MXPA01001479A - Document delivery system for automatically printing a document on a printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and apparatus for printing one or more documents operatively coupled to a printing device is presented, including the issuing of a request to retrieve one or more documents from an associated one or more providers in response to an indication received from a user. Receiving the requested one or more documents in a print manager operatively coupled to the printing device, and printing the retrieved one or more documents from the printing module, without invoking an application associated with the one or more documents, or otherwise displaying the one or more documents to the user is also included.

Description

DISTRIBUTION OF DOCUMENTS TO AUTOMATICALLY PRINT A DOCUMENT IN A PRINTING DEVICE TECHNICAL FIELD The invention relates generally to the field of printing, and more particularly to a document distribution system for automatically printing a document on a printing device.

Background In the mid-1400s, Johann Gutenberg revolutionized how information was disseminated through his invention of the mobile type press. With the publication of Mazarin's Bible, documents that were once held in the exclusive domain of a chosen few were now widely available to the masses. Almost 550 years later, the massive media revolution that Gutenberg initiated is alive and well, complete with newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post, magazines such as Newsweek and Sport Illustrated, and literally thousands and thousands of other publications. Although these thousands of publications cover a wide range of interests, from sports news to fashion, rocket models, they have one thing in common: they are intended to be read by the mass market. Unlike the days before Gutenberg, where a document would be literally read by only one person from a small number of people, it is not economically available for current publications to have so few readers, due at least in part to high commercialization, production and distribution costs. In fact, many of the current publications are based largely on the advertising contained within them. These advertisers are attracted to publications that can consistently supply a large, reliable audience of consumers who will be exposed to their advertisements or advertising. Although this publication model the mass market has worked well for hundreds of years, it is not free of problems. One such problem is that the typical reader of a publication has a wide range of interests, and no single mass market publication will be able to satisfy all of these interests. For example, a reader who is interested in international news, golf, bait fishing, genealogy, and computers may have to subscribe to several different publications to satisfy these interests. Of course, since these publications are intended for the mass market, they will also contain a significant amount of material that our reader is not interested in and will not read. It goes without saying that if there is a significant amount of material that a reader is not reading, there is a significant amount of ads that the reader is not reading either, as well as a significant amount of paper that is wasted. Advertisers know this, and agree to pay considerably less to a magazine or mass market newspaper for a thousand exposures to your ad than they would to a direct mail generator that can provide a more specific guarantee that people exposed to your Ad are from a demographic that will be more likely to read your ad and get interested in it. In addition, it is neither effective in cost nor effective in time for most readers to subscribe to and / or read a large number of publications. Generally, the typical reader will subscribe only to a few publications that are of most interest to them. The reduced reading level of publications that our typical reader chooses not to subscribe to, even though he is interested in at least some of the content of the publisher and advertisements contained within, means that the publication receives less subscription and advertising revenue than it does. otherwise it would be. If many other readers make the same decision, the continued health of the publication may be damaged, and the publication may be forced to go out of business. In fact, many publications go out of business every year because they fail to attract a substantial number of advertisers and readers, if there are a large number of readers who would be interested in reading your publication, and a corresponding number of advertisers anxious to make these readers expose themselves to their advertisements. In general, publications that fail to attract a substantial mass market of people who wish to pay for and / or read them cease publication. This is a shame, since many of these publications could enrich the diversity of information available to all readers, and provide an avenue for writers and artists little known to practice their articles. In more recent years, a new type of publication has emerged: electronic publishing. Readers of these publications typically sign on the Internet through their computer, and read the publications online. Some of these publications, such as CNN.com and pointcast.com, allow users to establish a personal preference about what type of material they would like to read. Frequently, these personalized publications include advertisements, usually in the form of a banner ad that is placed along the periphery of the visual screen (top, bottom, side, etc.). Although these electronic publications have been an interesting development in the distribution of information, they still represent only a small fraction of the information that is published under the more traditional postGutenberg model. Many readers of these electronic publications complain that they are very difficult to read (on the video screen), especially for long periods of time. Although it may be convenient for a reader to go online to see the CNN.com website for a brief summary of the latest news, this reader would rather spend a few minutes on the site, and would even prefer to subscribe to another medium of more traditional printing such as the Newsweek or the Washington Post. They would also probably spend more time significantly reading the more traditional print publication of what would happen by reading the electronic publication, and correspondingly, would spend more time exposed to the ads in the traditional print publication. Accordingly, printed publications continue to thrive today more than the five centuries after Gutenberg made them possible and more than a decade after the innovation of electronic publishing. Although these printed publications have certainly benefited modern society, no meaningful attempt has been made so far to solve the underlying problems with these publications described above. Such a solution is provided here.

Brief Description of the Invention In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a document distribution system for automatically printing a document on a printing device is presented. A method for printing one or more documents operably coupled to a printing device that includes issuing a request to retrieve one or more documents from one or more associated suppliers in response to an indication received from a user. The content of one or more requested documents is received in a print module. One or more retrieved documents are printed from a print module, without invoking an application associated with one or more documents, or otherwise presenting one or more documents to the user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 shows a block diagram of a document distribution system of one embodiment of the invention; Figures 2-4 illustrate flow charts detailing the operation of the transmission module and the printing module of the document distribution system of one embodiment of the invention; Figure 5 illustrates how the user's profile information is acquired from a user in an embodiment of the invention; Figure 6 shows how the user's profile information is acquired from a user in an embodiment of the invention; Figure 7 shows a printing program for distributing the documents in an embodiment of the invention; Figure 8 shows how the printing program of Figure 7 can be modified by the user; Figures 9A-9B show a document printed by the printing device according to an embodiment of the invention; Figure 10 shows a document printed by the printing device according to an embodiment of the invention; Figures 11A-11D show a document printed by the printing device according to an embodiment of the invention; Figure 12 shows a document printed by the printing device according to an embodiment of the invention; Figure 13 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary print manager, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 14 illustrates a flow diagram of an exemplary print manager operation method, according to one embodiment of the invention; and Figure 15 graphically illustrates a page of the exemplary network that includes an icon, which, when selected by a user, causes an associated document to be printed by the printing device, without presenting the document.

Detailed Description Figure 1 illustrates a block diagram of a document distribution system of one embodiment of the -10 invention. The document distribution system 10 contains a document server 100. In the preferred embodiment, the document server 100 is operably coupled via the network 200 to a variety of personal computers, printing devices, and other electronic devices. collectively referred to as devices 300. The document server 100 contains an editing module 120, a transmission module 150 and a module ^ knowledge 170. The editing module 120 receives entries from one or more content providers 50, and / or one or more advertisement providers 80. The distribution module 400 is operably coupled to the document server 100. In a preferred embodiment, the document server 100 is a minicomputer / server, such as an HP9000 server, sold by the Hewlett Company. -Packard, although Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the document server 100 could be any type of other computing or electronic device, performing the functions described herein, and still falling within the spirit and scope of the invention. Network 200 is preferably the Internet, although an Intranet, local area network, or other type of public or private network, either wired (for example, telephone, TV cable, etc.) or wireless (for example, satellite, radio, cell phone, etc.), could be used also or additionally. The devices 30 are shown in Figure 1, which are capable of being configured in a wide variety of ways. For example, the personal computer 310 is shown connected to a printing device 320, which prints documents 10320 to the user 20320. The personal computer 310 is operably coupled to the network 200. In contrast, the printing device 330, which prints document 10330 for user 20330, is operably coupled to network 200 without a personal computer or other electronic device intervening. The printing device 350, which prints the document 1035C for the user 20350, is shown connected to an electronic device 340, which could be a top box of an apparatus, a television set, or a palmtop personal digital assistant (PDA) ), or another type of electronic device that is operably coupled to the network 200. Finally, the printing device 370, which prints the documents 10370 for the user 20370, is connected to the electronic device 360, which is connected to the operable network 200. The printing devices shown in Figure 1 could be printers, such as the HP DeskJet 890 printer, LaserJet V printer, or other models of printers manufactured by HP or others; also called "mopiers", or other multifunctional printing devices that can print, send faxes, scan and / or copy, and any other device capable of transferring information to a printable medium such as plain paper, specialty paper, transparencies, or other medium capable of receiving tangibly such information and which can be easily transported by the user. According to one aspect of the present invention, the document distribution system 100 includes an innovative printing module 380, and a transmission module 150. The transmission module is preferably located with the document server 100. As shown in Figure 1, the printing module 380 could be located in any of the devices 300, such as a personal computer 310, a printing device 330, or an electronic device 340, operably coupled via network 200 to a server 100 documents, or it could be located within the document server 100 itself, such as the knowledge module 170. According to one embodiment of the invention, the transmission module 150 and the printing module 380 represent functions of programs that are executed in a microprocessor suitably programmed within a device 300 and / or document server 100. It will be appreciated, however, that used to special purpose hardware, and other mechanisms to implement the features and innovative features described below. Turning briefly to Figure 13, a block diagram of an exemplary block diagram 380 is presented, according to one embodiment of the invention. According to one embodiment, which will be described more fully below, the printing module 380 resides within one or more devices 300 and, in response to user interaction with a user interface (not shown), programs and manages the distribution of one or more documents to the printing device. Any number of user interfaces can be used to utilize the features and functions of the printing module 380. According to a preferred embodiment, it has to be more fully described later, a page of the network is projected to a device 300 by the document server 100, the content provider 50 and / or the advertisers 80, wherein the network page includes one or more icon functions for one or more of the features / functions provided by the printing module 380. As shown in Figure 13, the printing module 380 includes one or more controllers 402, a printing function 404, a programmer function 406, a document translation / interpretation function 408, a memory / storage system 410, an input / output interface ( 1/0) 412, and optionally one or more applications 413, each coupled as shown. It will be appreciated that although they are denoted as separate functional blocks, one or more elements 402-413 can be combined well without deviating from the spirit and scope of the present invention. In addition, although described in accordance with a physical equipment paradigm, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the printing module 380 and its associated elements 402-413 can be incorporated as a series of executable instructions which, when executed by a processor device central 300, imp1ement the characteristics and functions of the printing module 380 to be discussed later. In this regard, Figure 13 is merely illustrative of the scope and spirit of the invention claimed.

As shown, the controller 402 selectively invokes one or more functions 404-408 and / or applications 413 in response to user interaction with the user interface, for example a page of the network. According to one embodiment, the user interface includes icon selectors, for example buttons, which when selected by the user cause the controller 402 to selectively invoke a case of a function associated with the selector. In this regard, the controller 402 communicates with the external elements via the input / output (I / O) interface 412. In an alternate mode, the controller 402 provides a user with a user interface of the 413 applications. used here, the I / O interface 412 is intended to include one or more of any number of communication interfaces known in the art, including but not limited to a direct connection communication interface (e.g., a serial interface, a parallel interface, a Universal Serial Bus Driver (USB), an Advanced Graphic Port (AGP), etc.), a local area network interface (eg an Internet interface, a Test Ring Interface, etc.). ), or a Wide Area Network Interface. In this regard, the printing module 380 can communicate with any number of external and remote devices using an appropriate one of a plurality of wired and / or wireless 1/0 413 interfaces. The automated printing function 404 is selectively invoked by the controller 402 in response to a user indication to immediately print a document (within the following several seconds) without first viewing or representing the document. According to a user mode, the user interface projected by the printing module 380 or from an external source (e.g., document server 100), includes an icon selector associated with one or more documents to invoke the function 404 automated printing, to print one or more documents. To the extent that the selection of the icon selector associated with one or more documents automatically causes documents to be formed online for printing (for example, within several subsequent seconds) the icon selector is referred to here as an icon of "automatic printing", or an "instant print" icon. When the automatic printing icon associated with one or more documents is selected by a user, the user interface provides the controller 402 with information regarding one or more associated documents. According to one implementation, the user interface provides the controller 402 with a name / identifier, and a storage location of one or more documents. The controller 402 provides the name / identifier and the location information to the automatic function print 404- to the line of the document for printing. As will be described in more detail below, the automatic function print generates and issues a request to retrieve the identified document from the identified storage location via the 1/0 402 interface. The recovered documents are stored in memory locations 414A, 414B, etc., of the memory 410. Once retrieved, the translation / interpretation function of the document 408 is selectively invoked to interpret / translate and print the recovered document.According to an implementation, the retrieved documents are formed online and they print substantially instantaneously (eg, within the subsequent several seconds.) In alternate embodiments, the retrieved documents are printed according to a user defined print program In accordance with one aspect of the invention, to be described more completely later, the document associated with the icon selector is retrieved from a in the memory 410 of the printing module 380, and it is printed immediately without invoking an application associated with the document. This is the translation / interpretation function 408 reads the stored document, interprets the textual, image, format, etc. content. , of the document for printing the document on a printer operably coupled without having to invoke the printing associated with the recovered document, and without having to present the document to the user before the printing. In an alternative embodiment, an application 413 (for example Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat, etc.) associated with the document is invoked by the controller 402 to print the document, but the document or the application 413 is represented to the user, so that from the user's perspective, the application does not start. In any case, the automatic printing function 404 allows the user to immediately print a remote document without having to download, start and print the document manually, therefore providing the user with the convenience and selection of electronic publications, with the experience of the physical reading introduced by the Gutenberg press. The programming function 406 allows a user to establish a printing program 390 for the documents of interest. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the programming function 406 is selectively invoked by the controller 402 in response to a user indication to add the document to the print program 390. As shown in Figure 1, the program 36 can be located on the 300 devices, the document server 100 or any other accessible location. Turning to FIGS. 2-4, flow charts are presented detailing the operation of the transmission module 150 and a first mode of operation of the printing module 380, according to one embodiment of the invention. In Figures 2-4, the flow chart shown in the left column is executed by the print module 150 of the document server 100, and the flow chart in the right column is executed by the module of the printing 380. Referring now to Figure 2, the flow chart for the transmission module 150 starts at block 100, and the flow chart for the print module 380 starts block 2000. Since there is a great interaction between these two Flow diagrams, as represented by the broken lines connecting the two columns, the operation of the two flow diagrams will be described simultaneously. In block 2100, the user profile data is sent to the document server 100 to be stored in the user's profile. These user profile data can take many different forms, from simple to very detailed.

Figure 5 shows a very simple acquisition of user profile data, such as that used in an HP instant distribution program, the first version of which was generally available to the public about one year after the date of presentation of this patent application. In this program, only three pieces of information are stored in the user's profile: type of printer, email address, and if HP can contact the user. Figure 6 shows a more complicated user profile than the one currently used in HP's instant distribution program, which includes the user's name, email address, company name, city, state, country, area or zip code, phone number, printer information, and areas of interest. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that more or less user profile data than those shown in Figures 5 and 6 could be sent to transmission module 150 in block 2100, and still fall within the spirit and scope of the invention, and that at least some of this information could come from a source other than the user. For example, user profile data may also include the user's income, age, and gender, among other things. In any case, block 1100 receives the user profile data sent by the 1. block 2100. Block 1200 stores the user's profile data, preferably in knowledge mode 170. Alternatively, user profile data may be stored in device 300 or in some other local or remote location. Block 2200 checks to see if a document should be received from document server 100. This is done by checking print program 390, which is preferably stored in a device 300 or a document server 100, but can be stored in some other remote or local location. The printing program 930 preferably contains information that can be used to determine when documents should be printed by the printing device, such as the creation of a document, time requested by the user, lapse of a specified period of time, and / or occurrence of one or more external events (for example, the price of an action or index that reaches a specified value, a final score in a sporting event, etc.). The printing program 390 associates with an individual user, a device or a group of users and / or devices. Furthermore, given entry of the print module 390 could result in the printing of one or more documents.

Figure 7 shows an example of a printing program 390, of the type that can be used in an improved version of the common HP Instant Distribution program. In this example, the distribution title, distribution schedule, date and time of the next distribution, and the status of the last distribution are displayed. Preferably, the user can select the time when a document should be printed, whether it should be printed on a specific day of the week or month, days of the week or weekends, and if the printing program should expire after a specific period of time or continue indefinitely. Referring again to Figure 2, the printing module 380 checks the printing program 390 to see if a document should be requested from a document server 100 or from another source. When block 2200 determines that a document should be requested from a document server 100 or from another source, block 2200 is answered affirmatively, and block 2300 automatically requests the document without the intervention of the user of server 100 or from another source, such as it will be described in more detail later. Note that if the printing module 380 is located in the device 300, the block 2200 operates in an "extraction" mode, wherein the document is "extracted" from the document server 100 or from another source to the device 300. However, if the printing module 380 is located remotely from the device 300, such as in k the document server 100, block 2200 operates in a "push" mode, where the document is "inserted" from the document server 100 or another source to the device 300. If block 2300 determines that the document is located in the document server 100 or in another source accessible via the network 200, and if the device 300 is currently in a disconnected state where it is not operably coupled to the network 200, the block 2300 will be introduced or otherwise enter the state connected to the network 200, so that the device 300 is operably coupled with the network 200. Meanwhile, block 1300 checks to see if a document has been requested from the print module 380 in block 2300. Once it determines that such a document has been requested, block 1400 generates the document for the module > 380. The block 1500 then sends the document to print module 380. Block 2400 checks to see if a document has been received from document server 100 via block 1500. Once the document has been received, block 2500 automatically prints the document, without intervention of the user, on a device of printing. The term "without user intervention" means that a user is not directly involved in the printing operation; the document is automatically sent to the device 300 to be printed by the printing device. According to this mode of operation, the user does not press "no" printing button or is otherwise directly involved in the printing process; in fact, the user may not be present in the same room, city, state or country as the device 300 during the printing operation. The printing operation automatically closes in an unattended state regardless of whether the user is present or not. Further, if the printing program 390 is stored in a manner independent of the device, such as in a document server 100, a traveling user could "register" with the document server 100 and have his personalized document sent to the device 300 which is convenient to the user's current location. Referring now to Figure 3, block 2600 checks to see if the document has been printed successfully. If not, the 2800 block performs an error handling, such as trying to print the document again, notifying the user that the printing device has no paper or that it has another error condition, or simply deciding not to print the document. When the document is printed successfully, block 2900 informs the document server 100 that the document was printed successfully. The block 1600 waits for an indication of the printing module 380 that the document was printed successfully. When such an indication is received, block 1700 updates the user's profile with this information. It will be appreciated that not all of the blocks in Figures 2-4 need to be implemented, or implemented in accordance with a denoted order, to fall within the spirit and scope of the present invention. In a more specific manner, according to one implementation, the control flow moves from block 2600 to block 4100 of Figure 4, as will be discussed later, and from block 1500 back to block 1300 of Figure 2. An alternative mode it has been contemplated where the information is transmitted again to the document server 100 in block 2900 to update the user profile of preference stored in the knowledge module 1700. This other information could be use of the ink (total use or variable use of colored ink), use of printable medium (number of printed pages, type of media used, etc.), or other types of information. In addition, another alternative modality has been contemplated where some or all of the information contained in the user profile stored in the knowledge module 170 comes from a different source than the user via the printing module 380. For example, public information or private available on the user, and / or the devices 300 that he / she / they use, could be acquired from a wide variety of different sources and inserted into the user profile of preference stored in knowledge module 170. Block 1800 examines the profile of the stored user preferably in the knowledge module 170, to determine if a subsidy of the product should be provided to the user. For example, if the information in the user's profile indicates that this user has printed his thousandth document, such as a "preferred" document, which contains advertisements of advertisement providers 80, or is otherwise under the control of the editing module 120, providing a product subsidy to the user can be guaranteed. For purposes of this invention, a "product subsidy" could be a consumer print item or other product. A "consumable printing article" is an inkjet cartridge for an ink printing printer, ink for such an inkjet cartridge, an organic pigment cartridge for a laser printer, and organic pigment for such a pigment cartridge organic, or any other product or substance that runs out when a document is printed, including printer tapes, etc. Note that the "ink" referred to above would typically be of a permanent variety, but erasable ink, such as that sold by Eink Company, could also be used. Note that the subsidy of the product referred to herein is based at least partly on the advertising earnings received from the advertisement suppliers 80 (Figure 1), but a modality has been contemplated in which the subsidy of the product is based on less in part of the distribution gains received from content providers 50 (Figure 1). In any case, the information (such as statistical information) about what was printed by whom, is preferably provided by the content providers 50 and / or the advertisement suppliers 80, preferably as a document that is automatically sent to one or more printing devices, the printing module 380 is running to version 4.0, and the document server 100 indicates that the version 4.1 is the current version of the printing module 380, the block 4200 would determine that an updated version of the module printing 380 is available, and flow control would move to block 4300. Block 4300 checks to see if this updated version of print module 380 should be requested to be downloaded. Although a user would typically be asked whether the download should be requested or not, and typically would perform this download at a convenient time, such a step could also be performed automatically if the user's intervention. If such a download is requested, block 4400 is answered affirmatively, and block 3500 downloads the updated print module, which is then installed in block 4500. Regardless of how blocks 4200 and 4300 are answered, the flow of control of moves block 4600, which checks to see if a disconnected state should be entered. If block 2300 (Figure 2) determines that device 300 was in a disconnected state when the document was requested, as discussed above (ie, not operably coupled to network 200), block 4600 is answered affirmatively, and block 4700 re-enters the disconnected state. In any case, flow control returns to block 2200 of Figure 2. Referring again to the print module 390 shown in Figure 7, it can be seen that many different types of documents can be requested to be printed. For example, the document title 11000 specifies a network address, such as a uniform Internet source locator (URL) that contains the network location of a document to be printed. Note that this URL may be totally or partially hidden from the user, as is the case with the URL for document 15000 (http://www.beolitdailynews.com). In this scenario, the editing module 120 of the document server 100 simply leaves the Internet at the indicated URL (which ^ would be shown in Figure 1 as one of the 5 content 50 providers), and captures the indicated document, which is then transmitted to a printing device via the transmission module 150 and the printing module 380, as discussed. Alternatively, the device 300 could go directly outside the URL itself if the existence of the > document server 100. In this case, block 2300 (Figure 2) requests document 11000 from another source directly from content provider 50 (at the URL indicator) via network 200. 15 In contrast, document 12000 is not a document originating with a content provider 50 via the Internet, but in its linking is stored directly in the device 300, such as a printing device, personal computer, or other electronic device. A The example of such a document could be a daily calendar of a program such as Microsoft Outlook, which the user has requested to be automatically printed to his printer, without any user intervention, at 7:00 a.m. every morning of the day of the week. In such modality, the module of Printing 380 does not need to request the document from the document server 100, since it can access the documents without going through the network 200. In this mode, block 2300 of Figure 2 requests the document from another source device. 300. While the block 2900 would still indicate preferably that the document was printed, while the block 1700 would preferably even update the user profile in the recognition module 170, the printing of such a preference document would not generate any type of credit towards a product subsidy, since such a document would not be considered a "preferred" document, for example, it is not a document under the control of the editing module 120. Returning to Figures 14 and 15, an example of operation and implementation of an additional feature of the printing module 380, according to one embodiment of the present invention. More specifically, with reference to Figure 14, a flow chart describing an automatic printing process implemented by the function of the automatic printer 404 is presented, according to an embodiment of the present invention. For ease of explanation and illustration, the method will be developed with additional reference to an exemplary user interface (eg, a network page) described in Figure 15. Returning first to Figure 15, an exemplary user interface is presented that incorporates an aspect of the present invention. In accordance with an illustrated exemplary embodiment, the user interface is a network page for the HP 15000 Instant Distribution Service. As described, the 15000 network page includes a "What's Hot" section with a publication or lead document, 15002 In addition to a hypertext link to document 15002, the selection of which would result in browser redirection to represent the document, network page 15000 includes an automatic print icon 15004, which when the selection invokes an automatic print function 404 without network rigir the browser, visually presenting the document, etc. According to one implementation, the automatic printing icon 15004 (for example, a button) is generated by a user interface provider with one or more executable instructions that include a name / identifier and location of the linked document included within the instructions. According to the illustrated example of the Internet mode, the automatic printing icon is generated from one or more hypertext markup language (HTML) instructions, such as those provided in Table 1, below.

Href = / Publication / Publication.asp? HPubID = 221 > Dilbert; (1) img src = / Data / DirO / 221 / thumbnailjpg; (2) href = http: // services. instant-delivery com / publication / useraction. asp? HpAction = print & HpPubID = 221 & HpidDetec = l: (3) img serc = / shared / images / print-now. gif (4) Table 1: Example of the Code Implementing a Single Touch Print Icon Selector. As it is introduced previously, the instructions that implement the icon selector 15004 include information detailing a name / identifier (HpublID 221), and a location (/ Publication), associated with the documents. The name / identifier and location information is provided to the automatic printing information 404 from the user interface 1500 via the controller 402, when the icon selector 15004 is selected by a user. In addition to the automatic printing icon 15004, other innovative icon selectors can be represented, which when selected, add the document to one or more printing programs 390 (icon 15008), or cause the document to be represented (icon 15006). In an alternative embodiment, the printing module 380 provides the operation system of the device 300 with an "automatic printing function", which is incorporated in one or more extraction function menus provided by the operation system. According to this alternative mode, the user simply highlights a document to be printed, and selects the automatic printing function from an appropriate extraction menu, to automatically print the selected document without representing the document to the user, or otherwise invoke a application associated with the document. Figure 14 illustrates a flow chart detailing the operation of the automatic printing function 404 of the printing module 380. As shown, the method starts with the block 14002 when a user is observing a document from a user interface (for example, example, 15000 network page), with links to one or more other documents. In response to receiving an indication to print the identified document, the controller 402 of the print module 380 selectively invokes a case of the automatic print function 404, block 14004. As mentioned above, the automatic print function 404 uses the name / identify and locate the document to generate a download request, block 14006. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the automatic print function 404 formats the request, based at least in part, on the location of the document. That is, the automatic printing function 404 formats the request according to the communication medium used to retrieve the document.

In block 14008, the automatic printing function 404 issues the request to the identified document provider, establishing communication with the supplier as necessary. According to an aspect of the invention, mentioned above, if the print request is for a document in a remote supplier and the device 300 is not ready in communication with the supplier, the automatic printing function 404 establishes the necessary communication link via the I / O interface 412 and the network 200. In response to the download request, the document is downloaded to one or more memory locations 414A, 414B, etc., in the memory 410 of the printing module 380, according to a case of the translation / interpretation function of document 408 is invoked, block 14010. As described above, the translation / interpretation function of document 408 opens the document retrieved locally within print module 380, out of the user's reach, allowing that the document is printed. In block 14012, the document is printed if it first presents the document to the user, or requires any additional user information. It should be appreciated, that the one-touch printing aspect of the present invention allows the user, regardless of the level of knowledge, to print a document from any local or remote location. In this regard, the automatic printing function 404 of the print managers 380 provides users with easy and innovative means to receive printed publications. Referring again to Figure 7, a print program of document 13000 is shown. Document 13000 is referred to as a "personalized document". A "personalized document" is a document that is mounted by the edition module 120 of the document server 100 of a variety of content providers 50 and advertisement providers 80, based on the information contained in the profile of the stored user in the knowledge module 170. For example, the document 13000 is a "personalized document". Our user has requested that the document 13000 - his personalized newspaper - be printed at 6:00 a.m. every day. The editing module 120 examines the interests of the user as specified in the user profile stored in the knowledge module 170, to mount the document of the selected content providers 50 in which the user has indicated an interest. The editing module 120 also inserts ads from selected advertisement providers 80, again based on the user profile stored in the knowledge module 170.

Figure 8 shows how the printing module 390 of Figure 7 can be edited by the user. The user can use the recommended program of the advertiser, use a default program that the user has established, or use a usual program for distribution. If a regular program is selected, the user can select a daily, weekly or monthly distribution, or select a distribution once every specified number of days, or specify each day. In addition, the time of day can also be specified: once at a designated time, multiple times during the day, or multiple times separated by a specified period of time. Although not shown here, the user could also edit the printing program 390 to request that a document be sent with its creation, or with the occurrence of an external event. Figures 9A-9B show the document 11000 printed by the printing device according to one embodiment of the invention. Note that this document comes from a content provider 50 via the 200 network (either through the 100 document server or directly), and does not contain advertisements. Although the document 11000 is preferably formatted by the content provider 50, so that the information contained in the document is optimized for printing, such an action of formatting is not necessary. Figure 10 shows document 12000 printed by ^ the printing device according to a mode of the invention. Note that this document is a daily user calendar which comes directly from the device 300 and not from the document server 100 via the network 200. Figures 11A-D show the document 1300 printed by the printing device in accordance with a embodiment of the invention. Note that this document is a > user's personalized newspaper, which contains information in which the user has indicated a specific interest, as stored in the user's profile in the 170 knowledge module. Note also that this The document contains announcements that the editing module 120 determines that the user would also be interested in them, again based on the information contained in the user profile stored in the knowledge module 170. As already discussed, when the user prints a number As long as such "preferred" documents are available, the user can receive a product subsidy from a consumable printing article or other product. Figure 12 shows the document 14000 printed by the printing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Note that document 14000 is the HP Instant Supply Time - a document located on document server 100. Although this document does not contain advertisements per se, it will be considered a "preferred document", since it is under the control of the module. 120 edition. The 1400 document informs users of the instant distribution of new productions or new information about the Instant Distribution program. •

Claims (42)

1. A method for printing one or more documents, operably coupled to a printing device, the method is characterized in that it comprises: receiving an indication from a user to retrieve or print one or more documents without first presenting them visually in one or more documents; issue a request to retrieve one or more documents from one or more associated suppliers; receive the content of one or more documents from one or more associated suppliers in a printing module; and printing one or more documents retrieved from the print module, without invoking an application associated with one or more documents, or otherwise representing one or more documents to the user.

The method according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises: representing a page of the network on a video screen for the user, the page of the network includes an icon, which when selected by the user, provides an indication to retrieve or print one or more documents without redirecting the browser or otherwise representing one or more other documents.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that the issuance of the request comprises: identifying a name and location of one or more documents of the instructions associated with the representation of the icon; send a request to one or more providers at the identified location to download one or more named documents.

The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the reception of the content of one or more documents comprises: populating one or more memory locations within the printing module with the content of the document.

The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the printing of the retrieved document comprises: reading the contents of the document of the memory of the printing module; interpret the content of the document; and send print orders that include the content of the interpreted document to a printer, to become one or more pages.

The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the printing of the retrieved document comprises: launching a case of an application associated with the document locally, within the printing module, without presenting the application or document retrieved to the user; read the contents of the document from the memory of the print module in the application associated with the document; and sending a print order from the launched application to a communicatively coupled printing device to represent the content of the application document.

The method according to claim 1, characterized in that it also comprises the step of: storing a profile of the user.

The method according to claim 7, characterized in that it also comprises the step of: updating the user's profile with information with respect to recently printed documents.

9. The method of compliance with the claim 8, characterized in that it further comprises: subsidizing the step of printing a user, based at least in part, on some measured calculated attribute of the user's profile.

10. The method of compliance with the claim 9, characterized in that the measured attribute includes one or more of a number of printed pages, a number of documents to be printed, a number of major printed documents, a number of printed advertisements, etc.

11. The method according to the claim I, characterized in that it further comprises: identifying one or more advertisements for presentation to the user; and print one or more ads with one or more recovered documents.

The method according to claim 11, characterized in that the identification of one or more advertisements comprises: selecting a subset of advertisements from a plurality of advertisements based in part, in a genre of the requested document.

13. The method according to the claim II, characterized in that the identification of one or more advertisements comprises: selecting a subset of advertisements from a plurality of advertisements based at least in part on a user profile of requested documents.

The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the issuance of a request to recover one or more documents comprises: determining whether the printing device is communicatively coupled with the provider of the requested document; and establish a communication link between the printing device and the suppliers, if the printing device is not communicatively coupled to the suppliers.

The method according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises: requesting the user where he wishes to add the documents requested in an automatic printing newspaper system; and periodically print the requested documents identified in the periodic printing program.

16. A storage means characterized in that it comprises a plurality of executable instructions which, when executed by a central processor, implements a method according to claim 1.

17. A computer system characterized in that it comprises a subsystem of memory that has stored therein a plurality of executable instructions; and a processor, coupled to the memory subsystem, coupled to execute at least a subset of instructions for implementing the method of claim 1.

18. An apparatus, characterized in that it comprises, an automatic printing function, for generating and issuing a request to an operably coupled provider for downloading one or more requested documents to the local memory, for interpreting the documents stored within the local memory, and to print the documents on a local memory attached print device; and a controller, coupled to the automatic printing function and sensitive to the indication of the user received from a user interface, to selectively invoke a case of the automatic printing function and print the requested document, without requiring any additional input from the user and without first representing the document requested to the user.

19. An apparatus in accordance with the claim 18, characterized in that the apparatus resides within a user's computer system, and the user interface is a page of the network provided by a provider, the network page includes an icon selector, which, when selected by a user, provides the controller with indication of the user to invoke the automatic printing function.

20. The apparatus in accordance with the claim 19, characterized in that the indication provided by the user interface includes the name / i'dentifier information and location of one or more identified documents associated with the icon selector.

21. The apparatus in accordance with the claim 20, characterized in that the controller provides the automatic printing function with the name / identifier and location information to generate and issue the request to upload and download the identified documents.

22. The apparatus according to claim 21, characterized in that the automatic printing function formats the download request based, at least in part, on the identified location of the documents requested.

23. The apparatus according to claim 18, characterized in that the local memory further comprises a profile of the user, wherein the controller updates the profile of the user with at least information with respect to the requested documents.

24. The apparatus according to claim 23, characterized in that the requested documents are downloaded into the local memory.

25. The apparatus according to claim 23, characterized in that the controller requests one or more announcements from one or more suppliers associated with the documents requested to be printed with the requested documents.

26. The apparatus according to claim 25, characterized in that the controller requests the advertisements based, at least in part, on the information contained within the profile of the user.

27. The apparatus in accordance with the claim 25, characterized in that the controller requests the advertisements based at least in part, in an identified genre of the documents requested.

28. The apparatus according to claim 23, characterized in that the controller provides the requesting user with a subsidy of the product based, at least in part, on a measured attribute of the user's profile.

29. The apparatus according to claim 28, characterized in that the measured attribute includes one or more of a number of printed pages, a number of printed documents, a number of printed main documents, and the like.

30. The apparatus according to claim 28, characterized in that the controller generates commands instructing the coupled printing device to print a product coupon.

31. The apparatus according to claim 28, characterized in that the aontrolator issues a request to a product depot, which causes a subsidy of the product to be sent to the user.

32. The apparatus according to claim 18, characterized in that the automatic printing function prompts the user with an offer to add the requested documents to an automatic printing distribution program.

33. A storage means characterized in that it comprises a plurality of executable instructions, which, when executed, implement an automatic printing function, responsive to a user indication to print a document, automatically generates and dispatches a request to a supplier of the document. document requested to download the document, so that the automatic printing function prints the downloaded document on an accessible printing device without first representing the document to the user or requiring any additional user interaction.

34. The storage medium according to claim 33, characterized in that the automatic printing function formats the download request based at least in part on the name / identifier and location of the requested document.

35. The storage medium according to claim 34, characterized in that the automatic printing function receives information of the name / identifier and location of an icon selector in a user interface.

36. The storage medium according to claim 33, characterized in that the automatic printing function includes an interpreting agent, which reads and interprets the downloaded document without having to invoke an application associated with the downloaded document.

37. A graphic user interface (GUI), presented in a presentation device operably coupled to a printing device, the GUI is characterized in that it comprises: textual content; and an icon selector, associated with a document in an operating system of a central device, which when selected by a user provides a printing function with a name / identifier and location of the associated document, making the associated document print without first presenting the document to the user.

38. The GUI according to claim 37, characterized in that the GUI is a page of the network.

39. The GUI according to claim 37, characterized in that the icon selector is a one-touch print icon selector.

40. The GUI according to claim 37, characterized in that it further comprises: tertiary icon selectors, which when invoked, indicate to the GUI to represent an associated document.

41. The GUI according to claim 37, characterized in that it further comprises: tertiary icon selectors, associated with the document, for adding the document to an automatic printing distribution program.

42. An icon selector, associated with a document in an operating system of a computing platform, the icon selector is characterized in that it comprises: a graphic portion, represented to the user-rendering device; and a control portion, which includes the information of the name / identifier and location of the associated document, where when selected by a user, the control portion issues an order with information of the name / identifier and location, invoking a function of remote printing to print an associated document without representing the document associated with the user.