CA2031942A1 - Page printer with machine-readable-character-based controls - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT

A data printer has the ability to print machine-readable informa-tion and, further instream, the ability to read and analyze such information. Results of that analysis are reported back to a job control processor which, according to the analysis, monitors print quality, instructs the print engines to adjust print con-trast, causes unacceptable pages to be invalidated, rejected and reprinted, and advises the operator regarding corrective actions to improve print quality or to reconcile print jobs.

Description

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~ Page Printer wi~h Machine-Readable-Character-Based Controls FIELD OF THE INVENTION
s This invention relates to page printer~ ~or use with data 6 systems, and particularly to means Por enabling such printers to 7 dynamically monitor and regulate their own e~.formance and to automatically reco~cil~ ~obs which inalud~ de~ective or unaccept-able pages.

12 Printing devices, for printing in legible ~orm on paper a 1~ human-readable image ~pecifi2d to the printer by a stream o~
14 digital ~ignals, are very well known in the prior art. The s present invention is e~bodied in a printer such as the one de-1~ scribed in UOS. Patsnt ~,7~6,066, January 3, 1989 (hereina~ter, . 17 "the Morris patent").
1~ Mal~unctions and degradations may occur in such printing 19 devices, resulting in unacceptably poor printed output. In the zo prior art, it is incumbent upon an operator to visually asse~s z1 the quality o~ tha output in order to verify correct function, 22 and to direct the system to reprint jobs that were unacceptable.
23 rhis re~uires close attantion by the operator, and results in :: 2~ lost time and reduced system e~iciency when it is necessary to reprint jobs. The longer it t~ke~ for the operator to detect s incorrect operation, the more such jobs must be reprinted.
; 2r The present,inven~ion overcome~ the~e drawbacks o~ the prior 28 art by providing a printer with means ~or monitoring an~ main-29 taining the quality oP its own output, in~orming the operator of : 30 trends in the operation that may alert him to the need to service :~ 3- the printer, automatically reprinting de~ective pages, and as-~z sisting the operator in "~ob reconciliation"-- replacing partic-33 ular defective page~ in a ~ob with reprinted pag~s to produce completed documents possessing integrity.

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3 ~r ~1 1 It ls thu~ a general object oP the present invention to pro-2 vide improved data printers.
~ It is a particular ob~ect o~ the present invention to provide 4 data printers with sel~-monitoring, sel~-correction, and automat-s ed job reconcillation.

r SUMMARY OF T~E INVENTION
8 The invention accomplishes this by providing the "print en-9 gines" ~which, as i5 well known to those in the art, e~Pect the actual formation of the image~ on the paper) with means ~or 11 producing machine-reada~le images on the paper, and by providing 12 means instream (i.e., further along the paper path) of the print 13 engines ~or reading and veri~ying tho~e ma~hine-readable images.
14 Verification may include character, quality, and contrast analy-lS 5iS, with results o~ the contrast analysi~ fed back to the print 1~ engines causing them to adju~t print contrast accordingly. A ~ob 17 control system compri~ing computer devices is provided which t~ interpret~ the results o~ the analysis and ~ay determine that a 19 page is unaccept~ble. An invalidator i~ provided which the job 20 control system m~y direct to mark unacceptable pages for the 21 operator~s attention. I~ an output stacker with multiple bin~
22 (well known to those in th2 art) is provided, the job control 23 system may direct unacceptable pages to be routed to a reject 24 bin. The ~ob control 8y8tem may direct that unacceptable page3 Z5 be reprinted. The ~ob control syste~ may a~semble messages for 26 the operator appri~ing hi~ of printer statu~, recommended correc-2r tive ac~ions, ~nd in~or~ation as~isting him in per~orming ~ob 2~ reconciliation~
2~ Other advantages of the invention will be apparent to those 30 skilled ln the art ~ter ~onsultlng the ~ollowing detailed de-31 scription and the appended drawings~ wherQin:

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~l~31~2 1 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE D~AWINGS
2 Fi~ure l i~ an overall mec-hanical block diagram of the 3 printer oP the present :Lnvention.

4 Figure 2 i~ an overall ~un~tional block diagram of the s printer o~ the pre~ent invention.

8 Figure 1 is a mechanical block diagram o~ the printer o.~ the 9 present invention. ~hile the invention i8 e~ually adaptable to the well known genre of printers employing "sheet ~eeders" ~or Peeding individual sheets of paper through the printer ~or print-12 ing, it i~ pr~sently embodied in a printer which feeds from a ~ roll 13 o~ continuous paper 32 and which cuts thQ paper into 14 sheets 26 after printing. The paper on the roll 13 i5 ~ed into ~5 th~ printer and threaded through web sen~or 20 ~which by means well known to those in the art, detects breaks in th~ paper stream). The paper is then threaded through the "front" print 18 engine 14, which prints in~ormation directed by a sequence o~
19 digital signal~ (not ~hown, but well known to those in the art) zo on one side o~ the paper (the "~ront"). A discu~sed in the 21 Morri~ patent, a ~econd print engine 15 (the "back" print engine) 22 may be provided or easily retrofitted for printing on the other 2~ side (the "back") og the paper. The paper threads through print 24 er,gine 15 (i~ presen~), then ~hrough ltoner ~ixinq station 38 zs which adds an additional ~tage of toner ~ixing beyond that pro-z~ vided in the print enginQs, through reader 16, invalidator 17, 2r drive 18 twhich per~orm~ the act o~ pulling the paper from the 2fi print englnQ t8) and through the a~orementioned elements outstream of drive 18) and propel~ it into cutter 19, wh~ch cut~ the con-30 tinuous pap~r into individual sheets 26 ~ccording to the page 31 ~oundaries o~ the in~ormation that has bee~ printe~. From cutter ~2 19 the sheets are e~ected into ~tacker 34, which has at least on~
33 stacking bin and which ~ay optionally hav~ a plurality o~ bins 34 and means for selectiv~ly routing sheets to th~ various bin~.

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1Referring to ~igure 2, ~ob Control System 12 comprises a z mlnicomputer 40 with as~ociated magnetic tape drive 42 and termi-nal 44, a VME bus 48, a print controller 50, a reader CPU 52, and ~ a process controller 58. The VME bus i~ well known in the digi-5 tal arts.
Minicomputer 40 i~, in the pre~ent embodlm~nt, a Bull World-r wide In~ormat~on Sy~tams model DP5 6. It i~ a ~ree-standing 8 minicomputer and i~ not housed wlthin the printer cabinet. All 9 other components ~iscussed, ¢xcept for magnetic tape unit 42 and terminal 44, are within the printer cabinet in the present embod-11 iment.
12 Minicomputer 40 is ~onnected to an external host computer 13 where a user' 8 ~ ob i~ presumed to be running. The user~s job 16 may, among other thing~, call for printing, sending data and 15 rormat~ing ins~ruction~ down to minicomputer 40 a~ is well known 1b to those in the artt ~nicompu~er 40 i8 provided ~ith an inter-17 face to a terminal 44, and communicates with the operator by this 18 means. It is also provided with a removable-medium storage 19 device, magnetic tape unit ~2 in the present embodim~nt. Font and forms information and format~ may be stored on the medium, 21 and invoked for u~ in a u~er' 8 job a~ a function of the instruc-22 tions sent by the user~ iob, a~ is well known to those in the 23 art. Sensitive or proprietary information, sUch as images o~
24 signatures for imprinting on checks, ~ay be invoked from magnetic 2s tape 42; the media containing such information may subsequently 26 be removed and ~a~ely stored. Th~ operator may be reminded vi~
27 terminal 44 to adhe~e to th~se procedure~r 2~ Minicomputer 40 1~ connected to the printer cabinet via 29 Ethernet(tm) in the present embodiment. Ethernet\VME communic~-30 tions module 46 in~erface~ the E~hernet path to the VME bus 48 31 internal to the printer.
32 Print controller 50 is connected to the VME bus. It~ pri-33 mary ~unction i8 t:he direct control and monitoring o~ the print 34 engines 14 and 150 It receives data and ~orm~tting instructions ~s -:

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2031~2 1 and generates the appropriate signals, by means well known to 2 those in the art, to direct the print eng1ne~ to print th~ de-3 sired image~ on the paper 32.
4 Print controller 50 in~orm~ proce~s controller S9 o~ the job characteristics; proce~ controller 58 accordingly controls th~

6 various mechanical elements of th~ printer to ef~ect the requi-7 site paper feeding, cutting the c3ntinuous paper 32 into sheets ~ 25 at the appropriata places, routing ~heets 26 to the appropri-9 ate bin~ of stacker 34, etcO As will be de~cribed further below, print controller 50 also monitors ~or incorrect or unaccept~ble 11 operation: in the evenk of detecting such, it in~orms pro~ess 1Z controller 58 which ef~ect~ appropriate actions, such as invali-13 dating and rejecting de~ective ~heets.
~ The print ~ngines l4 and 15 are provlded with the ability to 15 print machine-readable ~haracters on the paper: in the presenk 1~ embodiment, these are MICR (Magnetic Imprint Chara~ter Recogni-17 tion) characters,in either the El3B or the CMC7 Sonts, well known 18 to those in the art: alternatively, they could be OCR ~Optical 19 Character Recognition) characters. The machlne-readable charac-ter~ to ~e printed may be specified in t~e incoming da~a stream 21 from the host computer, or locally by Job Control System 12.
22 Machine-readable characters ~ay be imprinted on every page ~or 23 constant verification, or periodically on selected pages for spot 26 checking. Under control o~ Job Control System 12, ~uch printing 2s may be on "extral' paye~ ti.e., pages not called ~or by the incom-2~ ing data stream) ~o a~ not to introduce extraneous printing into 2r a user's job: ~uch extra pages may later be sent by the stacker 2a to a bin other than th~ on~ in which the user' 8 ~ob l~ be~ng ~ stacked.

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:: , ,:,.' ' , - ' , , :~ ' : . ' ' : :' ' ' 2~319~2 1 Reader 16, (a MICR reader in the pre~ent embodiment) posi-z tioned instrea~ ~rom the print engines, iB adapted from well~
3 known apparatus u~ed in reader/~orter technology. ~Paper move-~ ment is signi~icantly ~a~ter in rleader/sorter technology than in 5 a printer; one ~killed ln the art can adapt the reader to ~unc-tion with a ~lower-moving medium~,) In the present embodiment, 7 paper speed i~ in the range o~ 16.5 ips to 27 ip8.
R Reader 16 can read the MICR characters regardless o~ whether 9 they were preprinted on the paper, prlnted as a ~unction o~ the lo externally-supplied data stream, or printed as a ~unction o~ a 1~ command from Job Control System 12. Reader 16 ~ ~een on Figure 2 ~o comprise the he~d~ 56 and the analog drivers 54, which are 13 connected to Reader CPU 52.
1~ Head~ 5~ comprise ~ write head and a read head, oriented such that the read head i8 ~urther instream: therefore, pap~r : 16 passes under the write head ~irst. Spacing between the heads i~
17 a fraction of an inch in the present embodiment. The write head 18 magnetizes the toner comprising the MICR character impr~nt: a 19 short time later the MICR character~ pa~s under the read head which senses the magnetic ~ield o~ the magnetized toner. Analy-1 ses can then b~ per~orm~d on the output o~ the read head. An : 22 unacceptably low magnetic ~ield might indicate that the print z3 engines are applying insu~ficient toner to the paper, or that the 24 toner is defectively low in magnetic material.
The drivers 54 in conjunction with Reader CPU 52 per~o~m, by 26 means known to those in the art, the following analyses of the 27 machine-readabl~ character~:
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29 Signal ~trength level (strength of the magnetic properti~s 0~ th~ print);
32 Character ~ootprint (con~ormance to the de~ined shape):

34 Line stroke width dimension~ as compar~d to the speci~ica-tion (e.g., 13 ~il8 ~or the E13B font);

37 Format o~ each character a~ well the character-to-character 38 spacing;

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2 Format o~ the data strea~ Por ~leld length~ and type~ o~
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s Data misreads when comparing the original data to be printed 6 with what was actually printed and read~
~ Statistical analy~i~ on print~r variable~ that may be ap-9 proachinq state- where th~y may a~ ct the ~uality o~ the o ~. . output and ~hould be acted upon.

12 As a result o~ the contrast analysls on the machine-readable 13 characters and, if they were prinl:ed by the print engines ~as 14 opposed to having been preprinted on the paper), Reader CPU 52 can generate and feed back signal~ to the contrast control inputs 16 provided on the print engine~ directing them to ad~ust their 17 contrast. (In the prior art, th~ contrast control input to the 1e print engines i~ developed entirely fro~ a manual ~ront-panel 19 con~rol; with the pre~ent invention, th~ feedback 3ignal ~rom the Reader CPU interacts with the stat~ o~ the manual control.~
Should the Job Control Syste~ 12 dete~mine, a~ a function of 22 the signal str~ngth analy~is provided to it by Reader 16, that 23 the paqe is unacceptabl~, it can dlract invalidator 17 to phy~i-24 cally mark the page so that th~ operakor may subsequently identi-2s fy it and remova it from the ~ob. This marking may take any o~
26 several forms to be ahosen by th~ de~gner. Th~ invalidator can 2~ be a punch that will p~nch hol~ through th~ page; it may be an 28 automated "stamp padl' which will ~tamp a predeter~ined pattern Qn 29 the page; it may bo a print engine (~or reasons o~ aconomy, probably a rudimentary on~) that will print a ~as~ag~ on the 31 page. If a stamp pad, th~ inv~lidation imprin~ will b~ fixed 32 from page to pag~ within a ~ob, although it can be changad by 33 physically changing the stamping devica. I~ a print engina, Job Control System 12 ~an control it to print a dif~erent m~ssage on 3s each page invalidated.

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2 0 ~ 2 1 If stacker 3~ iæ optionally o~ the typQ wi~ ~ e se-2 lactable bins, Job Control System 12 can control it to route 3 rejected pages to a raject bin. Alternatlvely, the cutter might 4 be directed to cut the page into ~maller-than-normal pieces.
s Job Control System 12 can also direct print engines 14 and 15 to reprint pages that have been .invalidated. I~ only the last 7 page .,r~nted mu~t be reprinted, the necessary information is 8 still contained withln print contr~ller 50 (which i8 per~orming 9 "page-level buf.fering". If more p21ge3 must ~e reprlnted, print o controller 50 requests that the requisite in~ormation be resent 11 from minicompUtQr 40, which i8 per~orming "~ob-level buf~ering".
12 The kind of stacker employed (single bin or salectable 13 multibin) bears on the manner in which job reaonciliatlon may be 14 e~fected.
If a multibin stacker is used, a method of job reconcilia-16 tion that most simplifies the operator's task can be employed:
17 an unacceptable page and all pages following it that have already 8 been printed can be routed to the reject bin and printing can be 1~ restarted from the unacceptable page, with all accept~ble pages being stacked in a "norm~l" bin. The end rasult of this will be 21 a complete acceptable document in the normal bin with no inter-22 vention required ~xom the operator except that he remove it from 23 the normal bin. This approach does have the disadvan~age of wasting some paper and printing time, since it may result in the rejecting and reprinting of pages that, viewed by themselves, 26 would have been acceptabl~.
27 Another method that may be employed, regardless of which 28 kind o~ stacker i used, i-~ to reprint only tha unacceptable 29 pages. This results in reprinted pages being stacked out of order within the document; if a sin~le bin stacker is employed, 31 it also results in unacceptable pages being stacked with the 32 document. Operator intervention is thus require~ to insart 33 reprinted page~ into their proper po~itions, and to remove re-34 jected pagas. ~This is simplified by virtue of the rejected , ' , ' ' , ' ''` '" ' ~' ' ,, ~

~19~2 pages ' having been marked in some way by invalidator 17.) Job 2 Control System 12 i8 employed to compile and provide to the 3 operator a ~ummary instructing hlm as to what page~ mu~t be removed and which mu~t be reorderedl. This ~ummary may be prlnted ~or him by the print engines, or displayed to him on terminal 44.
Ancillary ~o the reconciliation ~unction, Job Control System t 12 can keep ,~ k of how much paper should have been used, for ~ later comparison with the amount actually u~ed. This provides 9 useful controls on the consumption o~ paper stock that is deemed ~o be proprietary or ~en~itive, such as check blank~, and thus 1t enhances overall Rite ~ecurity.
The r~conclliation ~unction can also overs~e the reconcilia-tion o~ jobs in which web sensor 20 has det~cted a ~ailure in the paper stream.
Those skilled in the ~rt will appreciate other advantages that may be gained ~rom the use of the invention, in the present embodiment or in other embodiments. The invention i intended to be embraced by the appended claims and not limited to the 19 particular embodiment described above.
zo That which we regard as ~ovel and desire to protect by Zl Letters Patent o~ the United states i~:

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Claims (15)

1.In combination in a data printer having paper feeding means for feeding paper along a paper path from an outstream paper supply to an instream paper stacker and at least one print engine locat-ed on the paper path and responsive to externally-supplied digi-tal signals for imprinting on the paper alphanumeric information specified by the digital signals:
a job control proce ??r comprising digital computer means for controlling elements of the printer;
means in the print engines responsive to the digital signals or the job control processor for imprinting machine-readable characters on the paper; and means instream from the print engines for reading machine-read-able characters and for sending digital representations of the characters to the job control processor.

2.The combination recited in claim 1, wherein further:
the machine-readable character reading means performs signal strength and quality analysis of the machine-readable charac-ters and generates contrast signals from that analysis.

3.The combination recited in claim 2, wherein further the con trast signals are forwarded to the print engines and the print engines adjust contrast of imprinted characters responsive to the contrast signals, whereby print contrast is dynamically controlled.

4. The combination recited in claim 2, wherein further the job control processor determines from the strength and quality analy-sis whether each page is of acceptable quality.

5.The combination recited in claim 4, further comprising means instream from the machine-readable character reading means and responsive to the job control processor for selectively marking pages of unacceptable quality as invalid.

6.The combination recited in claim 5, further characterized in that the job control processor signals the print engines to re-print the invalidated pages.

7.The combination recited in claim 6, further characterized in that, responsive to the job control processor, all pages in the print engines or instream f??? the print engines but outstream from the invalidation means at the time of invalidation of a page are invalidated and reprinted regardless of the quality analysis.

8.The combination recited in claim 7, further characterized in that the stacker has a plurality of bins and means for selective-ly routing pages to any of the bins, and in that all valid pages are selectively routed, responsive to the job control processor, to first certain bins and all invalidated pages are selectively routed to second certain bins.

9.The combination recited in claim 6, further characterized in that the job control processor furnishes a report directing an operator regarding the positions of invalidated pages in the stacker, the positions of reprinted replacements for such invali-dated pages, and instructions for replacing the former with the latter.

10.The combination recited in claim 2, further characterized in that:
results of signal strength and quality analysis are periodically forwarded to the job control processor;
the job control processor tabulates the signal strength and quality analysis results and maintains queues of data for informing an operator of printe ?tatus and recommending corrective actions to an operator: and the job control processor provides reports of printer status and recommended corrective actions to the operator upon his request.

11.The combination recited in claims 5, 6, or 7 wherein fur-ther:
the job control processor accounts for all paper used and re-ports those accounts to an operator upon his request.

12.The combination recited in claim 1 wherein further:
the job control processor further comprises a removable-media data storage device: and the job control processor retrieves certain information from the data storage device and forwards it to the print engines for imprinting on the paper along with information specified by the digital signals.

13.The combination recited in claim 12 wherein further:
the job control processor, responsive to certain of the exter-nally-supplied digital signals, directs an operator to load media onto or remove media from the data storage device.

14.The combination recited in claim 1, wherein further:
the job control processor compares the characters read by the machine-readable-character reading means with those specified by the externally-supplied digital signals;
a means outstream of the reading means, responsive to the job control processor, marks certain pages as invalid; and for any pages on which characters read by t?? reading means do not correspond to those specified by the digital signals, the job control processor signals the invalidation means to mark such pages as invalid.

15.The combination recited in claim 14, wherein further:
the job control processor directs the print engines to reprint pages marked as invalid.