Method and apparatus for automatically processing job interruptions caused by a portable memory device in a print system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10223050-B2
Application number	US-201715653801-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 19, 2017
Priority date	Jul 19, 2017
Publication date	Mar 5, 2019
Grant date	Mar 5, 2019

Abstract

A print device has a port, a print engine, a processing device and a memory. The print device is configured to detect that a portable memory device has become communicatively connected to the port, retrieve a digital document file to be printed and a print instruction from the portable memory device, determine that a first print job is being performed in the print device, suspend the first print job, determine a second print job derived from the digital document file, and automatically perform the second print job based on the print instruction. The print device further detects that the second print job has been completed or interrupted, and automatically resumes the first print job. If the second print job is directed to the same output tray as the first print job, the print device may also print a separator sheet to the output tray before performing the second print job.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A document printing system, comprising:
a print device comprising:
a port configured to communicate with a portable memory device,
a print engine,
a processing device communicatively coupled to the port and the print engine, and
a non-transitory, computer-readable medium containing programming instructions that are configured to cause the processing device to:
cause the print device to perform a first print job,
detect a trigger event by determining that a portable memory device has become communicatively connected to the port,
upon detecting the trigger event, retrieve a digital document file to be printed and a print instruction from the portable memory device,
determine that the first print job is being performed in the print device,
suspend performance of the first print job,
determine a second print job that is derived from the digital document file,
in response to determining the second print job, automatically cause the print engine to perform the second print job based on the print instruction, wherein the programming instructions for performing the second print job comprise programming instructions configured to:
determine an output paper tray to which a document represented in the digital document file is to be printed; and
 print the document to the output paper tray, wherein the programming instructions for printing the document to the output paper tray comprise programming instructions configured to:
 determine an original paper tray to which the first print job was directed, and
 if the output paper tray is the same as the original paper tray, output a separator sheet before printing the document to the output paper tray,

detect that the second print job has been completed or interrupted, and
upon detecting that the second print job has been completed or interrupted, automatically resume the first print job.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the portable memory device contains a folder of a designated name that contains the digital document file; and
the programming instructions for detecting the trigger event also comprise programming instructions configured to detect the folder of the designated name.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the programming instructions for determining the output paper tray comprise programming instructions configured to: automatically determine the output paper tray based on at least one of the following: a capability of the output paper tray, a requirement of the second print job, or the print instruction; or prompt a user to manually select the output paper tray.

4. The system of claim 2 , wherein the print instruction is encoded to a folder name of the folder of the designated name or a folder name of a subfolder of the folder of the designated name.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein:
the folder name is indicative of a number of copies to be printed; and
the programming instructions for printing performing the second print job comprise programming instructions configured to print the number of copies of a document represented in the digital document file automatically.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the programming instructions for detecting that the second print job was completed or interrupted comprise programming instructions configured to cause the processing device to detect that the portable memory device has become disconnected from the port.

7. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a data store containing a print history, wherein:
the print device further comprises a communication port for communicating with the data store and obtaining information from the print history; and
the programming instructions for retrieving the digital document file to be printed from the portable memory device comprise programming instructions configured to:
access the print history from the data store, and
use the print history to determine that the digital document file has not been printed and retrieve that digital document file to be printed.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the programming instructions further comprising additional programming instructions configured to:
upon detecting that the second print job has been completed, transmit a communication to the data store to update the print history to reflect that the digital document file is printed.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the programming instructions for retrieving the digital document file from the portable memory device also comprise programming instructions for retrieving additional digital document files from the portable memory device;
the second print job is also derived from the additional digital document files; and
the programming instructions for detecting that the second print job has been completed comprise programming instructions configured to:
(i) detect that the digital document file in the portable memory device is printed,
(ii) check the additional digital document files to determine a next digital document file to be printed,
(iii) print a document represented in the next digital document file based on the print instruction,
(iv) repeat steps (ii) and (iii) until all documents of the additional digital document files are printed, and
(v) determine that the second print job has been completed.

10. A method for automatically processing job interruptions in a print system, comprising, by a processing device of a print device:
cause the print device to perform a first print job;
detecting a trigger event by determining that a portable memory device has become communicatively connected to a port of the print device;
upon detecting the trigger event, retrieving a digital document file to be printed and a print instruction from the portable memory device;
determining that the first print job is being performed in the print device;
suspending performance of the first print job;
determining a second print job that is derived from the digital document file;
in response to determining the second print job, automatically causing a print engine of the print device to perform the second print job based on the print instruction, wherein performing the second print job comprises:
determining an output paper tray to which a document represented in the digital document file is to be printed, and
printing the document to the output paper tray, wherein printing the document to the output paper tray comprises:
determining an original paper tray to which the first print job was directed; and
if the output paper tray is the same as the original paper tray, outputting a separator sheet before printing the document to the output paper tray;

detecting that the second print job has been completed or interrupted; and
upon detecting that the second print job has been completed or interrupted, automatically resuming the first print job.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the portable memory device contains a folder of a designated name that contains the digital document file, further comprising detecting the folder of the designated name.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein determining the output paper tray comprises: automatically determining the output paper tray based on at least one of the following: a capability of the output paper tray, a requirement of the second print job, or the print instruction; or prompting a user to manually select the output paper tray.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the print instruction is encoded to a folder name of the folder of the designated name or a folder name of a subfolder of the folder of the designated name.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein performing the second print

Assignees

• Xerox Corp

Inventors

• Krishnasamy Muralidaran
• Kesavan Narayan
• Kumar Raj
• Devaraj Karthikeyan
• Chatterjee Dipta
• Perumal Siva

Classifications

• G06F3/1263

  based on job priority, e.g. re-arranging the order of jobs, e.g. the printing sequence · CPC title

• G06F3/1213

  at an intermediate node or at the final node · CPC title

• G06F3/1254 Primary

  Automatic configuration, e.g. by driver · CPC title

• G06F3/1204

  resulting in reduced user or operator actions, e.g. presetting, automatic actions, using hardware token storing data · CPC title

• G06F9/4831

  with variable priority · CPC title