KR20030005384A - Printed page tag encoder - Google Patents

Abstract

The tag encoder of a printed page includes input means for receiving a tag structure template, input means for receiving fixed data bits, input means for receiving variable data bit records and tags defined by the tag structure template and fixed and variable data. It has a tag dot generator that outputs a single bit depending on its position inside. The encoder further has a redundant encoder that optionally encodes fixed and / or variable data. The redundant encoder uses Reed-Solomon coding. Tags are placed on a page regularly, ideally in a triangular grid.

Description

Tag encoder for printed pages {PRINTED PAGE TAG ENCODER}

Paper is widely used to display and record information. The printed information is easier to read than the information displayed on the computer screen. Hand-drawing and handwriting can provide richer expressions than input through computer keyboards and mice. Moreover, paper requires no battery, can be read under bright light, can withstand spilled coffee, is mobile and can be thrown away.

Online publication has many advantages over traditional paper-based publication. From the consumer's point of view, information can be obtained as needed, delivered via hypertext links, searchable, and automatically personalized.

From a publisher's point of view, online publishing is more attractive to advertisers who pay for advertising because they eliminate the cost of printing and physical distribution and can link to the product's site for a specific class of people. Becomes

Online publishing also has its drawbacks. Computer screens are inferior to paper. At the same quality as the pages of the magazine, the SVGA computer screen only displays 1/5 of the information. In particular, when the surroundings are very bright, both the CRT and the LCD have brightness and gradation problems. On the other hand, ink on paper is bright and clear when it is bright because it is reflective rather than emissive.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and system for interacting with a computer, and more particularly, to a tag encoder for generating a tag in accordance with a format of a coded tag and a tag and a format given to a printed page during printing of a page. It is about. The tag encoder can be implemented in particular in a print engine / controller that generates a printed page containing tags along with other graphic and textual matters.

The present invention has been developed primarily with the aim of allowing a large number of distributed users to obtain interactive printed matter at any time via a high speed network color printer so that they can interact with network information via prints and optical sensors. Although the present invention will be described hereinafter in most respects in connection with such use, the present invention is not limited to use in this field.

Numerous methods, systems, and apparatus in connection with the present invention are disclosed in the following ongoing applications filed by the applicant or the assignee of the present invention concurrently with the present application.

PCT / AU00 / 00518, PCT / AU00 / 00519, PCT / AU00 / 00520, PCT / AU00 / 00521, PCT / AU00 / 00522, PCT / AU00 / 00523, PCT / AU00 / 00524, PCT / AU00 / 00525, PCT / AU00 / 00526, PCT / AU00 / 00527, PCT / AU00 / 00528, PCT / AU00 / 00529, PCT / AU00 / 00530, PCT / AU00 / 00531, PCT / AU00 / 00532, PCT / AU00 / 00533, PCT / AU00 / 00534, PCT / AU00 / 00535, PCT / AU00 / 00536, PCT / AU00 / 00537, PCT / AU00 / 00538, PCT / AU00 / 00539, PCT / AU00 / 00540, PCT / AU00 / 00541, PCT / AU00 / 00542, PCT / AU00 / 00543, PCT / AU00 / 00544, PCT / AU00 / 00545, PCT / AU00 / 00547, PCT / AU00 / 00546, PCT / AU00 / 00554, PCT / AU00 / 00556, PCT / AU00 / 00557, PCT / AU00 / 00558, PCT / AU00 / 00559, PCT / AU00 / 00560, PCT / AU00 / 00561, PCT / AU00 / 00562, PCT / AU00 / 00563, PCT / AU00 / 00564, PCT / AU00 / 00565, PCT / AU00 / 00566, PCT / AU00 / 00567, PCT / AU00 / 00568, PCT / AU00 / 00569, PCT / AU00 / 00570, PCT / AU00 / 00571, PCT / AU00 / 00572, PCT / AU00 / 00573, PCT / AU00 / 00574, PCT / AU00 / 00575, PCT / AU00 / 00576, PCT / AU00 / 00577, PCT / AU00 / 00578, PCT / AU00 / 00579, PCT / AU00 / 00581, PCT / AU00 / 00580, PCT / AU00 / 00582, PCT / AU00 / 00587, PCT / AU00 / 00588, PCT / AU00 / 00589, PCT / AU00 / 00583, PCT / AU00 / 00593, PCT / AU00 / 00590, PCT / AU00 / 00591, PCT / AU00 / 00592, PCT / AU00 / 00584, PCT / AU00 / 00585, PCT / AU00 / 00586, PCT / AU00 / 00584, PCT / AU00 / 00595, PCT / AU00 / 00596, PCT / AU00 / 00597, PCT / AU00 / 00598, PCT / AU00 / 00516, PCT / AU00 / 00511, PCT / AU00 / 00501, PCT / AU00 / 00502, PCT / AU00 / 00503, PCT / AU00 / 00504, PCT / AU00 / 00505, PCT / AU00 / 00506, PCT / AU00 / 00507, PCT / AU00 / 00508, PCT / AU00 / 00509, PCT / AU00 / 00510, PCT / AU00 / 00512, PCT / AU00 / 00513, PCT / AU00 / 00514, PCT / AU00 / 00515

The disclosures of these ongoing applications are cross-referenced herein.

Preferred and other embodiments of the invention are described as exemplary methods without limiting the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: FIG.

1 is a schematic diagram showing a relationship between an example of a printed netpage and its online page specification;

2 is a schematic diagram illustrating interactions between a netpage pen, a netpage printer, a netpage page server and a netpage application server;

3 illustrates a set of netpage servers and printers interconnected via a network;

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

5 is a plan view showing the structure of a netpage tag;

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing a relationship between a set of tags shown in FIG. 5 and an area of a netpage detecting device having a netpage pen shape; FIG.

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

8 is a perspective view showing a netpage pen and a tag-sensing field-of-view cone associated therewith;

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

FIG. 10 is a schematic block diagram of a pen controller for the netpage pen shown in FIGS. 8 and 9;

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

12 is a vertical sectional view of the netpage printer of FIG. 11;

12A is an enlarged partial view of 12 showing a cross section of duplexed print engines and a glue wheel assembly;

FIG. 13 is a detailed view of the ink cartridge, ink, air and adhesive paths, and the print engine of the netpage printer of FIGS. 11 and 12;

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

FIG. 15 is a schematic block diagram of a dual print engine controller and a Memjet ™ print head associated with the printer controller shown in FIG. 14;

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

FIG. 17 is a perspective view of a single Memjet (trademark) printing element used in the netpage printer of FIGS.

18 is a perspective view of a portion of the arrangement of the Memjet (trademark) printing elements,

FIG. 19 is a perspective view showing an operating cycle of the Memjet (trademark) printing element shown in FIG. 13;

20 is a perspective view showing a portion of a page width of a Memjet (trademark) 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 element specialization class diagram;

28 is a schematic diagram of a static element specialization class diagram,

29 is a schematic diagram of a hyperlink element class diagram,

30 is a schematic diagram of a hyperlink element specialization class diagram,

31 is a schematic diagram of a hyperlinked group class diagram,

32 is a schematic diagram of a form class diagram,

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

34 is a schematic diagram of a field element specialization class diagram;

35 is a schematic diagram of a check box 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 algorithm;

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

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

40 is a schematic diagram of a resource description class diagram,

41 is a schematic diagram of a favorites list class diagram,

42 is a schematic diagram of a history list class diagram,

43 is a schematic diagram of a subscription delivery protocol,

44 is a schematic diagram of a hyperlink request class diagram,

45 is a schematic diagram of a hyperlink activation protocol;

46 is a schematic diagram of a form submission protocol,

47 is a schematic diagram of a commission payment protocol;

48 is a diagram showing the data flow and the actions performed by the print engine controller;

49 illustrates a print engine controller in the context of an overall print system structure;

50 shows a print engine controller structure;

FIG. 51 shows an external interface to the halftoner / compositor unit (HCU) of FIG. 50;

52 shows an internal circuit to the HCU of FIG. 51;

53 is a block diagram showing processing in a dot merging unit of FIG. 52;

54 shows a process in the dot reorganization unit of FIG. 52;

55 is a view showing placement of tags in portrait and landscape modes;

56 illustrates a parameter used to define a tag arrangement;

FIG. 57 shows a half-line tag data buffer structure. FIG.

58 shows a circuit for generating a single tag dot,

59 is a diagram illustrating a Reed-Solomon system for encoding tag data.

An example of the present invention relating to a tag encoder for a printed page is

Input means for receiving a tag structure template;

Input means for receiving a fixed data bit;

Input means for receiving a variable data bit record; And

And a tag dot generator for outputting a single bit according to a position in a tag defined by the tag structure template and the fixed and variable data.

The print engine / controller including the present tag encoder preferably utilizes a high speed serial interface for receiving compressed page data. The page data may comprise a contone image plane which is decoded with a JPEG decoder, which scales in a halftoner / compositor under the control of a margin unit. Can be The bi-level image plane can be decoded by a Group 4 facsimile decoder, which can also be scaled in the halftoner / synthesizer under the control of the margin unit. Preferably, the infrared tag encoder in the print engine / controller generates infrared data line by line in accordance with the processing of the image plane to print the tag with infrared ink on the print page.

The purpose of a tag encoder is to place a tag on a printed page that can later be read by a pen or similar device. Each tag is written into a 2D package of data (although the tag may be printed on a surface of any shape) and can be read out later. Typically, some data may be stored in a package written to a page, but sometimes the existence (tag) of the data package itself may be information. Preferably, the tag encoder can write a large number of these data packets throughout the page. When these packets are generated, the size, structure and how the data is stored therein is controlled. The tag encoder and Tag Format Structure (described below) control them.

The tag format structure allows a tag designer to specify which dots will be printed as part of the physical print tag structure and which dots will be derived from the data for a given tag. The data portion of the tag is divided into variable and fixed portions. The fixed portion is all the same data for each tag on the page, while the variable portion is specific for each tag. One limitation is when all data is made variable but by accidental inclusion of the same value while efficiently fixing the data. Instead of having the user of the print engine / controller (PEC) always supply data for each and every tag, we allow the possibility that each tag has fixed data. Exactly what data is included in the tags is entirely application specific. One page may have a tag that includes the X / Y coordinates of the tag as variable data and the page ID as a fixed data element. The page interactive pen (or equivalent) may continue to read these coordinate systems from the tags and perform actions based on their location on the page. The other page has fixed data throughout the page so that the same data is returned no matter where the pen clicks on the page. Another page may have a huge tag on the page in the form of a watermark sufficient for the existence of a simple tag itself. Fixed data and variable data can be anything to the extent that the reading application can read the tag and interpret the data as useful.

The structure of the tags can be defined by the user so that different applications can create appropriate structures to hold their data. Ideally, a tag may have a structure that helps the locating software (in the pen) detect the tag and some orientation feature that allows the data bits to be properly extracted. . Finally, the data included in the tag should be redundantly encoded so that the reading device (pen) can correct errors due to dust, dirt, dirt, reading noise, and the like.

The tag is defined in the form of 1600 dpi to enable the tag structure of good shape. However, at present it is not useful to print data dots on a page where each data dot is represented by a single printing dot. Errors in the reading environment can be very severe. To get 1600 dpi dots, the pen requires at least 3200 dpi scanner. As a result, tag designers will typically cluster multiple printed dots on a page to represent a single datadot. Such clustered printed dots are referred to as macrodots because they are dense to represent a single logical dot and to facilitate the decoding algorithm in the dot detection and reading device. Since the tag format structure allows any output dot in a tag to come from any data bit, the size and shape of the macro dot is entirely arbitrary. Tag designers can design macro dots based on the read and optical performance of the pen.

The tag encoder should ideally be able to print tags vertically or horizontally. The single tag format structure that is internally rotated by the tag encoder is one way to do this, but in our tag encoder, the tag encoder simply uses a pre-rotated tag format structure to save the hassle of rotating it directly. Just read it.

Finally, in placing tags on a page, placing the tags in a triangular grid is better in terms of use of ink than a square grid. Furthermore, while our particular tag encoder is only related to the rectangular plane, the triangular grid is also easy to place the tag on any curved plane. Thus, the same tag interactive pen can read tags printed on different surfaces.

Other inks, such as K, can be used for tags in limited environments, but tag encoders typically require the presence of IR ink in the print head.

The tag encoder is responsible for generating tags at a rate that keeps pace with what other image planes are doing. The tag encoder generates the fixed and variable elements of the tags in dots in a predefined tag format and feeds them into the synthesizer row by row when the image planes are synthesized. The tag encoder can encode fixed data into error-correctable coded tags along with specific variable tag data values when the page is printed, and error-corrected coded tags continue to be primarily infrared, sometimes Can be printed on pages with black ink. The tag encoder ideally places the tag on the page on a regular basis, and more ideally places the tag on a triangular grid. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other tag arrangements other than triangular grids may be used. The tag encoder supports both landscape and portrait orientations. The basic tag structure is represented at 1600 dpi so that the tag data has macro dots of arbitrary shape (at least 1600 dpi at 1 dot in size). The output dot flow can be generated as an output order set set up for a particular printer, and one of ordinary skill in the art would be able to anticipate that other approaches may be made. Furthermore, one of ordinary skill in the art will be able to anticipate the advantages of using infrared ink that is invisible but detectable by a particular sensor, and that other inks may be used from time to time.

Instead of sending the data package already encoded to the print engine / controller (PEC), it is possible to reduce the bandwidth to the PEC by having the PEC perform redundant coding. Reed-Solomon encoding is specifically described, but other encoders may be used as well. The PEC preferably encodes both fixed and variable portions of tag data.

The present invention defines a template that provides a comprehensive data package that includes a dot that is always off, a dot that is always on, and a dot derived from encoded data. This allows for an extension of the scope of the data package definition, including macro dots of various sizes, large objects to aid in placement, and the like. The tag structure can be stored in the associated DRAM, and its implementation does not involve the manufacture of all included chips. A minor extension would be to have the tag structure on-chip instead of external DRAM.

Note: Memjet is a registered trademark of Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd, Australia.

In a preferred embodiment, the present invention is configured to operate in a netpage network computer system, with a detailed overview as follows. It will be appreciated that not all implementations necessarily include all or most of the specific details and extensions discussed below in connection with the underlying system. However, the system is described in its most complete form to exclude the need for an external literature reference when understanding the context in which preferred embodiments and aspects of the invention operate.

In summary, the preferred form of a netpage system utilizes a computer interface in the form of a mapped surface, ie a physical surface that contains a reference to a map of the surface maintained within the computer system. The map reference is queried by an appropriate sensing device. Depending on the particular implementation, the map reference may be encoded either visually or invisibly, and may be defined in such a way that it presents a clear map reference in both of that map and in different maps for local lookup on the mapped surface. The computer system may include information regarding features on the mapped surface, such information may be retrieved based on a map reference supplied by the sensing device used at the mapped surface. The retrieved information can thus take the form of operations initiated by a computer system on behalf of the operator in response to the operator's interaction with the surface features.

In a preferred embodiment, the netpage system relies on the generation of netpages and human interaction with them. Netpages are pages of text, graphics, and images printed on ordinary paper, but act like interactive webpages. The information is encoded on each page using ink that is essentially invisible to the human eye. However, the ink and thus encoded data can be sensed by an optically imaging pen and transmitted to the netpage system.

In a preferred embodiment, the active button and hyperlink on each page can be clicked with the pen to request information from the network or to signal a preference to the network server. In one example, text written by hand on a netpage is automatically converted into computer text that can be recognized by the netpage system and entered into a form. In another embodiment, the signature recorded on the netpage is automatically verified to allow secure transaction of electronic commerce transactions.

As shown in FIG. 1, the printed netpage 1 may represent an interactive format that may be physically written on the printed page by the user and may be “electronically” filled by communication between the pen and the netpage system. . The example represents a "application" form that includes a name and address line and a submit button. The netpage consists of graphic data 2 printed using visible ink and encoded data 3 printed as a set of tags 4 using invisible ink. The corresponding page specification 5 stored on the netpage network describes each element of that netpage. In particular, it describes the format and spatial range (area) of each interactive element (ie text box or button in the example), allowing the netpage system to correctly interpret input through the netpage. The submit button 6 has, for example, an area 7 corresponding to the spatial extent of the corresponding graphic 8.

As shown in Fig. 2, the Netpage pen 101 (shown in the preferred embodiment in Figs. 8 and 9, described in more detail below) is a netpage printer 601, for home, office or Works with mobile printing devices. The pen is wireless and securely communicates with a Netpage printer via a short-range radio link 9.

The netpage printer 601 (shown in the preferred embodiment in FIGS. 11-13 and described in more detail below) is a personalized newspaper, magazine, catalog, printed in high quality as an interactive netpage periodically or on command. Deliver brochures, brochures and other publications. Unlike personal computers, netpage printers are devices that can be wall-mounted, for example, near the kitchen of the user, where breakfast news is first consumed, near the breakfast table, or near the point where the generation begins the day. Tabletop, desktop, portable and miniature versions are also available.

Netpages printed at the point of consumption combine the ease-of-use paper with the timeliness and interactivity of interactive media.

As shown in FIG. 2, the netpage pen 101 interacts with the encoded data on the printed netpage 1 and communicates the interaction with the netpage printer via a short range wireless connection 9. The printer 601 sends the interaction to the relevant netpage page server 10 for interpretation. In the proper environment, the page server sends the corresponding message to the computer application running on the netpage application server 13. The application server can then send a response to be printed on the printer.

The netpage system is made more convenient in the present preferred embodiment by being used with a high speed microelectromechanical system (MEMS) based inkjet (MetJet) printer. In a preferred embodiment of the present technology, relatively high speed and high quality printing can be provided to consumers. In a preferred embodiment, the netpage publication has the physical characteristics of a traditional news magazine, such as a pair of letter-size glossy pages printed in two-sided, colored, for easy transportation and comfortable handling.

Netpage printers take advantage of increasing broadband Internet access possibilities. Cable service is available in 95% of homes in the United States, and 20% of cable modem services that provide broadband Internet access are already available. Netpage printers can operate on slower connections, but they also take longer delivery times and lower image quality. In fact, the Netpage system is also capable of using existing home inkjet and laser printers, but the system runs slower and therefore less satisfactory from the consumer's point of view. In another embodiment, the netpage system is operated on a private intranet. In another embodiment, the Netpage system is run on a single computer or on a device activated by a computer, such as on a printer.

The netpage publishing server 14 on the netpage network is configured to send print-quality publications to a netpage printer. Periodic publications are automatically sent to subscriber netpage printers via pointcasting and multicasting Internet protocols. Personalized publications are filtered and formatted according to each user profile.

The netpage printer is 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. One household may have a set of colored Netpage pens each assigned to a family. This results in each user having a distinct profile with respect to the netpage publishing server or application server.

The Netpage pen can also be registered with a netpage registration server 11 and linked to one or more payment card accounts, thereby ensuring that e-commerce payments are secured using the Netpage pen. The Netpage registration server verifies the identity of the user to the e-commerce server by comparing the signature obtained by the Netpage pen with the signature already registered, and other biometric information can also be used to verify the identity. One variation of the Netpage pen includes fingerprint scanning, which is validated in the same way by the Netpage registration server.

While netpage printers can deliver periodicals, such as morning newspapers, without user intervention, netpage printers can be configured not to deliver unsolicited junk mail. In a preferred embodiment, the netpage printer receives only periodicals from an authenticated source, whether subscribed or unsubscribed. In this regard, a netpage printer is different from a fax or e-mail account that is exposed to a junk mailer who knows a phone number or e-mail address.

1. NETPAGE SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

Each object model of the system is described using a Unified Modeling Language (UML) class diagram. Class diagrams consist of a set of object classes connected by a relationship, where the two relationships of interest are association and generalization. Associations represent a kind of relationship between objects, that is, instances of a class. Generalization relates to a real class and can be understood in the following way-if a class is a collection of all objects of that class, and class A is a generalization of class B, then B is simply It is a subset. UML does not directly support second-order modeling, that is, classes of classes.

Each class is represented by a rectangle with the name of the class. The class diagram includes an attribute list of the class, separated by a horizontal line from the name, and an operation list of the class, separated by the attribute list and the horizontal line. However, operations are not modeled in the class diagram below.

A union is drawn as a line connecting two classes, optionally with the multiplicity of the combinations at both ends. The default multiplicity is one. An asterisk (*) indicates "many" multiplicity, that is, zero or greater. Each association may optionally be indicated by its name, and the role of the class to which it is optionally associated may also be indicated at both ends. Open diamond refers to an aggregation association ("part of-") and is shown at the aggregation end of an association line.

A generalization relationship ("-is-") is represented by a solid line connecting the two classes, with a triangle (open triangle shape) shown at the generalization end.

When a class diagram is decomposed into a plurality of figures, the class is represented by a dotted line except for the main diagram that defines it. A class is only represented with properties where it is defined.

1.1 NETPAGES

Netpages are the foundation on which netpage networks are built. Netpages provide a paper-based user interface to published information and interactive services.

One netpage comprises a printed page (or other surface area) that is invisibly tagged with respect to the online specification for that page. The online page description is maintained continuously by the netpage page server. The page specification describes the visual layout and content of the page, including text, graphics, and images. The page specification also describes the input elements on that page, including buttons, hyperlinks, and input areas. Netpages are marked on the surface by a netpage pen, and at the same time, the marks are captured and processed by the netpage system.

Multiple netpages can share the same page specification. However, in the case of receiving input through pages that would have been recognized as different during non-sharing, a unique page identifier is assigned to each net page. This page ID is accurate enough to distinguish a very large amount of netpages.

Each reference to the page specification is encoded in a printed tag. The tag identifies the unique page where the tag is represented and indirectly identifies the page specification. The tag also identifies its own location on the page. The characteristics of the tags are described in more detail below.

The tag is printed with infrared-absorptive ink on an infrared-reflective layer, such as conventional paper. Near-infrared wavelengths are invisible to the naked eye but can be easily detected by solid-state image sensors with suitable filters.

The tag is detected by the area image sensor of the netpage pen, and the tag data is sent to the netpage system via the nearest netpage printer. The pen communicates with the netpage printer via a short-range radio link as wireless. The tags are small enough and tightly arranged so that the pen can reliably detect at least one tag even if the page is clicked only once. Since the interaction is stateless, it is important for the pen to detect the page ID and location whenever it interacts with the page. The tags are error-correctably coded to withstand partial surface damage.

The netpage page server maintains a unique page instance for each printed netpage, thereby maintaining a set of distinct values supplied by the user to the input area in the page specification for each printed netpage. To be able.

The relationship between page specifications, page instances, and printed netpages is shown in FIG. The page instance is bound to both the netpage printer printing the page instance and, if known, the netpage user who requested it.

1.2 NETPAGE TAGS

1.2.1 TAG DATA CONTENT

In a preferred embodiment, each tag identifies the area where the tag is located and the location of the tag within that area. The tag may include a flag associated with the entire area or the tag. For example, one or more flag bits may signal to the tag sensing device without the tag sensing device having to refer to the specification of that region to provide feedback indicative of the action related to the immediate area of the tag. . The Netpage pen may, for example, emit an "active area" LED when in the area of the hyperlink.

As will be described more clearly below, in a preferred embodiment, each tag is an easy to recognize, invariant structure that aids in the initial sensing and helps to minimize the effects of warps due to the surface or sensing process. (easily recognized invariant structure). The tags preferably cover the entire page and are small enough and tightly arranged so that the pen reliably illuminates at least one tag even if the pen makes only one click on the page. Since the interaction is stateless, it is important for the pen to detect the page ID and location whenever it interacts with the page.

In a preferred embodiment, the region referred to by the tag matches the entire page, so that the region ID encoded in the tag is the same as the page ID of the page where the tag appears. In other embodiments, the region referenced by the tag can be any subregion of a page or other surface. For example, it can match an area of an interactive element, in which case the area ID can directly identify the interactive element.

[Table 1] Tag Data

domain Precision (bits) Zone ID 100 Tag ID 16 flag 4 Sum 120

Each tag contains 120 bits of information, usually assigned as shown in Table 1. Assuming up to 64 tag densities per square inch, 16-bit tag IDs support up to 1024 square inches. A wider area can be mapped sequentially without simply improving the accuracy of the tag ID by simply adjoining the area and the map. The 100 bit region ID may uniquely identify 2 ¹⁰⁰ (˜10 ³⁰ ) different regions.

1.2.2 Tag Data Encoding

120-bit tag data may be repeatedly encoded using a (15,5) Reed-Solomon code. This yields 360 encoded bits consisting of six codewords, each with fifteen 4-bit symbols. The (15,5) code can tolerate up to five symbolic errors to be corrected per codeword. That is, up to 33% symbol error can be tolerated for each codeword.

Each 4-bit symbol is represented spatially coherent way within the tag, and the symbols of the six codewords are represented spatially interleaved within the tag. This allows a burst error (an error affecting a plurality of spatially adjacent bits) to damage only the minimum number of symbols and to damage only the minimum number of symbols within any codeword, so that the error can be completely corrected. To ensure the maximum possible potential.

1.2.3 Physical Tag Structure

The physical representation of the tag, as shown in FIG. 5, includes a fixed target structure 15, 16, 17 and a variable data area 18. The fixed target structure allows a sensing device such as a Netpage pen to detect the tag and infer the three-dimensional orientation of the tag in relation to the sensor. The data area contains a representation of each bit of encoded tag data.

For proper reproduction of the tag, the tag is represented with a resolution of 256 x 256 dots. When printed at 1600 dpi, this results in a tag with a diameter of about 4 mm. At this resolution the tag is designed to be surrounded by a "quiet area" having a radius of 16 dots. Invisible areas are also provided by adjacent tags, so only 16 dots are added to the effective diameter of the tag.

The tag contains six target structures. The sense ring 15 allows a sensing device to detect the tag for the first time. The ring is easily detectable because it can eliminate most of the effects of perspective distortion with only a slight aspect ratio correction, which is rotationally invariant. Orientation axis 16 allows the sensing device to determine the approximate two-dimensional orientation of the tag as the sensor shakes. The direction axis is oblique to provide a unique direction. Four perspective targets 17 allow the sensing device to infer the correct two-dimensional perspective transformation of the tag, thus inferring the exact three-dimensional position and relative direction of the tag relative to the sensor.

All target structures become excessively large to improve resistance to noise.

The overall tag is circular in shape. This, among other things, aids in optimal tag packing on irregular triangular grids. In conjunction with the circular sense ring, this allows the circular placement of data bits within the tag to be optimal. To maximize the size, each data bit is represented by a radial wedge in the form of being surrounded by two radial lines and two concentric circular arcs. Each wedge has a minimum dimension of 8 dots at 1600 dpi and is designed such that its base (inner arc) at least corresponds to this minimum size. The radial height of the wedge is always equal to its minimum size. Each 4-bit data symbol is represented by an array of 2x2 wedges.

Fifteen four-bit data symbols in each of the six codewords are assigned to four concentric symbol rings 18a-18d in an interleaved fashion. The symbols are alternately arranged to progress in a circle around the tag.

Interleaving is a design to minimize the average spatial distance between any two symbols of the same codeword.

In order to support a "single-click" interaction with the tagged area via the sensing device, the sensing device may include at least one complete tag within the field of view in any area, in any direction. Should be able to be observed. The required radius of the viewing area of the sensing device is thus a function of the size and spacing of the tags.

Assuming a tag shape that is circular, the minimum radius of the sensing observation area can be obtained when the tag is placed on the equilateral triangle grid as shown in FIG.

1.2.5 Tag Image Processing and Decoding

Tag image processing and decoding is performed by a sensing device such as the Netpage pen shown in FIG. Once the acquired image is obtained from the image sensor, the dynamic range of the image is determined 20. The median of the range is then selected 21 as the binary threshold of the image. The image is then thresholded and segmented 22 into a connected pixel region (ie, shape 23). Shapes too small to represent the tag target structure are discarded. The size and center of each shape are also calculated.

The binary shape moment 25 for each shape is then calculated, thus providing a basis for placing the target structure. The central shape moment is invariant in position due to its nature, and it is easy to make it invariant even if the scale, aspect ratio and rotation change.

A ring target structure 15 is hypothetically placed 26. The ring has the advantage that it is most characteristic when perspective-distorted. Matching proceeds by aspect-normalizing and rotation-normalizing the moment of each shape. Once the second-order moment has been normalized, the ring is easy to recognize even if perspective distortion is significant. Both the original appearance and rotation of the ring 27 are useful for estimating a perspective transform.

Next, an axis target structure 16 is disposed 28. Matching proceeds by applying a normalization of the ring to the moment of each shape and rotationally normalizing the resulting moment. Once the secondary moment is normalized, the axis target is easily recognized. Note that one third order moment is required to clarify the two possible directions of the axis. To make this possible, the shape is carefully tilted in one direction. It should also be noted that since perspective distortion can conceal the axis of the axis target, it can only rotationally standardize the axis target after the standardization of the ring is applied. The original rotation of the axial target is useful for estimating the rotation of the tag due to pen shake 29.

Finally, four perspective target structures 17 are arranged (30). The position of the see-through target structure can be well estimated based on the known spatial relationship with the ring and shaft target, the appearance and rotation of the ring, and also the rotation of the shaft. Matching proceeds by applying the standardization of the ring to the moment of each shape. Once the second moment is normalized, the circular perspective target is easily recognized and treated as the match closest to each estimated position. The original center of the three perspective targets then becomes a corner 31 of perspective distorted cells of known size in tag space, with eight-degree-of-freedom perspective transformation 33. Is inferred by solving a well-known equation for the relationship of the order tag of four tag-spaces and image-spaces.

Perspective transformation from inferred tag-space to image-space converts the position of the data bits in each known tag space to bilinearly interpolate 36 corresponding four adjacent pixels in the input image. Real-valued positions are used to project 36 into the used image space. The previously calculated image threshold 21 is used to threshold the resulting value to yield a final bit value 37.

Once all 36 data bits 37 are obtained in this manner, each of the six 60-bit Reed-Solomon codewords is decoded to provide 20 decoded bits 39, all 120 Decoded bits are provided. It should be noted that codeword symbols are sampled in the order of codewords, so that codewords are implicitly de-interleaved during the sampling procedure.

The ring target 15 is searched only in the subregions of the image, which can ensure that the ring associated with the image (if present, is part of a complete tag). If a complete tag is found and not successfully decrypted, no pen position is recorded for that frame. Given a suitable processing power and ideally a non-minimal field of view 193, an alternative method is to search for another tag in the image.

The obtained tag data indicates the identity of the area, including the tag and the position of the tag within the area. Not only the overall orientation of the pen 35, but also the exact location of the pen nib 35 in that area, is the perspective transformation 33 observed on the tag and the physical axis of the pen and the optical axis of the pen ( can be inferred from known spatial relationships between the optical axes (34).

1.2.6 Tag Map

When the tag is decrypted, a region ID, a tag ID, and a tag-relative pen transform are output. Before the tag ID and tag-relative pen location are converted to an absolute location within the tagged area, the location of the tag within that area must be known. This is given by a tag map, a function that maps each tag ID to its corresponding position in the tagged area. The tag map class diagram is shown as part of the netpage printer class diagram in FIG.

The tag map represents a scheme used to tag surface areas with tags, and is variable depending on the surface type. If multiple tagged regions share the same tag tiling scheme and the same tag numbering scheme, the tagged regions share the same tag map. It becomes.

The tag map for a region must be retrievable via the region ID. Thus, given any region ID, tag ID, and pen conversion, the tag map can be retrieved, the tag ID can be converted to an absolute tag location within that region, and tag-proportional pen locations (tag-relative pen location) is added to the tag location so that it can provide an absolute pen location within that area.

1.2.7 tagging scheme

As two distinct surface coding schemes, both look at surface coding diagrams that use a tag structure as previously described in this chapter. The coding table of the embodiment uses the " location-indicating " tag that has already been discussed. Alternatively, an object-indicating tag may be used.

The location-indicating tag includes a tag ID, which, when converted through a tag map associated with a tagged region, provides a unique tag location within that region. The tag-proportional position of the pen is added to this tag position to provide the position of the pen within that area. This is again used to determine the pen's relative position to the user interface element in the page description associated with that area. Not only the user interface element itself is identified, but also its position relative to the user interface element. The location-marking tag will therefore support the capture of an absolute pen path casually within the zone of a particular user interface element.

The object-display tag includes a tag ID that directly identifies a user interface element in the page specification associated with that region. All tags within a section of a user interface element are all identical, making them indistinguishable from each other and identifying that user interface element. The object-marking tag thus does not obtain the absolute path of the pen. However, it can support a relative pen path. As long as the position sampling frequency exceeds two times the encountered tag frequency, the displacement from one sampled pen position to the next can be accurately determined.

Either tag table allows the tag data to be read by the sensing device and the tag is user interactive in that it interacts with the print page using the appropriate sensing device to generate an appropriate response in the netpage system. Like elements, they work in collaboration with related visual elements on the netpage.

1.3 DOCUMENT AND PAGE DESCRIPTIONS

Preferred embodiments of the document and page specification class diagrams are shown in FIGS. 25 and 26.

In a netpage system, documents are described at three levels. At the most abstract level, document 836 has a hierarchical structure whose terminal elements 839 are associated with content objects 840 such as text objects, text style objects, image objects, and the like. ) Once a document is output on a printer according to a particular user's scale factor preference at a particular page size, the document is paginated or otherwise formatted. The formatted terminal element 835 will in some cases be associated with a Content Object that is different from the Content Object that the corresponding Terminal Element is associated with, particularly where the Content Object is style-related. In addition, each printed instance of the document and page is also separated to allow input obtained through a particular page instance that is recorded separately from input obtained through another instance of the same page description. It is explained.

Thanks to the existence of the most abstract document specification on the page server, the user can request a copy of the document without being forced to accept the particular format of the original document. For example, a user may request a copy through a printer with different page sizes. Conversely, thanks to the presence of a formatted document specification on the page server, the page server can also efficiently interpret the user's actions on a particular printed page.

The formatted document 834 consists of a set of formatted page descriptions 5, each page specification consisting of a set of formatted terminal elements 835. Each formatted element has a spatial extent, or zone 58, on the page. This defines the active area of input elements such as hyperlinks and input fields.

Document instance 831 corresponds to formatted document 834. The document instance consists of a set of page instances 830, each page instance corresponding to the page specification 5 of the formatted document. Each page instance 830 describes a single unique printed netpage 1 and records the page ID 50 of that netpage. The page instance is not part of the document instance, even if it represents a copy of the requested page on its own.

The page instance consists of a set of terminal element instances 832. An element instance exists only if it records information specific to that instance. Thus, a hyperlink instance exists for the hyperlink element because it records a transaction ID 55 that is specific for the page instance, and a field instance exists for the page instance. It exists for region elements because it records the input specified. However, element instances do not exist for static elements, such as textflow.

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

The page instance has a background field 833 which is not used for a particular input element, which is used to record any digital ink obtained on the page.

In an embodiment of the invention, a tag map 811 is associated with each page instance that causes a tag on a page to be translated into a location on that page.

1.4 THE NETPAGE NETWORK

In a preferred embodiment, the netpage network comprises a series of distributed netpage page server 10, netpage registration server 11, and netpage ID server as shown in FIG. The netpage ID server 12, the netpage application server 14, and the netpage printer 601 are connected through a network 19 such as the Internet.

The netpage registration server 11 is a server that permits various network activities by recording a relationship between a user, a pen, a printer, an application, and a publication. The netpage registration server authenticates the user and acts as a signing proxy for the authenticated user in application processing. The netpage registration server also provides a handwriting recognition service. As mentioned above, the netpage page server 10 maintains persistent information about the page description and page instance. The netpage network includes any number of page servers, each of which is responsible for a subset of the page instances. The page server also maintains a user input value for each page instance, so a client, such as a netpage printer, sends the netpage input directly to the appropriate page server. The page server interprets any such input with respect to the corresponding page.

The netpage ID server 12 assigns a document ID 51 upon request and provides load-balancing of the page server via its ID allocation scheme. .

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

The netpage application server 13 is a server that runs an interactive netpage application. The netpage publishing server 14 is an application server for publishing netpage documents to a netpage printer. These are described in more detail in section 2.

Netpage servers can run on a variety of network server platforms from manufacturers such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Sun. Multiple netpage servers may run concurrently on one host, and one server may be distributed across multiple hosts. Some or all of the functionality provided by the netpage server, in particular the functionality provided by the ID server and page server, may be provided directly by a netpage device, such as a netpage printer on a computer workstation or local network.

1.5 THE NETPAGE PRINTER

The netpage printer 601 is a device registered in the netpage system and prints a netpage document according to a request and a 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.

Apart from identification and security settings in non-volatile memory, netpage printers do not include persistent storage. As far as the user is concerned, "the network is a computer". Netpages work in both directions over time and space, driven by a distributed netpage page server 10, independent of a particular netpage printer.

The netpage printer receives a subscribed netpage document from the netpage publishing server 14. Each document is divided into two parts: the page layout and the actual text and image objects that occupy the page. Due to personalization, page arrangements are usually specialized for a particular subscriber, as are pointcasts to that subscriber's printer through the appropriate page server. Text and image objects, on the other hand, are usually shared with other subscribers, as are multicasts to all subscribers' printers through the appropriate page server.

The Netpage Publishing Server optimizes the splitting of document content into pointcasts and multicasts. After receiving the pointcast of the page arrangement of the document, the printer knows which multicasts (if any) should be received.

Once the printer receives the complete page arrangement and the object defining the document to be printed, the printer prints the document.

The printer rasterizes and prints odd and even pages on both sides of the paper at the same time. Print engines using a duplexed print engine controller 760 and a Memjet ™ print head 350 are included for this purpose.

The printing process consists of two separate steps: rasterization of the page specification, enlargement and printing of the page image. A raster image processor (RIP) consists of one or more standard DSPs 757 operating in parallel. The dual print engine control unit may be configured as an on-demand processor that performs the enlargement, dithering, and printing of page images in real time in synchronization with the operation of the print head of the print engine.

Printers that are not capable of IR printing have the option to print the tag using IR-absorptive black ink, even if the tag would otherwise limit the area of the page to be blank. have. Such pages will have more limited functionality than IR-printed pages, but are still classified as netpages.

Typical netpage printers print netpages on paper. More specialized netpage printers can print netpages on more specialized surfaces, such as globes. Each printer supports at least one surface type and at least one tag tilting scheme, thus supporting a tag map for each surface type. In practice, the tag map 811, which describes the tag gradient table used to print the document, allows the tags of the document to be correctly interpreted in relation to the document.

Fig. 2 shows a netpage printer class diagram reflecting 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 with reference to FIGS. 11-16 in section 6 below.

1.5.1 Memjet (TM) Printheads

Netpage systems can be operated using printers with a wide range of digital printing techniques, including thermal inkjet, piezoelectric inkjet, laser electrophotographic, and the like. However, in order to accommodate a wide range of users, it is desirable for a netpage printer to have the following characteristics.

Photo quality color printing

High quality text printing

High reliability

· Low printing cost

· Low ink cost

· Low paper cost

Simple operation

Extremely quiet printing

Fast print speed

2-sided simultaneous printing

Compact form factor

· Low power consumption

No commercially available printing technique satisfies all of these features.

In order to realize the manufacture of a printer having such a feature, the applicant has invented a new printing technology called Memjet (TM) technology. Memjet ™ is a drop-on-demand inkjet technology with a pagewidth printhead manufactured using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. . FIG. 17 shows a single print element 300 of a Memjet (trademark) print head. The Netpage wallprinter incorporates 168960 printing elements 300 to implement a 1600 dpi pagewidth duplex printer. The printer prints cyan, magenta, yellow, black and paper conditioner and ink fixative as well as infrared ink at the same time.

The printing element 300 has a length of approximately 110 microns and a width of 32 microns. This array of printing elements is formed on a silicon substrate 301 that incorporates CMOS logic, data transfer, timing, and drive circuitry (not shown).

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

The active actuator beam pair 308 is mechanically coupled with the passive actuator beam pair 309 at the junction 319. Both beam pairs are fixed at respective anchor points 310, 311. The combination of elements 308, 309, 310, 311 and 319 form a cantilevered electrothermal bend actuator 320.

18 is a portion of an arrangement of printing elements 300, including a cross section 315 of printing elements 300. In order to clearly express the ink injection hole 312 penetrating the silicon wafer 301, the cross section 315 is shown without ink.

19 (a), 19 (b) and 19 (c) show the operating cycles of the Memjet (trademark) printing element 300.

Fig. 19A shows the stop position of the ink meniscus 316 before printing fine ink droplets. Ink is maintained in the nozzle chamber by the surface tension of the ink meniscus 316 and the fluid chamber 305 formed between the nozzle chamber 304 and the ink channel rim 306.

During printing, the CMOS circuitry of the print head distributes data from the print engine to the appropriate print element, latches the data, and buffers the data to drive the electrodes 318 of the active actuator beam pair 308. This causes Joule heating by causing current to flow about 1 microsecond through the beam pair 308. Beam pair 308 expands due to temperature rise due to Joule heat. Since the passive actuator beam pair 309 is not heated, it will not expand, resulting in a stress difference between the two beam pairs. This stress difference is partially resolved by the cantilever end 320 of the hot electron bending actuator bending towards the substrate 301. The lever arm 307 transmits this movement to the nozzle chamber 304. The nozzle chamber 304 moves about 2 microns to a position as shown in FIG. 19 (b). This increases the ink input, expanding the ink meniscus 316 while forcing the ink 321 at the nozzle 302. The nozzle rim 303 prevents the ink meniscus 316 from spreading to the surface of the nozzle chamber 304.

When the temperatures of the beam pairs 308 and 309 are equal, the actuator 320 returns to its original position. This helps stop the ink droplets 317 from the ink 312 in the nozzle chamber, as shown in Fig. 19 (c). The nozzle chamber is refilled by the surface tension at meniscus 316.

20 is a fragment of the print head 350. In a netpage printer, the length of the print head is the full width of the transverse direction 351 (usually 210 mm). The length of the fragment shown is 0.4 mm (about 0.2% of a complete print head). In printing, the paper passes the fixed print head in the longitudinal direction 352. The print head has six rows of interlocking printing elements 300 for printing six colors or types of ink supplied from the ink inlets 312.

In order to protect the weak surface of the print head during operation, a nozzle guard wafer 330 is attached to the printhead substrate 301. Each nozzle 302 has a nozzle guard hole 331 corresponding to the nozzle on which ink droplets are burned. In order to prevent the nozzle protection hole 331 from being clogged by fibrous or other debris of paper, the filtered air is extruded into the air inlet 332 and the nozzle protection hole during printing. In order to prevent the ink 321 from drying out, the nozzle guard is sealed while the printer is waiting.

1.6 The Netpage Pen

The active sensing device of the netpage system is usually a pen 101 capable of obtaining and decoding an IR position tag from a page through an image sensor by using an embedded controller 134. . An image sensor is a solid state device in which an appropriate filter is provided to detect only near-infrared wavelengths. As described in more detail below, the system can detect when the pen tip is in contact with a surface, and the pen is tagged with a degree sufficient to obtain handwriting (i.e., resolution of 200 dpi or higher at frequencies above 100 Hz). Can be detected. The information obtained by the pen is encoded and wirelessly transmitted to a printer (or base station), which interprets the data in relation to the (known) page structure.

In a preferred embodiment of the netpage pen, the pen performs the operations of the general marking ink pen and the non-marking stylus together. However, for display purposes, it is not necessary to use a netpage system as a browsing system as used as an internet interface. Each netpage pen is registered with the netpage system and has a unique pen ID 61. FIG. 23 is a netpage pen class diagram showing pen-related information maintained by a registration server 11 on a netpage network.

When the nib contacts the netpage, the pen determines the relative position and orientation of the pen relative to the page. A force sensor is attached to the pen tip, and the pressure applied to the pen tip is interpreted based on a threshold to indicate whether the pen is "up" or "down". This allows interactive elements on the page to be 'clicked' by pressing the pen tip to request information from the so-called network. Furthermore, the pressure is obtained as a continuous value to account for so-called full dynamics for verifying the signature.

The pen determines the position and orientation of the pen tip on the netpage by imaging the nib adjacent area 193 of the page in the infrared spectrum. It decodes the closest tag and calculates the relative position of the pen tip relative to the tag from the perspective distortion observed in the illuminated tag and the known geometry of the pen optics. Although the position resolution of a tag may be low because the density of the tag on the page is inversely proportional to the size of the tag, the adjusted position resolution does not provide the minimum resolution needed to accurately read handwriting. It's quite high enough to go over.

The pen's relative motion to the netpage is obtained as a series of strokes. One stroke consists of a series of pen positions on a time-stamped page that begin at pen-down occurrences and end at pen-up occurrences. Each time the page ID is changed, the stroke is appended with the page ID 50 of the netpage. The page ID is at the beginning of the stroke in the normal environment.

Each netpage pen has a current selection 826 associated with it, allowing the user to perform operations such as copying and pasting. The selection records the time for the system to discard after a defined time period has elapsed. The current selection describes the area of the page instance. It consists of the newest digital ink stroke in relation to the background area of the page, obtained through the pen. Once submitted to an application via the selected hyperlink activation, it is interpreted in an application-specific manner.

Each pen has a current nib 824. This is the pen tip last known to the system by the pen. In the case of the default netpage pen as described above, the display black ink nib or the non-display stylus nib becomes the current nib. Each pen also has a current nib style 825. This is the last nib style associated with the pen by the application, such as in the case of a response to the user selecting a color from a palette. The default nib style is the nib style associated with the current nib. The stroke obtained through the pen is appended with the current nib style. As strokes continue to be reproduced, they are duplicated in the nib style attached to them.

Whenever the pen is within range of the printer it is communicating with, the pen slowly flashes the "online" LED. If the pen fails to decode a stroke on a page, the pen momentarily activates an "error" LED. If the pen succeeds in decrypting the stroke on the page, the pen momentarily activates the "ok" LED.

The series of acquired strokes is called digital ink. Digital ink forms the basis for digital exchange of drawings and handwriting, online recognition of handwriting, and online verification of signatures.

The pen is wireless and sends digital ink to a netpage printer via a short-range wireless connection. Transmitted digital ink is encrypted for privacy and security and packetized for efficient transmission, but is always flushed at the time of pen-up to ensure timely handling at the printer. do.

When the pen is out of range of the printer, it buffers digital ink in internal memory, which has a continuous handwriting capacity of 10 minutes or more. If the pen falls back within range of the printer, it transfers buffered digital ink.

A pen can be registered with any number of printers, but since all state data is present on both netpages on paper and netpages on the network, it is most likely which pen is communicating with which printer at a particular time. It doesn't matter.

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

1.7 NETPAGE INTERACTION

The netpage printer 601 receives data relating to strokes from the pen 101 when the pen is used for interaction with the netpage 1. The encoded data 3 of the tag 4 is read by the pen when the pen is used to perform an operation such as a stroke. The data allows the identity of the particular page and its associated interactive elements to be determined and an indication of the position of the pen relative to the page. Indication data is sent to the printer, where the indication data is via the DNS network of the netpage page server 10 that maintains the page ID 50 of the stroke to which the page instance 830 corresponds. Convert to an address. The printer then sends the stroke to the page server. If the page was recently identified in the previous stroke, the printer may already have the address of the relevant page server in the cache. Each netpage consists of a compact page layout maintained continuously by a netpage page server (see below). Page layout is usually associated with objects such as images, fonts, and text that are stored somewhere in the netpage network.

When the page server receives the stroke from the pen, the page server retrieves the page specification that applies to the stroke and determines which elements of the page specification cross the stroke. The page server can then interpret the stroke in the context of the form of the associated element.

A "click" is a stroke in which the distance and time between the pen down position and the subsequent pen up position are both less than some small maximum. Objects activated by a click usually require a click to be activated, so longer strokes are ignored. Failure of a pen action to register, such as "sloppy click", is indicated by no response from the pen's "ok" LED.

There are two input elements in the netpage page specification: hyperlinks and form fields. Input through the form region can also trigger activation of the associated hyperlink.

1.7.1 Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks are a means of sending a message to a remote application, usually driving a printed response in a netpage system.

The hyperlink element 844 includes an application 71 that handles activation of the hyperlink, a link ID 54 that identifies the hyperlink for the application, and a user's application for hyperlink activation. An alias used to request the system to include an alias (65) and a description that is used when a hyperlink is recorded as a favorite or appears in the user's history. ). A hyperlink element class diagram is shown in FIG. 29.

When the hyperlink is activated, the page server sends a request to an application somewhere on the network. The application is identified by an application ID 64, which is converted in the usual way via DNS. There are three kinds of hyperlinks: generic hyperlinks 863, form hyperlinks 865, and optional hyperlinks 864, as shown in FIG. A general hyperlink may execute a request for a linked document or simply signal a preference to a server. The form hyperlink submits the corresponding form to the application. The selection hyperlink submits the current selection to the application. If the current selection includes, for example, a single-word of text, the application may be in a single-page document or other language that gives meaning to that word in the context in which it appears. Can return a translation of. Each type of hyperlink is characterized by what information is submitted to the application.

The corresponding hyperlink instance 862 records the process ID 55 which can be specified according to the page instance on which the hyperlink instance appears. The process ID may identify, as an application, data specific to the user, for example, a "shopping cart" being purchased by the purchasing application on the user side.

The system includes the pen's current selection 826 at selection hyperlink activation. If the form hyperlink has a "submit delta" attribute set, the system will add the content of the relevant form instance 868 to form hyperlink activation, even if only the input after form submission is included. Include. The system includes an efficient return path for all hyperlink activations.

Hyperlinked group 866 is a group element 838 having an associated hyperlink as shown in FIG. If the input occurs through any area element in the group, the hyperlink 844 associated with that group is activated. Hyperlinked groups can be used to associate hyperlink behavior with areas such as checkboxes. It can also be used to provide continuous input to an application in conjunction with the "Submit Delta" attribute of a form hyperlink. Thus, it can be used to support a "blackboard" interactive model, i.e., an interactive model that is shared as input is obtained as soon as an input occurs.

1.7.2 Forms

The form defines a collection of related input areas that are used to obtain related sets of inputs through a printed netpage. The form allows the user to submit one or more parameters to an application software program running on the server.

Form 867 is a group element 838 in the document hierarchy. The form ultimately contains a set of terminal field elements 839. Form instance 868 represents a printed instance of the form. The form instance consists of a set of region instances 870 corresponding to the region elements 845 of the form. Each region instance has an associated value 871, whose type depends on the type of the corresponding region element. Each field value records its input through a particular printed form instance, ie, through one or more printed netpages. The form class diagram is shown in FIG.

Each form instance has a status 872 indicating that the form is active, frozen, submitted, invalid, or expired. The form is activated when it is first printed. The form is frozen once it is signed. The form is submitted once one of its submitting hyperlinks is active, unless the hyperlink has a "submit delta" attribute set. If the user calls the invalid form to reset the form or copies the form page command, the form becomes invalid. The form expires when the time that the form is active has passed a certain lifetime. Form input is allowed while the form is active. Input through non-activated forms is obtained instead from the base area of the associated page instance.

If the form is active or frozen, submission of the form is allowed. If the form is not active or frozen, any form submission attempt will be rejected and a form status report will be derived instead.

Each form instance provides a version history with respect to any form instance originating therefrom (59). This allows all versions of the form other than the last version to be excluded from search in a particular time period.

All input is obtained as digital ink. Digital ink 873 consists of a timestamped stroke group 876, with each time-recorded stroke group consisting of a set of styled strokes 875. Is done. Each stroke consists of a pen position 876 in which a set of times are recorded, and each time recorded pen position also includes a pen orientation and nib force. . A digital ink class diagram is shown in FIG.

The region element 845 can be a checkbox region 877, a text region 878, a pictorial region 879, or a signature region 880. The region element class diagram is shown in FIG. The digital ink obtained in the area 58 of one area is designated as that area.

The checkbox area has an associated boolean value 881 as shown in FIG. A mark (point, scissors, line drawing, zigzag, etc.) is obtained in the area of the check box area so that the true value of that area is assigned.

The text area has an associated text value 882 as shown in FIG. The digital ink obtained in the area of the text area is automatically converted into text through online handwriting recognition, and the text is designated as the field's value of the area. Online handwriting recognition is known (eg Tappert, C., CYSuen and T. Wakahara, "The State of the Art in On-Line Handwriting Recognition", IEEE Transaction on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Vol. 12 , No. 8, August 1990).

The signature area has an associated digital signature value 883 as shown in FIG. When digital ink is acquired in an area of the signature area, the relationship with the identity of the owner of the pen is automatically verified, and a digital signature is created for the content of the form that is part of that area and assigned to the area value of that area. do. The digital signature is generated using the pen user's private signature key specific to the application that owns the form. Online signature verification is known (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).

Area elements are concealed if their "hidden" attribute is set. The concealed region element does not have an input region on the page and does not accept input. It may have an associated region value that is included in the form data when the form containing that region is submitted. "Editing" commands, such as strike-through, that indicate deletion, can also be recognized in the form area.

Handwriting recognition algorithms are more effective at 'online' (accessing the dynamics of pen movements) than 'offline' (accessing only bitmaps marked with pens), so that discretely written characters On discretely-written characters can be recognized with relatively high accuracy without the need for a writer-dependent training step. Author-dependent handwriting models are created automatically over time, but they can be created earlier if needed.

As mentioned above, the digital ink consists of a series of strokes. Any stroke starting at the zone of a particular element is attached to the digital ink stream of that element and ready for interpretation. Strokes not attached to the digital ink stream of the object are attached to the digital ink stream of the background area.

Digital ink obtained in the background area is interpreted as a selection pseudo indication. Although the actual interpretation is application-specific, the circumscription of one or more objects is generally interpreted as selecting a bounded object.

Table 2 summarizes the pen's various interactions with these netpages.

Table 2-Summary of Pen and Netpage Interactions

Object form Pen typing action Hyperlink Normal click Submit Action to Application form click Submit Form to Application Selection click Selective submission to the application Form area Checkbox Random display Specify true value for region text Handwriting Converting digital ink to text; Assign text to an area Drawing Digital ink Assign digital ink to an area signature signature Digital ink signature verification; Digital signature generation of forms; Assign digital signatures to zones none - Limit specification Assign digital ink to the current selection

The system maintains a current selection for each pen. The selection simply consists of the newest stroke obtained in the background area. The selection is cleared after an inactivity timeout to ensure predictable behavior.

Raw digital ink obtained in all areas is maintained on the netpage server and optionally sent along with the form data when the form is submitted to the application. This allows the application to interrogate raw digital ink in case of original conversion, such as conversion of handwritten text. For example, human intervention at the application level for modalities that fail a consistency check specific to a given application. As an extension to this, the entire base area of the form may be designated as a drawing field. Based on the presence of digital ink outside the explicit area of the form, the application routes the form to a human operator, assuming that the user can direct modifications to the filled area outside of the area. can do.

38 is a flowchart of a procedure for handling pen input relating to netpages. This procedure includes receiving a stroke from a pen (884); Step 885, at page 8, that page ID 50 identifies the associated page instance 830; Retrieving page specification 5 (886); Identifying 887 the formatted element 839 of the region 58 where the strokes intersect; Determining 888 whether the formatted element corresponds to an area element, and if so attaching the received stroke to the digital ink of area value 871, accumulating the digital ink of that area; Interpreting 833, and determining 894 if the region is part of a hyperlinked group 866, and if so, activating the associated hyperlink 895; Otherwise, determining 889 if the formatted element corresponds to a hyperlink element, and if so, activating 895 the corresponding hyperlink; Otherwise in the absence of the input area or hyperlink, attaching the received stroke to the digital ink in the background area 833 (890); And copying the received stroke to the current selection 826 of the current pen, as maintained by the registration server, 891.

Fig. 38A is a detailed flowchart of step 893 of the procedure shown in Fig. 38, in which the accumulated digital ink of the area is interpreted according to the type of the area. The procedure includes determining whether the region is a check box (896) and determining whether the digital ink represents a check mark (897), and if so, specifying a true value of true as the region value (898). ; Otherwise, determining (899) whether or not the area is a text area; if so, converting digital ink to computer text (900) by means of a suitable registration server; and designating the converted computer text as an area value ( 901); Otherwise, determining (902) whether the area is a signed area; if so, authenticating the digital ink as a signature of the owner of the pen (903) by means of an appropriate registration server and by a registration server to the corresponding application. Generating a digital signature for the content of the corresponding form using the associated pen owner's secret signature key (904) and designating the digital signature as an area value (905).

1.7.3 Page Server Commands

Page server commands are commands that are handled locally by the page server. Page server commands work directly with forms, pages, and document instances.

The page server command 907 is a void form command 908, a duplicate form command 909, a reset form command 910, a get form status command as shown in FIG. 911, duplicate page command 912, reset page command 913, get page status command 914, duplicate document command 915, reset document command 916, or get document status command 917 Can be

Invalid form command invalidates the corresponding form instance. The duplicate form command invalidates the corresponding form instance and creates an active printed copy of the current form instance with the preserved area value. The copy contains the same hyperlink transaction ID as the original, so it is indistinguishable from the original in the application. The reset form command invalidates the corresponding form instance and creates an active print copy of the form instance with the discarded build value. The Get Form Status command generates a printed report on the status of the corresponding form instance, including who published it, when it was printed, to whom it was printed, and the status of the form instance's form.

Since the form hyperlink instance contains a processing ID, the application must include the creation of a new form instance. Therefore, buttons requesting new form instances are usually implemented as hyperlinks.

The duplicate page command creates a print copy of the corresponding page instance with the preserved background area value. If the page contains a form or is part of a form, the duplicate page command is interpreted as a duplicate form command. The reset page command creates a print copy of the corresponding page instance with the discarded background area value. If the page contains a form or is part of a form, the reset page command is interpreted to be a reset form command. The Get Page Status command generates a printed report about the status of the corresponding page instance, including who published it, when it was printed, to whom it was printed, and the status of the form being included or part of.

The netpage logo that appears on all netpages is usually associated with duplicate page elements.

If a page instance overlaps with field values preserved, the field values are printed in their native form. That is, the checkmark appears as a standard checkmark graphic, and the text appears as typeset text. Only drawings and signatures appear in their original form, with signatures accompanied by standard graphics indicating successful signature verification.

The duplicate document command creates a print copy of the corresponding document instance with the preserved background area value. If the document contains some form, the duplicate document command copies the form in the same way as the duplicate form command. The reset document command creates a print copy of the corresponding document instance with the discarded background area value. If the document contains some form, the reset document command resets the form in the same way as the reset form command. The Get Document Status command generates a printed report on the status of the corresponding document instance, including who published it, when it was printed, to whom it was printed, and the status of the form included.

If the "on selected" attribute of a page server command is set, the command is performed on the page identified by the pen's current selection rather than on the page containing the command. This causes a menu of page server commands to be printed. If the target page does not contain a page server command element for the specified page server command, the command is ignored.

An application can provide application-specific handling by embedding related page server command elements into hyperlinked groups. The page server activates hyperlinks related to hyperlinked groups rather than performing page server commands.

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

1.8 STANDARD FEATURES OF NETPAGES

In a preferred embodiment, each netpage is printed on the underside with a netpage logo indicating that it is a netpage, thus having interactive properties. The logo also acts as a copy button. In most cases, pressing a logo creates a copy of the page. For forms, the button creates a copy of the entire form. And, in the case of a secure document such as a ticket or coupon, the button pulls out a description or advertisement page.

The default single-page copy function is handled directly by the relevant netpage page server. Special copy functions are handled by linking the logo button to the application.

1.9 USER HELP SYSTEM

In a preferred embodiment, the netpage printer has one button labeled " Help. &Quot; When the button is pressed, the button pulls out a page of information containing the following:

· Printer Connection Status

· Printer Supplies Status

Top-level help menu

Document function menu

· Top level netpage network directory

The Help menu provides a hierarchical manual on how to use the netpage system.

The document function menu includes the following functions.

· Print a copy of the document

· Print a clean copy of the form

· Print document status

The document function is initiated by simply pressing a button and touching any page of the document. The status of the document indicates who, when it was published, to whom it was delivered, and to whom later and as a form.

The netpage network directory allows users to navigate the hierarchy of publications and services on the network. Alternatively, a user may call the "yellow page" of the Netpage network "900" to speak with a human operator. The agent can locate the desired document and route it to the user's printer. Depending on the type of document, the publisher or user pays some "phone book" service fees.

It is clear that the help page is not available if the printer cannot print. In this case the "error" light is lit and the user can request a remote diagnosis on the network.

2. Personalized Publication Model

In the description below, news is used as a canonical publication example to describe the personalization mechanism of a netpage system. Although news is often used in the limited sense of news from newspapers and newsmagazines, the intended scope in this context is much broader.

In a netpage system, the editorial content and advertising content of a news publication are personalized using different mechanisms. The edits are personalized according to the interest profile explicitly specified by the reader and the interest profile implicitly implied. The advertising content is personalized according to the reader's locality and demographic.

2.1 EDITORIAL PERSONALIZATION

Subscribers can use two news sources: one that delivers news publications, and one that delivers news streams. While news publications are collected and edited by publishers, news streams are collected by news publishers or by specialized news aggregators. News publications usually correspond to traditional newspapers and magazines, while news streams can include "raw" news, comic strips, freelance writer's columns, friends' bulletin boards, or reader's e-mails from news services. It can be varied.

The netpage publishing server supports the aggregation of multiple news streams as well as the publication of edited news publications. By dealing with the aggregation of the news stream directly selected by the reader and the resulting formatting, the server can place an advertisement on a page that would otherwise have no editorial control.

The subscriber builds a daily newspaper by selecting one or more provided news publications and generating each personalized version. The resulting daily editions are printed and bound together in one newspaper. Various members of the generation usually express their different interests and preferences by selecting and customizing different daily publications.

For each publication, the reader can optionally take a specific section. Some sections are daily, while others are weekly. For example, the daily sections available at The New York Times online include "Page One Plus," "National," "International," and "Opinion." Opinion ”,“ Business ”,“ Arts / Living ”,“ Technology ”and“ Sports ”. A suite of available sections, like the default sebset, is specific to the publication.

The reader can expand the daily newspaper by creating a custom section that uses any number of news streams. Custom sections are for e-mail and for notifying friends ("Personal" section), or for monitoring news provided about a specific topic ("Alert" or "Clipping" section). Can be generated.

For each section, the reader can specify its size either quantitatively (e.g., short, medium, or long) or numerically (i.e., by limiting the number of pages), and by The ratio can be specified either quantitatively (eg, high, medium, low, none) or numerically (ie, as a percentage).

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

Articles can also be written (or edited) in different versions, for example children's and adult versions, to suit the reader's expected sophistication. The appropriate version is chosen according to the age of the reader. The reader can specify a "reading age" that overrides his biological age.

The articles that make up each section are cooked and prioritized by the editor, and each article is assigned a useful lifetime. By default, articles are delivered to all relevant subscribers in priority order according to the subscriber's space constraint.

In the appropriate section, the reader can optionally enable collaborative filtering. This applies to articles with a sufficiently long expiration date. Each article that satisfies the joint filtering is printed with a rating button at the end of the article. The button can provide simple choices (eg, "good" and "dislike") so that rating the article is not annoying to the reader.

Therefore, articles with high priority and short expiration date are effectively considered by the editor as essential reading and delivered to most subscribers.

Optionally, the reader can specify the serendipity factor quantitatively (eg, to amaze or not amaze me). High windfall factors lower the threshold used for matching during joint filtering. A high factor allows the corresponding section to increase the likelihood that the reader will meet a particular capacity. Different windfall elements can be specified for different days of the week.

You can also optionally specify a topic of particular interest, which changes the priority assigned by the editor.

The speed of the reader's internet connection affects the quality of the images being delivered. The reader can optionally specify a preference for a small image, a small image, or both. If the number or size of images is not reduced, the images can be delivered at a lower quality (eg, at lower resolution or higher compression).

At the global level, the reader can specify the localization of quantity, date, time and monetary value. It determines whether the unit follows the British metrology or metric system, whether it is translated or annotated for the local timezone and time format, local currency and localization. It includes what is specified. These preferences are basically derived from the reader's location.

To alleviate the difficulty of deciphering due to poor eyesight, the reader can optionally specify a global preference for large presentations. As a result, both text and images are scaled, and each page contains a small amount of information.

The language in which the news publication is published and the resulting text encoding are characteristics of the publication and not the choice of the user. However, the netpage system can be configured to provide automatic translation services in various forms.

2.2 ADVERTISING LOCALIZATION AND TARGETING

Since advertising is usually in the context of editing, personalization of edits directly affects advertising content. For example, travel advertisements are more likely to appear in the travel section than elsewhere. The value of editorial content to advertisers (and publishers) depends on their ability to attract multiple readers with adequate demographics.

Effective advertising is based on locality and personal information. Locations address accessibility and specific concerns to specific services, retail outlets, etc., and are relevant to the community and the environment. Biographical information is expected to cover general interests and prejudices as well as likely spending patterns.

A news publisher's most profitable product is a multi-dimensional entity, determined by the geographical coverage of the publication, the size of the readership, the identity of the readership, and the area of the page where the advertisements can be placed. , Which is an advertisement "space".

In the Netpage system, the Netpage Publishing Server sells publications by section, taking into account the geographical coverage of the publication, the readership of the section, the size of each reader's section format, the proportion of each reader's advertisement, and the personal information of each reader. Compute roughly the multidimensional scale of the ad space where possible.

Compared to other media, the netpage system allows the advertising space to be defined in greater detail and can be sold in smaller units. Thus, the advertising space can be sold closer to its true value.

For example, the same ad "slot," a variable share, allowing each reader's page to randomly receive ads from one advertiser or another while maintaining the overall share of space sold to each advertiser. may be sold to multiple advertisers as a varying proportion.

Netpage systems can link advertisements directly to product details and online purchases. Therefore, it increases the intrinsic value of the advertising space.

Since personalization and localization are handled automatically by the netpage publishing server, an advertising aggregator can provide arbitrarily broad coverage in both local and personal information. Subsequent disaggregation is also automatic and efficient. This makes it more cost-effective for publishers to deal with ad recruiters rather than directly recruiting ads. Although ad recruiters take a certain percentage of ad revenue, publishers will find that such changes are profit-neutral because of the greater efficiency of recruitment. Advertisers can act as intermediaries between advertisers and publishers, and can load the same advertisement in multiple publications.

It is worth noting that, due to the more complex advertising space, placing advertisements in netpage publications can be more complicated than placing advertisements in traditional publications. While neglecting the complexity of negotiation between advertisers, ad recruiters, and publishers, a preferred embodiment of the netpage system provides automated support for negotiation, including automated auction support of ad space. to provide. Automation is particularly desirable to attract ads that generate only a small amount of revenue, such as small advertising or extremely local advertising.

Once the advertisement is negotiated, the recruiter receives the advertisement, edits it, and writes it on a netpage ad server. In response, the publisher records the attract of the advertisement on the associated netpage publishing server. When the netpage publishing server arranges each user's personalized publication, the relevant advertisement is selected from the netpage advertisement server.

2.3 USER PROFILES

2.3.1 Information Filtering

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

Publication customizations

Collaborative filtering vectors

Contact details

Presentation preferences

Since the customization of a publication is usually unique to the publication, the customization information is maintained by the associated netpage publishing server.

The joint filtering vector consists of a user's rating of multiple news items. It is used to correlate interests of different users for the purpose of recommendation. While there is an advantage in maintaining a single joint filtering vector for a particular publication independently, there are two reasons that it is more realistic to maintain separate vectors for each publication. That is, there may be more overlap between vectors of subscribers to the same publication than between vectors of subscribers to different publications. In addition, the publication will want to display the user's joint filtering vector as part of the brand value of the publication not found elsewhere. Thus the joint filtering vector is also maintained by the associated netpage publishing server.

Connection details, including name, address, postal code, state, country and telephone number, are inherently global and maintained by a netpage registration server.

Display preferences, including quantity, date, and time, are likewise global and remain the same.

Localization of ads depends on the locality that appears in the user's connection details, while targeting of ads is qualitative, such as birth date, gender, marital status, income, occupation, education or age range, and income range. Depends on personal information such as qualitative derivatives

For a user who decides to release personal information for advertisement, the information is maintained by the relevant netpage registration server. In the absence of such information, the advertisement may be targeted based on personal information associated with the user's ZIP or ZIP + 4 code.

As shown in Figs. 21, 22, 23 and 24, each user, pen, printer, application provider and application has its own unique identifier, and the Netpage registration server is assigned between them. Maintain a relationship. For the purpose of registration, the publisher is a special kind of application provider, and the publication is a special kind of application.

Each user 800 may be authorized to use a certain number of printers 802, and each printer may be allowed to be available to a given number of users. Each user has a single default printer to which periodical publications are delivered by default (66), and pages printed upon request are delivered through a printer with which the user interacts. The server keeps track of which publishers authorize to print to the user's default printer. The publisher does not record the ID of a particular printer, but instead analyzes the ID if necessary.

When the user subscribes to the publication 807 (808), the publisher 806 (i.e., application provider 803) authorizes printing to a particular printer or to the user's default printer. This authorization can be revoked at any time by the user. Each user can have multiple pens 801, but one pen is specific to a single user. If a user is authorized to use a particular printer, that printer can recognize any of the user's pens.

The pen ID is used to find the corresponding user profile maintained by a particular netpage registration server via DNS in a general manner.

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

The netpage system may collect, for the printer provider, fees and fees for revenue earned through publications printed on the provider's printer. Such revenue includes advertising fees, click-through fees, e-commerce commissions, and transaction fees. If the printer is owned by the user, that user becomes the printer provider.

Each user also has a netpage account 820 that is used to earn micro-debits and credits (as described in the paragraph above); Connection details 815 including name, address and telephone number; Global preferences 816 including privacy, delivery, and localization settings; A predetermined number of biometric records 817 including a user's encoded signature 818, fingerprint 819, and the like; A handwriting model 819 maintained automatically by the system; And a SET payment card account 821 in which an e-commerce payment is made.

2.3.2 Favorites List

Netpage users can maintain a list of "favorites" that link useful documents and the like on the netpage network. The list is maintained by the system for the user. The list consists of a hierarchy of folders 924, with a preferred embodiment shown in the class diagram of FIG.

2.3.3 History List

The system maintains a history list 929 for each user that includes links to documents and the like that users access through the netpage system. It is configured as a date-ordered list, with the preferred embodiment shown in the class diagram of FIG.

2.4 INTELLIGENT PAGE LAYOUT

The netpage publishing server automatically lays out each user's personalized publication on a section-by-section basis. Most advertisements are in the form of pre-formatted rectangles, so they appear on the page before editorial content.

The advertisement rate of the section is obtained as the rate that varies widely on each page within the section, which is used by the ad layout algorithm. The algorithm attempts to co-locate closely related editorial and advertising content, such as placing advertisements on roof repairs in its publications because of the special features of do-it-yourself roofing repairs. It consists of a configuration.

The edits selected for the user, including text and associated images and graphics, are then laid out according to various aesthetic principles.

The overall procedure, including ad selection and editorial content selection, should be repeated to bring the user closer to the section size preferences mentioned by the user once the layout has been focused. However, section size preferences can be tailored to the temporal average, allowing for significant day-to-dayvariations.

2.5 DOCUMENT FORMAT

Once the document is laid out, the document is encoded for efficient distribution and persistent storage on the netpage network.

The main efficiency mechanism is to separate information specific to a single user's edition from information shared across multiple users' editions. Specific information consists of page layouts. Shared information consists of objects that include images, graphics, and text that the page layout refers to.

The text object contains fully-formatted text expressed in Extensible Markup Language (XML) using Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL). XSL provides precise control over text formatting independent of the area in which text is set (in this case provided by an array). Text objects include embedded language code that enables automatic translation and embedded hyphenation hints to help with paragraph formatting.

The image object encodes the image in JPEG 2000, a wavelet-based compressed image format. Graphic objects encode two-dimensional graphics in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format.

The layout itself consists of a series of image and graphic objects, linked textflow objects through which text objects pass, hyperlinks and input areas and watermark regions as described above. These layout objects are summarized in Table 3. The layout uses a compact format suitable for efficient distribution and storage.

Table 3-Netpage Layout Objects

Layout object property The format of the linked object image location - Image object ID JPEG 2000 graphic location - Graphic object ID SVG Text flow Textflow ID - area - Optional text object ID XML / XSL Hyperlink form - area - Application ID, etc. - domain form - meaning - area - Watermark area -

2.6 DOCUMENT DISTRIBUTION

As mentioned above, for efficient distribution and persistent storage on the netpage network, the user-specific page layout is separated from the shared object it refers to.

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

The server computes a set of optimized subsets of shared content, generates a multicast for each subelement, and names the multicast channel to carry the shared content used by that array. To the layout specific to each user. The server then pointscast each user's layout to that user's printer via the appropriate page server, and multicasts the shared content on a particular channel when pointcasting is complete. After receiving the pointcast, each page server and printer subscribes to a multicast channel specific to that page layout. During multicast, each page server and printer extracts an object that the page layout refers to from a multicast stream. The page server constantly preserves page layout and shared content.

Once the printer receives all the objects that the page layout references, the printer recreates, rasterizes, and prints the fully-populated layout.

Under normal circumstances, the printer prints the page faster than it is delivered. Assuming that a quarter of each page is an image, the average page has a size of 400 KB or less. Thus, a printer can accommodate more than 100 such pages in 64MB of internal memory, considering temporary buffers and the like. The printer prints at 1 page per second. This is equivalent to 400 KB per second or approximately 3 Mbits of page data, which is similar to the expected maximum speed of page data delivered over broadband networks.

Even under abnormal circumstances, such as when the printer runs out of paper, the user will be able to replenish the paper feed before the printer's internal storage capacity of 100 pages is exhausted.

However, if the printer's internal memory is full, the printer will not be able to use it when the first multicast occurs. The netpage publishing server thus allows the printer to submit re-multicast requests. If a threshold number of requests is received or elapses, the server remulticasts the corresponding shared object.

Once the document is printed, the printer can create an exact copy at any time by retrieving page layout and content from the relevant page server.

2.7 ON-DEMAND DOCUMENTS

If a netpage document is requested by an order, it can be personalized and delivered in much the same way as in a regular netpage document. However, since there is no shared content, delivery is done directly to the requesting printer without using multicast.

If a non-netpage document is requested by an order, it is not personalized and is delivered via a netpage formatting server designated to reformat it into a netpage document. The netpage formatting server is a special instance of the netpage publishing server. The Netpage Formatting 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 a high-resolution printed page that displays a web page in a multi-column format with a table of contents. It can automatically include all webpages that link to the requested page directly. The user can adjust this behavior by preference.

The netpage formatting server allows standard netpage behavior, including interactivity and persistence, to be applicable to any Internet document, regardless of its origin and format. It hides knowledge of different document formats from both netpage printers and netpage page servers, and hides information of netpage systems from web servers.

3. Security

3.1 encryption (CRYPTOGRAPHY)

Encryption is used to protect sensitive information, both in storage and transmission, and to authenticate parties to some form of processing. There are two widely used ciphers: secret-key cryptography and public-key cryptography. Netpage networks use both types of encryption.

Secret-key cryptography, also called symmetric cryptography, uses the same key to encrypt and decrypt messages. The two parties wishing to exchange messages must first securely exchange their private keys.

Public key cryptography, also called asymmetric cryptography, uses two cryptographic keys. Two keys are mathematically related in that a message encrypted using one key can only be decrypted using the other key. One of these keys is public, while the other is kept secret. The public key is used to encrypt any message intended for the secret key holder. Once encrypted using the public key, the message can only be decrypted using the private key. Thus, the two parties can exchange messages securely without having to exchange private keys first. To ensure that the secret key is secure, it is common for the secret key holder to generate a key pair.

Public key cryptography is used to generate digital signatures. The secret key holder can generate a known hash of the message and encrypt the hash using the secret key. Anyone can then verify that the encrypted hash constitutes the signature of the secret key holder with respect to that particular message by decrypting the encrypted hash using the public key and verifying the hash for that message. If a signature is attached to the message, the recipient of the message can both verify that the message is true and has not changed in the course of transmission.

In order to perform public key cryptography, there must be a way to distribute the public key that prevents impersonation. This is usually done using certificates and certificate authorities. A certificate authority is a trusted third party that authenticates the relationship between a public key and someone's identity. The certification authority verifies the identity of the person by examining the identity document and then generates and signs a digital certificate containing the identity details and the secret key of the person. Anyone who trusts the certificate authority can use it with considerable certainty that the public key on the certificate is true. They only need to verify that the certificate is actually signed by a certificate authority whose public key is well known.

In most trading environments, public key cryptography is only used to generate digital signatures and securely exchange secret session keys. For all other purposes, secret key encryption is used.

In the discussion that follows, referring to the "secure" transfer of information between a netpage printer and a server, what actually happens is that the printer obtains the server's certificate, authenticates it with a certificate authority, and exchanges a secret session key with the server. To do this, you use a public key-exchange key in the certificate, and use that secret session key to encrypt the message data. It is obvious that a "session key" can have any short validity period.

3.2 NETPAGE PRINTER SECURITY

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

The first time you connect to a netpage network after the printer is installed, it generates a signature public / private key pair. It sends the secret ID and public key securely to the netpage registration server. The server compares the secret ID with that printer's secret ID stored in the database and accepts the registration if the IDs match. It then generates and signs a certificate containing the printer's public ID and public signing key, and stores the certificate in a registration database.

The netpage registration server acts as a certification authority for netpage printers because it has access to confidential information to verify printer identity.

When a user subscribes to a publication, a record is created in the netpage registration server database that authorizes that publisher to print the publication on that user's default printer or a particular printer. All documents sent to the printer via the page server are addressed to a particular user and signed by that publisher using the publisher's secret signature key. The page server verifies through the registration database that the publisher is authorized to deliver the publication to a particular 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 the request is initiated through a pen registered with the printer, the netpage registration server accepts the request to add print rights to the database.

3.3 NETPAGE PEN SECURITY

Each Netpage pen is assigned a unique identifier that is stored at the time of manufacture in the pen's read-only memory and the Netpage Registration Server database. Pen ID 61 uniquely identifies the pen on the netpage network.

One netpage pen can "know" a number of netpage printers, and one printer can "know" a number of pens. The pen communicates with the printer via radio frequency signals whenever it is in range of the printer. Once the pen and printer are registered, they regularly exchange session keys. Each time the pen sends digital ink to the printer, the digital ink is always encrypted using the appropriate session key. Digital ink is never sent erased.

The pen stores the session key indexed by the printer ID for every printer it recognizes, and the printer stores the session key indexed by the pen ID for every pen. Both have a large but finite storage capacity for the session key and can ignore the session key on a LRU (least-recently-used basis) if necessary.

When the pen comes into the area of the printer, the pen and the printer look for mutual recognition. If not mutually recognized, the printer determines whether the pen is to be recognized. This may be because, for example, the pen is owned by a user registered to use the printer. If the printer is supposed to recognize the pen but does not, the printer initiates an automatic pen registration procedure. If the printer is not designed to recognize the pen, it agrees with the pen to ignore the pen until the pen is placed in the charging cup, at which point the registration process begins.

In addition to the public ID, the pen includes a secret key-exchange key. The key exchange key is also recorded at the time of manufacture in the netpage registration server database. During registration, the pen sends the pen ID to the printer, and the printer sends the pen ID to the netpage registration server. The server securely sends the session key to the printer by generating a session key for use with the printer and version. The server also sends a copy of the session key encrypted using the pen's key exchange key. The printer indexes the session key according to the pen ID and stores it internally and sends the encrypted session key to the pen. The pen indexes according to the printer ID and stores the session key internally.

Although a fake pen can impersonate a pen registration protocol, only a true pen can decrypt the session key sent from the printer.

When a previously unregistered pen is initially registered, it is of limited use until it is connected to the user. Registered but "un-owned" pens only request and fill out Netpage users and pen registration forms, register new users with new pens automatically linked, and add new pens to existing users. Licensed use only.

Because of the pen's hardware performance constraints, the pen uses secret key cryptography rather than public key cryptography.

3.4 SECURE DOCUMENTS

Netpage systems support the delivery of secure documents such as tickets and coupons. Netpage printers include a watermark printing function, but only upon request from a properly authorized publisher. The publisher indicates in the certificate the authority to print the watermark, which the printer can authenticate.

The "watermark" printing procedure uses an alternate dither matrix in a particular "watermark" area of the page. Contiguous back-to-back pages include a mirror-image watermark area that occupies the same space when printed. Dither matrices used in the watermark areas of odd and even pages are designed such that these areas cause an interference effect when "viewing" the printed paper.

The effect is similar to a watermark in that it is invisible when only one side of the page is seen and disappears when the page is copied by normal means.

Pages of a secure document cannot be copied using the built-in netpage copy mechanism described in section 1.9 above. This extends to copying netpages from a netpage-aware photocopier.

Security documents are usually created as part of an e-commerce transaction. Thus, they may include a picture of the user obtained when registering the personal information with the netpage registration server as described in section 2.

When a secure netpage document is provided, the recipient can verify its authority by requesting its status in the usual way. The unique ID of the secure document is valid only for the validity of the document, and the secure document ID is assigned discontinuously to prevent prediction by opportunistic counterfeiters. Secure document verification pens can be developed to embed feedback on verification failures to facilitate point-of-presentation document verification.

It is clear that neither watermarks nor user photos are secure from a cryptographic sense. They merely provide a significant obstacle to accidental forgery. Online document verification, especially online verification using a verification pen, increases the level of security where security is needed, but still does not fully defend against counterfeiting.

3.5 NON-REPUDIATION

In a netpage system, forms submitted by the user are reliably sent to the forms handler and persisted on the netpage page server. Therefore, it is impossible for the recipient to refuse receipt.

E-commerce payments made through the system, as described in section 4, also cannot be rejected by the payer.

4. ELECTRONIC COMMERCE MODEL

4.1 Secure Electronic Transactions (SET)

The Netpage system uses a Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) system as one of the payment systems. Developed by MasterCard and Visa, the SET is built around a payment card, which is reflected in the term. However, much of the system is independent of the type of account used.

In the SET, the cardholder and the seller register the certificate authority and are issued a certificate including their public signing key. The certificate authority verifies the cardholder's registration details about the card issuer as appropriate and verifies the registration details of the seller for the acquirer as appropriate. The cardholder and the seller each securely store their secret signature key on their computer. During the payment process these certificates are used to mutually authenticate the seller and the cardholder and to the payment gateway.

SET has not yet been widely applied, in part because cardholders find it cumbersome to manage keys and certificates. The interim solution of managing the cardholder's keys and certificates on the server and granting the cardholder access via password has been somewhat successful.

4.2 SET PAYMENTS

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

The Netpage system uses biometrics to authenticate users and authorize SET payment. Since the system is pen-based, the biometric information used becomes the user's online signature of pen position and pressure that changes over time. Fingerprint biometrics will also be expensive, but can be used by designing a fingerprint sensor on the pen. The type of biometric information used only affects the acquisition of biometric information, but does not affect the authorization aspects of the system.

The first step in performing SET payments is to register the user's biometric information with the netpage registration server. This is done in a controlled environment, for example a bank, where the user's identity is verified and biometric information is obtained. Biometric information is obtained and stored in a registration database associated with a user's record. The user's picture may also be optionally acquired and linked to the record. After the SET cardholder registration process is completed, the corresponding private signing key and certificate are stored in the database. The user's payment card information is also stored in the netpage registration server to provide enough information to act as the user's agent in the SET payment transaction.

When the user provides biometric information, for example by signing a netpage order form to complete a payment, the printer securely sends the order information, pen ID and biometric data to the netpage registration server. The server verifies the biometric information with respect to the user specified by the pen ID, and then acts as the agent of the user in completing the SET payment transaction.

4.3 Micropayments (MICRO-PAYMENTS)

The Netpage system allows users to conveniently pay for the printing of inexpensive documents ordered and copies of copyright documents, and if possible, the user to pay the costs incurred by printing the advertised article. It includes mechanisms for micro-payment. The latter depends on the level of subsidy already provided to the user.

When a user registers for an e-commerce transaction, a network account is created that collects micropayments. The user receives the statement on a regular basis and can pay the outstanding balance by using standard payment mechanisms.

The network account may be extended to collect subscription fees for periodicals, which may of course be provided to the user in the form of a separate bill.

4.4 TRANSACACTIONS

If a user requests a netpage in the context of a particular application, the application may embed a user-specific transaction ID 55 in the page. Subsequent input through the page is appended with the transaction ID, so that the application can obtain the proper context for that user's input.

However, when input through a page that is not user-specific occurs, the application must use that user's unique identity to establish context. A typical example is to add an item from a preprinted catalog page to the user's virtual "shopping cart". However, to protect the privacy of the user, the unique user ID 60 known to the netpage system is not exposed to the application. This is to prevent other application providers from easily associating individually accumulated behavioral data.

The netpage registration server instead maintains an anonymous relationship via a unique alias ID 65 between the user and the application, as shown in FIG. Whenever a user activates a hyperlink with the "register" attribute, the netpage page server requests the netpage registration server to convert the associated application ID 64 and pen ID 61 together to an alias ID 65. . The alias ID is then submitted to the application of the hyperlink.

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

The system also maintains an independent certificate and private key for each of the user's applications, so that the user can use only application-specific information to sign application processing.

To assist in routing the "hyperlink" activation of the product bar code (UPC) to the system, the system records favorites applications for any number of product types for the user. .

Each application is associated with one application provider, and the system maintains an account for each application provider so that the provider's click-through fee and the like are deposited and withdrawn.

An application provider can be a publisher of periodic subscribedcontent. The system records not only the expected frequency of publication, but also the willingness of a user to receive a subscription publication.

4.5 RESOURCE DESCRIPTIONS AND COPYRIGHT

A preferred embodiment of the inventory class diagram is shown in FIG. 40.

Each document and content object may be described by one or more inventory 842. The inventory uses a Dublin Core metadata element set designed to facilitate the discovery of electronic resources. Dublin Core metadata follows the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Resource Description Framework (RDF)

The inventory may identify the rights holder 920. The netpage system automatically transfers the royalty from the user to the owner when the user prints the copyrighted content.

5. Communication Protocols

The communication protocol defines an ordered exchange of messages between entities. In netpage systems, entities such as pens, printers, and servers use a suite of defined protocols to cooperatively handle the user's interaction with the netpage system.

Each protocol can be represented in the manner of a sequence diagram in which the horizontal dimension is used to represent the message flow and the vertical dimension is used to represent time. Each entity is represented by a rectangle containing the name of the entity and a vertical column representing the lifeline of that entity. While reality persists, lifelines appear as dashed lines. The lifeline appears as a double line while the entity is active. Since the protocol contemplated herein does not create or destroy an entity, the lifeline is generally truncated as soon as the entity stops participating in the protocol.

5.1 Subscription Delivery Protocol (SUBSCRIPTION DELIVERY PROTOCOL)

A preferred embodiment of a subscription delivery protocol is shown in FIG. 43.

Multiple users can subscribe to regular publications. Each user's plate shape may be laid out differently, but multiple user's plate shapes share common content, such as text objects and image objects. Thus, the subscription delivery protocol delivers the document structure to each printer via pointcast, while the shared content object delivers via multicast.

The application (ie, publisher) first obtains a document ID 51 for each document from ID server 12. Each document structure including the document ID and page specification is then sent to the page server 10 in charge of the newly assigned ID of the document. The application includes its application ID 64, subscriber's alias ID 65, and associated multicast channel name collection. The application signs the message using its private signature key.

The page server obtains the associated user ID 60, the user's selected printer ID 62 (which may be explicitly selected for that application, may be the user's default printer), and the application's certificate from the registration server. Application ID and alias ID are used for this purpose.

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

The page server then assigns a document and page instance ID and forwards the page specification including the page ID 50 to the printer. It contains the relevant set of multicast channel names that the printer will listen to.

It then returns the newly allocated page ID for later reference.

Once an application distributes all document structures to a user-selected printer via an associated page server, it multicasts various subsets of shared objects to previously selected multicast channels. The page server and printer keep track of the appropriate multicast channel and receive the necessary content objects. They can then reside in the previous pointcast document structure. This allows the page server to add a complete document to its database and allows the printer to print the document.

5.2 HYPERLINK ACTIVATION PROTOCOL

A preferred embodiment of the hyperlink activation protocol is shown in FIG. 45.

When the user clicks on the netpage with the netpage pen, the pen communicates with the closest netpage printer 601 for that click. The click identifies 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 the network address of the page server 10a dealing with the specific page ID 50 via DNS. The address may be stored in the cache if the user has recently interacted with the same page. The printer then forwards the pen ID, its printer ID 62, page ID and click location to the page server.

The page server loads the page specification 5 identified by the page ID and determines (if present) the zone in which input element 58 the click is located. Assuming that the associated input element is a hyperlink element 844, the page server obtains the associated application ID 64 and the link ID 54, and retrieves the network address of the application server running the application 71 from DNS. Judge through.

The page server uses the pen ID 61 to obtain the corresponding user ID 61 from the registration server 11, assigns a globally unique hyperlink request ID 52 and hyperlinks. Construct request 934. The hyperlink request class diagram is shown in FIG. 44. The hyperlink request records the IDs of the requesting user and printer and identifies the clicked hyperlink instance 862. The page server then sends its server ID 53, hyperlink request ID and link ID to the application.

The application generates a response document according to application-specific logic and obtains a document ID 51 from the ID server 12. It then sends the document along with the page server's ID and hyperlink request ID to the page server 10b that is responsible for the document's newly allocated ID.

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. The first page server rejects the request if the hyperlink request has expired or is from another application.

The second page server allocates the document instance and page ID 50, returns the newly assigned page ID to the application, adds the complete document to its database, and finally sends it to the printer requesting the page specification.

The hyperlink instance may include a meaningful transaction ID 55 if the second page server includes the transaction ID in the message sent to the application. This allows the application to establish a transaction-specific context for the hyperlink activation.

If the hyperlink requests a user alias, that is, its "alias request" attribute is set, the first page server obtains not only the user ID corresponding to the pen ID, but also the application ID and the alias ID 65 corresponding to the user ID. In order to do so, 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 obtain a user-specific context for hyperlink activation.

5.3 HANDWRITING RECOGNITION PROTOCOL

When the user draws a stroke on a netpage with the netpage pen, the pen communicates with the nearest netpage printer about the stroke. The stroke identifies that page and the path on the page.

The printer forwards the pen ID 61, its printer ID 62, page ID 50 and stroke path to the page server 10 in a general manner.

The page server invokes the page specification 5 identified by the page ID to determine which stroke of the input element 58, if any, has passed. Assuming that the associated input element is text area 878, the page server appends the stroke to the digital ink in the text area.

After a period of inactivity in the region of the text area, the page server sends the pen ID and pending strokes to the registration server 11 for interpretation. The registration server uses the user's accumulated handwriting model 822 to identify the user corresponding to the pen and to interpret the stroke as handwritten text. Once the stroke is converted to text, the registration server returns the text to the requesting page server. The page server appends the text to the text value of the text area.

5.4 SIGNATURE VERIFICATION PROTOCOL

Assuming that the input element with a stroke in the region of that element is the signature area 88, the page server 10 appends the stroke to the digital ink in the signature area.

After a period of inactivity in the region of the signature area, the page server sends the pen ID 61 and the processing stroke to the registration server 11 for verification. It also sends the form-related application ID 64, whose signature area is part of it, and the current data content of that form. The registration server uses the user's dynamic signature biometric 818 to identify the user corresponding to the pen and identify the stroke as the user's signature. Once the signature is verified, the registration server sends an application ID 64 and a user ID 60 to the registration server to identify the secret signing key specific to that user's application. It then uses that key to generate a digital signature of the form data and returns the digital signature to the requesting page server. The page server appends the digital signature to the signature area and sets the state of the associated form to frozen.

The digital signature includes the alias ID 65 of the corresponding user. This allows one form to obtain the signatures of multiple users.

5.5 Form SUBMISSION PROTOCOL

A preferred embodiment of the form submission protocol is shown in FIG. 46.

Form submission occurs through form hyperlink activation. It therefore follows the protocol defined in section 5.2 with some form-specific additions.

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

5.6 COMMISSION PAYMENT PROTOCOL

A preferred embodiment of the fee payment protocol is shown in FIG. 47.

In an e-commerce environment, fees and fees may be paid from an application provider to a publisher by click-through, transaction, and sale. Fees for fees and fees for fees may also be paid from the publisher to the printer provider.

The hyperlink request ID 52 transfers the fee or fee from the target application provider 70a (i.e. seller) to the source application provider 70b (i.e. publisher) and also the source. It may route from the application provider 70b to the printer provider 72.

The target application receives the hyperlink request ID from the page server 10 when the hyperlink was first activated as described in section 5.2. When the target application requires payment to the source application provider, it sends an application provider credit along with the hyperlink request ID to the original page server. The page server uses the hyperlink request ID to identify the source application and credits the associated registration server 11 with the source application ID 64, its server ID 53 and the hyperlink request ID. send. The registration server credits the account 827 of the corresponding application provider. It also notifies the application provider.

If the application provider needs to credit the printer provider, it sends the printer provider credits with the hyperlink request ID to the original page server. The page server uses the hyperlink request ID to identify the printer and sends a credit with the printer ID to the associated registration server. The registration server credits the corresponding printer provider account 814.

The source application provider is optionally notified of the identity of the target application provider, and the printer provider is notified of the identity of the source application provider.

6. Netpage Pen Description

6.1 PEN MECHANICS

8 and 9, a pen, generally indicated by reference numeral 101, is a plastic having a wall 103 that forms an interior space 104 for mounting pen components. And a housing 102 in the form of a molding. The pen top 105 is operatively mounted to one end 106 of the housing 102. A semi-transparent cover 107 is secured to the other end 108 of the housing 102. In addition, the cover 107 is a mold plastic and is formed of a translucent material so that a user can see the state of the LED mounted in the housing 102. The cover 107 includes a main part 109 substantially enclosing the other end 108 of the housing 102 and a corresponding slot formed in the wall 103 of the housing 102 protruding rearward from the main part 109. and a projecting portion 110 that fits within the corresponding slot 111. A radio antenna 112 is mounted behind the protrusion 110 in the housing 102. The screw thread 113 surrounding the aperture 113A formed in the cover 107 is formed to receive a metal piece 114 comprising a corresponding screw thread 115. The metal piece 114 may be separated to replace the ink cartridge.

In addition, a tri-color status LED 116 on the flex PCB 117 is mounted in the cover 107. The antenna 11 is also mounted on the flex PCB 117. For good all-around visibility, the status LED 116 is mounted on top of the pen 101.

The pen functions as both a typical marking ink pen and a non-marking stylus. An ink pen cartridge 118 having a nib 119 and a stylus 120 having a stylus nib 121 are mounted side by side within the housing 102. The ink cartridge nib 119 or stylus nib 121 may come forward through the open end 122 of the metal piece 114 by rotation of the pen top 105. Each slider block 123, 124 is mounted to the ink cartridge 118 and stylus 121, respectively. A rotatable cam barrel 125 is secured to the pen top 105 during operation and formed to rotate with the pen top. The cam body 125 includes a cam 126 in the form of a slot in the wall 181 of the cam body. Cam followers 127 and 128 protruding from the slider blocks 123 and 124 fit into the cam slots 126. Upon rotation of the cam body 125, the slider blocks 123, 124 move relative to each other to protrude either the nib 119 or the stylus nib 121 of the pen through the opening 122 of the metal piece 114. . The pen 101 has three operating states. The state produced by rotating the upper portion 105 in 90 ° steps is as follows.

Protruding the nib 121 of the stylus 120,

Protruding the nib 119 of the ink cartridge 118 and

Neither the nib 119 of the ink cartridge 118 nor the nib 121 of the stylus 120 protrudes.

The second flex PCB 129 is mounted to the electronic chassis 130 that sits in the housing 102. The second flex PCB 129 mounts an infrared LED 131 that emits infrared light to the surface for projection. An image sensor 132 is mounted to the second flex PCB to receive the reflected light reflected from the surface. In addition, the second flex PCB 129 may include a radio frequency chip 133 including an RF transmitter and an RF receiver, and a controller chip 134 for controlling the operation of the pen 101. Mount it. An optics block 135 (formed from molded clear plastics) is seated in the cover 107 to project an infrared beam to the surface and receive an image on the image sensor 132. A power supply wire 136 connects the components on the second flex PCB 129 to a battery contact 137 mounted within the cam body 125. Terminal 138 is connected to battery contact 137 and cam body 125. A 3 volt rechargeable battery 139 is seated in the cam body 125 in contact with the battery contacts. An induction charging coil 140 is mounted around the second flex PCB 129 to charge the battery 139 through induction. In addition, the second flex PCB 129 is the pressure applied to the surface by the pen nib 119 or stylus nib 121 of the pen when either the stylus 120 or the ink cartridge 118 is used for recording. An infrared LED 143 and an infrared photodiode 144 for detecting a displacement in the cam body 125 may be mounted to determine. The infrared photodiode 144 detects light from the infrared LED 143 via reflectors (not shown) mounted on the slider blocks 123 and 124.

Rubber grip pads 141, 142 are provided on the other end 108 side of the housing 102 to help hold the pen 101, and the top 105 also holds the pen 101 in the pocket. It includes a clip (142) for making.

6.2 PEN CONTROLLER

The pen 101 is formed to determine the position of the nib (stylus nib 121 or ink cartridge nib 119) by illuminating the surface area around the nib in the infrared spectrum. The pen records the location data from the nearest location tag and uses the optics 135 and control chip 134 to distance the location from the location tag to the nib 121 or nib 119. Will be calculated. The control chip 134 calculates the orientation of the pen and the nib-to-tag distance from the pen tip to the perspective distortion observed on the image tag.

Using the RF chip 133 and the antenna 112, the pen 101 may transmit digital ink data (encrypted for security and packetized for efficient transmission) to a computing system.

If the pen is within range of the receiver, digital ink data is transmitted as it is formed. When the pen 101 moves out of range, the digital ink data is buffered in the pen 101 (the pen 101 circuitry is buffered to store digital ink data for about 12 minutes of pen movement on the surface). May be sent later).

The control chip 124 is mounted to the second flex PCB 129 of the pen 101. 10 is a block diagram illustrating the structure of the control chip 134 in more detail. 10 also shows a representation of an RF chip 133, an image sensor 132, a three-color state LED 116, an infrared light emitting LED 131, an infrared pressure sensor 143, and a pressure sensor photodiode 144. Include.

The pen control chip 134 includes a control processor 145. The bus 146 may exchange data between components of the control chip 134. Flash memory 147 and 512 KB DRAM are also included. An analog-to-digital converter 149 is provided to convert the analog signal from the pressure sensor photodiode 144 into a digital signal.

An image sensor interface 152 interfaces the image sensor 132. The transceiver controller 153 and the base band circuit 154 also include an RF chip 133 and an antenna (RF circuit 155 and an RF resonator). It is included to interface the inductor 156 connected with 112.

The control processor 145 acquires and decodes position data from the tag through the image sensor 132 from the surface, monitors the pressure sensor photodiode 144, controls the LEDs 116, 131, 143, and the wireless transceiver 153. Deals with short-range wireless communication. Control processor 145 is a medium-performance (-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 single controller single controller ASICs. ASIC). Analog RF components (RF circuit 155, RF resonant circuit and inductor 156) are provided as separate RF chips.

The image sensor is a 215 × 215 pixel CCD equipped with an infrared filter (such a sensor manufactured by Matsushita Electronic Corporation, Itakura, KT Nobusada, N. Okusenya, R. Nagayoshi, M, incorporated herein by reference. Ozaki, described in "A 1mm 50k-Pixel IT CCD Image Sensor for Miniature Camera System", IEEE Transactions on Electronic Devices, Vol. 47, number 1, January 2000.).

The controller ASIC 134 enters a quiescent state when the pen 101 is not in contact with the surface after a period of inactivity. It is implemented with a dedicated circuit 150 that monitors the pressure sensor photodiode 144 and wakes up the controller 134 via a power manager in the event of a pen-down.

The radio transceivers communicate in the 900 Mhz unlicensed band or 2.4 GHz unlicensed industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band typically used by cordless telephones, to provide interference-free communication. Use frequency hopping and collision detection.

In another embodiment, the pen implements an Infrared Data Association (IrDA) interface for near field communication with a base station or a netpage printer.

In another embodiment, the pen 101 includes a pair of orthogonal accelerometers mounted in the general plane of the pen 101 axis. Accelerometer 190 is shown in ghost outline in FIGS. 9 and 10.

An accelerometer is provided to allow the pen 101 in this embodiment to detect motion while allowing the location tag to be sampled at low speed without reference to a surface location tag. Each location tag ID may then identify the object of interest in addition to the location on the surface. For example, if the object is a user interface input component (eg, a command button), the tag ID of each location tag in the area of the input element can directly identify the input element.

The acceleration measured by the accelerometer in the x and y directions, respectively, is integrated with respect to time to generate instantaneous velocity and position.

Since the starting position of the stroke is unknown, only the relative position of the stroke is calculated. Although position integration accumulates errors in the sensed acceleration, accelerometers usually have high resolution, and the duration of error accumulation in the stroke is short.

7. Netpage Printer Description

7.1 PRINTER MECHANICS

A vertically mounted netpage wallprinter 601 is shown fully assembled in FIG. The printer prints netpages on letter / A4 compliant media using a dual 8½-inch Memjet ™ print engine 602,603 as shown in FIGS. 12 and 12A. It uses a straight path through the dual print engines 602, 603 where the paper 604 prints both sides of the paper simultaneously in primary and full bleed.

An integral binding assembly 605 applies a strip of glue along one edge of each printed sheet so that it can adhere to the previous page when pressure is applied. This produces a final bound document 618 that can range in thickness from one to several hundred sheets.

The replaceable ink cartridge 627, coupled with the dual print engine, shown in FIG. 13 is fixed, adhesive, cyan, magenta, yellow, black and infrared. It has a bladder or chamber for storing ink. The cartridge also includes a micro air filter in the base molding. The micro air filter interfaces an air pump 638 in the printer via a hose 639. This supplies filtered air to the print head in order to prevent infiltration of micro particles that can block the printhead nozzle into the Memjet (trademark) print head 350. By including an air filter in the cartridge, the operational life of the filter is effectively linked to the life of the cartridge. Ink cartridges are fully recyclable products that have the capacity to print and glue 3000 pages (1500 sheets).

Referring to FIG. 12, motorized media pick-up roller assembly 626 is a dual Memjet printhead from a media tray via a paper sensor on a first print engine. Push the top sheet directly into the assembly. Two Memjet (trademark) print engines 602, 603 are mounted so as to be apposing in-line sequential configuration along a straight paper path. The paper 604 is rolled into the first print engine 602 by an integrated powered pick-up roller 626. The position and size of the paper 604 is sensed and full bleed printing is initiated. Fixatives are printed simultaneously so that they can be dried in the shortest possible time.

The paper is ejected from the first Memjet ™ print engine 602 via a set of powered exit spike wheels (aligned along a straight paper path) that operate opposite the rubber rollers. These spike wheels are in contact with the 'wet' printed surface and continue to feed the paper 604 to the second Memjet® print engine 603.

12 and 12A, paper 604 passes from dual print engines 602, 603 to bookbinding assembly 605. The printed page includes a powered spike wheel axle 670 with fibrous support rollers, and another movable axle with spike wheels and momentary action glue wheels. Pass through). Movable axle / glue assembly 673 is mounted to a metal support bracket and is powered axle via a gear by the operation of a camshaft. It is moved forward to interface 670. Each motor powers this camshaft.

The adhesive wheel assembly 673 consists of a partially hollow axle 679 with a rotating coupling for a glue supply hose 641 from the ink cartridge 627. This shaft 679 is connected to the adhesive wheel, which absorbs the adhesive through the radial hole by capillary action. Molded housing 682 has an opening in the front and surrounds the adhesive wheel. Pivoting side molding and spring outer doors are attached to the metal brackets to rotate the sides out as the rest of the assembly 673 is pushed forward. This operation exposes the adhesive wheel through the front of the molded housing 682. Tension springs close the assembly and effectively cover the adhesive wheels during periods of inactivity.

As the paper 604 passes through the adhesive wheel assembly 673, the adhesive is transported down toward the booklet assembly 605 and painted on one vertical edge of the front side of the paper (except the first sheet of the document).

7.2 PRINTER CONTROLLER ARCHITECTURE

The netpage printer control unit includes a control processor 750, a factory-installed or field-installed network interface module 625, and a radio transceiver (transceiver controller 753, as shown in FIG. 14). ), Baseband circuitry 754, RF circuitry 755, and RF tuning circuitry and inductor 756), dual raster image processor (RIP) DSP 757, dual print engine controller 760a, 760b), flash memory 658 and 64 MBD RAM 657.

The control processor handles communication with the network 19 and local wireless netpage pen 101, senses a help button 617, and provides user interface LEDs 613-616. Control and feed and synchronize the RIP DSP 757 and print engine controller 760. The control processor consists of a medium performance general purpose microprocessor. The control processor 750 communicates with the print engine controller 760 via a high speed serial bus 659.

The RIP DSP rasterizes the page specification and compresses it into the compressed page format of the netpage printer. Each print engine controller dithers the page image in real time (ie, more than 30 pages per minute) and prints to the associated Memjet® printhead 350. The dual print engine controller prints both sides of the paper at the same time.

The master print engine controller 760a controls the media feed and uses ink in collaboration with the master QA chip 665 and the ink cartridge QA chip 761. Supervise.

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

Processor 750, DSP 757, and digital transceiver components (transceiver controller 753 and baseband circuit 754) are integrated into a single controller ASIC 656. Analog RF components (RF circuit 755 and RF tuning circuit and inductor 756) are provided as separate RF chips 762. The netpage printer allows both factory-selected and field-selected network connections, so the network interface module 625 is separate. Flash memory 658 and 2 x 256 MBit (64 MB) DRAM 657 are also separate off-chips. The print engine controller 760 is provided in a separate ASIC.

Various network interface modules 625 are provided such that each module provides a netpage network interface 751 and, optionally, a local computer or network interface 752. Netpage network Internet interfaces include POTS modems, Hybrid Fiber-Coax cable modems, DSL modems, satellite transceivers, current and next-generation cellular telephone transceivers. ) And a wireless local loop transceiver. Local interfaces include IEEE 1284 (parallel ports), 10Base-T and 100Base-T Ethernet (Ethernet), USB and USB 2.0, IEEE1394 (Firewire), and various emerging home networking interfaces. If Internet access is available on the local network, that local network interface can be used as the netpage network interface.

The radio transceiver 753 communicates in the unlicensed 900 MHz band or unlicensed 2.4 GHz industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band typically used for cordless telephones, and provides frequency hopping and communication to provide interference free communication. Use collision detection.

The printer control unit optionally implements an IrDA interface to receive data from devices such as netpage cameras. In another embodiment, the printer uses an IrDA interface for near field communication with a properly configured netpage pen.

7.2.1 RASTERIZATION AND PRINTING

Once the main processor 750 receives and verifies the page array and page object of the document, it executes the appropriate RIP software on the DSP 757.

The DSP 757 rasterizes each page specification and compresses the rasterized page image. The main processor stores each compressed page image in memory. The simplest way to load-balance multiple DSPs is to have each DSP rasterize separate pages. In general, any number of rasterized pages can be stored in memory, so the DSP can remain busy at all times. This policy leads to potentially poor DSP utilization only when rasterizing short documents.

The watermark region in the netpage specification is rasterized into a contone-resolution bi-level bitmap that is losslessly compressed to form part of the compressed page with negligible size.

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

The main processor 750 passes back-to-back page images to the dual print engine controller 760. Each print engine controller 760 stores the compressed page image in its local memory and initiates a page expansion and printing pipeline. Storing 114MB two-level CMYK + IR page images in memory is impractical, so page enlargement and printing are pipelined.

7.2.2 Print Engine Controller

The page magnification and print pipeline of the print engine controller 760 includes a high speed IEEE 1394 serial interface 659, a standard JPEG decoder 763, a standard Group 4 fax decoder 764, a custom haftoner / compositor unit 765, custom tag encoder 766, line loader / formatter 767, and custom interface 768 to Memjet® printhead 350.

Print engine controller 360 operates in a double buffered manner. While one page is loaded into DRAM 769 via high speed serial interface 659, a previously loaded page is read from DRAM 769 and passed to the print engine controller pipeline. Once the page has finished printing, the page just loaded is printed while another page is loaded.

In the first stage of the pipeline, all at the same time, the JPEG-compressed continuous tone CMYK layer is enlarged (763) and the Group 4 Fax-compressed two-level black layer ( expand the bi-level black layer (764) and render the bi-level netpage tag layer (766) according to the tag format defined in section 1.2. In a second step, dither the continuous tone CMYK layer (765) and composite (765) the two-level black layer to the resulting two-level CMYK layer. The resulting bi-level CMYK + IR dot data is buffered and formatted for printing on a Memjet® printhead 350 via a set of line buffers. It is formatted (767). Most of these line buffers are stored in DRAM, the chip of Valdo. In the final step, six channels of two-level dot data (including fixative) are printed to the Memjet (trademark) printhead 350 via the printhead interface 768.

If several print engine controllers 760 are used together in a duplexed configuration, they are synchronized via a shared line sync signal 770. Only one print engine 760 selected via an external master / slave pin 771 generates a line sync signal 770 on the shared line.

The print engine controller 760 synchronizes the page expansion and rendering pipeline, configures the print head 350 via the low speed serial bus 773, and includes a stepper motor ( 675, 676 to include a slow processor 772.

In an 8½ "version netpage printer, each of the two print engines prints 30 portrait (11") letter pages per minute at a line speed of 8.8 kHz at a resolution of 1600 dpi. In the 12-inch version Netpage printer, the two print engines print 45 longitudinal (8½ ") letter pages per minute at a line rate of 10.2 kHz each. This line rate is 30 kHz in the current design. It is sufficiently included in the operating frequency of the exceeding Memjet print head.

8. Print Engine Controller and Tag Encoder

Usually a 12 inch printhead width is controlled by one or more PECs to allow full-bleed printing of both A4 and letter size pages as described below. Six-channel color ink is the largest channel expected in the current printing environment.

CMY, for general color printing,

For K, black text and other black printing,

IR (infrared), for Netpage-enabled applications,

F (fixing solution), for high speed printing

Since the printer must be capable of high speed printing, it will need a fixer to dry the ink before the next sheet is finished printing at high speed. Otherwise, the pages will smear each other. In slow printing environments no fixer will be needed.

PEC can be mounted on a single chip to interface with the print head. It will include four basic functional levels:

Compressed page reception over a serial interface such as IEEE 1394;

Print engine for generating pages from compressed form. The print engine features include magnification of the page image, dithering the continuous tone layer, compositing the black layer over the continuous tone layer, and sending the resulting image to the printhead,

Printing control unit for controlling the print head and step motor;

Two standard low speed serial ports for communicating with two QA chips. Note that there should be two ports instead of one to ensure secure security during the authentication procedure.

48 is a flowchart for sending a document from a computer system to a print page. The document is received 411 and loaded into a memory buffer 412 that can affect page layout and add any desired objects. Pages from memory 412 are rasterized (413) and compressed (414) before being sent to print engine controller 410. The page is received into the memory buffer 415 as a compressed two-layered page image within the print engine controller 410, where the page is a page expander 416 that retrieves the page image. Is supplied. Any necessary dither may be applied to the desired contone layer (417). Any black two-level layer may be synthesized 419 with a predetermined infrared tag over the contone layer 418. The synthesized page data is printed 420 to generate a page 421.

The print engine / controller accepts the compressed page image to initiate page enlargement and printing in the form of a pipeline. Since storing a significant two-level CMYK + IR page image in memory is impractical, page magnification and printing is preferably pipelined.

In the first stage of the pipeline, at the same time, the JPEG-compressed continuous-tone CMYK layer (see below) is enlarged, and the Group 4 Fax-compressed bi-level dither matrix Zoom in the selection map (see below) and zoom in on the two-level black layer (see below) compressed with Group 4 fax. In the second step, the continuous tone CMYK layer is dithered using the dither matrix selected by the dither matrix selection map, and a two-level black layer is synthesized on the resulting two-level K layer. At the same time, the tag encoder encodes two-level IR tag data from the compressed page image. A fixative layer is also created at each dot position wherever there is a request from a C, M, Y, K or IR channel. The final step is to print the two-level CMYK + IR data through the printhead via the printhead interface (see below).

49 shows how the print engine / controller 410 fits into the overall printing system scheme. Various components of the printer system may include:

Print Engine / Controller (PEC). The PEC chip 410 or chips are responsible for receiving the compressed page image for storage in the memory buffer 424, page magnification, black layer composition, and dot data transmission to the print head 423. It may also be in communication with the QA chips 425 and 426, and may provide a means for retrieving features of the print head to ensure optimal printing. PEC is the subject of this specification.

Memory buffer. Memory buffer 424 is for storing compressed page images and scratching during printing of a given page. The construction and operation of the memory buffer is known to those skilled in the art, and standard chips and their utilization techniques within a predetermined range can be utilized for the use of the PEC of the present invention.

Master QA chip. The main chip 425 is mounted to the replaceable ink cartridge QA chip 426. The construction and operation of the QA unit is known to those skilled in the art, and known QA processes within a certain range can be utilized for the use of the PEC of the present invention. For example, QA chips are described in the ongoing US patent application below.

USSN Our serial number Our name TBA AUTH01 Validation Protocol and System 09 / 112,763 AUTH02 Circuit for Protecting Chips Against IDD Fluctuation Attacks 09 / 112,737 AUTH04 Method for Protecting On-Chip Memory (Flash and RAM) 09 / 112,761 AUTH05 Method for Making a Chip Tamper-Resistant 09 / 113,223 AUTH06 A system for authenticating physical objects TBA AUTH07 Validation Protocol and System TBA AUTH08 Validation Protocol and System 09 / 505,003 AUTH09 Consumable Authentication Protocol and System 09 / 517,608 AUTH10 Consumable Authentication Protocol and System 09 / 505,147 AUTH11 Consumable Authentication Protocol and System 09 / 505,952 AUTH12 Unauthorized Modification of Values Stored in Flash Memory TBA AUTH13 A system form the Manipulation of Secure Data 09 / 516,874 AUTH14 An Authentication Chip with Protection from Power Supply Attacks TBA AUTH15 Shielding Manipulation of Secret Data

Since QA chip communication plays a role not only in the physical operation of the print head but also in the enlargement of the image, it may be most desirable to be included in the overall function of the PEC chip. By placing QA chip communication there, it is possible to ensure that there is enough ink to print the page. Preferably, a QA embedded in the printhead assembly (QA) may be implemented using an authentication chip. Since it is the main QA chip, it can only contain an authentication key, it cannot contain user-data. However, it must match the QA chip of the ink cartridge. The QA chip in the ink cartridge contains the necessary information to maintain the best print quality possible, and is implemented using an authentication chip.

Preferably, a 64 MBit (8 MB) memory buffer is used to store the compressed page image. While one page is written to the buffer, the other page is read (double buffering). In addition, the PEC uses memory to buffer the calculated dot information while the page is being printed. During page N printing, the buffer is

Read compressed page N ,

Read and write two-level dot information on page N ,

Used to write compressed page N + 1 .

Preferably, the PEC chip will include a simple micro-controller CPU core 435 to perform the following functions.

Perform QA chip authentication protocol between print pages

· Step motor drive with parallel interface while printing (Step motor requires 5KHz processing)

· Synchronize various parts of the PEC chip while printing

· Provide a means to interface external data requests (such as programming registers)

Provide means to interface printhead segment low-speed data requests (such as reading characterization vectors and recording pulse profiles)

Provides a means to record vertical and horizontal tag structures on external DRAM

Since all image processing is performed by dedicated hardware, the CPU does not need to process the pixels. As a result, the CPU can be extremely simple. Many known CPU cores are suitable. That is, any processor core that has sufficient processing power to perform the required computation and control functions fast enough. One example of a suitable core is the Philips 8051 microcontroller running at about 1 MHz. In connection with the CPU core 435 there may be a program ROM and a small program scratch RAM. The CPU communicates with other units in the PEC chip via memory mapped I / O. A particular address range can be mapped to a particular unit, and within each range, a specific register can be mapped to that particular unit. This includes serial and parallel interfaces. A small program flash ROM can be included in the PEC chip. Its size depends on the selected CPU, but should not be larger than 8KB. Similarly, a small scratch RAM area may be provided in the PEC chip. The program code does not need to process the image, so a large scratch area is unnecessary. RAM size depends on the selected CPU (ie stack mechanism, subroutine calling convention, register size, etc.), but should not be larger than 2KB.

PEC chips using the segment based page wide printhead mentioned above can reproduce black at full dot resolution (typically 1600 dpi), but with halftoning Contone color is reproduced at the resolution. The page specification is thus divided into a black two-level layer and a contone layer. The black two-level layer is defined to synthesize "up" the continuous tone layer. The black and white two-level layer consists of a bitmap containing one bit of opacity for each pixel. This black layer matte has a resolution that is an integer factor of the dot resolution of the printer. The highest supported resolution is 1600 dpi, the highest dot resolution of the printer. The continuous tone layer consists of a bitmap containing 32-bit CMYK colors for each pixel, where K is optional. This continuous tone image has a resolution that is an integer divisor of the dot resolution of the printer. The highest supported resolution is 320 dpi per 12 inches for a single PEC, or one fifth of the printer's dot resolution. Higher continuous tone resolution requires multiple PECs, with each PEC generating a fragment of the output page. Continous tone resolution is also usually an integer divisor of black two-level resolution to simplify the calculation in RIP. But this is not a requirement. The black two-level layer and the continuous tone layer are both in compressed form for efficient storage in the printer's internal memory.

50 shows a print engine architecture. The page enlargement and print pipeline of the print engine includes a high speed serial interface 427 (e.g., a standard IEEE 1394 interface), a standard JPEG decoder 428, a standard group 4 fax decoder, a custom halftoner / synthesizer unit 429, and custom tags. It consists of an on-demand interface 432 to the encoder 430, a line loader / formatter unit 431, and a print head 433. Decoders 428 and 588 and encoder 430 are buffered in half toner / synthesizer 429.

The tag encoder 430 installs an infrared tag or tags on the page according to a protocol that depends on what use is specified on the page, and the actual content of the tag is not the subject of the present invention.

The print engine operates in a double buffer mode. While one page is loaded into DRAM 34 via DRAM interface 587 and high-speed serial interface 27 on bus 586, previously loaded pages are read from DRAM 434 and printed. Pass through the engine pipeline. Once the page is printed, the page just loaded becomes the page to be printed, and a new page is loaded via the high speed serial interface 427. In the first stage, the pipeline enlarges a continuous tone (CMYK) layer compressed with any JPEG and enlarges a two-level data stream compressed with any two Group 4 faxes. The two streams contain a black layer (although the PEC is actually color agnostic and this two-level layer can be directed to any of the output inks), and continuous tone dithering (see below). This is a matte for choosing between dither matrices. In the second step, at the same time as the first step, a predetermined tag for later rendering with infrared or black ink is encoded. Finally, in the third step, the continuous tone layer is dithered, and the location tag and the bi-level spot1 layer are synthesized on the resulting bi-level dithered layer. The data stream is ideally adjusted to create a smooth transition of overlapping segments in the print head, ideally it is adjusted to compensate for dead nozzles in the print head. do. Up to six channels of two-level data are generated at this stage. Note that not all six channels can exist on the print head. For example, the printhead can have CMY only, K through the CMY channel, and IR ignored. Or, if the IR ink is not available (or for testing purposes), the location tag may be printed in K. The resulting two-level CMYK-IR dot data is buffered and formatted for printing at the print head 33 via a pair of line buffers (see below). Most of these line buffers may be stored on DRAM 434, which is ideally a separate chip. In the final step, the six-channel two-level dot data is printed via the print head interface 432.

Compression is used in printing systems that apply PEC. This allows the data flow to precede the printhead moving at constant speed. At 267 ppi, letter paper with continuous tone CMYK data has a size of 25 MB. Using lossy contone compression algorithms such as JPEG (see below), continuous tone images are compressed at a ratio of 10: 1 while providing 2.5 MB of compressed page size without noticeable loss of quality. do. At 800 dpi, the two-level data of letter paper has a size of 7 MB. Coherent data such as text is compressed very well. Using a lossless bi-level compression algorithm, such as a Group 4 facsimile (see below), 10 points of text are compressed at a ratio of about 10: 1 while providing a compressed page size of 0.8 MB. do.

Once dithered, one page of CMYK contone image data consists of 114 MB of two-level data. The two-layer compressed page image format described below utilizes the relative strengths of lossy JPEG contone image compression and lossless two-level text compression. The format is compact enough for efficient storage-efficient and simple enough to support real time magnification during printing. Text and images are generally non-duplicate, so the typical worst-case page image size is 2.5 MB (that is, only images), while the typical best-case page image size is 0.8 MB (ie , Text only). The absolute worst-case page image size is 3.3 MB (that is, duplicate text on the image). Assuming that a quarter of the average page contains images, the average page image size is 1.2 MB.

The Group 4 G4 Fax decoder is responsible for the decompression of the two-level data. 2-level data is limited to a single spot color (usually black for text and line graphics), and dither matrices are used in subsequent continuous tone data (uncompressed by JPEG decoder). Select a bitmap to use. The input to the G4 Fax decoder is two planes of two-level data read from an external DRAM. The output of the G4 Fax decoder is two planes of uncompressed two-level data. The decompressed two-level data is sent to a Halftoner / Compositor Unit (HCU) for the next step in the print pipeline. Two two-level buffers provide a means for transferring two-level data between the G4 Fax decoder and the HCU. Each decompressed two-level layer is output to two line buffers. Each buffer can accommodate all 12 inch dot lines at the expected maximum resolution. By having two line buffers, one line can be written by the G4 Fax decoder while one line is read by the HCU. This is important because a single two-level line is usually less than 1600 dpi, so both dot "and" line size must be enlarged. If the buffering is smaller than all of the lines, the G4 Fax decoder will have to decode the same dot line multiple times with 600 dpi output.

Spot color 1 is designed to support high resolution dot data in a single color plane of the output image. While the continuous tone layer provides the proper resolution for the image, spot color 1 is targeted for applications such as text and line graphics (usually black). When used as text and line graphics, typical compression ratios exceed 10: 1. Spot Color 1 supports a variety of resolutions up to 1600 dpi. Thus, each of the two line buffers totals 2400 bytes (12 inches × 600 dpi = 19,200 bits).

The resolution of the dither matrix selection map should ideally match the continuous tone resolution. As a result, each of the two line buffers is 480 bytes (3840 bits) capable of storing 12 inches at 320 dpi. If the map matches the continuous tone resolution, a typical compression ratio exceeds 50: 1.

To provide the following:

800 dpi spot color 1 layer (usually black)

320 dpi dither matrix select layer

The requirement for decompression bandwidth is 9.05 MB / sec (any page width of 12 inches or 8.5 inches) for 1 page per second performance and runs at the highest print speed (30,000 lines per second). Is 20MB / sec and 14.2MB / sec for page widths of 12 inches and 8.5 inches respectively. Assuming the decompressed data is output to the line buffer, the G4 Fax decoder can immediately decompress one line from each output, one at a time.

The G4 Fax decoder is supplied directly from main memory via the DRAM interface. The amount of compression determines the bandwidth required for external DRAM. Since G4 Fax is lossless, the complexity of the image affects the amount of data and hence the bandwidth. Usually, the 800 dpi black text / graphics layer exceeds 10: 1 compression, so the bandwidth required to print one page per second is 0.78 MB / sec. Similarly, a typical 320dpi dither select matrix would require 0.025MB / sec bandwidth while compressing above 50: 1. The maximum print speed configuration for 320 DPI for dither selection matrix and 800 DPI for spot color 1 requires bandwidths of 1.72 MB / sec and 0.056 MB / sec, respectively. Therefore, the total bandwidth of 2MB / sec should be more than enough for the bandwidth of the DRAM.

The G4 Fax decoding function is implemented by the G4 Fax Decoder core. A wide range of G4 Fax decoder cores are suitable for this. That is, any core can have any processing power fast enough to perform the required operation and control its functionality. It may require modifications since it must be able to handle lengths in excess of the lengths typically encountered in 400 dpi facsimile applications.

The CMYK (or CMY) contone layer is compressed into a planar color JPEG bytestream. If separation of luminance / chrominance is necessary for table sharing or for subsampling of saturation, CMYK is converted to YCrCb and Cr, and Cb is appropriately subsampled. . The JPEG byte stream is complete and self-contained. It contains all the data needed for decompression, including quantization and Huffman tables.

The JPEG decoder is responsible for performing on-the-fly decompression of the continuous tone data layer. Input to the JPEG decoder is continuous tone data of up to four planes. This will usually be three sides representing a CMY continuous tone image or four sides representing a CMYK continuous tone image. Usually all color planes have the same resolution, but each color plane may have a different resolution. The continuous tone layer is read from the external DRAM. The output of the JPEG decoder is decompressed continuous tone data separated by planes. The decompressed contone image is sent to a half toner / synthesizer unit (HCU) 429 for the next stage of the printing pipeline. The 4-plane contone buffer provides a means for the transmission of continuous tone data between the JPEG decoder and the HCU 429.

Each color plane of the decompressed continuous tone data is output to a pair of two line buffers (see below). Each line buffer is 3840 bytes, so it can accommodate 12 inches of single color plane pixels at 320 ppi. Line buffering allows other line buffers to be written by the JPEG decoder while one line buffer is read by the HCU. This is important because a single continuous tone line is usually less than 1600 dpi, and therefore must be enlarged in dot "and" line size. If buffering is smaller than all of the lines, the JPEG decoder will have to decode the same line multiple times, each with 600 dpi output dot lines. Although various resolutions are supported, there is a tradeoff between resolution and available bandwidth. As the resolution and number of colors increase, the required bandwidth also increases. In addition, the number of segments targeted by the PEC chip also affects bandwidth and possible resolutions. Note that since the contone image is processed in a planar format, each color plane may be stored at a different resolution (eg, CMY may be higher resolution than the K plane). The highest continuous tone resolution supported is 1600 ppi (which matches all of the printer's dot resolutions). However, there is only enough output line buffer memory to hold continuous tone pixels for a 12-inch-long 320 ppi line. If all of the 12-inch output is required with high continuous tone resolution, multiple PEC chips are needed, although it should be noted that the final output on the printer is still only two levels. Supporting four colors at 320 ppi, the decompression output bandwidth requirements are 40MB / sec (with or without page widths of 12 inches or 8.5 inches) for 1 page per second performance, and maximum printer speed (30,000 lines per second) is 88 MB / sec and 64 MB / sec for page width angles of 12 inches and 8.5 inches. Table 5 can be used to determine the bandwidth required for different resolution / color plane / page width combinations.

The JPEG decoder is supplied directly from the main memory via the DRAM interface. The amount of compression determines the bandwidth requirements for external DRAM. As compression increases, bandwidth decreases, but the quality of the final output image may also degrade. The DRAM bandwidth for a single color plane can be easily calculated by applying the compression factor to the output bandwidth shown in FIG. For example, a single color plane with a compression factor of 10: 1 at 320 ppi requires 1 MB / sec access to generate one page per second.

JPEG functionality is implemented by the JPEG core. A wide range of JPEG cores is suitable for this. That is, it can be any JPEG core that has processing power fast enough to perform the required operation and control its function. For example, the BTG X-Match core has a decompression speed of 140 MB / sec, decompresses four color planes at continuous printer resolution up to 400 ppi at full printer speed (30,000 lines per second at 1600 dpi), It supports continuous tone resolutions up to 800 ppi at 1 page / second printer speeds. It should be noted that the core only needs to support "decompression" to alleviate the requirements imposed by the more general JPEG compression / decompression core. The size of the core should not be larger than 100,000 gates. Assuming the decompressed data is output to the line buffer, the JPEG decoder can easily decompress the entire line of each color plane one at a time, thus context switching during one line. ) And simplify the control of the JPEG decoder. Four contexts must be maintained (one context for each color plane) and include the current address as well as the appropriate JPEG decoding parameters in the external DRAM.

In FIG. 51, half toner / synthesizer unit (HCU) 429 halftons the continuous tone (usually CMYK) layer into a bi-level version of the same, and spot1 two-level layer. Combines the functionality of synthesizing onto the appropriate halftoned contone layer (s). If there is no K ink in the print, the HCU 429 can properly map K to CMY dots. It also selects between two dither matrices based on the corresponding values of the dither matrix selection map on a pixel by pixel basis. Inputs to the HCU 429 pass the expanded contone layer (from the JPEG decoder unit) through the buffer 437, the expanded two-level spot 1 layer through the buffer 438, the buffer 439. Tag data at full dot resolution through the dither-matrix-select bitmap and buffer 440, usually at the same resolution as the continuous tone layer. HCU 429 uses up to two dither matrices read from external DRAM 434. The output 441 from the HCU 429 to the line loader / formatter unit (LLFU) is a set of printer resolution two-level image lines in up to six colors. Typically, the continuous tone layer is CMYK or CMY and the two-level Spot1 layer is K.

52 shows the HCU in more detail. Once initiated, the HCU continues until it detects an end-of-page condition, or until it is explicitly stopped through its control register. The first task of the HCU is to scale all data received on a buffer side, such as 442, in each scale unit, such as scale unit 443, to printer resolution both horizontally and vertically. The scale unit provides a means for scaling continuous tone or two-level data to both horizontal and vertical printer resolutions. Scaling is achieved by replicating the data value an integer number of times in both dimensions. Procedures to scale data will be familiar to those skilled in the art. Since each continuous tone layer can be of different resolution, they are scaled independently. The two-level Spotl layer of buffer 445 and the dither matrix selection layer of buffer 446 also need to be scaled. The two-level tag data of the buffer 447 is placed at the correct resolution and does not need to be scaled. The scale-up dither matrix select bit is used by the dither matrix access unit 448 to select a single 8-bit value from two dither matrices. The 8-bit value is output to four comparators 444,449-451, which simply compares it with a specific 8-bit continuous tone value. The generation of the actual dither matrix depends on the structure of the print head, and the general generation procedure will be familiar to those skilled in the art. If the continuous tone value is greater than or equal to the 8-bit dither matrix value, 1 is output. If not, 0 is printed. These bits are then ANDed from 452 to 456 together with the inPage bits from the margin unit 457 (whether or not a particular dot is in the printable area of the page). ). The final stage of the HCU is the composition stage. There is a single dot merger unit, such as unit 458, each having six inputs for each of the six output layers. A single output bit from each dot merge unit is an input bit. Is a combination of some or all of: This means that the spot color will be merged into any output color plane (including infrared for testing purposes), cyan, magenta, and yellow (if no black ink is in the printhead), and Allows to be placed on tag dot data that is to be placed on a visible plane A fixative color plane can also be easily generated A dot reorg unit (DRU) 459 Takes a generated dot stream for a given color plane and organizes it into 32-bit quantities so that the output is in segment order and within the segment in dot order. Due to the fact that dots for overlapping segments are not generated in segment order, minimal reordering is required.

The margin unit 457 provides two control bits to the scale unit, namely, an advance dot and an advance line. The advanced dot bit causes the state machine to generate multiple instances of the same dot data (useful for generating page data and dot data for overlapping segments in a Memjet printhead). The advance line bit allows the state machine to control when a line of a particular dot is completed, thereby truncating the data according to the printer margin. It also saves the effort of the scale unit requiring special end-of-line logic.

The comparator unit includes a simple 8-bit "greater-than-or-equal" comparator. It is used to determine whether the 8-bit continuous tone value is greater than or equal to the 8-bit dither matrix value. As such, the comparator unit takes two 8-bit inputs and produces a single 1-bit output.

The dot merging unit is shown in more detail in FIG. It provides a means to map bi-level dithered data, Spot1 color and tag data to the output ink in the actual print head. Each dot merging unit takes six 1-bit inputs and produces a single bit output that represents the output dot for that color plane. The output bit 460 is a combination of some or all of the input bits. This allows the spot color to be placed on any output color plane (including infrared for testing purposes), blacks merged into cyan, magenta, and yellow (if there is no black ink in the printhead), and the tag dot data is Place it on the visible side. The output for the fixer can be easily generated by simply combining all the input bits. The dot merging unit includes a 6-bit ColorMask register 461 that is used as a mask for six input bits. Each input bit is ANDed with the corresponding colormask register bit, and the resulting six bits are ORed together to form the final output bit.

Fig. 54 shows a dot reorg unit responsible for taking a generated dot stream for a given color plane and reorganizing the dot stream in a 32-bit amount so that the output is in the order of the segments and the order of the dots within the segment ( DRU) is shown. Due to the fact that overlapping segments are not created in segment order, minimal reordering is necessary. The DRU includes a 32-bit shift register, a general 32 bit register and a general 16 bit register. One 5-bit counter counts the number of bits processed up to that point. A dot advance signal from a dither matrix access unit (DMAU) is used to indicate which bits should be output to the DRU.

In Figure 54, the register (A) 462 is clocked every cycle. It contains the 32 most recent dots generated by the dot merger unit (DMU). All 32-bit values are generated from the DRU state machine every 32 cycles and copied to register (B) 463 by a WriteEnable signal via a simple 5-bit counter. Sixteen odd bits (bits 1, 3, 5, 7, etc.) of register (B) 463 are copied to register (C) 465 by the same WriteEnable pulse. 32-bit multiplexer 466 then selects from the following three outputs based on the two bits from the state machine.

All 32 bits from register B

A 32-bit value created from the 16 even bits in register A (bits 0, 2, 4, 6, and so on) and the 16 even bits in register B. Sixteen even bits from register A form bits 0-15, while sixteen even bits from register B form bits 16-31.

A 32-bit value created from the 16 odd bits of register B (bits 1, 3, 5, 7, and so on) and the 16 bits of register C. The bits in register C form bits 0-15, while the 16 odd bits from register B form bits 16-31.

State machines for DRUs are shown in Table 1. It is initiated in state zero. It changes state every 32 cycles. During 32 cycles, a single no-overlap bit collects the AND of all dot advance bits for that 32 cycle (in cycle 0, no-Overlap = dot advance, in cycles 1 to 31, no-Overlap = no-Overlap AND dot advance).

Table 1 State Machines for DRUs

condition Nooverlap Print outputValid Explanation Next status 0 x B 0 Initiation status One One B One No general duplication One 0 B One A contains the first duplicate 2 x Even A Even B One A contains the second duplicate, B contains the first duplicate 3 x C, odd B One C contains the first duplicate, B contains the second duplicate

In FIG. 52, a margin unit (MU) sends the advance dot and advance line signals from the dither matrix access unit (DMAU) 448 to the page margin of the current page. It is also responsible for switching to a normal control signal based on the ss, which is also responsible for generating the end of page state, the MU maintains a counter of dots and lines on the page, both set to zero at the beginning of the page. The dot counter is advanced by 1 each time the MU receives a dot advance signal from the DMAU When the MU receives a line advance signal from the DMAU, the line counter is incremented and the dot counter is reset to zero. Each cycle, current line, and dot value is compared to the margin of the page, and within the appropriate output dot advance, line advance, and margin ranges ( within margin) signals are given based on these margins, the DMAU contains only the actual memory requests for the HCU.

Apart from being implicitly defined with respect to the printable page area, each page specification is complete and self-contained. It is stored separately from the page specification and no page is referenced by the page specification. PEC relies on dither matrices and tag structures already provided, but they are not treated as part of the general page format.

The page specification consists of a page header describing the size and resolution of the page, followed by one or more page bands describing the actual page content.

Table 2 shows the format of the page header.

[Table 2] Page Header Format

domain form Explanation Signature 16-bit integer Page header format signature Version 16-bit integer Page header format version number Structure size 16-bit integer The size of the page header Target resolution (dpi) 16-bit integer The resolution of the target page. This is always 1600 for the current printer. Target pagewidth 16-bit integer Target page width in dots Target pageheight 16-bit integer Target page height in dots Target leftmargin 16-bit integer Target left margin width in dots Target topmargin 16-bit integer Target top margin in dots Target flag 16-bit integer Bit 0 specifies whether to generate tags on this page (0 = no, 1 = yes). Bit 1 specifies the tag direction (0 = portrait, 1 = landscape). Bit 2 indicates that fixed tag data Specifies whether to be redundantly encoded by the PEC or used directly (0 = direct use, 1 = encoding). Bit 3 specifies whether variable tag data should additionally be encoded or used directly by the PEC. Specifies (0 = direct use, 1 = encoding). The remaining bits are reserved. Fixed tag data 128-bit integer This is valid only when the generate tags flag is set (bit 0 of the tag flag). If bit 1 of the tag flag is not set, the lower 120 bits of the fixed tag data are already encoded. If bit 1 of the tag flag is set, the lower 120 bits of the fixed tag data contain uncoded fixed data to be encoded by the PEC. The upper 8 bits are reserved.

Black scale factor 16-bit integer Scale factor from black 2-level resolution to target resolution (either 1 or greater than 1) Black page width 16-bit integer The width of a black page in black pixels Black page height 16-bit integer The height of a black page in black pixels Contone Color Space 16-bit integer Defines the number of continuous tone JPEG channels, usually 3 or 4. for CMY or CMYK. Continuous tone 1 scale factor 16-bit integer Scale factor from continuous channel 1 resolution to target resolution (either 1 or greater than 1) Continuous tone 1 page width 16-bit integer Width of continuous tone page in pixels Continuous tone 1 page height 16-bit integer Height of continuous tone page in pixels Continuous tone 2 scale factor 16-bit integer Scale factor from continuous channel 2 resolution to target resolution (either 1 or greater than 1) Continuous tone 2 page width 16-bit integer Width of continuous tone page in pixels Continuous tone 2 page height 16-bit integer The height of the continuous tone page, in continuous pixels. Continuous tone 3 scale factor 16-bit integer Scale factor from continuous channel 3 resolution to target resolution (either 1 or greater than 1) Continuous tone 3 page width 16-bit integer Width of continuous tone page in 3 pixel increments Continuous tone 3 page height 16-bit integer Height of continuous tone page in 3 pixel increments Continuous tone 4 scale factor 16-bit integer Scale factor from continuous channel 4 resolution to target resolution (either 1 or greater than 1) Continuous tone 4 page width 16-bit integer Width of continuous tone page in 4 pixel increments Continuous tone 4 page height 16-bit integer Height of continuous tone page in pixels

The page header includes a signature and a version that allows the print engine to identify the page header format. If the signature and / or version are missing or are incompatible with the print engine, the print engine may reject the page. The contone color space defines how many contone layers there are, usually used to define whether the contone layer is CMY or CMYK. The page header defines the resolution and size of the target page. The black and continuous tone layers can be clipped to the target page if necessary. This happens whenever the black or continuous tone scale factor is not a factor of the target page width or height. The target left and top margins define the positioning of the target page within the printable page area.

The tag parameter specifies whether the netpage tag should be generated on this page and in which direction the tag should be generated (in landscape or portrait mode). Fixed tag data is also provided.

The black layer parameter defines the pixel size of the two-level black layer and an integer scale factor to its target resolution. The contone layer parameters define the pixel size of each of the four contone layers and an integer scale factor to their target resolution.

Table 3 shows the format of a page band header.

[Table 3] Page Band Header Format

domain form Explanation signature 16-bit integer Page Band Header Format Signature version 16-bit integer Page Band Header Format Version Number Structure size 16-bit integer Size of page band header Black band height 16-bit integer The height of the black band in black pixels Black band data size 32-bit integer Black band data size in bytes Continuous Tone Band Height 16-bit integer Height of continuous tone band in continuous tone pixels Continuous Band Data Size 32-bit integer Continental band data size in bytes Dither Matrix Selection Map Band Data Size 32-bit integer Size of dither matrix selection map band data in bytes. If size = 0 then only one dither matrix is used. Tag band data size 32-bit integer Size of the unencoded tag data band in bytes. It may be 0 indicating that no tag data is provided.

The black (2-level) layer parameter defines the height of the black band and the size of its compressed band data. Variable size black data follows the page band header. The contone layer parameter defines the height of the contone band and the magnitude of its compressed page data, consisting of concatenated two-level dither matrix selection maps. Variable magnitude continuous tone data is followed by black data. Variable size two-level dither matrix selection map data is followed by continuous tone data.

Tag band data is a set of tag data half-lines as required by the tag encoder. The format of the tag data can be found below. The tag band data follows the dither matrix selection map.

Table 4 shows the format of compressed variable size band data following the page band header.

Table 4 Page Band Data Formats

domain form Explanation Black data G4 Fax Byte Stream Compressed two-level black data Continuous tone data JPEG byte stream Compressed Continuous CMYK or CMY Data Dither Matrix Selection Map G4 Fax Byte Stream Compressed Two-Level Dither Matrix Selection Map Data Tag data map Bitmap Tag data format, see section 9.2.2.

Each variable size segment of band data is arranged in a range of 8 bytes.

In FIG. 50, tag encoder (TE) 430 provides functionality to an application that can use a tag, and typically requires the presence of IR ink in the printhead (K ink or others may be used for the tag in a limited environment). Might be). The TE encodes the fixed data for the page to be printed, together with a specific tag data value, into an error-correctable encoded tag, which is then printed on the page with infrared or black ink. The TE may place the tag on a triangular grid (see FIG. 55). While the basic tag structure is rendered at 1600 dpi, the tag data can be encoded as a macrodot of arbitrary shape (with a size of at least 1 dot at 1600 dpi).

TE can take as input:

Vertical / Horizontal Flag

A template that defines the structure of a single tag

Multiple fixed data bits (fixed to page)

· A flag that defines whether redundant fixed data bits are to be encoded or treated as already encoded bits

A number of variable data bit records, where each record contains variable data bits for the tag on a given tag line

A flag that defines whether to encode redundant variable data bits or treat them as already encoded bits.

The output from the tag encoder TE is the two-level layer where the tag should be printed. The output is via a 1-bit wide FIFO 447 (FIGS. 50 and 52), which in turn is used as an input by the HCU 429 in FIG. The tag is subsequently printed with infrared absorbing ink, which can preferably be read by a tag sensing device. Since black ink can be infrared absorbing, in other cases a limited function can be provided on an offset printed page by using black ink to encode a button over an area that will be a blank area of the page. Alternatively, invisible infrared ink can be used to print a location tag on top of a typical page. However, if invisible infrared ink is used, care must be taken to print other information printed on the page with infrared-transparent CMY ink as it may disturb the infrared tag. A monochromatic scheme is desirable to maximize dynamic range in a blurry reading environment.

If multiple PEC chips are used to print the same side of the page, one tag may be generated by two PEC chips. This means that the tag encoder should be able to print partial tags.

Since the tag encoder TE outputs 1600 dpi two-level data, the internal operation of TE is completely concealed from the half toner / synthesizer unit (user of the tag data).

Although the conceptual implementation of a tag encoder (TE) can have a variable structure as well as fixed and variable data elements, such an implementation imposes range constraints on certain encoding parameters. do. Table 5 lists coding parameters in addition to range constraints. However, this constraint is a direct result of the buffer size and the number of addressing bits selected for the most probable coding scheme. In another embodiment it is a simple matter to allow arbitrary encoding parameters by adjusting the buffer size and corresponding addressing.

[Table 5] Coding Parameters

designation Justice Maximum value imposed by TE W Page width 12 inches S Tag size 2 mm x 2 mm N The number of dots in each dimension of the tag 384 dots (minimum 92 dots for a given E) E Redundancy encoding for tag data Reed-Solomon GF at 5:10 (24) DF Fixed data size (unencoded) 40 bits RF Double Coded Fixed Data Size 120 bit DV Variable data size (unsigned) 120 bit RV Overcoded Variable Data Size 360 bit T Tags per page width 152 (reflection of 2 mm x 2 mm tags) M Macro Dot Size At least 1 dot

Of particular note is the fixed and variable data elements of each tag. The fixed data element is the part of the tag "data" that is not changing (different from the part of the tag "structure" that is changing). The fixed data may be read by the PEC chip in an unencoded form and may be encoded once in the PEC, or may be used as it is read (fixed data should thus be externally redundantly encoded). The variable data bits are variable for each tag and are data with fixed data, which are redundantly coded in TE or used as is, as necessary.

The mapping of data bits (both fixed and variable) to redundant coded bits is highly dependent on the method of redundant coding applied. Reed-Solomon coding was chosen because of its ability to cope with burst errors and to efficiently detect and correct errors using a minimum of redundancy. Reed-Solomon coding is described in Lyppens, H., "Reed-Solomon Error Correction," In Dobb's Journal Vol. 22, No. 1, January 1997, Rorabaugh, C, Error Coding Cookbook, McGraw-Hill 1996, and Wicker, S., and Bhargava, V., Reed-Solomon Codes and their Applications, IEEE Press 1994 Are discussed.

In this embodiment of the tag encoder TE, Reed-Solomon coding is used in the Galois field GF 2 ⁴ . The symbol size is 4 bits. Each codeword contains fifteen 4-bit symbols for a codeword length of 60 bits. Of the fifteen symbols, five are original data (20 bits) and ten are redundancy bits (40 bits). Ten duplicate symbols mean that up to five symbols can be corrected in the event of an error.

The total amount of original data per tag is 160 bits (fixed 40 bits, variable 120 bits). It is redundantly coded to provide a total amount of 480 bits (fixed 120 bits, variable 360 bits) as follows.

Each tag contains up to 40 original fixed data. Thus, two codewords are needed for fixed data, providing a total code size of 120 bits.

Each tag contains up to 120 original variable data. Therefore, six codewords are required for variable data, and provide a total encoded data size of 360 bits.

TE writes a two-level tag bit stream to a two-level tag FIFO. The TE is responsible for merging the encoded tag data with the basic tag structure and placing the dots in the output FIFO in the correct order for subsequent printing. Encoded tag data is generated on-the-fly from the original data bits to minimize buffer space.

55 shows placement of tags for vertical and horizontal printing. The TE preferably places tags 488 in triangluar arrangments 488, 489, 490 on the page to support both the transverse 492 and longitudinal 491 directions. The tag's triangular meshes 488, 489, 490 have only two printing directions (horizontal and vertical), meaning that tags or columns or rows are restricted so that tag placement procedures are greatly simplified. .

Thus, since tag placement depends on a number of parameters, a general case is shown in FIG. For a given line of dots, all tags on that line correspond to the same part of the general tag structure. Triangular placement can be considered as an alternative line of tags, where one line of tags is inserted up to one amount in the dot dimension and the other line up to another amount. The dot inter-tag gap 493 is the same on both lines and is different from the line spacing 494 between tags.

In Tables 6 and 7, the parameters are described more elaborately. Note that only one set of parameters is required for vertical printing. If the orientation is changed from vertical to horizontal, the tag height and tag width parameters and general dot and line parameters are simply interchanged.

[Table 6] Tag placement parameters

parameter Explanation Restrictions TagHeight The number of dot lines in the tag's bounding box. At least 1 TagWidth The number of dots in a single line of the tag's bounding box. The number of dots of the tag itself varies depending on the shape of the tag, but the number of dots in the bounding box is unchanged (obviously). At least 1 Dot inter-tag gap The number of dots from the edge of one tag's bounding box in the dot direction to the start of the bounding box of the next tag. Min = 0 Line inter-tag gap Number of dot lines from the edge of one tag's bounding box in the line direction to the start of the bounding box of the next tag. Min = 0 Start Position The first row of dots on the page (strip if multiple PECs are used) and the current position record at the beginning of the first row of tags (see Table 10). To increase the size of a non-tagged section beyond the size of the space between tags, use a non-printed tag. See Table 10 AltTagLinePosition Record of the current position of the starting point of the alternate row of tags. Dot parameters are used for portrait mode printing, and line parameters are used for landscape mode printing. See Table 10

[Table 7] Current location record

designation Explanation TagStateDot 0 = at interval between tags1 = at tag TagStateLine 0 = at interval between tags1 = at tag LocalOffsetDot Space between tags or current dot position within tag, min = 0 LocalOffsetLine Spacing between tags or current line position within tag, min = 0

TE uses several specific data structures:

TEOrientation flag, which determines whether the page is printed using the portrait tag placement rule or the horizontal tag placement rule.

Tag format structure. Template detailing the synthesis of generic tags with respect to fixed tag structures, variable data bits, and fixed data bits. It consists of a number of tag line structures that become the tag line structure for each 1600 dpi line in the tag. There are two tag format structures, one for portrait and one for landscape print.

Fixed tag data buffer. It contains redundant coded fixed data elements for all tags on a page (or part of a page if multiple PEC chips are used).

TagIsPrinted flag. Specifies whether a specific tag will be printed. Indicates whether the encoder ignores the tag format structure and outputs no tags.

Half-line tag data buffer. The half of a given tag line contains the unencoded data for the tag and the TagIsPrinted flag (the line is the width of the strip printed by the PEC chip). If only a part of the tag is printed by this PEC, the entire tag data must be present.

Variable tag data buffer. Contains redundantly coded variable data for a single tag.

The data structure is described in more detail below. Note that the size of the variable structure is based on tag encoding parameters as listed in Table 5. For a collection of different coding parameters, the size of the structure and the number of corresponding address bits must be changed accordingly.

TE supports both landscape and portrait printing. The print mode is completely independent of the length of the print head connected to the PEC. Assuming that the correct paper is loaded, the 12-inch printhead can print both letter and A4 pages both horizontally and vertically, and multiple PEC chips can be combined to produce pages of any size . As a result, the TE includes a flag for determining the direction of the tag.

TEOrientation is thus a 1-bit flag with values as shown in Table 8.

Table 8. TEOrientation Register Values

value Explanation 0 horizontal One Vertical

Each of the 10-bit entries is interpreted independently as described by Table 9 and does not depend on state information. This is especially important in that you can randomly access entries while rendering one side of a partial tag (distributed to two PECs).

Table 9. Interpretation of 10-Bit Entries in Tag Line Structure

Bit 9 Translate 0 This dot is part of the basic tag structure. Bit 8 contains the dot output value. The remaining 8 bits are reserved and should be set to zero. One This dot is derived from the data portion of the tag. The lower 9 bits are used to determine the actual data bits to use. If the upper two bits of the address are set, the remaining seven bits are used to address the coded fixed data of 120 bits of the page. If both upper two bits of the address are not set, all of the 9-bit addresses are used to address the 360-bit encoded variable data for the tag.

Since the Tag Format Structure (TFS) is line based, two such structures are stored in the external DRAM, one for portrait printing and one for landscape printing. The TEOrientation flag determines which of the two will be used. The two tag format structures are supplied by an external process and stored in an external DRAM, and thus may be arbitrarily different. In reality, however, they are rotated 90 degrees in the same tag. The total memory required by a single TFS is 3840 × tag height (3840 × TagHeight) bits. The maximum memory requirement is 180KB total for a 384-height tag. Therefore, a maximum sum of 360 KB is required for both directions.

As shown in Fig. 55, for a given dot line, all the tags on that line correspond to the same tag line structure. Thus, for a given line of output dots, a single tag line structure is needed, not the entire TFS. Double buffering allows the next tag line structure to be fetched from the TFS in DRAM while the current tag line structure is used to render the current tag line. Reading a line of tag structure data inevitably consumes the same DRAM bandwidth regardless of its direction. The entire TFS can be stored on a PEC chip, in which case the rotation can be performed on-the-fly. The memory request for TFS thus becomes a double buffered tag line structure on the chip (total 3840 bits x 2 = 7,680 bits, or 960 bytes), and on external DRAM for vertical TFS and horizontal TFS. It reaches 360KB. In terms of bandwidth, the recording of the vertical TFS and the horizontal TFS only needs to be done once, so it is not a problem. Assuming the worst case of adjacent tags, there is a need for each output line to read the tag line structure. Each tag line structure is 480 bytes. For a maximum print speed of 30,000 lines per second, TFS access amounts to 13.8 MB / sec.

The fixed tag data buffer is a 120 bit data buffer addressed with 7 bits. The buffer holds a "coded" fixed element of tag data for that page. The fixed tag data buffer is written once per page directly from the original fixed data input of 120 bits or after the lower 40 bits of original fixed data have been Reed-Solomon encoded.

The TagIsPrinted flag specifies whether a particular tag should be printed. This flag, which is only one bit, is double buffered with a total of two bits. Double buffering causes the TagIsPrinted flag for the next tag to be determined while the current tag is rendered. Therefore, TagIsPrinted becomes a 1-bit flag having a value as shown in Table 10.

Table 10. TagIsPrinted register values

value Explanation 0 Do not print tags. Ignore TFS as well as tag fixed and variable data values. Output 0 for each dot in the tag bounding box. One Print tags as specified by various tag structures.

The half-line tag data buffer contains up to half of the tags on the line of unencoded variable tag data. Since each line can contain up to 152 tags (compression over a 12 inch length as a tag size of 2 mm x 2 mm), each halfline tag buffer contains at most 76 tags. As shown in Fig. 55, each tag (495, 496, 497, etc.) has 128 bits, i.e., 120 bits of uncoded data 501, 1 bit of TagIsPrinted flag 498, 1 bit of LastTagOfHalfLine flag 499, and six examples. The cost bit (set to zero) 500 is assigned. The size of a single buffer is therefore 9728 bits (1216 bytes). Allocating 1 bit with the TagIsPrinted flag instead of having a magic value (e.g. 0) for unencoded data indicates that the unencoded data is 120 bits of fully unrestricted data. it means.

Instead of double buffering the entire line of tag data, we triple buffer the halfline of the tag data. This saves 1216 bytes (compared to double buffering of the entire tag line), but is constrained by the timing constraint that halfline tag data should be read at half of the dotline instead of having full line time to read the entire tag line. . It is important to note that it has three half-line buffers, not just two. If there are only two halfline buffers, the same tag data needs to be re-read when a given collection of tags is distributed across a plurality of dot lines. Triple buffering allows the same two half-line tag buffers to be used multiple times (once for each tag line) without having to be reread from DRAM. The third halfline tag buffer is used to load the first half of the data of the next tag line while the current set of tags is being processed, and the later of the data of the next tag line while the first half of the next tag line is processed. Used to load half. Note that the data of a given tag line is read only once during the entire print process. As a result, a one-bit FirstTimeProcessed flag is associated with each halfline buffer to specify whether the tag on this halfline was previously processed. When a given halfline is first processed, the next halfline buffer is loaded from the DRAM.

Tag data is placed with respect to the halfline in the DRAM. If there are N tags on a given line, then each halfline contains data for N / 2 tags. If N is odd, one of the halflines will contain one tag smaller than the other. The LastTagOfHalfLine flag will be set in tag N / 2 of one halfline and (N / 2-1) tag of another halfline. In any case, the offset from one tag halfline to the next is the same in both cases. Vertical and horizontal pages are equivalent in terms of the total number of tags. Assuming the worst case of adjacent 2mm × 2mm tags, there are 76 tags per halfline, and there are 107 tags in line length for an 8.5 inch page. Therefore, the total size of data in the DRAM is 1216 x 2 x 108 = 255 KB. Thus, for a printing speed of one page per second, the bandwidth to the DRAM is 255 KB / sec. For a maximum print speed of 30,000 lines per second, TFS access amounts to about 561 KB / sec.

The variable tag data buffer accommodates 360 bits of encoded variable data for a single tag. TE double buffers the variable tag data buffer for a total of 720 bits. Double buffering is used to generate a dot for the current tag while the raw 120-bit variable data for the next tag is over-encoded and (if necessary) stored in one variable tag data buffer. Be sure to If the variable tag data is not encoded by the PEC, it is the responsibility of the external page provider to ensure that only the first 120 bits of the 360 variable data bits are valid and that the 120 bits of variable tag data have the appropriate redundant encoding already applied. Care should be taken.

The variable tag data buffer shown in FIG. 58 is variable data of the current tag. As shown in Fig. 59, while the dot for the current tag is generated, the variable data for the next tag is encoded into the second variable tag data buffer.

Instead of storing the entire tag format structure or variable tag data for all tags, the data is loaded just-in-time from an external DRAM. There is an appropriate trade-off between buffer size and transmission bandwidth. Preprocessing occurs in both dot and line directions to ensure that data is available in a timely manner.

When a dot for one tag is generated in the dot direction, the variable data element for the next tag is over-coded into the second variable data buffer, and the TagIsPrinted flag of the next tag is determined. Both operations involve reading from the halfline tag data buffer and do not involve access to external DRAM.

When the halfline tag data buffer is first used, the next halfline of the uncoded tag data is drawn out from the D-RAM. When the half line of tag data is used again, nothing is read from the DRAM. Since there are three halfline tag buffers, two buffers are used multiple times for a single tag line while the next halfline of the tag is ready. It should be noted that the unencoded data of each tag can only be read once from the DRAM.

While the dot for one tag line is generated, the next line of the tag format structure is read from the external DRAM. This is only necessary if the current output line is actually part of a tag. In the case of the last line of the tag, the first line of the tag is reread. Nothing is read during the processing of inter-tag lines.

Table 11 summarizes the memory requests for TE in terms of on-chip and off-chip (external DRAM) requests.

[Table 11] TE memory request

designation On-Chip Gun Request Off-Chip Worst Case (External DRAM) TEOrientation 1 bit - Tag format structure 960 bytes (Total) 360 KB Fixed tag data buffer 120 bit - TagIsPrinted flag 2 bit Halfline Tag Data Buffer 3648 bytes 255 KB (per page) Variable tag data buffer 720 bit Sum 5018 bytes

At the highest level, in TE, the state machine steps through the output lines one line at a time, with the start position at the tag-to-tag spacing or tag (PEC prints only a portion of a tag due to multiple PECs printing a single line). Can be). If the current position is within the interval between tags, an output of zero is generated. If the current position is in the tag, then the tag format structure is used to determine the value of the output dot using the appropriate coded data bits from the fixed or variable data buffer as needed. The TE then advances along the dot line, moving through the tag-to-tag spacing according to the tag placement parameter. Once the entire line of output dots has been created, the TE advances to the next dot line by shifting the tag-to-tag spacing according to the tag placement rules for the line direction. Output dots must be generated every cycle to keep pace with other dots that generate processing in the PEC. In pseudocode, the procedure is as follows. Note that the logic for accessing the DRAM is not shown.

If (TEOrientation = Portrait)

maxTagComponentLine [0] = LineInterTagGap

maxTagComponentLine [1] = TagHeight

maxTagComponentDot [0] = DotInterTagGap

maxTagComponentDot [1] = TagWidth

startDotOffset [0] = StartPosition.LocalOffsetDot

startDotState [0] = StartPosition.TagStateDot

startDotOffset [1] = AltTagLinePosition.LocalOffsetDot

startDotState [1] = AltTagLinePosition.TagStateDot

CurrPos.TagStateLine = StartPosition.TagStateLine

CurrPos.LocalOffsetLine = StartPosition.LocalOffsetLine

Else

maxTagComponentLine [0] = DotInterGap

maxTagComponentLine [1] = TagWidth

maxTagComponentDot [0] = LineInterTagGap

maxTagComponentDot [1] = TagHeight

startDotOffset [0] = StartPosition.LocalOffsetLine

startDotState [0] = StartPosition.TagStateLine

startDotOffset [1] = AltTagLinePosition.LocalOffsetLine

startDotState [1] = AltTagLinePosition.TagStateLine

CurrPos.TagStateLine = StartPosition.TagStateDot

CurrPos.LocalOffsetLine = StartPosition.LocalOffsetDot

Endif

Stall until the RSEncoder's output TagReady flag is set

transfer TagIsPrinted flag from RSEncoder to DotGenerator

transfer variable tag data buffer from RSEncoder to DotGenerator

send AdvanceTag signal to RSEncoder to begin encoding the next tag

tagLineType = 0

LineCount = 0

While (LineCount <MaxLine)

Do

CurrPos.TagStateDot = startDotState [tagLineType]

CurrPos.LocalOffsetDot = startDotOffset [tagLineType]

DotCout = 0

While (DotCount <MaxDot)

Do

If (CurrPos.TagStateDot = inTag

Write (Decoder TaglineStructure [CurrPos.LocalOffsetDot]) to FIFO

Else

Write 0 to FIFO

Endif

increment CurrPos.LocalOffsetDot

If (CurrPos.LocalOffsetDot>

maxTagComponentDot [CurPos.TagStateDot])

CurrPos.LocalOffsetDot = 0

CurrPos.TagStateDot = ((~ currPos.TagStateDot) OR

(dotInterTagGap = 0)

If (CurrPos.TagStateDot == inTag)

transfer TagIsPrinted flag from RSEncoder to DotGenerator

transfer variable tag data buffer from RSEncoder to

Dotgenerator

send AdvanceTag signal to RSEncoder to begin encoding

the next tag

Endif

Endif

Endif

increment DotCount

Enddo

increment lineCount

increment CurrPos.LocalOffsetLine

If (CurrPos.LocalOffsetLine> maxTagComponentLine [CurrPos.Tag StateLine])

CurrPos.TagStateLine = ((~ currPos.TagStateLine) OR

(lineInterTagGap == 0))

CurrPos.LocalOffsetLine = 0

If ((CurrPos.TagStateLine == inTag)

tagLineType = ~ tagLineType

Endif

Endif

Enddo

The output of a single bart based on location within a tag depends on having the appropriate tag line structure, encoded fixed and variable tag data for the current tag, and access to the TagIsPrinted flag for the current tag. Assuming that they are properly loaded, and if it is the encoding parameter of Table 5, the generation of a single tag dot can be seen in the form of a block diagram in FIG.

59 shows a block diagram of the encoder. The TE includes a symbol-at-a-time GF 2 ⁴ Reed-Solomon encoder 590. The symbol size is 4 bits. Each codeword contains fifteen 4-bit symbols with a codeword length of 60 bits. Of the 15 symbols, 5 are the original data (20 bits) and 10 are the redundancy bits (40 bits). Since each tag contains 120 bits of variable original data, six codewords are needed for a full 360 bit encoded data size. Fixed tag data is also encoded using the same Reed-Solomon encoder. Fixed tag data is also encoded using the same Reed-Solomon encoder. Since fixed data is constant for all tags in a given page (or strip of pages when multiple PECs are used), it only needs to be set once before printing (or a collection of prints). Uncoded fixed data has a length of 40 bits. These 40 bits are encoded to produce 120 bits. To encode the fixed data, the CPU loads the fixed data into the first 40 bits of the unencoded tag data buffer and initiates a state machine to encode the two codewords. The resulting 120 bits of variable tag data are sent to a fixed tag data buffer, where they will stay for printing at least one page, mostly several pages. If the fixed data is not encoded by the PEC, all 120 bits of the fixed data are copied directly to the fixed tag data buffer. The state machine 591 is responsible for generating addressing and control signals for encoding tag data. Table 13 shows the registers used to program state machine 591.

The TagReady flag is cleared 592 by the state machine 591 at startup and continually whenever an AdvanceTag signal is received 593. The flag is set when the entire set of codewords is properly encoded in the Reed-Solomon method. The TagReady flag allows external users to properly stop the encoded data.

In order to generate a 5:10 symbol encoding, state machine 591 adds the 4-bit data 595 from the appropriate halfline tag buffer 594 to a symbol-width Reed-Solomon decoder 590. Gate). The clock-data signal is supplied for the first 5 clocks, the inverse of which is supplied for the next 10 clocks. This is repeated a number of times NumberOfCodewords. Therefore, 90 clocks are required to encode all tag data (6 codewords x 15 clocks). An additional two clocks are needed to jump over the remaining eight bits, totaling 92 cycles. The state machine 591 sets the TagReady flag (592), and until the Advance signal is given from the high level process of TE (the time given for this signal to be given depends on the width of the tag.) 92 At the tag size of, this results in a minimum delay. At the beginning of these last two clocks, a WriteEnable signal is generated (596) so that the TagIsPrinted flag 597 is set to the first of four bits read from the unencoded tag data buffer (bits 121 of tag data) 594. do. During the same clock, the second of the four bits passes through the state machine. The second bit, referred to as this LastTagInHalfLine, determines whether the just processed tag is actually the last tag to be processed in the halfline buffer.

The address generated by the state machine 591 for the halfline tag buffer 594 is 14 bits. The upper two bits select which of the three data buffers will be addressed. The next 9 bits determine which 32 bits are read from the buffer, and the bottom 3 bits determine which of the eight 4 bit sets should be selected. Of the 14 address bits, the lower 12-bit address starts at 0 and increments each cycle until progress 32 times. The counter then stalls until the AdvanceTag signal 593 comes from the high level encoding procedure. However, if the LastTagInHalfLine flag (read as bit 122 from the last processed tag) is set, then the lower 12-bit address Is cleared to zero, the tag half-line buffer 2-bit index is updated, and the loading procedure for the next halfline of tag data from the DRAM is tentatively initiated.

The state machine 591 maintains a 10-bit TagLineCounter for a number of halflines processed on this full tag line. TagLineCounter is cleared at startup and incremented each time the state machine completes encoding the tag with the LastTagInHlafLine flag set. If TagLineCounter is incremented, 10 bits are used to temporarily reset TagLineCounter itself, as well as determine new values for the halfline index. When in the first half of the line (lowest bit of TagLineCounter = 0), the next halfline buffer will always be the later halfline of the same tag line. This simply means updating the 2-bit index. When in the latter half of the line (lowest bit of TagLineCounter = 1), the next halfline depends on whether or not the processing of this tag line has been completed. If the processing of the tagline is complete (the highest 9 bits of TagLineCounter do not match TagHeight or TagWidth depending on the value of TEOrientaton), the next halfline is the same as the previous halfline. If the tagline is complete, the next halfline comes from the next line, so the halfline buffer of the next tagline is used. Since you are starting a new tag line, the counter is also cleared to zero. Table 12 shows the relationship between the new / old counter and the halfline buffer index.

Table 12. What to do when LastTagInHalfLine is set

Bottom bit of TagLineCounter Top bit with TagLineCounter = tag height Current index value The next index value Clear counter? 0 (marks the first half of the line) x (don't care state) 0 One no 0 x One 2 no 0 x 2 0 no 1 (shows the latter half of the line) 0 0 One no One 0 One 2 no One 0 2 0 no One One 0 One Yes One One One 2 Yes One One 2 0 Yes

Each time the index value changes, the old index is preserved and the FirstTimeProcessed flag on the halfline buffer associated with the new index is checked. If the FirstTimeProcessed tag is cleared, nothing more is done. However, if the FirstTimeProcessed tag is set, it is cleared and a procedure is started to read the next collection of data for the next halfline from DRAM by the old index. Then the FirstTimeProcessed flag is set for the halfline associated with the old index. As described in Table 13, the number of 32-bit words that must be read from the DRAM is specified by the HalfLineSize register. The current address for reading the tag halfline is then incremented by HalfLineSize to point to the next halfline to be read. This design allows a single halfline to be read in anticipation at the end of the page. Since the data is not sent to the page, it does not matter.

[Table 13] Register to manipulate variable data of tag

parameter Explanation Typical value DataSymbols The number of data symbols in the output codeword 5 RedundancySymbols The number of duplicate symbols in the output codeword 10 NumberOfCodeWords Number of codewords to encode 6 Halflinesize Number of 32-bit quantities in the halfline of variable tag data to be loaded from DRAM 304 EncodeSelect If this bit is set, data is encoded in Reed Solomon's way. If empty, the data is only copied. One

conclusion

The present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments and numerous specific variations. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that these specifically described embodiments and many other embodiments will also fall within the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the invention is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments described herein, including cross-referenced documents. It is intended that the scope of the invention only be limited by the appended claims.

Claims (15)

Input means for receiving a tag structure template; Input means for receiving fixed data bits; Input means for receiving a variable data bit record; And And a tag dot generator for outputting a single bit according to a position in a tag defined by said fixed and said variable data. The method of claim 1, And a redundancy encoder capable of encoding the fixed and / or the variable data according to a selection. The method of claim 2, The redundant encoder is a tag encoder of a printed page using Reed-Solomon encoding. The method of claim 1, And the tag is regularly arranged on the page. The method of claim 4, wherein Wherein the tag is placed within a triangular grid. Formatting fixed data about a page to be printed with a specific tag data value according to a defined tag structure format; And A method of installing a tag of a printed page, the method comprising regularly placing a tag on a page. The method of claim 6, A method of installing a tag of a printed page further comprising redundancy encoding of fixed and / or specific tag data. A continuous tone image decoder for decoding any compressed continuous tone image plane in the received compressed page data; A two-level decoder that decodes any compressed two-level image planes from the received compressed page data; A tag encoder for generating a tag image plane; And And a half toner / compositor comprising a dot merging unit controlled by a color mask to effect integration of the image plane and tag data plane. The method of claim 8, The tag is a print engine / controller placed within the tag image plane on a triangular grid. The method of claim 8, And the tag image plane is connected to an infrared ink channel to place a tag printed with infrared ink on a print page. The method of claim 8, The tag encoder is configured to over-encode tag data intended for the tag image plane. The method of claim 11, The redundant coding uses Reed-Solomon coding. The method of claim 8, The print engine / controller encodes both the fixed and variable portions of the tag data. A print engine / controller chip that interfaces with an inkjet printhead to produce a tagged print page, An interface for receiving compressed page data; A tag encoder for outputting a tag image plane; A contone image decoder for decoding any contone image plane in the received compressed page data; A two-level decoder for decoding any two-level image in the received compressed page data; A half-toner / compositor that combines any two-level image plane onto any continuous tone image plane or tag image plane; And A print engine / controller chip comprising a print head driver for outputting the composite to a print head. An inkjet printer that generates tagged pages. An interface for receiving compressed page data; A tag encoder for generating a tag image plane; A contone image decoder for decoding any contone image plane in the received compressed page data; A two-level decoder for decoding any two-level image plane in the received compressed page data; A half-toner / compositor that synthesizes any two-level image planes on any continuous tone image plane or tag image plane; A print head driver for outputting the composite to a print head; And An inkjet printer generating a tagged page driven by a print engine / controller comprising a print head.