Patent US6992791B2 successfully refreshed from Google Patents.
US6992791B2
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US
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Print engine/controller with half-toner/compositor
Assignee: Memjet Technology Ltd
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Filing: 2003-11-17
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Granted: 2006-01-31
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Expires: 2023-11-17
Abstract
Abstract A print engine/controller ( 10 ) configured to be coupled with others to drive an ink drop printhead ( 33 ). It has an interface ( 27 ) at which to receive compressed page data. Image decoders ( 28, 88 ) decode compressed image planes in the received compressed page data. A half-toner/compositer ( 29 ) a half-toner/compositer composites respective strips of the decoded image planes by halftoning a contone layer to a bi-level version and compositing a spot1 bi-level layer over an appropriate halftoned contone layer. A printhead interface ( 32 ) interfaces with the printhead. A synchronization signal generator ( 89,90 ) outputs a synchronization signal that is used to synchronize print engine/controllers. In some embodiments, one printhead interface ( 32 ) acts as master generating the synchronization signal to synchronize all the print engine/controllers to drive the printhead at any one or more of higher speed, higher input resolution, higher outlet resolution or wider format.
Inventors
- 👤 Simon Robert Walmsley
- 👤 Paul Lapstun
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-09 10:15
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06F; G06F3/00; G06F3/12; G06F3/1201; G06F3/1202; G06F3/1203; G06F3/1208; G06F3/1211; G06F3/1212; G06F3/1213; G06F3/1223; G06F3/1275; G06F3/1277; G06F3/1278; G06F3/1282
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 20
Claim 1
Independent Claim
118 words
A print engine/controller configured to be coupled with other similar print engine/controllers to drive an ink drop printhead comprising: an interface at which to receive compressed page data; image decoders to decode compressed image planes in the received compressed page data; a half-toner/compositer to composite respective strips of the decoded image planes by halftoning a contone layer to a bi-level version and compositing a spot1 bi-level layer over an appropriate halftoned contone layer; and a printhead interface to output the composite strip to a printhead the printhead interface including: a multi-segment printhead interface outputting printhead formatted data; and a synchronization signal generator outputting a synchronization signal to couple print engine/controllers to synchronize their respective strips at the printhead.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
118 words
A print engine/controller configured to be coupled with other similar print engine/controllers to drive an ink drop printhead comprising: an interface at which to receive compressed page data; image decoders to decode compressed image planes in the received compressed page data; a half-toner/compositer to composite respective strips of the decoded image planes by halftoning a contone layer to a bi-level version and compositing a spot1 bi-level layer over an appropriate halftoned contone layer; and a printhead interface to output the composite strip to a printhead the printhead interface including: a multi-segment printhead interface outputting printhead formatted data; and a synchronization signal generator outputting a synchronization signal to couple print engine/controllers to synchronize their respective strips at the printhead.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
27 words
The print engine/controller of claim 1 , wherein: the half-toner/compositer is adapted to map K to CMY dots when there is no K ink in a printer.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
32 words
The print engine/controller of claim 1 , wherein: the half-toner/compositer selects between two dither matrices on a pixel by pixel basis based on a corresponding value in a dither matrix select map.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
30 words
The print engine/controller of claim 1 , wherein: the half-toner/compositer has as an input, an expanded contone layer, an expanded bi-level spot1 layer, an expanded dither-matrix-select bitmap and tag data.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
16 words
The print engine/controller of claim 4 , wherein: the tag data is at full dot resolution.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
32 words
The print engine/controller of claim 1 , wherein: the half-toner/compositer selects between two dither matrices on a pixel by pixel basis based on a corresponding value in a dither matrix select map.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
33 words
The print engine/controller of claim 1 , wherein: the half-toner/compositor includes a margin unit to apply margin data to the respective image planes during the composite process to generate print data in strips.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
31 words
The print engine/controller of claim 1 , wherein: the halftoner/compositor scales input image planes under control of a margin unit set to establish print data for a strip of the image.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
49 words
The print engine/controller of claim 1 , wherein: the half-toner/compositor further comprises a number of scale units, each scale unit receiving data from a buffer layer and at least one scale unit receiving two control bits, the control bits being an advance dot bit and an advance line bit.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
38 words
The print engine/controller of claim 9 , wherein: the advance dot bit allows for the generation of multiple instances of identical dot data and the advance line bit provides for truncation of data according to a printer margin.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
31 words
The print engine/controller of claim 9 , wherein: the buffer layers comprise contone layers, a bi-level spot1 layer and a dither select matrix layer, each of which may be scaled independently.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
19 words
The print engine/controller of claim 11 , further comprising: a bi-level tag data buffer which does not require scaling.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
42 words
The print engine/controller of claim 9 , further comprising: a compositing stage for a number of output layers, the compositing stage having for an output layer, a single dot merger unit with inputs equal in number to the number of output layers.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
49 words
The print engine/controller of claim 13 , further comprising: a dot reorg unit which takes a generated dot stream for a given color plane and organizes it into fixed length quantities so that an output of the half-toner/compositor is in segment order and not in dot order within segments.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
35 words
The print engine/controller of claim 13 , wherein: the dot reorg unit is adapted to receive a dot advance signal from a dither matrix access unit as an instruction as to which bit to output.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
34 words
The print engine/controller of claim 10 , further comprising: a margin unit for turning the advance dot and advance line signals into general control signals based on a page margin of a current page.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
29 words
The print engine/controller of claim 16 , wherein: the margin unit also generates an end of page condition and keeps a counter for dot and line across a page.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
38 words
The print engine/controller of claim 17 , wherein: the dot counter is advanceable by 1 each time the margin unit receives a dot advance signal and re-settable to zero when the margin unit receives a line advance signal.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
42 words
The print engine/controller of claim 1 , further comprising: a line loader/format unit for receiving dot information from the half-toner/compositor and loading dots for a given print line into an appropriate buffer storage, formatting them into an order required by a printhead.
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 2009-01-30 | 2009-08-01 | 2010-01-31 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 2013-01-30 | 2013-08-01 | 2014-01-31 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 2017-01-30 | 2017-08-01 | 2018-01-31 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |