behalf of the user, user-specific data for the application.

The system includes a pen's current selection 826 in selection hyperlink activation. The system includes the contents of the associated form instance 868 in form hyperlink activation. The system includes an efficient return path at all hyperlink activations.

Hyperlinked group 866 is a group component 838 having an associated hyperlink, as shown in FIG. 31. When input occurs through any field component in a group, the hyperlink 844 associated with that group is activated. Hyperlinked groups can be used to associate hyperlink actions with fields such as check boxes. It can also be used to provide continuous input to an application, in conjunction with the provided delta attribute of a form hyperlink. Therefore, it can be used to support the blackboard interaction model, that is, input is captured and thus shared as soon as it occurs.

1.7.2 Forms

The form defines a set of related input fields used to capture a related set of inputs through the printed netpage. Forms allow users to provide one or more parameters to an application software program running on a server.

Form 867 is a group component 838 in the document structure. This includes a set of terminal field components 839. Form instance 868 represents a printed instance of the form. It consists of a set of field instances 870 corresponding to the field components 845 of the form. Each field instance has an associated value 871, whose shape depends on the type of the corresponding field component. Each field value records its input through a particular printed form instance, that is, through one or more printed netpages. The foam class diagram is shown in FIG.

Each form instance has a state 872 indicating whether the form is active, frozen, provided, empty, or terminated. Once it is signed or its freezing time is reached, the form is frozen. Once the serving hyperlinks have been activated, the form is in the serving state unless the hyperlink has the serving delta attribute set. When the user invokes an empty form, a reset form, or a dual form page command, the form becomes empty. The foam terminates when its specific end time is reached, i.e., when the time the foam has been active exceeds the specified life of the foam. While the form is active, form input is allowed. Instead, input via inactive forms is captured in the background field 833 of the relevant page instance. When the form is active or frozen, the form is allowed. When the form is inactive or frozen, any attempt to provide the form is rejected and instead a form status report is derived.

Each form instance is associated with (in 59) any form instances derived from it, providing a version history. This allows everything except the most recent version of the form in a particular time period to be excluded from the search.

All inputs are captured as digital ink. Digital ink 873 consists of a set of time-stamped stroke groups 874, each of which consists of a set of styled strokes 875. Each stroke consists of a set of time-stamped pen positions 876, each of which also includes a pen orientation and nib force. The digital ink class diagram is shown in FIG.

The field component 845 can be a check box field 877, a body field 878, a drawing field 879, or a signature field 880. The field component class diagram is shown in FIG. 34. Any digital ink captured in the area 58 of the field is assigned to that field.

The check box field has an associated Booleen value 881, as shown in FIG. 35. Any indication captured in the check box (ticks, crosses, strokes, peel zigzag, etc.) causes the value of truth to be assigned to the value of the field.

The body field has an associated body value 882, as shown in FIG. 36. Any digital ink captured in the area of the body field is automatically converted to body through online handwriting recognition, and the body is assigned to the value of the field. Online handwriting recognition is well understood (e.g. Tappert, C., CY Suen and T. Wakahara, The State of the Art in On-Line Handwriting Recognition, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Vol. 12, No. 8 , August 1990, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference).

The signature field has an associated digital signature value 883, as shown in FIG. 37. Any digital ink captured in the area of the signature field is automatically attested to the identity of the owner of the pen, and a digital signature of the contents of its form that is part of the field is generated and assigned to the value of the field. The digital signature is generated using the pen user's personal signature key specific to the application that owns the form. Online signature proof is well understood (see, e.g., Plamondon, R. and G. Lorette, Automatic Signature Verification and Writer Identification The State of the Art, Pattern Recognition, Vol. 22, No. 2, 1989, the contents thereof). Is included here as a cross-reference).

If the hidden attribute is set, the field component is hidden. Hidden field components have no input area on the page and are not received. It can have an associated field value contained in the form data when a form is provided that contains the field.

Also, editing commands, such as deleting strike-through marks, can be recognized in form fields.

Since handwriting recognition algebra operates on-line (ie, access to the mechanics of pen movements) rather than offline (ie, access to only the bitmap of the pen markings), it provides a relatively high accuracy, without the writing-dependent practice step. Discontinuously written run-on characters. The handwritten note-dependent model is generated automatically over time and up-front if necessary.

As already explained, the digital ink consists of a series of strokes. Any stroke starting at the region of the particular component is added to the digital ink flow of the component, ready for analysis. Any stroke not added to the desired digital ink flow is added to the digital ink flow in the background field.

The digital ink captured in the background field is interpreted as a selection gesture. While the actual interpretation is application-specific, the limitation of one or more objectives is generally interpreted as a selection of limited objectives.

Table 2 summarizes these various pen interactions with netpages.

Table 2-Summary of Pen Interactions with Netpages  purpose         shape        Pen typing         action    Hyperlink          Normal         click  Provide behavior as an application          shape         click  Offer form as application          Selection         click  Offer choice as application  Shape field  Check box    Random marks   Assign truth to field   main text      Handwriting  Converting digital ink into text; Assign body as field  Drawing  Digital ink  Assign digital ink as a field   signature  signature  Prove digital ink signature; generate digital signature in form; assign digital signature to field    none     limit   Assign digital ink to the current selection

The system maintains the current selection for each pen. The selection consists only of the most recent stroke captured in the background field. The selection is cleared after an inactivity timeout to ensure predictable behavior.

The vivid digital ink captured in all fields is maintained on the Netpage Page Server and optionally sent with form data when the form is provided to the application. This allows the application to consult the vivid digital ink if it has to guess the original conversion, such as the conversion of the handwritten text. For example, it may involve human intervention at the application level for forms that fail certain application-specific consistency checks. As an extension to this, the entire background area of the form can be displayed as a drawing field. The application then routes the form to a human operator, assuming that the user may have directed modifications to the filled fields outside of those fields, based on the presence of digital ink outside the clear fields of the form. You can decide to route.

38 is a flowchart of a process of manipulating pen input for a netpage. The process includes receiving a stroke from a pen (at 884); Recognizing (at 885) the page instance (830) referred to by the page ID (50) in the stroke; Retrieving (886) the page description (5); Recognizing (at 887) an initialized component (839) in which the stroke crosses the area (58); Determine which initialized component corresponds to the field component (at 888), and if so, add the received stroke to the digital ink of the field value 871 (at 892) and interpret the accumulated digital ink of the field. Determine (at 883) which field is part of the hyperlinked group 866 (at 894), and if so, activate (at 895) the associated hyperlink; Alternatively determining (at 889) which initialized component corresponds to a hyperlink component, and if so, activating (at 895) the corresponding hyperlink; Alternatively, in the absence of an input field or hyperlink, adding (at 890) the received stroke to the digital ink in the background field 833; And copying the received stroke to the current selection 826 of the current pen, as maintained by the registration server (at 891).

FIG. 38A is a detailed flowchart of step 893 in the process of FIG. 38, in which the accumulated digital ink of the field is interpreted according to the shape of the field. The process includes determining which field is a check box (at 896) and which digital ink represents a check box (at 897), and if so, assigning a truth value to the field value (at 898); Alternatively determine (in 899) which field is the body field, and if so, convert the digital ink into a computer body (at 900) with the help of an appropriate registration server and convert the converted computer body into the field value. Assigning at step 901; Alternatively determine which field is the signature field (at 902), and if so, verify the digital ink as the owner of the pen (at 903), and with the help of an appropriate registration server, Generating a digital signature (at 904) and assigning (at 905) the digital signature to the field value using the help of a registration server and the personal signature key of the pen owner associated with the application. .

1.7.3 Page Server Commands

The page server command is a command operated locally by the page server. It works directly on form, page and document instances.

The page server command 907 is an empty form command 908, a dual form command 909, a reset form command 910, a get form status command 911, and a dual page command 912, as shown in FIG. 39. ), A reset page command 913, a get page status command 914, a double document command 915, a reset document command 916, and a get document status command 917.

An empty form command makes the form instance empty. The dual form command emptys the corresponding form instance and then generates an active printed copy of the current form instance with protected field values. The copy contains hyperlink processing IDs similar to the original and is indistinguishable from the original. A reset form command emptys the corresponding form instance and then generates an active printed copy of the form instance with discarded field values. The get form status command generates a printed report about the status of the form instance, including who published it, when it was printed, for whom it was printed, and the form status of the form instance.

Since the form hyperlink instance contains a process ID, the application must be involved in creating a new form instance. The button requesting a new form instance is thus typically performed as a hyperlink.

The double page command generates a printed copy of that page instance with a protected background field value. If the page contains a form or is part of a form, the double page command is interpreted as a double form command. The reset page command generates a printed copy of that page instance with a discarded background field value. If the page contains a form or is part of a form, the reset page command is interpreted as a reset form command. The Get Page Status command generates a printed report about the status of the page instance, including the person who published it, when it was printed, for whom it was printed, and the status of any forms it contains or is part of. Let's do it.

The netpage logo that appears on every netpage is usually associated with a double page component.

When a page instance is duplicated with protected field values, the field values are printed in their original form, i.e. check marks appear as standard check mark graphics, and the text appears as a type set body. Only pictures and signatures appear in their original form, accompanied by standard graphics representing successful signature proofs.

The dual document command generates a printed copy of the document instance with protected background field values. If the document contains arbitrary forms, the dual document command duplicates the forms in the same way that the dual form command did. The reset document command generates a printed copy of the document instance with discarded background field values. If the document contains any forms, the reset document command resets the forms in the same manner as the reset form command did. The Get Document Status command generates a printed report about the status of the document instance, including who published it, when it was printed, for whom it was printed, and the status of any forms it contained.

If the page server command on the selected attribute is set, the command operates on the page recognized by the pen's current selection, rather than on the page containing the command. This allows a menu of page server commands to be printed. If the target page does not include a page server command for the displayed page server command, the command is ignored.

An application can provide application-specific manipulation by including relevant page server command components in a hyperlinked group. The page server activates the hyperlink associated with the hyperlinked group rather than executing the page server.

If the hidden attribute is set, the page server command component is hidden. The hidden command component does not have an input area on the page and therefore cannot be activated directly by the user. However, if the page server command does not have the selected attribute set, it can be activated through a page server command contained in another page.

1.8 Standard Features of Netpages

In a preferred form, each netpage is printed with a base netpage logo to indicate that it is a netpage and therefore has interactive properties. The logo also functions like a copy button. In most cases, pressing the logo produces a copy of the page. In the case of form, the button provides a copy of the entire form. In the case of secure documents, such as tickets or coupons, the button leads to descriptive notes or advertisement pages.

The default single-page copy function is operated directly by the associated netpage page server. Certain copy functions are operated by connecting a logo button to the application.

1.9 User Help System

In a preferred embodiment, the netpage printer has a single button labeled help function. When clicked, it leads to a single help page 46 of information, including:

? Status of printer connection

? Status of printer consumption

? Top-level help menu

? Document function menu

? Top-level netpage network list

The help menu provides a structured manual on how to use the netpage system.

The document function menu includes the following functions:

? Print a copy of the document

? Print a clear copy of the form

? Print the status of the document

The document function is initialized by selecting a document and then pressing the button. The status of a document indicates who and when it was published, to whom it was delivered, to whom and when it was provided as a form.

If the printer cannot print, the help page is obviously not useful. In this case, the error light will shine and the user may request a remote diagnosis of the network.

2 Personalized Publishing Model

In the following description, news is used as a regular publication example to illustrate personalization structures in a netpage system. Although news is often used in the limited sense of newspapers and news magazine news, the intended scope of the text is even wider.

In the netpage system, the editorial content and the advertising content of the news publication are personalized using different structures. The edits are personalized according to the reader's explicitly stated and unconditionally captured interest profile. The advertising content is personalized according to the reader's location and demographics.

2.1 Personalization of editing

Subscribers can receive news from two types of news sources: those delivering publications and those delivering news flows. While news publications are collected and edited by the publisher, news flows are collected by either the news publisher or a professional news aggregator. News publications typically correspond to traditional newspapers and news magazines, while news flows can be numerous and varied: news services, comic strips. Live news from a freelance writer's column, a friend's bulletin board, or your own email.

The netpage publishing server supports the publication of edited news publications as well as multiple news flows. By manipulating the collection and thereby initializing the news flows directly selected by the reader, the server can display advertisements on pages without editing control.

The subscriber creates a daily newspaper by selecting one or more contributing news publications and creating each personalized version. Daily edits of the results are printed and bundled into a single newspaper. Various members of the family typically express their different interests and tastes by choosing different daily publications and customizing them.

For each publication, the reader optionally selects specific parts. Some choices appear daily, while others appear weekly. The daily parts are, for example, Page One Plus, National, International, International, Opinion, Business, Arts / Living, Technology. Technology, and Sports, from The New York Times online. The set of useful parts is specific to the publication and so is the default subset.

The reader can expand the daily newspaper by creating customer parts, each of which is fed news from any number of news streams. Customer portions can be created for e-mail and presentation of friends (personal), or for monitoring of news feeds (alerts or clippings) on specific topics.

For each part, the reader may specify the size of the advertisement, either selectively, qualitatively (eg, short, medium, or long) or in number (ie, as a limitation of the award of the pages), and specify the desired portion of the advertisement. Specify either qualitatively (eg, high, normal, low, nothing) or numerically (ie, in proportion).

The reader also expresses a preference for many shorter articles or a few longer articles. Each article is ideally written (or edited) in both short and long form to support this preference.

The article is also written (or edited) in other versions to suit the reader's expected intellectual education, for example to provide versions of children and adults. The appropriate version is chosen based on the age of the reader. Readers can specify reading ages that precede their biological ages.

The articles that make up each part are selected and prioritized by the editors, each assigned a useful lifetime. They are delivered by default to all relevant subscribers and, at priority, encounter space limitations in the subscriber's editing.

Where appropriate, the reader may optionally enable cooperative filtration. This then applies to articles with a sufficiently long lifespan. Each article suitable for cooperative filtration is printed by the rating buttons at the end of the article. The buttons provide easy choices (eg, preferences and preferences) and may be annoying for readers to rate the article.

Articles with high priority and short lifespan, therefore, are considered efficient as essential reading by the editors and are delivered to most relevant subscribers.

The reader optionally specifies the ability factor to discover by chance, either qualitatively (e.g., to surprise or not to surprise me), or to numerical values. A high chance of finding capacity lowers the threshold used for matching during collaborative filtration. A high argument is likely to fill that part with the reader's specified capabilities. Other accidental finding factors may be specified for different days of the week.

The reader also optionally specifies the topics of particular interest in the clause, which modifies the priority assigned by the editors.

The speed of your internet connection affects the quality at which images can be delivered. The reader optionally specifies a preference for fewer or smaller images or both. If the number or size of images is reduced, the images may be delivered at lower quality (ie, lower resolution or greater compression).

At the global level, the reader specifies how much quantity, date, time and monetary value are localized. This includes specifying which units are imperialist or metric, local time zones and time formats, and local currencies, and which localizations constitute translations or annotations of the original place. These preferences are derived from the reader's subject matter by default.

To reduce the reading difficulties caused by low vision, the reader optionally specifies a global preference for greater awards. Thus, the size of both the text and the images are determined so that less information is received on each page.

The language in which the news publication is published, and its text encoding, is the nature of the publication and not the preference expressed by the user. However, the netpage system can be configured to provide automatic translation services with various appearances.

2.2 Advertising Localization and Targeting

Since advertisements can typically be placed to use the editorial text, personalization of the editorial content directly affects the advertising content. For example, travel advertisements are typically more likely to appear in the travel section than elsewhere. The value of editorial content to advertisers (and therefore to publishers) lies in their ability to attract multiple readers with the right demographics.

Effective advertising is based on material and demographics. Location determines access to specific services, retailers, etc., and specific interests related to local communities and the environment. Demographics determine not only the patterns of consumption, but also the issues of general interest and focus.

The most informative products of news publishers are the advertising space, the multi-dimensional reality determined by the geographical reach of the publication, the size of its readership, its readership demographics, and the page area useful for advertising.

In a netpage system, the netpage publishing server publishes on a per-part basis, taking into account the geographical reach of the publication, the readership of the portions, the size of the edits of each reader, the proportion of each reader, and the demographics of each reader. Calculate the dimensions of the adjoining multidimensional of the salable ad space.

Compared to other media, the netpage system allows the advertising space to be defined in more detail and allows the smaller pieces to be sold separately. Thus, it allows it to be sold closer to its truth value.

For example, the same ad slot changes the ratio for several advertisers, and individual readers' pages randomly receive one or another advertiser's ads, while the whole adheres to the percentage of space for each advertiser. Can be.

The netpage system allows advertisements to be directly linked to detailed product information and online purchases. Thus, this raises the intrinsic value of the advertising space.

Since personalization and localization are automatically manipulated by netpage publishing servers, ad collectors can provide arbitrary wide reach of both geography and demography. Since it is automatic, subsequent disassembly is efficient. This makes it more cost effective for publishers to deal with ad collectors than to capture ads directly. Although ad collectors take up a percentage of ad revenue, publishers may find change benefit-neutral because of the greater efficiency of collection. The ad collector acts as an intermediary between the advertiser and the publisher, and may advertise the same advertisement in multiple publications.

Since the publication's advertising space is more complex, it is worth noting that the position of an advertisement in a netpage publication may be more complex than the position of an advertisement in a traditional counterpart of the publication. While neglecting the overall complexity of negotiations among advertisers, ad collectors, and publishers, the preferred form of the netpage system provides some automated support for these negotiations, which support the automated advertising space. Includes support for auctions. Automation is particularly desirable for locations of advertisements that generate small amounts of revenue, such as small or highly localized advertisements.

Once the location has been negotiated, the collector captures and edits the ad and records it on the netpage ad server. Similarly, the publisher records the advertisement placement on the relevant netpage advertisement server. If the netpage publishing server deploys each user's personalized publication, it pulls relevant advertisements from the netpage advertising server.

2.3 User Profile

2.3.1 Information Filtration

Personalization of news and other publications relies on a classification of user-specific profile information, including:

? Publishing Customization

? Collaborative filtration vectors

? Contact Details

? Presentation preferences

The customer of the publication is typically publication-specific, and the customer information is maintained by the associated netpage publishing server.

The cooperative filtration vector consists of the ratings of the users of the multiple news items. It is used to correlate the interests of different users for recommendation. While there are benefits to maintaining a single collaborative filtration vector regardless of any particular publication, there are two reasons why it is more practical to maintain a separate vector for each publication: rather than between subscribers' vectors for other publications. There may be more overlap between subscribers' vectors for the same publication: and the publication may want to provide the user's collaborative filtering vectors as part of the value of the trademark, not found elsewhere. Thus, also collaborative filtration vectors are maintained by the relevant netpage publishing server.

Detailed contacts, including name, street address, ZIP code, status, country and telephone numbers, are globalized by the country and maintained by the Netpage registration server.

Presentation preferences, including those for quantity, date and time, are also globalized and remain the same.

The localization of advertising depends on the material displayed in the user's detailed contacts, while the targeting of advertising is based on personal, such as birth date, type, material status, income, occupation, education, or qualitative derivatives such as age range and income range. Depends on the information

For users who selectively expose personal information for advertising, the information is maintained by the associated netpage registration server. In the absence of this information, the advertisement may be targeted on the basis of demographics associated with the user's ZIP or ZIP + 4 code.

Each user, pen, printer, application provider and application is assigned its own unique identifier, and the netpage registration server maintains a relationship between them, as shown in Figs. 21, 22, 23 and 24. do. For registration purposes, a publisher is a special kind of application provider, and publishing is a special kind of application.

Each user 800 may be authorized to use any number of printers 802, and each printer may allow any number of users to use it. Each user has a single default printer (at 66), and periodical publications are delivered to that printer by default, while pages printed on demand are delivered to the printer with which the user interacts. The server maintains a record of publishers authorized to print to the user's default printer. The publisher does not record the ID of any particular printer, but instead decrypts the ID when it is needed. The user may also be marked as having administrative privileges 69 on the printer, allowing the user to authorize other users to use the printer. If the printer needs administrative privileges 84 for the operation, it makes sense.

When the user subscribes to the publication 807 (808), the publisher 806 (ie, the application provider 803) is authorized to print to a particular printer or the user's default printer. This authorization may be revoked by the user at any time. Each user may have several pens 801, but the pen is specific to a single user. If a user is authorized to use a particular printer, that printer recognizes the pens of that user.

The pen ID is usually used via DNS to locate the corresponding user profile maintained by a particular netpage registration server.

Web terminal 809 may be authorized to print on a particular netpage printer, allowing web pages and netpage documents to be displayed during web browsing to be conveniently printed on the closest netpage printer.

The netpage system may collect fees and commissions on revenue earned through publications printed on the printers of the supplier, instead of the printer supplier. This revenue may include advertising fees, click-through fees, e-commissions, and transaction fees. If the printer is owned by a user, the user is a printer supplier.

In addition, each user has a netpage account 820 that is used to accumulate micro-debits and credits (such as those described in the preceding verse): details of contact, including name, address and telephone numbers. Field 815; Global preferences 816, including privacy, delivery, and localization settings; Any number of biological records 817, including a user's encoded signature 818, fingerprint 819, and the like; A handwriting model 819 automatically maintained by the system; SET payment card account 821 where e-commerce payments are made.

In addition to user-specific netpage accounts, each user also has a netpage account 936 specific to each printer that the user is authorized to use. Each printer-specific account is used to accumulate micro-debits and credits related to the user's activity on that printer. The user is charged on a regular basis for any significant debit balance.

The user optionally appears in the netpage user list 823, allowing other users to locate or send email to that user.

2.4 Intellectual Page Layout

The netpage publishing server automatically places the pages of each user's personalized publication on a section-by-section basis. Since most advertisements are in the form of pre-initialized rectangles, they are placed on the page before the edit.

The advertising rate for a clause can be performed by varying the advertising rate on individual pages within the clause, and the ad placement log uses this. The algebra combines closely tied editorial and advertising content, such as placing advertisements for specially looping materials within the publication, due to certain features of the do-it-yourself roofing hydraulics. Configured to attempt to locate it.

Next, the edits selected for the user, including the images and graphics associated with the text, are arranged according to various aesthetic rules.

Once the placement has converged, the entire process, including the selection of editorial content and the selection of advertisements, must be repeated to attempt to more closely achieve the stated section size preferences of the user. However, the section size preferences match on average over time, allowing for a valid daily change.

2.5 Document Type

Once the document is placed, it is encoded for efficient distribution and steady storage on the netpage network.

The primary efficiency structure is the separation of information specific to a single user's edits and information shared among multiple user's edits. The specific information consists of page layouts. The shared information consists of purposes, including images, graphics, and parts of the text.

Body purpose includes a fully-initialized body displayed in Extensible Markup Language (XML) using Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL). XSL provides precise control over body initialization regardless of the area in which the body is set, in which case it is supplied by the arrangement. The text object includes woven language codes to enable automatic translation and woven hyphen hints to assist in phrase initialization.

Image purpose encodes an image in the JPEG 2000 wavelet-based compressed image format. The graphics purpose is to encode 2D graphics in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format.

The arrangement itself consists of linked textflow purposes through which textual purposes flow, hyperlinks and input fields as described above, and positioned image and graphic purposes, which are asymmetric areas.

These deployment objectives are summarized in Table 3. The arrangement uses a compact form suitable for efficient dispensing and storage.

Table 3-Netpage Deployment Objectives  Placement purpose  property  Type of Linked Purpose   image  location -  Image purpose ID  JPEG 2000   graphic  location -  Graphic purpose ID  SVG  Text flow   Text flow ID -  area -  Optional body purpose ID  XML / XSL   Hyperlink  shape -  area -  Application ID, etc. -   field  shape -  meaning -  area -  watermark  area -

2.6 Document Distribution

As described above, for efficient distribution and constant storage in the netpage network, user-specific page placement is separated from the shared purposes it refers to.

When a subscribed publication is ready to be distributed, the netpage publishing server assigns a unique ID for each page, page instance, document, and document instance, with the help of the netpage ID server 12.

The server calculates one set of optimized subsets of shared content, creates a multicast channel for each subset, and then transfers each user-specific batch to share the shared content used by that batch. Tag with the names of the multicast channels. The server then pointscast each user's batches to the user's printer through the appropriate page server, and when the pointcasting is complete, multicasts shared content on specific channels. (multicast) After receiving the pointcast, each page server and printer subscribe to the multicast channels specified in the page batches. During the multicast, each page server and printer extract its purposes referred to by the page layouts from the multicast flow. The page servers constantly record the content shared with the received page batches.

Once the printer has received all the objectives the page batches refer to, the printer recreates the fully implanted batch, then rasterizes and prints it.

Under normal circumstances, the printer prints pages faster than they can be delivered. Assuming one quarter of each page is covered with images, the average page has a size of less than 400 KB. The printer can thus have more than 100 pages in its 64 MB memory, allowing operation of temporary buffers and the like. The printer prints at a rate of 1 page per second. This is equivalent to 400 KB of page data per second or about 3 Mbits, which is similar to the ratio of the highest expectations of page data delivery across broadband networks.

Even under abnormal circumstances, such as when the printer is out of paper, the user is likely to replenish the paper feed before the printer's 100-page internal storage capacity is exhausted.

However, if the printer's internal memory is full, the printer is likely to be unable to use multicast when it occurs for the first time. The netpage publishing server thus allows the printers to suggest a request for remulticast. When a threshold number of requests are received or a timeout occurs, the server multicasts its shared purposes.

Once the document is printed, the printer can generate an exact copy at any time by retrieving its page layouts and contents from the associated page server.

2.7 documents on request

When a netpage document is requested by request, it can be personalized and delivered in a manner very similar to periodic. However, since there is no shared content, delivery is made directly to the requesting printer without the use of multicast.

When no netpage document is required by the request, it is not personalized and it is passed through the specified netpage initialization server that reinitializes it as a netpage document. The netpage initialization server is a special case of the netpage registration server. The netpage initialization server has knowledge of various Internet document formats, including Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). . In the case of HTML, it can use the higher resolution of the printed page to feed web pages in a multi-column format, with a table of contents. This could automatically include all web pages directly linked to the requested page. The user can adjust this property through preferences.

Regardless of their origin and format, the netpage initialization server creates standard netpage properties that are useful for any Internet document and include interaction and persistence. This hides the knowledge of the different document formats from both the netpage printer and the netpage page server and hides the knowledge of the netpage system from web servers.

3 safe

3.1 Decryption

Decryption, in both storage and change, protects sensitive information, It is used to prove a transaction to parties. Widely used There are two kinds of cryptography that are present: secret-key cryptography and public-key cryptography. The netpage network uses both cryptography methods.

Secret-key decryption, referred to as symmetric decryption, uses the same key to encrypt and decrypt a message. Two groups wishing to exchange messages must, first of all, arrange to securely exchange secret keys.

Public-key cryptography, referred to as asymmetric cryptography, uses two encryption keys. The two keys are mathematically related to how any encrypted message using one key can be encrypted using another key. Next, one of these keys is released while the other remains private. The public key is used to encrypt any message for the holder of the private key. Once encrypted using the public-key, a message can be encrypted using the private key. Thus, two groups can exchange messages securely without first exchanging a secret key. To ensure that the private key is secure, it is normal for the holder of the private key to generate a key pair.

Public-key cryptography can be used to generate digital signatures. The holder of the private key can generate known clutter of the message, and then encrypt the clutter using the private key. Then, any person decrypts the encrypted junk using a public-key and proves the junk for the message, whereby the encrypted junk makes up the "signature" of the holder of the private key for that particular message. Can prove. If the signature is added to the message, the recipient of the message can both prove that the message is real and that it has not been changed in transit.

To work with public-key cryptography, there must be a way of distributing public-keys that prevents personalization. This is normally done using certificates and certificate authorizations. Certification Authorization is a trusted third group that certifies the link between public-key and someone's identity. The attestation authorization verifies the identity of the person by reviewing the identity documents, and then generates and signs a digital proof that includes the public-key and details about the identity of the person. Anyone who trusts the certificate authority can use the public-key in proofs with a high degree of certainty that it is real. They only have to prove that the proof is really signed by the certificate authorization, whose public-key is well known.

In most processing environments, public-key cryptography can only be used to generate digital signatures and securely exchange secret session keys. Secret-key cryptography is used for all other purposes.

In the following discussion, when a reference is made to the secure transfer of information between a netpage printer and a server, what can actually happen is that the printer obtains the server's certificate, proves it for authentication, and a secret session. The public-key-exchange key is used in the proof to exchange a key with the server, and then the secret session key is used to encrypt the message data. A session key, by definition, can have any short lifetime.

3.2 Netpage Printer Safety

Each netpage printer is assigned a pair of unique identifiers stored in read-only memory in the printer and in the netpage registration server database at the time of manufacture. The first ID 62 is public and uniquely recognizes a printer on a netpage network. The second ID is secret and is used when the printer is registered on the network for the first time.

When the printer connects to the netpage network for the first time after installation, it generates a signed public / private key pair. It passes the secret ID and public key securely to the netpage registration server. The server compares the secret ID against the printer's secret ID recorded in the database, and if the IDs match each other, accept the registration. Next, a certificate is generated and signed that includes the printer's public ID and public signature key, and then stored in the registration database.

The netpage registration server acts as an authorization authorization for the netpage printers because it has access to secret information that allows it to prove printer identity.

When a user subscribes to a publication, a record is created in the netpage registration server database that authorizes the publisher to print the publication to the user's default or regulatory printer. All documents sent to the printer through the page server are passed to the specific user and signed by the publisher using the publisher's personal signature key. The page server verifies, via the registration database, that the publisher is authorized to deliver the publication to the defined user. The page server verifies the signature using the publisher's public key, obtained from the publisher's certificate stored in the registration database.

As long as these requests are initiated through a pen registered with the printer, the netpage registration server accepts a request to add print authorization to the database.

3.3. Netpage pen safety

Each netpage pen is assigned a unique identifier stored at the pen and in read-only memory in the netpage registration server database at the time of manufacture. The pen ID 61 uniquely recognizes a pen on a netpage network.

The netpage pen "knows" a number of netpage printers, and the printer "knows" a number of pens. The pen communicates with the printer via radio frequency signals whenever it is within range of the printer. Once the pen and printer are registered, they regularly exchange session keys. Each time the pen delivers digital ink to a printer, the digital ink is always encrypted using the appropriate session key. Digital ink is never clearly delivered.

The pen stores the session key for every printer it knows, indicated by the printer ID, and the session key for every pen it knows, indicated by the pen ID. Both have storage capacity for large but limited session keys and, if necessary, will forget session keys under recently used basis.

When the pens are within range of the printer, the pen and printer find out if they know each other. If they do not know each other, the printer determines that it knows the pen. For example, this may be because the pen is of a user registered to use the printer. If the printer knows the pen, it initiates an automatic pen registration procedure. If the printer does not know the pen, it ignores it at the time it initiates the registration procedure until it is in the filling cup in agreement with the pen.

In addition to its public ID, the pen includes a secret key-exchange key. The key-exchange key is also recorded in the netpage registration server database at the time of manufacture. During registration, the pen passes its pen ID to a printer, and the printer passes the pen ID to the netpage registration server. The server generates a session key for the printer and pen to use and securely transfers the session key to the printer. It also carries a copy of the session key encrypted with the pen's key-exchange key. The printer internally stores the session key, indicated by the fan ID, and passes the encrypted session key to the pen. The pen internally stores the session key, indicated by the printer ID.

A fake pen mimics a pen in the pen registration protocol, but only the actual pen can decrypt the session key sent by the printer.

When a pen is registered for the first time that is not pre-registered, it is used until it is connected to the user. Registered but "non-owned" pens can be used to request and supplement netpage users and pen registration forms, register new users to which new pens are automatically connected, or add new pens to existing users.

The pen uses a secret-key rather than public-key cryptography because of hardware feature limitations in the pen.

3.4 secure documents

The netpage system supports the delivery of secure documents such as tickets and coupons. The netpage printer includes the ability to print a positive check, but will do so by request from appropriately authorized publishers. The publisher indicates the authorization to print a positive check on the proof, and the printer can prove it.

The " double check " printing procedure uses an alternative dither matrix in the defined " double check " areas of the page. Back-to-back pages include mirror-image positive check region areas that match when printed. The dither matrix used in the positive and odd pages of the even and odd pages is configured to produce an interference effect when the areas are viewed together, achieved by viewing printed paper.

The effect is similar to a positive check in that when looking at only one side of a page, it is invisible, and when the page is copied by normal means, it is lost.

Pages of secure documents cannot be copied using the built-in netpage copy structure described in section 1.9 above. This extends to copying netpages on netpage-aware photocopiers.

Secure documents are typically created as part of an e-commerce transaction. These may thus include a photograph of the user captured when the user registers the biological information with the netpage registration server, as described in section 2.

When a secure netpage document is provided, the receiver can prove its certainty by requesting its status in the usual way. The unique ID of a secure document is only relevant for the life of the document, and secure document IDs are assigned contactlessly to prevent their prediction by opportunistic fabricators. Secure document proofing pens can be developed with embedded feedback on proof failures to support easy point-of-presentation document proofing.

Clearly, neither a checkbook nor a user's picture is secure in the cryptographic sense. They merely provide an important barrier to accidental forgery. Online document attestation provides the added level of security it requires, especially using a proof pen, but still is not fully immune to counterfeiting.

3.5 NON-REPUDIATION

In the netpage system, forms provided by users are reliably delivered to shape operators and are constantly recorded on netpage page servers. Thus, it is impossible for the receiver to deny delivery.

It is also impossible for the payee to deny, also, the E-commercial payment made through the system, as described in section 4.

4 electronic commercial models

4.1 Secure Electronic Transactions (SET)

The netpage system uses a secure electronic transaction (SET) system as part of its payment systems. SET, which is being developed by MasterCard and Visa, is organized around a payment card, which is reflected in that term. However, many of the systems are independent of the type of account being used.

In the SET, cardholders and merchants register with certificate authorization and certificates containing their public signature keys are issued. The attestation certificate certifies the details of the registration of the cardholder having the card issuer as the exclusive owner and details of the registration of the merchant having the acquirer as the exclusive owner. Cardholders and merchants securely store their respective personal signature keys on their computers. During the payment process, these certificates are used to mutually authenticate the merchant and cardholder and both at the payment gateway.

The SET has not yet been widely adopted, in part because holding card holders of keys and certificates is considered cumbersome. The long-term solutions of maintaining cardholder keys and certificates on the server and providing cardholder access via passwords have had some successes.

4.2 SET Payment

In the netpage system, the netpage registration server acts as an agent for the netpage user (ie, the cardholder) in the SET payment transaction.

The netpage system uses biometrics to authenticate users and authorize SET payments. Since the system is based on a pen, the biometrics used is the user's online signature and consists of a pen position and a press that changes over time. Fingerprint biometry can also be used by constructing a fingerprint sensor into the pen, although at a higher cost.

The type of biometrics used affects the capture of the biometrics, but does not affect the application features of the system.

The first step in making a SET payment is to register your biometrics with the netpage registration server. This is done in a controlled environment, such as a bank, for example where the biometrics can be captured while the user's identity is demonstrated. The biometrics is captured and stored in a registration database and linked to the user's record. A photo of the user is also optionally captured and linked to the record. The SET cardholder registration process is terminated, and the resulting personal signature key and certificate are stored in a database. The user's payment card information is also stored and provides sufficient information to the netpage registration server to act as the user's proxy in any SET payment transaction.

For example, by signing a netpage order form, when the user eventually supplies biometrics to complete the payment, the printer passes the order information, pen ID, and biometric data to the netpage registration server. The server verifies the biometrics for the user identified by the pen ID, and then acts as the user's representative in terminating the SET payment transaction.

4.3 micro-payment

The netpage system includes a structure for micro-payment, which allows the user to conveniently pay the cost of printing on demand low cost documents and copying copyright documents, and reimburse the costs incurred in printing the advertising material. Allow it. The latter relies on donations already supplied to the user.

When a user registers for e-commerce, the network account is set up to collect micro-payments. The user receives the launch on a regular basis and can use the standard payment structure to resolve significant debit balances.

The network account can be extended to collect subscription fees for periodic ones and will also be provided to the user in the form of individual statements.

4.4. deal

When a user requests a netpage in a particular application body, the application may insert a user-specific transaction ID 55 in the page. Subsequent input through the page is tagged with the transaction ID, whereby the application can set the appropriate text for the user's input.

However, when input occurs through a page that is not user-specific, the application uses the user's own identity to set the body. Typical examples include adding items from an already printed catalog page to the user's actual "shopping car". However, to protect the privacy of the user, the unique user ID 60 known to the netpage system is not leaked to applications. This is to easily correlate the data of independently accumulated nature and to prevent other application providers.

The netpage registration server instead maintains an anonymous relationship between the user and the application through a unique alias ID 65, as shown in FIG. Each time a user operates a hyperlink tagged to the "registered" attribute, the netpage page server requests that the netpage registration server translate the associated application ID 64 and pen ID 61 into an alias ID. do. The alias ID is then provided to the application of the hyperlink.

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

In addition, the system maintains an independent certificate and a private signing key for each of the user's applications, allowing it to sign application transactions on behalf of the user using only application-specific information.

To support the system in routing barcode (UPC) "hyperlink" activation, the system records, on behalf of the user, the preferred application for any number of product types.

Each application is associated with an application provider, and the system maintains an account on behalf of each application provider, allowing it to debit and credit the provider for click-through charges.

The application provider may be a publisher of regularly subscribed content. The system records the user's willingness to receive the subscribed publication, as well as the expected frequency of the publication.

5 communication protocol

The communication protocol defines an ordered exchange of messages of a message between identity. In the netpage system, identities such as pens, printers and servers utilize a set of defined protocols to cooperatively manipulate user interaction with the netpage system.

Each protocol uses horizontal dimensions to represent the message flow, and vertical dimensions are illustrated by successive figures used to represent time. Each identity is represented by a rectangle containing the identity of the identity and a vertical column representing the lifeline of the identity. While time and identity exist, the lifeline is shown in broken lines. While time and identity are active, the lifeline is shown in double lines. The protocol contemplated here does not create or destroy congestion, and lifelines are generally short cuts as soon as congestion stops participating in the protocol.

5.1 Subscription Delivery Protocol

A preferred embodiment of the subscription delivery protocol is shown in FIG. 40.

Many users may subscribe to periodic publications. Each user's edits can be made differently, but many user edits will share common content, such as textual and image purposes. Thus, the subscription delivery protocol delivers document structures to individual printers via pointcast, but delivers shared content purposes via multicast.

The application (ie, publisher) obtains a document ID 51 from ID server 12 for each document. It then sends each document structure, including its document ID and page descriptions, to the page server 10 responsible for the newly assigned ID of the document. It includes its own application ID 64, the subscriber's alias ID 65, and the associated set of multicast channel names. It signs the message using its private signature key.

The page server uses the user ID 60 from the registration server, the selected printer ID 62 of the user (which may be explicitly selected for the application, or may be the user's default printer), and the application's certificate.

The application's certificate allows the page server to verify the message signature. If the application ID and the alias ID do not recognize the subscription 808 together, the page server's request to the registration server fails.

The page server then assigns document and page instance IDs and passes the page descriptions to the printer, including the page IDs. It contains the relevant set of multicast channel names that the printer listens on.

Then, the newly allocated page IDs are returned to the application for future reference.

Once the application has distributed all document structures to the selected printers of the subscriber via the relevant page servers, it multicasts the various subsets of shared purposes on the already selected multicast channels. Page servers and printers monitor the appropriate multicast channels and receive their required content purposes. They can then plant document structures that are already pointcasted. This allows the page servers to add complete documents to their database and allow printers to print the documents.

5.2 Hyperlink Activation Protocol

A preferred embodiment of the hyperlink activation protocol is shown in FIG. 42.

When a user clicks on a netpage with a netpage pen, the pen communicates the click to the nearest netpage printer 601. The click recognizes the page and its location on the page. The printer already knows the ID 61 of the pen from the pen connection protocol.

The printer determines, via DNS, the network address of the page server 10a that operates the particular page ID 50. If the user has recently interacted with the same page, the address may already be in the cache. The printer then sends the pen ID, its own printer ID 62, the page ID and the click location to the page server.

The page server logs the page description (5) recognized by the page ID and determines if there is a click in the region 58 of which input component, if any. Assuming that the associated input component is a hyperlink component 844, the page server then obtains an associated application ID 64 and a link ID 54, and, via the DNS, loads the application 71. Determine the network address of the hosting application server.

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 and makes a hyperlink request 934. . The hyperlink request class diagram is shown in FIG. 41. The hyperlink request records the IDs of the requesting user and the printer and recognizes the clicked hyperlink instance 862. The page server then sends its own server ID 53, the hyperlink request ID, and the link ID to the application.

The application generates a response document according to the application-specific logic, and obtains document ID 51 from ID server 12. It then sends the document to the page server 10b responsible for the newly assigned ID of the document, the ID of the requesting page server and the hyperlink request ID, together.

The second page server sends the hyperlink request ID and application ID to the first page server to obtain the corresponding user ID and printer ID 62. If the hyperlink request has ended or is for another application, the first page server rejects the request.

The second page server allocates a document instance and page IDs 50, returns the newly allocated page IDs to the application, adds the complete document to its own database, and finally the page descriptions. Send it to the requesting printer.

The hyperlink instance may include a meaningful transaction ID 55, in which case the first page server includes a transaction ID in the message sent to the application. This allows the application to set a transaction-specific body for the hyperlink activation.

If the hyperlink requires a user alias, that is, the alias required attribute is set, the first page server is configured to correspond to the application ID and the user ID as well as the user ID corresponding to the pen ID. In order to obtain the alias ID 65, both the pen ID 61 and the application ID 64 of the hyperlink are sent to the registration server 11. It includes the alias ID in the message sent to the application, allowing the application to set a user-specific body for hyperlink activation.

5.3 Handwriting Recognition Protocol

When the user draws a stroke on the netpage with a netpage pen, the pen communicates the stroke to the nearest netpage printer. The stroke recognizes the page and the path on the page.

The printer sends the pen ID 61, its own printer ID 62, the page ID 50 and the stroke path to the page server 10 in the usual manner.

The page server logs the page description 5 recognized by the page ID, and if so, determines which stroke of the input component intersects with the region 58. Assuming that the relevant input component is a body field 878, the page server sends the pen ID and pending strokes to registration server 11 for interpretation. The registration server recognizes the user corresponding to the pen and uses the accumulated handwriting model 822 of the user to interpret the strokes as handwriting text. Once it converts the strokes into a body, the registration server returns the body to the requesting page server. The page server adds the body as the body value of the body field.

5.4 Signature Proof Protocol

Assuming that the input component where the strokes intersect the area is a signature field 880, the page server 10 adds the stroke to the digital ink in the signature field.

After a period of inactivity in the area of the signature field, the page server sends to the registration server 11 for verification of the pen ID 61 and pending strokes. It sends not only the form ID 56 and the current data content of the form, but also an application ID 64 associated with the form in which the signature field is part thereof. The registration server recognizes the user corresponding to the pen and uses the user's dynamic signature biometrics 818 to prove the strokes with the user's signature. Once it has verified the signature, the registration server uses the application ID 64 and the user ID 60 to recognize the user's application-specific personal signature key. Next, it uses the key to generate a digital signature of the form data and returns to the page server requesting the digital signature. The page server assigns the digital signature as a signature field and sets the state of its associated form to the unset state.

The digital signature includes the user's alias ID 65. This allows a single form to capture the signatures of multiple users.

5.5 Form Proposal Protocol

A preferred embodiment of the type suggestion protocol is shown in FIG. 43.

Shape suggestions occur through shape hyperlink activation. Thus, it follows the protocol, with some form-specific additions defined in section 5.2.

In the case of a form hyperlink, the hyperlink activation message sent by the page server 10 to the publication 71 also includes a form ID 56 and the current data content of the form. If the form includes any signature fields, the application verifies each by extracting the alias ID 65 associated with the corresponding digital signature and obtaining the certificate from the registration server 11.

6 Netpage pen description

6.1 Pen Structure

With reference to FIGS. 8 and 9, the pen, generally denoted by reference numeral 101, has a housing in the form of a plastic molding with walls 103 forming an interior space 104 for mounting pen components. 102. The top 105 of the pen is mounted to one end 106 of the housing 102 so as to be operatively rotatable. Translucent cover 107 is secured to the opposite end 108 of the housing 102. The cover 107 is also molded plastic and is formed from a semi-transparent material to enable a user to see the state of the LED mounted in the housing 102. The cover 107 fits within a major portion 109 substantially surrounding the end 108 of the housing 102 and a corresponding slot 111 formed in the walls 103 of the housing 102, the major portion And projections 110 protruding back from 109. Radio antenna 112 is mounted behind the protrusion 110 in the housing 102. Screw threads 113 surrounding the opening 113A on the cover 107 are arranged to receive a metal end piece 114, which includes corresponding screw threads 115. The metal end piece 114 is removable to allow ink cartridge replacement.

Also mounted in the cover 107 is a three color status LED 116 on the flex PCB 117. The antenna 112 is also mounted on the flex PCB 117. The status LED 116 is mounted on top of the pen 101 for good all-around visibility.

The pen can operate as both a normal display ink pen and a non-display stylus. The ink pen cartridge 118 with the nib 119 and the stylus 120 with the stylus nib 121 are mounted side by side in the housing 102. Either the ink cartridge nib 119 or the stylus nib 121 can be pulled forward through the pen open end 122 of the metal end 114 by the rotation of the top 105 of the pen. Respective slider blocks 123 and 124 are mounted to the ink pen cartridge 118 and stylus 120, respectively. The rotatable cam barrel 125 is fixed to the top 105 of the pen in operation and arranged to rotate with it. The cam barrel 125 includes a cam 126 in the form of a slot in the walls 181 of the cam barrel. Cam followers 127 and 128 protruding from the slider blocks 123 and 124 fit into the cam slot 126. Upon rotation of the cam barrel 125, either the ink cartridge nib 119 or the stylus nib 121 can protrude through the hole 122 at the metal end 114. 123 and 124 move relative to each other. The pen 101 has three types of operations. By turning the top 105 of the pen by 90 °, the three states are as follows:

Stylus 120 nibs 121 out

-Ink cartridges 118 nibs 119 out, and

-No ink cartridge 118 nibs 119 out or stylus 120 nibs 121 out

The second flex PCB 129 is mounted on an electronic chassis 130 located within the housing 102. The second flex PCB 129 is equipped with an infrared LED 131 for providing infrared radiation for projection onto a surface. Image sensor 132 is mounted on second flex PCB 129 to receive reflected radiation from the surface. The second flex PCB 129 also includes a radio frequency chip 133, and includes a RF transmitter, an RF receiver, and a controller chip 134 for controlling the operation of the pen 101. An optical block 135 (formed from molded clear plastic) is located within the lid 107 and projects images of infrared light onto the surface to receive images onto the image sensor 132. Power supply lines 136 connect components on the second flex PCB 129 to battery contacts 137 mounted in the cam barrel 125. The terminal 138 is connected to the battery contact portion 137 and the cam barrel 125. A 3 V rechargeable battery 139 is located in the cam barrel 125 that is in contact with the battery contact 137. An inductive charging coil 140 is mounted around the second flex PCB 129 to enable recharging of the battery 139 through induction. In addition, when either the stylus 120 or the ink pen cartridge 118 is used for writing, it is possible to determine the force applied to the surface by the pen nib 119 or the stylus nib 121. To do so, the second flex PCB 129 is equipped with an infrared LED 143 and an infrared photo diode 144 for detecting displacement in the cam barrel 125. The IR photo diode 144 detects light from the IR LED 143 through reflectors (not shown) mounted on the slider blocks 123, 124.

Rubber grip pads 141, 142 are provided towards the end 108 of the housing 102 to help hold the pen 101, and the top 105 also includes the pen ( Clip 142 for clipping 101 to the pocket.

6.2 pen controller

The pen 101 is arranged to determine the position of the nib (stylus nib 121 or ink cartridge nib 119) by imaging an area of the surface near the nib in the infrared spectrum. It records position data from the nearest position tag and is arranged to calculate the distance of the nib 121 or 119 from the position tap utilizing the position tap optics 135 and the controller chip 134. The controller chip 134 calculates the nib-to-tag distance from the orientation of the pen and the perspective twist observed on the imaged tag.

Using the RF chip 133 and the antenna 112, the pen 101 transmits the digital ink data (encrypted for safety and bundled for efficient transmission) to a computing system.

When the pen is in range of the receiver, the digital ink data is transmitted as it is formed. When the pen 101 is out of range, digital ink data is buffered in the pen 101 (the pen 101 circuitry is arranged to store digital ink data for nearly 12 minutes of pen operation on the surface). Buffer), which may be sent later.

The controller chip 134 is mounted on the second flex PCB 129 in the pen 101. 10 is a block diagram illustrating the structure of the controller chip 134 in more detail. 10 also shows an RF chip 133, an image sensor 132, a tri-color LED 116, an IR illumination LED 131, an IR force sensor LED 143, and the force sensor photo diode 144. It is shown.

The pen controller chip 134 includes a processor 145 for controlling. Bus 146 enables the exchange of data between components of the controller chip 134. Flash memory 147 and 512 KB DRAM 148 are also included. An analog-to-digital converter 149 converts the analog signal from the force sensor photo diode 144 into a digital signal.

The image sensor interface 152 interfaces the image sensor 132. The transceiver controller 153 and the baseband circuit 154 are also for interfacing with the RF chip 133 including the RF circuit 155 and the RF resonators and inductors 156 connected to the antenna 112. Included.

The control processor 145, via an image sensor 132, captures and decodes position data from tags from a surface, monitors the force sensor photo diode 144, and displays LEDs 116, 131. , 143, and manipulate short range radio communication via the transceiver controller 153. It is a mid-function (~ 40 MHz) general purpose RISC processor.

The processor 145, digital transceiver components (transceiver controller 153 and baseband circuit 154), image sensor interface 152, flash memory 147 and 512 KB DRAM 148 are integrated into a single controller ASIC. It is. Analog RF components (RF circuit 155 and RF resonators and inductors 156 are provided in separate RF chips.

The image sensor is a CCD or CMOS image sensor. Depending on the tagging structure, it ranges in size from about 100 x 100 pixels to 200 x 200 pixels. Many small CMOS image sensors, including the National Semiconductor LM9630, are commercially available.

The controller ASIC 134 enters a quiet state after a period of inactivity when the pen 101 is not in contact with the surface. It includes a dedicated circuit 150 for monitoring the force sensor photo diode 144 and waking the controller 134 through a power manager 151 during a pen-down event.

The radio transceiver communicates in the unlicensed 900 MHz band normally used by a cordless telephone, or alternatively in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band to provide interference free communication. Use hopping and collision detection.

In an alternative embodiment, the pen includes an infrared data federation (IrDA) interface for short range communication with a base station or netpage printer.

In another embodiment, the pen 101 includes a pair of vertical accelerometers mounted in the normal plane of the pen 101 axis. The accelerometer 190 is shown in phantom outline in FIGS. 9 and 10.

The provision of vertical accelerometers enables this embodiment, without mentioning surface location tags, allowing the pen 101 to detect motion and allow the location tags to be sampled at a lower rate. Each location tag ID can then recognize the purpose of interest rather than the location on the surface. For example, if the purpose is a user interface input component (eg, a command button), the tag ID of each location tag in the area of the input component can directly recognize the input component.

The acceleration measured by the vertical accelerometers in each of the x and y directions is integrated over time to generate instantaneous velocity and position.

Since the starting point of the stroke is unknown, only relative positions within the stroke are calculated. Position integration accumulates errors in the sensed acceleration, but vertical accelerometers typically have a high resolution, and the duration of time of the stroke, where errors accumulate, is short.

7 Netpage Printer Description

7.1 Printer Structure

The vertically mounted netpage wall printer 601 is shown fully assembled in FIG. It prints netpages on letter / A4-size media using dual 8 1/2 Memjet ^™ print engines 602 (603), as shown in FIGS. 12 and 12A. It uses a straight paper passage with paper 604 passing through dual print engines 602 (603) that print both sides of the paper in full color and full density at the same time.

The entire binding assembly 605 applies a piece of glue along each corner of each printed paper, allowing it to adhere to the previous paper when pressed against it. This produces the last bound document 618 in the range of one to hundreds of sheets of thickness.

The replaceable ink cartridge 627, connected to the dual print engines and shown in FIG. 13, is a binder for storing a fixer, an adhesive, and cyan, magenta, yellow, black and infrared inks. (bladders) or chambers. The cartridge also includes a micro air filter in the base molding. The micro air filter interfaces with an air pump 638 inside the printer through a hose 639. This supplies filtered air to the print heads to prevent entry of micro particles into the Memjet ^™ print heads 350, which may clog print head nozzles. By inserting the air filter into the cartridge, the operating life of the filter is effectively linked to the life of the cartridge. The ink cartridge is a fully recyclable product with the ability to print and glue 3000 pages (1500 sheets).

Referring to FIG. 12, the power pickup-connected media pickup roller assembly 626 allows the top paper to be drawn from the media tray behind a paper sensor on the first print engine 602 to the dual Memjet ^™ print head. Pushed into assembly. The two Memjet ^™ print engines 602 (603) are mounted in opposite inline continuous configurations along a straight paper passage. The paper 604 is drawn to the first print engine 602 by a whole, powered-up pickup rollers 626. The position and size of the paper 604 is sensed and printing of full density begins. The fixer is printed at the same time to aid drying in the shortest possible time.

The paper exits from the first Memjet ^™ print engine 602 via a set of powered exit spike wheels (aligned along a straight paper passage) that drive against a rubberized roller. Comes out. These spike wheels contact the 'wet' printed surface to continuously feed the paper 604 to the second Memjet ^™ print engine 603.

12 and 12A, the paper 604 passes from the dual print engines 602 603 to the binding assembly 605. The printed page passes between a powered spike wheel shaft 670 with fibrous support rollers and another movable axis with spike wheels and momentary action glue wheels. The movable shaft / glue assembly 673 is mounted to a metal support bracket, which is moved forward to interface with the powered shaft 670 through the gears by the operation of the cam shaft. The separate motor powers this camshaft.

The glue wheel assembly 673 consists of a partially concave shaft 679 having a rotating engagement to the glue supply hose 641 from the ink cartridge 627. This axis 679 is connected to the glue wheel, which absorbs the adhesive by capillary action through radial holes. Molded housing 682 surrounds the glue wheel, having an opening in front. When the reset of this assembly 673 is pushed forward, the pivoting side moldings and the doors outside the sprung are attached to the metal bracket and to the hinged out side passages. This operation exposes the glue wheel through the front of the molded housing 682. Tension springs adhere the assembly efficiently to cap the glue wheel during periods of inactivity.

As the paper 604 passes through the glue wheel assembly 673, the adhesive is transported under a binding assembly 605 while the adhesive is one of the front side (away from the first paper of the document). It goes into the vertical edge.

7.2 Printer Controller Structure

The netpage printer controller may include a control processor 750, a factory-installed or field-installed network interface module 625, a radio transceiver (transceiver controller 753, baseband circuit 754), as illustrated in FIG. ), RF circuit 755, RF resonators and inductors 756), dual raster image processor (RIP) DSPs 757, dual print engine controllers 760a and 760b, flash memory 658 And 64 MB of DRAM 657.

The control processor manipulates communication with the network 19 and with the local wireless netpage pens 101, senses a help button 617, controls the user interface LEDs 613-616, and a RIP DSP. Power supply and synchronization of the engines 757 and the print engine controllers 760. It consists of a mid-function general purpose microprocessor. The control processor 750 communicates with the print engine controllers 760 via a high speed serial bus 659.

The RIP DSPs rasterize and compress page descriptions into the compressed page format of a netpage printer. Each print engine controller expands, vibrates, and prints the page images in real time to their associated Memjet ^™ print head 350 (ie, more than 30 pages per minute). The dual print engine controllers print both sides of the paper simultaneously.

The master print engine controller 760a controls the paper transportation and monitors the ink usage associated with the master QA chip 665 and the ink cartridge QA chip 761.

The flash memory 658 of the printer controller has software for both the processor 750 and the DSPs 757 as well as configuration data. This is copied to main memory 657 at boot time.

The processor 750, DSPs 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 resonators and inductors 756 are provided on separate RF chips 762. The network interface module 625 is separate and netpage printers are connected to the network. Allow this to be factory-selected or field-selected Flash memory 658 and 2 X 256 Mbits (64 MB) DRAM 657 are also off-chip The print engine controllers 760 are isolated To ASICs.

Various network interface modules 625 are provided, each providing a netpage network interface 751, optionally providing a local computer or network interface 752. Netpage network Internet interfaces include POTS modems, hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) cable modems, ISDN modems, DSL modems, satellite transceivers, current and next-generation cellular telephone transceivers. Wireless local loop (WLL) transceivers. Local interfaces include IEEE 1284 (parallel port), 10 Base-T and 100 Base-T Ethernet, USB and USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 (Firewire), and various emerging home networking interfaces. If an internet connection is available on the local network, the local network interface can be used as the netpage network interface.

The radio transceiver 753 communicates in the unlicensed 900 MHz band normally used by wireless telephones, alternatively in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band, to provide interference free communication. Use frequency hopping and collision detection.

The printer controller optionally includes an infrared data federation (IrDA) interface for receiving "ejected" data from devices such as netpage cameras. In an alternative embodiment, the printer uses the IrDA interface for short range communication with suitably configured netpage pens.

7.2.1 Rasterization and Printing

Once the main processor 750 has received and verified the page layouts and page purposes of the document, it executes the appropriate RIP software on the DSPs 757.

The DSPs 757 rasterize each page description and compress this rasterized page image. The main processor stores each compressed page image in memory. The simplest way to load-balance multiple DSPs is to rasterize separate pages for each DSP. Since any number of rasterized pages can generally be stored in memory, the DSPs can always be kept busy. When rasterizing short documents, this strategy leads to potentially poor DSP utilization.

The asterisk regions in the page description are rasterized into contone-resolution two-level bitmaps that are compressed to a negligible size without loss, which forms part of the compressed page image.

The infrared (IR) layer of the printed page includes encoded netpage tags at a density of about 6 per inch. Each tag is the page ID, tag ID, and control bits, and the data content of each tag is generated during rasterization and stored in the compressed page image.

The main processor 750 passes back-to-back page images to the dual print engine controllers 760. Each print engine controller 760 stores the compressed page image in its local memory and initiates page expansion and print pipeline. Because it is practical to store the entire 114 MB two-level CMYK + IR page image in memory, page expansion and printing are pipelined.

7.2.2 Print Engine Controller

The page expansion and print pipeline of the print engine controller 760 include a high speed IEEE 1394 serial interface 659, a standard JPEG decoder 763, a standard Group 4 fax decoder 764, a customer halftoner / typewriter ( compositor) device 765, customer tag encoder 766, line loader / formatter device 767, and customer interface 768 to Memjet ^™ printhead 350.

The print engine controller 360 operates in a double buffered form. One page is loaded into DRAM 769 via high speed serial interface 659, while the already loaded page is read from DRAM 769 and passes through the print engine controller pipeline. Once the page has finished printing, the page just loaded is printed while the next page is loaded.

The first stage of the pipeline expands the JPEG-compressed contone CMYK layer (at 763), expands the group 4 fax-compressed two-level black layer (at 764), and applies the tag format defined in section 1.2. As a result, all two-level netpage tag layers are provided in parallel. The second step vibrates (at 765) the contone CMYK layer and synthesizes (at 765) a two-level black layer over the resulting two-level CMYK layer. The resulting two-level CMYK + IR dot data is buffered and initialized for printing on the Memjet ^™ printhead 350 via one set of line buffers. Most of these line buffers are stored in off-chip DRAM. The last step prints six channels of two-level dot data (including fixative) through the printhead interface 768 to the Memjet ^™ printhead 350.

When several print engine controllers 760 are used in one piece, as in a dual configuration, it is synchronized via a shared line sync signal 770. Only one print engine 760, selected via an external master / slave pin 771, generates the line sync signal 770 as a shared line.

The print engine controllers 760 synchronize page expansion and provide pipelines, configure the printhead 350 via a slow serial bus 773, and control stepper motors 675 and 676. A low speed processor 772 for the processor.

In 8 1/2 versions of a netpage printer, the two print engines each print 30 letter pages per minute along the long dimension of the page 11 "and provide a line rate of 8.8 KHz at 1600 dpi. In 12 "versions of a netpage printer, the two print engines each print 45 letter pages per minute along the short dimension of the page (8 1/2") and provide a line rate of 10.2 KHz. These line rates Is within the operating frequency of the Memjet ^™ print head and exceeds 30 kHz in the current configuration.

Although the present invention has been described in terms of a number of specific examples, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced in many different forms.

Claims (54)

delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete Receiving user data at the printer; Generating machine-readable encoded data having a plurality of sub-layouts, the user data being disposed on a substrate; Printing the encoded data on a substrate; Method of generating an interface surface comprising a. The method of claim 30, Printing the visible indicia on the substrate. The method of claim 31, wherein And the encoded data and visible indicia are printed simultaneously on the substrate. A method of reading machine-readable encoded data having a plurality of sub-arrangements, disposed on a substrate, the method comprising: (a) detecting the encoded data using a sensing device; (b) determining at least one rotation-display data of the sub-batch by decoding at least one coded data of the plurality of sub-batch in the sensed data; (c) using the rotation-display data to determine at least one rotational position among the remaining sub-dispositions to be decrypted; A method of reading machine-readable encoded data comprising a. 34. The method of claim 33, wherein step (a) Imaging the substrate to generate an image of the substrate; Processing the image to locate one or more target features of the encoded data; Based on the located target features, determining a location of at least one of the sub-batches; A method of reading machine-readable encoded data comprising a. The method of claim 33, wherein The coded data is disposed on a substrate according to a layout, the layout having a six rotational symmetrical structure, six identical sub-rotations spaced at a distance of 1/6 rotational distance relative to the center of the rotational symmetrical structure. The encoded data comprising arrangements, wherein the coded data arranged according to the sub-batch comprises rotation-display data that distinguishes the rotation of the sub-batch from a rotation of at least one other sub-batch in the layout. A method of reading readable coded data. 36. The method of claim 35 wherein And said rotation-display data distinguishes the rotation of said sub-batch from each rotation of other sub-batches in said layout. The method of claim 35 or 36, And the encoded data is redundantly encoded, and the encoded data of each sub-batch comprises at least one coded data code name. The method of claim 37, And the encoded data is redundantly encoded using Reed-Solomon encoding. 36. The method of claim 35 wherein Wherein the sub-batches each define positions of a plurality of data components, and are inserted into each other without any two data components overlapping each other. 36. The method of claim 35 wherein And said layout is repeated on a substrate. The method of claim 40, And the layouts are grouped together on a substrate. 36. The method of claim 35 wherein And said layout is hexagonal. 36. The method of claim 35 wherein And wherein said encoded data comprises one or more target features that enable rotation and preliminary positioning of said layout as determined by the machine used to read said encoded data. . The method of claim 43, And said target features are configured to enable perspective correction of the encoded data of said layout or of each layout in response to a reading by said machine. The method of claim 44, And the coded data comprises at least four of the target features. The method of claim 43 or 44, And said encoded data comprises a plurality of said layouts, at least some of said target features being shared by at least two of said layouts. 36. The method of claim 35 wherein And the encoded data is printed on a substrate. The method of claim 47, And said coded data is printed on the surface of said substrate with invisible or average visually invisible ink. The method of claim 48, And the ink is an infrared ink which is invisible to the naked eye on average. 36. The method of claim 35 wherein And said encoded data of each layout or sub-arrangement defines user data. 51. The method of claim 50, And the user data includes position data indicating a position of a placement pattern relative to an area of the surface of the substrate. 51. The method of claim 50, The user data includes recognition data recognizing an area of the surface of the substrate on which the layout is disposed. The method of any one of claims 50-52, And the user data includes function data for recognizing a function performed upon reading of a batch pattern or sub-pattern by a machine. 36. The method of claim 35 wherein And at least some of said coded data are not disposed in said sub-batches.

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