Method and apparatus for automatically printing documents from portable memory device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9740447-B1
Application number	US-201615221674-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jul 28, 2016
Priority date	Jul 28, 2016
Publication date	Aug 22, 2017
Grant date	Aug 22, 2017

Abstract

A print device for automatically printing a document file from a portable memory device may include a port, a print engine, and a processing device. The processing device may detect that a portable memory device has become communicatively connected to the port, then access a print history from a data store and retrieve a print instruction, use the print history to determine that a document file in a designated folder of the portable memory device has not been printed, and automatically print the document file using the print engine based on the print instruction. After printing, the device may further transmit a communication to the data store to update the print history to reflect that the document file is printed. The print device may be capable of detecting an interruption and allowing a user to resume the print job later on the same print device or on another device.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A document printing system, comprising:
a data store containing a print history;
a first print device comprising:
a communication port for communicating with the data store and obtaining information from the print history,
a port for communicating 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 program instructions that are configured to cause the processing device to:
detect a trigger event by determining that the portable memory device has become communicatively connected to the port and that the portable memory device contains a folder of a designated name,
upon detecting the trigger event, access the print history from the data store and retrieve a print instruction,
use the print history to determine that a document file in the folder of the designated name has not been printed,
automatically cause the print engine to print the document file based on the print instruction, and
transmit a communication to the data store to update the print history to reflect that the document file is printed.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the program instructions for determining that the document file in the folder has not been printed comprise program instructions that are configured to cause the processing device to:
detect a plurality of filenames in the folder of the designated name;
compare the filenames in the folder to the print history to identify whether any of the filenames are in the print history; and
determine that the document file has not been printed if a filename of the document file does not exist in the print history, otherwise determine that the document file has been printed;
wherein the communication to update the print history comprises a communication to, after printing is complete, update the print history to include the filenames that are in the folder but not in the print history.

3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising additional program instructions that are configured to cause the processing device to:
detect a plurality of filenames in the folder;
compare the filenames in the folder to the print history to identify whether the print history includes any filenames that are not in the folder; and
update the print history to delete any of the filenames that are in the print history but not in the folder.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the communication to the data store to update the print history to reflect that the document file is printed comprises a communication to:
include filenames that are in the folder but not in the print history; and
associate a timestamp with each included filename in the print history, wherein the timestamp indicates when a corresponding document file for each included filename is lastly printed.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the first print device also comprises a user interface configured to present information to a user and receive information from the user; and
the system also includes additional program instructions that are configured to cause the processing device to, for any document file in the folder that has been determined to have been printed, cause the user interface to output a prompt that, if activated, permits the user to instruct the system to cause the print engine to print that document file.

6. The system of claim 4 , wherein the program instructions for determining that the document file in the folder has been printed comprise program instructions that are configured to cause the processing device to:
detect a plurality of filenames in the folder of the designated name;
compare the filenames in the folder to the print history to identify whether any of the filenames are in the print history, wherein each filename in the folder is associated with a timestamp indicating when the corresponding document file has been lastly modified; and
determine that the document file has not been printed if:
the filename of the document file does not exist in the print history, or
the filename of the document file exists in the print history and an associated timestamp in the print history is earlier than the timestamp associated with the filename in the folder,

otherwise, determine that the document file has been printed.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein:
the first print device also comprises a user interface configured to present information to a user and receive information from the user; and
the system also includes additional program instructions that are configured to cause the processing device to, for any document file in the folder that has been determined to have been printed, cause the user interface to output a prompt that, if activated, permits the user to instruct the system to cause the print engine to print that document file.

8. The system of claim 2 , further comprising:
a second print device having a communication port for communicating with the data store, a port for communicating with the portable memory device, a print engine, and a processing device; and
additional program instructions that are configured to cause the processing device of the first print device to:
detect that the first print device been interrupted before the printing was complete, and
update the print history to include the filenames and, if available, associated timestamps for any documents that the print engine of the first print device printed before the first print device has been interrupted; and

additional program instructions that are configured to cause the processing device of the second print device to:
detect the portable memory device has become communicatively connected to the port of the second print device and that the portable memory device contains the folder of the designated name,
access the print history from the data store and automatically retrieve a print instruction, and
automatically cause the print engine of the second print device to use the print history and the print instruction to print each document file that would have been printed by the first print device if the first print device had not boon interrupted before the printing was complete.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the program instructions for detecting that the first print device was interrupted before the printing was complete comprise program instructions configured to cause the processing device of the first print device to:
detect that the portable memory device has become disconnected from the port of the first print device; or
detect that the first print device has run out of consumables.

10. The system of claim 2 , further comprising:
additional program instructions that are configured to cause the processing device of the first print device to:
detect that the first print device was interrupted before the printing was complete;
update the print history to include the filenames and, if available, associated timnestamps for any documents that the print engine of the first print device printed before the first print device was interrupted;
detect the portable memory device has become reconnected to the port of the first print device and that the portable memory device contains the folder of the designated name;
access the print history from the data store and automatically retrieve a print instruction; and
automatically cause the print engine of the first print device to use the print history and the print instruction to print each document that would have been printed by the first print device if the first print device had not been interrupted before the printing was complete.

11. The system of claim

Assignees

• Xerox Corp

Inventors

• Krishnasamy Muralidaran
• Kesavan Narayan

Classifications

• H04N1/00411

  the display also being used for user input, e.g. touch screen · CPC title

• H04N1/2166

  for mass storage, e.g. in document filing systems (information retrieval G06F16/00) · CPC title

• G06K15/02

  using printers · CPC title

• G06F3/1273 Primary

  Print job history, e.g. logging, accounting, tracking · CPC title

• G06K15/1818

  Adaptations for accepting data from more than one source (managing interfaces G06K15/4045) · CPC title