Abstract An apparatus and method for determining print quality of a printer wherein printed matter is controllably presented to an optical transducer unit which scans user or machine selected areas of said printed matter to generate a signal that is processed by a processing unit to determine print quality. The processing unit processes the signal in an efficient and rapid three step method in which the signal produced by the transducer unit is modified and segmented to determine general characteristics, recognized by a recognition engine and finally checked for voids, spots, blobs or the like. The invention provides an operator with the ability to set quality thresholds such as an acceptable number of quality defects in a single scan. If the number of quality defects exceeds the user input quality limit, the processor unit determines that the printed matter is poor quality and may cause the printer to cease printing.
A method for analyzing output of a printer comprising the steps of: a. determining at least one select area of printed matter to be analyzed; b. controllably feeding said printed matter past at least one optical transducer; c. controlling said at least one optical transducer to produce electrical signals representative of said at least one select area of said printed matter; d. storing said electrical signals in a memory; e. processing said electrical signals to produce further electrical signals representative of discrete regions of said select area; f. providing a human acceptable quality limit; g. comparing said further electrical signals with said quality limit to determine if said electrical signals fall below said quality limit; h. generating at least one output signal based on the outcome of said comparing step.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
20 words
The method in accordance with claim 1 further including the step of controlling said printer based on said output signal.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
24 words
The method in accordance with claim 1 further including the step of displaying output on an operator status console based on said output signal.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
31 words
The method in accordance with claim 1 wherein said step of determining at least one select area and said step of providing a quality limit is performed by a human operator.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
30 words
The method in accordance with claim 1 wherein said step of determining at least one select area and said step of providing a quality limit is performed by a computer.