U.S. patent application number 12/787375 was filed with the patent office on 2010-09-16 for method of linking object to sticker print medium.
This patent application is currently assigned to Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd. Invention is credited to Michael J. Hollins, Paul Lapstun, Kia Silverbrook, Simon Robert Walmsley.
Application Number | 20100234069 12/787375 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 37884905 |
Filed Date | 2010-09-16 |
United States Patent
Application |
20100234069 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Lapstun; Paul ; et
al. |
September 16, 2010 |
METHOD OF LINKING OBJECT TO STICKER PRINT MEDIUM
Abstract
A method of linking an object to a sticker print medium is
provided which includes submitting a request to associate the
object with a print media identifier of the sticker print medium,
submission of the request facilitating identification of the object
and the print media identifier, recording the requested association
of the object and the print media identifier in a database, the
object being retrievable from the database using the print media
identifier, once the requested association is recorded attaching
the sticker print medium to a physical representation of the
object, receiving the sticker print medium in a media feed path of
the mobile telecommunications device, and reading the print media
identifier from the sticker print medium using the sensor module of
the mobile telecommunications device.
Inventors: |
Lapstun; Paul; (Balmain,
AU) ; Walmsley; Simon Robert; (Balmain, AU) ;
Silverbrook; Kia; (Balmain, AU) ; Hollins; Michael
J.; (Balmain, AU) |
Correspondence
Address: |
SILVERBROOK RESEARCH PTY LTD
393 DARLING STREET
BALMAIN
2041
AU
|
Assignee: |
Silverbrook Research Pty
Ltd
|
Family ID: |
37884905 |
Appl. No.: |
12/787375 |
Filed: |
May 25, 2010 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
11228533 |
Sep 19, 2005 |
7738919 |
|
|
12787375 |
|
|
|
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
455/557 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B41J 11/009 20130101;
B41J 3/445 20130101; G06Q 20/382 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
455/557 |
International
Class: |
H04W 88/02 20090101
H04W088/02 |
Claims
1. A method of linking an object to a sticker print medium,
comprising the step of: submitting a request to associate the
object with a print media identifier of the sticker print medium,
submission of the request facilitating identification of the object
and the print media identifier; recording the requested association
of the object and the print media identifier in a database, the
object being retrievable from the database using the print media
identifier; once the requested association is recorded attaching
the sticker print medium to a physical representation of the
object; receiving the sticker print medium in a media feed path of
the mobile telecommunications device; and reading the print media
identifier from the sticker print medium using the sensor module of
the mobile telecommunications device.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the print medium is
supplied to a user with at least one pre-linked object.
3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein identification of the
object occurs by the mobile telecommunications device retrieving
the object.
4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein identification of the
object occurs by the mobile telecommunications device capturing the
object as an image using a camera.
5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the sensor module is
at least one of: integrated with the mobile telecommunications
device; and external to the mobile telecommunications device.
6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second information
is indicative of regions of the print medium surface.
7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a printer module of a
mobile telecommunications device prints the second coded data on
the print medium.
8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second coded data
is pre-printed on the print medium.
9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the object is
associated with a region of the print medium using the second coded
data.
10. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the printer module
prints the first coded data on the print medium.
11. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the object is
associated with a form, as a particular field of a form or a
particular instance of a form.
12. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the object can be
associated with a second print media identifier.
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser.
No. 11/228,533 filed Sep. 19, 2005, all of which is herein
incorporated by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention generally relates to a mobile device
incorporating a printer. The invention more specifically relates to
a mobile device such as a mobile telecommunications device, for
example a mobile or cellular telephone that incorporates a printer
which is able to print a wide variety of content on a print medium.
However, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that
the present invention can be used by other types of portable or
mobile devices, or even non-portable devices.
COPENDING APPLICATIONS
[0003] The following applications have been filed by the applicant
with the present application:
TABLE-US-00001 11/228,540 11/228,500 7,668,540 11/228,530
11/228,490 11/228,531 11/228,504 11/228,502 11/228,507 7,708,203
11/228,505 7,641,115 7,697,714 7,654,444 11/228,484 7,499,765
11/228,518 11/228,536 11/228,496 7,558,563 11/228,506 11/228,516
11/228,526 11/228,539 11/228,538 11/228,524 11/228,523 7,506,802
7,724,399 11/228,527 7,403,797 11/228,520 7,646,503 11/228,511
7,672,664 11/228,515 11/228,537 11/228,534 11/228,491 11/228,499
11/228,509 11/228,492 7,558,599 11/228,510 11/228,508 11/228,512
11/228,514 11/228,494 7,438,215 7,689,249 7,621,442 7,575,172
7,357,311 7,380,709 7,428,986 7,403,796 7,407,092 11/228,513
7,637,424 7,469,829 11/228,535 7,558,597
[0004] The disclosures of these copending applications are
incorporated herein by reference.
CROSS REFERENCES
[0005] The following patents or patent applications filed by the
applicant or assignee of the present invention are hereby
incorporated by cross-reference:
TABLE-US-00002 6,405,055 6,628,430 7,136,186 7,286,260 7,145,689
7,130,075 7,081,974 7,177,055 7,209,257 7,161,715 7,154,632
7,158,258 7,148,993 7,075,684 7,241,005 7,108,437 6,915,140
6,999,206 7,136,198 7,092,130 6,750,901 6,476,863 6,788,336
7,249,108 6,566,858 6,331,946 6,246,970 6,442,525 7,346,586
7,685,423 6,374,354 7,246,098 6,816,968 6,757,832 6,334,190
6,745,331 7,249,109 7,197,642 7,093,139 7,509,292 7,685,424
10/866,608 7,210,038 7,401,223 7,702,926 7,716,098 7,170,652
6,967,750 6,995,876 7,099,051 7,453,586 7,193,734 11/209,711
7,095,533 6,914,686 7,161,709 7,099,033 7,364,256 7,258,417
7,293,853 7,328,968 7,270,395 7,461,916 7,510,264 7,334,864
7,255,419 7,284,819 7,229,148 7,258,416 7,273,263 7,270,393
6,984,017 7,347,526 7,357,477 7,465,015 7,364,255 7,357,476
11/003,614 7,284,820 7,341,328 7,246,875 7,322,669 10/815,621
7,243,835 10/815,630 7,703,693 10/815,638 7,251,050 10/815,642
7,097,094 7,137,549 10/815,618 7,156,292 10/815,635 7,357,323
7,654,454 7,137,566 7,131,596 7,128,265 7,207,485 7,197,374
7,175,089 10/815,617 7,537,160 7,178,719 7,506,808 7,207,483
7,296,737 7,270,266 10/815,614 7,605,940 7,128,270 11/041,650
7,677,445 7,506,168 7,441,712 7,663,789 11/041,609 11/041,626
7,537,157 11/041,624 7,395,963 7,457,961 11/041,580 7,467,300
7,467,299 7,565,542 7,457,007 7,150,398 7,159,777 7,450,273
7,188,769 7,097,106 7,070,110 7,243,849 6,623,101 6,406,129
6,505,916 6,457,809 6,550,895 6,457,812 7,152,962 6,428,133
7,204,941 7,282,164 7,465,342 7,278,727 7,417,141 7,452,989
7,367,665 7,138,391 7,153,956 7,423,145 7,456,277 7,550,585
7,122,076 7,148,345 7,470,315 7,572,327 7,416,280 7,252,366
7,488,051 7,360,865 11/124,158 11/124,196 11/124,199 11/124,162
11/124,202 11/124,197 11/124,198 7,284,921 11/124,151 7,407,257
7,470,019 7,645,022 7,392,950 11/124,149 7,360,880 7,517,046
7,236,271 11/124,174 11/124,194 11/124,164 7,465,047 7,607,774
11/124,166 11/124,150 11/124,172 11/124,165 7,566,182 11/124,185
11/124,184 11/124,182 7,715,036 11/124,171 11/124,181 7,697,159
7,595,904 7,726,764 11/124,159 7,370,932 7,404,616 11/124,187
11/124,189 11/124,190 7,500,268 7,558,962 7,447,908 11/124,178
7,661,813 7,456,994 7,431,449 7,466,444 11/124,179 7,680,512
11/187,976 11/188,011 7,562,973 6,746,105 7,156,508 7,159,972
7,083,271 7,165,834 7,080,894 7,201,469 7,090,336 7,156,489
7,413,283 7,438,385 7,083,257 7,258,422 7,255,423 7,219,980
7,591,533 7,416,274 7,367,649 7,118,192 7,618,121 7,322,672
7,077,505 7,198,354 7,077,504 7,614,724 7,198,355 7,401,894
7,322,676 7,152,959 7,213,906 7,178,901 7,222,938 7,108,353
7,104,629 7,246,886 7,128,400 7,108,355 6,991,322 7,287,836
7,118,197 7,575,298 7,364,269 7,077,493 6,962,402 7,686,429
7,147,308 7,524,034 7,118,198 7,168,790 7,172,270 7,229,155
6,830,318 7,195,342 7,175,261 7,465,035 7,108,356 7,118,202
7,510,269 7,134,744 7,510,270 7,134,743 7,182,439 7,210,768
7,465,036 7,134,745 7,156,484 7,118,201 7,111,926 7,431,433
7,018,021 7,401,901 7,468,139 7,448,729 7,246,876 7,431,431
7,419,249 7,377,623 7,328,978 7,334,876 7,147,306 10/944,043
11/202,251 7,466,440 7,249,901 7,477,987 7,156,289 7,178,718
7,225,979 7,540,429 7,584,402 11/084,806 7,721,948 7,079,712
6,825,945 7,330,974 6,813,039 7,190,474 6,987,506 6,824,044
7,038,797 6,980,318 6,816,274 7,102,772 7,350,236 6,681,045
6,678,499 6,679,420 6,963,845 6,976,220 6,728,000 7,110,126
7,173,722 6,976,035 6,813,558 6,766,942 6,965,454 6,995,859
7,088,459 6,720,985 7,286,113 6,922,779 6,978,019 6,847,883
7,131,058 7,295,839 7,406,445 7,533,031 6,959,298 6,973,450
7,150,404 6,965,882 7,233,924 7,707,082 7,593,899 7,175,079
7,162,259 6,718,061 7,464,880 7,012,710 6,825,956 7,451,115
7,222,098 7,590,561 7,263,508 7,031,010 6,972,864 6,862,105
7,009,738 6,989,911 6,982,807 7,518,756 6,829,387 6,714,678
6,644,545 6,609,653 6,651,879 10/291,555 7,293,240 7,467,185
7,415,668 7,044,363 7,004,390 6,867,880 7,034,953 6,987,581
7,216,224 7,506,153 7,162,269 7,162,222 7,290,210 7,293,233
7,293,234 6,850,931 6,865,570 6,847,961 10/685,583 7,162,442
10/685,584 7,159,784 7,557,944 7,404,144 6,889,896 7,174,056
6,996,274 7,162,088 7,388,985 7,417,759 7,362,463 7,259,884
7,167,270 7,388,685 6,986,459 10/954,170 7,181,448 7,590,622
7,657,510 7,324,989 7,231,293 7,174,329 7,369,261 7,295,922
7,200,591 7,693,828 11/020,260 11/020,321 11/020,319 7,466,436
7,347,357 11/051,032 7,382,482 7,602,515 7,446,893 11/082,940
11/082,815 7,389,423 7,401,227 6,991,153 6,991,154 7,589,854
7,551,305 7,322,524 7,408,670 7,466,439 11/206,778 7,571,193
11/222,977 7,068,382 7,007,851 6,957,921 6,457,883 7,044,381
7,094,910 7,091,344 7,122,685 7,038,066 7,099,019 7,062,651
6,789,194 6,789,191 7,529,936 7,278,018 7,360,089 7,526,647
7,467,416 6,644,642 6,502,614 6,622,999 6,669,385 6,827,116
7,011,128 7,416,009 6,549,935 6,987,573 6,727,996 6,591,884
6,439,706 6,760,119 7,295,332 7,064,851 6,826,547 6,290,349
6,428,155 6,785,016 6,831,682 6,741,871 6,927,871 6,980,306
6,965,439 6,840,606 7,036,918 6,977,746 6,970,264 7,068,389
7,093,991 7,190,491 7,511,847 7,663,780 10/962,412 7,177,054
7,364,282 10/965,733 10/965,933 7,728,872 7,468,809 7,180,609
7,538,793 7,466,438 7,292,363 7,515,292 6,982,798 6,870,966
6,822,639 6,474,888 6,627,870 6,724,374 6,788,982 7,263,270
6,788,293 6,946,672 6,737,591 7,091,960 7,369,265 6,792,165
7,105,753 6,795,593 6,980,704 6,768,821 7,132,612 7,041,916
6,797,895 7,015,901 7,289,882 7,148,644 10/778,056 10/778,058
10/778,060 7,515,186 7,567,279 10/778,062 10/778,061 10/778,057
7,096,199 7,286,887 7,400,937 7,474,930 7,324,859 7,218,978
7,245,294 7,277,085 7,187,370 7,609,410 7,660,490 10/919,379
7,019,319 7,593,604 7,660,489 7,043,096 7,148,499 7,463,250
7,590,311 11/155,557 11/193,481 7,567,241 11/193,482 11/193,479
7,055,739 7,233,320 6,830,196 6,832,717 7,182,247 7,120,853
7,082,562 6,843,420 10/291,718 6,789,731 7,057,608 6,766,944
6,766,945 7,289,103 7,412,651 7,299,969 7,264,173 7,108,192
7,549,595 7,111,791 7,077,333 6,983,878 7,564,605 7,134,598
7,431,219 6,929,186 6,994,264 7,017,826 7,014,123 7,134,601
7,150,396 7,469,830 7,017,823 7,025,276 7,284,701 7,080,780
7,376,884 10/492,169 7,469,062 7,359,551 7,444,021 7,308,148
7,630,962 10/531,229 7,630,553 7,630,554 10/510,391 7,660,466
7,526,128 6,957,768 7,456,820 7,170,499 7,106,888 7,123,239
6,982,701 6,982,703 7,227,527 6,786,397 6,947,027 6,975,299
7,139,431 7,048,178 7,118,025 6,839,053 7,015,900 7,010,147
7,133,557 6,914,593 7,437,671 6,938,826 7,278,566 7,123,245
6,992,662 7,190,346 7,417,629 7,468,724 7,382,354 7,715,035
7,221,781 11/102,843 7,263,225 10/727,162 7,377,608 7,399,043
7,121,639 7,165,824 7,152,942 10/727,157 7,181,572 7,096,137
7,302,592 7,278,034 7,188,282 7,592,829 10/727,180 10/727,179
10/727,192 10/727,274 7,707,621 7,523,111 7,573,301 7,660,998
10/754,536 10/754,938 10/727,160 7,171,323 7,369,270 6,795,215
7,070,098 7,154,638 6,805,419 6,859,289 6,977,751 6,398,332
6,394,573 6,622,923 6,747,760 6,921,144 10/884,881 7,092,112
7,192,106 7,457,001 7,173,739 6,986,560 7,008,033 7,551,324
7,195,328 7,182,422 7,374,266 7,427,117 7,448,707 7,281,330
10/854,503 7,328,956 10/854,509 7,188,928 7,093,989 7,377,609
7,600,843 10/854,498 10/854,511 7,390,071 10/854,525 10/854,526
7,549,715 7,252,353 7,607,757 7,267,417 10/854,505 7,517,036
7,275,805 7,314,261 7,281,777 7,290,852 7,484,831 10/854,523
10/854,527 7,549,718 10/854,520 7,631,190 7,557,941 10/854,499
10/854,501 7,266,661 7,243,193 10/854,518 10/934,628 7,163,345
7,448,734 7,425,050 7,364,263 7,201,468 7,360,868 7,234,802
7,303,255 7,287,846 7,156,511 10/760,264 7,258,432 7,097,291
7,645,025 10/760,248 7,083,273 7,367,647 7,374,355 7,441,880
7,547,092 10/760,206 7,513,598 10/760,270 7,198,352 7,364,264
7,303,251 7,201,470 7,121,655 7,293,861 7,232,208 7,328,985
7,344,232 7,083,272 7,621,620 7,669,961 7,331,663 7,360,861
7,328,973 7,427,121 7,407,262 7,303,252 7,249,822 7,537,309
7,311,382 7,360,860 7,364,257 7,390,075 7,350,896 7,429,096
7,384,135 7,331,660 7,416,287 7,488,052 7,322,684 7,322,685
7,311,381 7,270,405 7,303,268 7,470,007 7,399,072 7,393,076
7,681,967 7,588,301 7,249,833 7,524,016 7,490,927 7,331,661
7,524,043 7,300,140 7,357,492 7,357,493 7,566,106 7,380,902
7,284,816 7,284,845 7,255,430 7,390,080 7,328,984 7,350,913
7,322,671 7,380,910 7,431,424 7,470,006 7,585,054 7,347,534
7,441,865 7,469,989 7,367,650 6,454,482 6,808,330 6,527,365
6,474,773 6,550,997 7,093,923 6,957,923 7,131,724 7,396,177
7,168,867 7,125,098 7,413,363 7,188,930 7,079,292
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0006] The assignee has developed mobile or cellular telephones,
Personal Data Assistants (PDAs) and other mobile telecommunication
devices, with the ability to print hard copies of content, such as
images or information stored or accessed by the device, (see for
example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,405,055, filed on Nov. 9, 1999). Likewise,
the assignee has also designed digital cameras with the ability to
print captured images with an in-built printer (see for example,
U.S. Pat. No. 6,750,901, filed on Jul. 10, 1998). As the prevalence
of mobile telecommunications devices increases, the functionality
of these devices is further enhanced by the ability to print hard
copies.
[0007] As these devices are portable, they should be compact for
user convenience. Accordingly, any printer incorporated into the
device needs to maintain a small form factor. Also, the additional
load on the battery should be relatively small. Furthermore, the
consumables (such as ink, paper, etc.) should be relatively
inexpensive and simple to replenish. It is these factors that
strongly influence the commercial success or otherwise of products
of this type.
[0008] The assignee of the present invention has also developed the
Netpage system for enabling interaction with computer software
using a printed interface and a proprietary stylus-shaped sensing
device. As described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 6,792,165, filed on
Nov. 25, 2000 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/778,056,
filed on Feb. 17, 2004, a Netpage pen captures, identifies and
decodes tags of coded data printed onto a surface such as a page.
In a preferred Netpage implementation, each tag encodes a position
and an identity of the document. By decoding at least one of the
tags and transmitting the position (or a refined version of the
position, representing a higher resolution position of the pen) and
identity referred to by the decoded tag, a remote computer can
determine an action to perform. Such actions can include, for
example, causing information to be saved remotely for subsequent
retrieval, downloading of a webpage for printing or display via a
computer, bill payment or even the performance of handwriting
recognition based on a series of locations of the Netpage pen
relative to the surface.
[0009] When printing a Netpage, a printer in a mobile
telecommunications device can print the Netpage tags simultaneously
with visible user information. The association between the tags and
information can already exist on a remote Netpage server, such as
where the printer is printing a fully rendered page (including
tags) provided by the Netpage server or another computer.
Alternatively, the mobile telecommunications device can generate
the tags (or source them remotely) and define an association
between the tags and user information. The association is then
recorded in the remote Netpage server.
[0010] A problem with these options is that they require the mobile
telecommunications device to include Netpage tag printing
capabilities. This requires an additional row of print nozzles in
the printhead, and reduces the amounts of ink that can be stored
for non-tag use. Whilst this is less of an issue with large,
mains-powered printers, it can be an issue in small form-factor
articles such as mobile telecommunications devices. Alternatively,
the mobile telecommunications device can be configured to print on
print media that is pre-printed with Netpage tags. That way the
printer need only print the user information and record an
association between the visible information and the pre-printed
tags.
[0011] It is desirable to provide functional applications making
use of the mobile telecommunications device. Such applications can
include, for example, mobile printing applications, linking,
capturing and/or printing generic or specific objects to a print
medium, and many other applications providing functionality to the
mobile telecommunications device and various uses of types of print
media.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0012] In one particular, but non-limiting, aspect, an M-Print
device is a mobile device such as a telephone or PDA which
incorporates a printer. Paper is either manually presented or
auto-fed from a cartridge, depending on device form factor. The
printer may or may not print tags, for example infrared tags, and
the printer or a sensor detects tags printed, for example
pre-printed, onto blank media. The paper path either includes a tag
reader, or it includes a simpler sensor for reading a linear data
track on the card. The data track can encode the same identifier as
the tags. Reading the identifier allows the M-Print device to
associate the card's graphic and/or interactive content with the
identifier. This allows subsequent interactions with the card to be
properly interpreted. The graphic and/or interactive content is
stored on a network-based server, indexed by the identifier.
[0013] It should be noted that the media identifier (i.e. print
media identifier) may correspond to a range of 2D coordinates
without an explicit single media identifier. Hence, reference to
the media identifier is to be read as a reference to an explicit or
defined one or more media identifiers, or, as a reference to a
range of 2D coordinates.
[0014] The device also optionally incorporates a pointer. The
pointer may be used to click on a hyperlink, but generally doesn't
operate at a sufficiently high rate to capture motion.
Alternatively, the telephone may incorporate a fully-functional
Netpage-type pen. Even when the M-Print device doesn't incorporate
a pointer, the user can interact with printed cards by feeding them
through the paper path. The data track reader or tag reader in the
paper path extracts the identifier, which allows the device to
identify the graphic and/or interactive content of the card, and
object(s) linked to the card. Not all M-Print cards have to be
produced by an M-Print device. For example, pre-printed M-Print
cards of a collectible or promotional nature may be included in
cereal packets or magazines. And even blank media may bear
advertising on the reverse side. Not all M-Print cards have to be
interacted with via a pointer in an M-Print device. They can be
interacted with via any device, or another scanning device
altogether which can read the data track or an application-specific
printed barcode.
[0015] An M-Print card acts as a token for the graphic and/or
interactive content of the card, including any objects linked to
the card. A user can easily obtain the original digital content of
the card by clicking on the card or `virtually scanning` the card
through the paper path. For example, a photo acts as a token for
the original digital image, and a business card acts as a token for
the contact details linked to the card. By acting as a token for
its own content, a card allows a user to obtain a perfect re-print.
In addition to the identifier, the data track and the tags encode a
digital signature which allows the card to be authenticated. This
has two purposes. Firstly, it allows a blank card to be
authenticated during printing to prevent the use of non-sanctioned
blanks. Secondly, it allows a card to be authenticated when used as
a token, to prevent fraudulent access to the content of the card or
objects linked to the card.
[0016] Various applications are possible using aspects, components
or features of the mobile telecommunications device and associated
coded print medium. Such applications can include mobile printing
applications, linking, capturing and/or printing generic or
specific objects to a print medium, and many other applications
providing practical uses for the coded print medium and/or the
mobile telecommunications device. Various particular applications
are herein described.
[0017] In a first aspect the present invention provides method of
linking an object to a print medium, comprising the step of: [0018]
submitting a request to associate the object with a print media
identifier of the print medium, submission of the request
facilitating identification of the object and the print media
identifier; [0019] wherein, the association of the object and the
print media identifier is recorded in a database, the object being
retrievable from the database using the print media identifier.
[0020] Optionally the print medium is supplied to a user with at
least one pre-linked object.
[0021] Optionally submission of the request is effected using a
sensor module associated with a mobile telecommunications
device.
[0022] Optionally identification of the object occurs by the mobile
telecommunications device retrieving the object.
[0023] Optionally identification of the object occurs by the mobile
telecommunications device capturing the object as an image using a
camera.
[0024] In a further aspect there is provided a method, further
including the steps of: [0025] receiving the print medium in a
media feed path of the mobile telecommunications device; and,
[0026] reading the print media identifier from the print medium
using the sensor module of the mobile telecommunications
device.
[0027] Optionally the sensor module is at least one of: integrated
with the mobile telecommunications device; and external to the
mobile telecommunications device.
[0028] Optionally the print medium is provided with first coded
data in a first data format, the first coded data encoding first
information.
[0029] Optionally the first information includes the print media
identifier.
[0030] Optionally the first format is a linear pattern.
[0031] Optionally the print medium is provided with second coded
data in a second data format, the second coded data encoding second
information.
[0032] Optionally the second information is indicative of a
two-dimensional coordinate grid.
[0033] Optionally the second information includes the print media
identifier.
[0034] Optionally the second information is indicative of regions
of the print medium surface.
[0035] Optionally a printer module of a mobile telecommunications
device prints the second coded data on the print medium.
[0036] Optionally the second coded data is pre-printed on the print
medium.
[0037] Optionally the object is associated with a region of the
print medium using the second coded data.
[0038] Optionally the printer module prints the first coded data on
the print medium.
[0039] Optionally the object is associated with a form, as a
particular field of a form or a particular instance of a form.
[0040] Optionally the object can be associated with a second print
media identifier.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0041] An example embodiment of the present invention should become
apparent from the following description, which is given by way of
example only, of a preferred but non-limiting embodiment, described
in connection with the accompanying figures.
[0042] FIG. 1 illustrates an example High Level Architecture;
[0043] FIG. 2 illustrates example M-Doc Retriever Components;
[0044] FIG. 3 illustrates an example Nugget Generation Service;
[0045] FIG. 4 illustrates an example Player;
[0046] FIG. 5 illustrates an example PlayRequest;
[0047] FIG. 6 illustrates example Values, Types and Categories;
[0048] FIG. 7 illustrates an example interactive business card;
[0049] FIG. 8 illustrates an example Player Sequence;
[0050] FIG. 9 illustrates an example RequestRouter and related
classes;
[0051] FIG. 10 illustrates an example UserRequestRouter;
[0052] FIG. 11 illustrates a typical arrangement of routers and
player agents in a Netpage system;
[0053] FIG. 12 illustrates example Capability and Request
Propagation;
[0054] FIG. 13 illustrates an example Capability Aggregation;
[0055] FIG. 14 illustrates an example Capability
Transformation;
[0056] FIG. 15 illustrates example PlayerProfiles;
[0057] FIG. 16 illustrates an example Printed Interface for
selecting the current player profile;
[0058] FIG. 17 illustrates example PlayRequests embedded in an
interactive document;
[0059] FIG. 18 illustrates an example Request Routing;
[0060] FIG. 19 illustrates an example Synchronous Messaging
Sequence Diagram;
[0061] FIG. 20 illustrates an example Asynchronous Messaging
Communication Sequence;
[0062] FIG. 21 illustrates an example Streaming Messaging
Sequence;
[0063] FIG. 22 illustrates an example Interactive Messaging
Sequence;
[0064] FIG. 23 illustrates an example Hybrid Messaging
Sequence;
[0065] FIG. 24 illustrates an example Player Session Sequence
Diagram;
[0066] FIG. 25 illustrates an example Player Session Detailed
Sequence Diagram;
[0067] FIG. 26 illustrates an example Desktop Player
Deployment;
[0068] FIG. 27 illustrates an example Short-Range Thin Mobile
Player Deployment;
[0069] FIG. 28 illustrates an example Long-Range Thin Mobile Player
Deployment;
[0070] FIG. 29 illustrates an example Smart Mobile Player;
[0071] FIG. 30 illustrates an Object association being displayed in
a physical Player Device;
[0072] FIG. 31 illustrates an Object association being displayed in
the Explorer application;
[0073] FIG. 32 illustrates a Creation of an impression object
association;
[0074] FIG. 33 illustrates an example Tagged Sticker;
[0075] FIG. 34 illustrates an example Reusable Sticker;
[0076] FIG. 35 illustrates an example Sticker with "Confirm
Action";
[0077] FIG. 36 illustrates an example Sticker with limited
interactive areas to prevent accidental invocation of destructive
operations;
[0078] FIG. 37 illustrates example Category Specific Stickers;
[0079] FIG. 38 illustrates an example Swipe based printed toolbar
for creating impression associations;
[0080] FIG. 39 illustrates an example Swipe Based Sticker with
Transparent Region;
[0081] FIG. 40 illustrates an example Swipe Based Sticker with
Graphics over the Transparent Region;
[0082] FIG. 41 illustrates an example Impression Associations
Object Model;
[0083] FIG. 42 illustrates example Field Associations in the
Netpage Server;
[0084] FIG. 43 illustrates an example Object Association Sample
Application;
[0085] FIG. 44 illustrates an example Underlying Form;
[0086] FIG. 45 illustrates an example Overlayed Form;
[0087] FIG. 46 illustrates an example Printed Contacts with Phone
Numbers;
[0088] FIG. 47 illustrates an example State machine for basic
clipboard interaction;
[0089] FIG. 48 illustrates an example interactive Netpage card with
common operations;
[0090] FIG. 49 illustrates an example State machine for operation
based clipboard;
[0091] FIG. 50 illustrates simultaneously supporting both object
first and command first models;
[0092] FIG. 51 illustrates example Single use clipboard
entries;
[0093] FIG. 52 illustrates an example Single-use clipboard with
timeouts;
[0094] FIG. 53 illustrates an example Multi-use clipboard with
timeouts;
[0095] FIG. 54 illustrates an example Interactive card for
selecting a printer;
[0096] FIG. 55 illustrates example Field details of printer
selection card;
[0097] FIG. 56 illustrates an example Netpage form containing
various commands;
[0098] FIG. 57 illustrates an example Command form showing details
of office printer field;
[0099] FIG. 58 illustrates an example SMS Based Downloadable
Content Purchase;
[0100] FIG. 59 illustrates an example Netpage Play Sequence for
Previewing a Ringtone;
[0101] FIG. 60 illustrates an example Using play requests to
deliver the product;
[0102] FIG. 61 illustrates an example Using play requests to
purchase the product, and traditional delivery;
[0103] FIG. 62 illustrates an example Hybrid approach using
traditional delivery on the last hop to the handset;
[0104] FIG. 63 illustrates an example Load card;
[0105] FIG. 64 illustrates an example Validating an ID;
[0106] FIG. 65 illustrates an example High level printing
sequence;
[0107] FIG. 66 illustrates an example High level sequence diagram
for uploading from a mobile device;
[0108] FIG. 67 illustrates an example High level sequence diagram
for downloading to a mobile device, using a SMS alert to trigger
the download;
[0109] FIG. 68 illustrates an example Sequence fragment showing the
processing of scanned ID;
[0110] FIG. 69 illustrates an example Local Photo Printing
Sequence;
[0111] FIG. 70 illustrates an example Printing Uploads to a Photo
Archive;
[0112] FIG. 71 illustrates an example Capturing a Netpage document
via printing;
[0113] FIG. 72 illustrates an example Business Card;
[0114] FIG. 73 illustrates example Business Card Phone Number
Fields;
[0115] FIG. 74 illustrates an example Business Card Fax Field;
[0116] FIG. 75 illustrates an example Business Card Web URL
Field;
[0117] FIG. 76 illustrates example Business Card SMS and MMS
Fields;
[0118] FIG. 77 illustrates an example Business Card Email
Field;
[0119] FIG. 78 illustrates an example Street Address Field;
[0120] FIG. 79 illustrates an example Business Card Photo and Name
Field;
[0121] FIG. 80 illustrates an example Business Card Identifier
Field;
[0122] FIG. 81 illustrates an example Printed photo card;
[0123] FIG. 82 illustrates example Interactive fields for photo
card;
[0124] FIG. 83 illustrates an example Scanning of an M-Print
printout;
[0125] FIG. 84 illustrates an example Sequence diagram for
generating Netpage clicks from a mobile device GUI;
[0126] FIG. 85 illustrates a schematic representation of the
modular interaction in a printer/mobile phone;
[0127] FIG. 86 illustrates a schematic representation of the
modular interaction in a tag sensor/mobile phone;
[0128] FIG. 87 illustrates a schematic representation of the
modular interaction in a printer/tag sensor/mobile phone;
[0129] FIG. 88 is a more detailed schematic representation of the
architecture within the mobile phone of FIG. 87;
[0130] FIG. 89 is a more detailed schematic representation of the
architecture within the mobile phone module of FIG. 88;
[0131] FIG. 90 is a more detailed schematic representation of the
architecture within the printer module of FIG. 88;
[0132] FIG. 91 is a more detailed schematic representation of the
architecture within the tag sensor module of FIG. 88;
[0133] FIG. 92 is a schematic representation of the architecture
within a tag decoder module for use instead of the tag sensor
module of FIG. 88;
[0134] FIG. 93 illustrates an exploded perspective view of a "candy
bar" type mobile phone embodiment;
[0135] FIG. 94 illustrates a partially cut away front and bottom
view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 93;
[0136] FIG. 95 illustrates a partially cut away rear and bottom
view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 93;
[0137] FIG. 96 illustrates a front elevation of the embodiment
shown in FIG. 93 with a card being fed into the entry slot;
[0138] FIG. 97 illustrates a cross section view taken along line
A-A of FIG. 96;
[0139] FIG. 98 illustrates a cross section view taken along line
A-A of FIG. 96 with the card emerging from the media exit slot of
the mobile phone;
[0140] FIG. 99 illustrates a lateral cross section through a print
cartridge;
[0141] FIG. 100 illustrates the media coding on the card with
separate clock and data tracks;
[0142] FIG. 101 illustrates a block diagram of an M-print system
that uses media with separate clock and data tracks;
[0143] FIG. 102 illustrates a simplified circuit diagram for an
optical encoder;
[0144] FIG. 103 illustrates a block diagram of the MoPEC with the
clock and data inputs;
[0145] FIG. 104 illustrates a block diagram of the optional edge
detector and page sync generator for the M-print system of FIG.
101;
[0146] FIG. 105 illustrates a block diagram of a MoPEC that uses
media with a pilot sequence in the data track to generate a page
sync signal;
[0147] FIG. 106 illustrates a schematic representation of the
position of the encoders along the media feed path.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0148] The following modes, given by way of example only, are
described in order to provide a more precise understanding of the
subject matter of a preferred embodiment or embodiments. In the
figures, incorporated to illustrate features of an example
embodiment, like reference numerals are used to identify like parts
throughout the figures.
1.0 Printing Internet Based Content Product Architecture
[0149] An example of a M-Print print media is the size of a
business card. In general, documents or web based materials that
have been designed for display on a desktop monitor or to be
printed on A4 or Letter paper and may not print well on such sized
media. If the content is reduced for the business card media then
the content may be too small for easy reading. If multiple pages of
media are used to print a page then the user is required to
assemble the pages in the correct order before the printout is
meaningful. To have presentable, effective content on a business
card sized media the content should be specifically authored for
that sized media. Described herein is a general mechanism to allow
the authors and providers of web applications and web sites to make
explicit use of the new media size, such as a business card.
[0150] The term "Mobile Document" or M-Doc is herein used to refer
to documents specifically authored to be printed via M-Print. The
format of a "Mobile Document" (i.e print medium) may vary, it can
be pre-rendered and in a format ready to be sent directly to the
printer, or it can be in a higher level format that requires
rendering before printing. On some mobile devices it is not be
possible to render the "Mobile Document" on the device, thus the
"Mobile Document" is rendered before being sent to the mobile
device. In regard of other mobile devices, the "Mobile Document"
can be sent in the high level format and rendered on the mobile
device. In general, to be able to render on the device the "Mobile
Document" format is provided in an encapsulated format that
contains the data necessary to render the M-Doc. Thus, by providing
the M-Doc in an encapsulated format, the M-Doc does not necessarily
have to rely on a particular font or bitmap being available on the
mobile device (i.e. mobile telecommunications device).
[0151] A common usage of a "Mobile Document" is for the author of a
web page to summarise contents of the web-page in a "Mobile
Document", which will herein be referred to as a "Nugget", and to
provide a link on the page for users to print the nugget. When the
web page is static HTML the content of the nugget can also be
static. If the web page is dynamic HTML then it is likely the
content of the nugget may also have to be dynamically created.
[0152] Current 2.5G mobile data networks have low bandwidth, high
latency, and are expensive to transfer data over. The emerging 3G
networks improve the bandwidth and latency but are still expensive
to transfer data over. Mobile carriers tend to subsidise some of
the data transfer mechanisms to encourage use, so it is possible to
have a situation where it is significantly cheaper to send data via
an MMS than it is to transfer it via a HTTP request over the same
network. For this reason the proposed architecture supports
multiple ways of delivering an M-Doc to a mobile device. The
architecture is also designed to minimise the number of requests
that need to be made from the device to retrieve a M-Doc and to
also to minimise the amount of data that needs to be transferred to
the device to transmit an M-Doc.
[0153] There are three messaging services in common use in the
mobile networks at the moment: SMS (Short Message Service), EMS
(Enhanced Message Service and MMS) (Multimedia Message Service).
SMS is generally designed for sending text only messages up to 160
characters long. EMS is an enhanced version of SMS consisting of
several SMS messages clustered together. This mechanism is used to
deliver ring tones, etc to handsets. Both SMS and EMS are
implemented using existing mechanisms in the GSM or CDMA networks
and do not require IP based bearers such as GPRS. MMS provides the
ability to send a mixture of multimedia formats such as images,
sound and movies along with a definition of how to use these
multimedia formats using the Synchronized Multimedia Integration
Language, SMIL. MMS does not have any theoretical size limits. MMS
is implemented on top of IP bearers and requires GPRS or one the 3G
equivalents to be deployed. Since MMS uses IP bearers it is not
able to self-transfer or "push" itself out to a handset, instead it
uses SMS to alert the user to the fact that an MMS message is
waiting in the network for the user to retrieve, so it requires a
"push" and "pull" to retrieve the message, whereas SMS requires a
single "push" and EMS is delivered by multiple "pushes".
1.1 High Level Architecture
[0154] Referring to FIG. 1, a M-Doc 500 residing in the network 501
generally requires delivery to the mobile device 100 before it can
be printed. There are two ways in which a request to retrieve and
print an M-Doc 500 can originate: [0155] 1--direct user action,
typically clicking on a link on a web page; or [0156] 2--the
arrival of an SMS or MMS containing a M-Doc reference 507 or an
M-Doc 500 itself.
[0157] A M-Doc Retriever 502 is a component responsible for
fetching an M-Doc 500. The M-Doc 500 is then passed to the M-Doc
Printing Service 503 and printed. The following sections explain
each of these major components and their inputs and outputs in more
detail.
1.1.1 Web/WAP Browser
[0158] The Web Browser 504 is a third party application available
on the mobile device 100. It is used by the user to browse web
pages. A web site that supports printing M-Docs 500 includes web
pages that contain M-Doc Reference links. When the user clicks on a
M-Doc Reference link, a M-Doc 500 reference is returned to the
browser 504. The M-Doc reference 507 can be handled by the browser
504 in a number of ways dependent upon the operating system running
on the mobile device 100.
[0159] It is also possible for the M-Doc Retriever 502 to be
activated directly by passing the M-Doc Retriever 502 a web page
reference. This triggers a Nugget Creation service 506 to generate
a Nugget for the website which the web page reference is associated
with. The ability to generate a meaningful Nugget for a website
depends on the content of the website.
1.1.2 M-Doc Retriever
[0160] The M-Doc retriever 502 is activated by the arrival of M-Doc
reference 507 to the device.
[0161] Referring to FIG. 2, the M-Doc Retriever 502 is responsible
for taking a M-Doc Reference 507 and resolving it to an M-Doc 500
to be passed onto the M-Doc Printing Service 503. There are a
number of ways that a M-Doc Reference 507 can be supplied to the
M-Doc Retriever 502: [0162] 1. MIME type recogniser 508--This can
be activated either by clicking on a link in a web page that causes
an "HTTP Get" of an object whose MIME type is an M-Doc reference
507. Or it can be activated by the arrival on the mobile device of
an Obex transfer 511. [0163] 2. Message Monitor 509--This is a
component that monitors the Inbox of the Messaging Service on the
mobile device. When it receives a message from any source that
contains an M-Doc reference 507, the Message Monitor 504 passes the
M-Doc reference 507 onto the M-Doc Retriever 502. [0164] 3. Web
browser plugin 510--This is triggered by explicit scripting code in
a web page being browsed on a web browser 504. When the Web browser
plugin is activated, it is passed a M-Doc reference 507 which is
passed onto the M-Doc Retriever 502.
[0165] The M-Doc Retriever 502 receives the M-Doc Reference 507
which is in the format of a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier). The
M-Doc Retriever 502 appends device specific information to URI and
is dispatched via an HTTP request to the M-Doc Retrieval Service
512 running on the device. Device specific information that is
appended to the URI is dependent upon how the system has been
deployed and the capabilities of the device.
[0166] If a Mobile Device Capability Service 513 is deployed in the
network 501 then the device specific information appended only
requires identification the handset, via IMEI. If the Mobile Device
Capability Service 513 is not deployed in the network 501 then the
device 100 is required to append information relating to the
printer 4, the formats of M-Doc's 500 the device 100 is capable of
printing and the preferred delivery method. The printer information
required is deployment specific. If the renderer is able to look up
the printer characteristics based on the handset or a printer
version number then only those need to be provided, but if not,
then information relating the printers resolution and colour space
parameters are required.
[0167] The M-Doc URI that is supplied by the application is used to
retrieve the M-Doc 500. This URI contains information needed to
retrieve or generate the M-Doc 500 from the application 514. If the
format of the returned M-Doc 500 matches the format(s) the device
100 is capable of printing, then the document 500 is delivered to
the device 100. If there is an unsuccessful match, the M-Doc 500 is
rendered. This is performed by passing the document 500 to the
rendering service 515 along with the printer information. The
rendering service returns the document in a pre-rendered format
which can be printed by a mobile device 100 containing a printer
4.
[0168] The way in which the M-Doc 500 is delivered back to the
M-Doc retriever 502 can also vary. It may be returned in the reply
to the original HTTP request or it may be sent via an MMS or
e-mail. These later two cases are most likely to be used in an
environment where the pricing policy of a carrier encourages MMS or
email use over general web browsing. The preferred delivery method
may be included in the retrieval request or it may be looked up via
the Mobile Device Capability Service 513.
[0169] The Rendering Service 515 may also be used directly by
application writers who want to provide pre-rendered M-Doc's within
their application. In this case the Rendering Service 515 is
accessed via SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) as a web service,
providing the M-Doc 500 in its authored format and obtaining the
pre-rendered print format document and a thumbnail image for use in
a GUI 516 of the application 514 running on the device 100.
[0170] When an MMS 517 is sent to the mobile device 100, the MMS
517 is stored in the mobile network at a MMS Message Centre 518 and
an SMS is sent to the device to alert the user an MMS 517 is
waiting to be fetched. With a modification this notification
mechanism can be used to deliver an M-Doc 500 to a phone 100. The
SMS notification can contain both an M-Doc reference 507 and an MMS
notification. The request to fetch the MMS from the Message Centre
518 can be enhanced with the M-Doc reference 509, allowing the
Message Centre 518 to contact the M-Doc Retrieval Service 512 to
retrieve the M-Doc 500 in the body of the MMS 517. This service is
called an M-Doc MMS service.
[0171] Any email, MMS, Obex or web page may contain a direct M-Doc
500 rather than an M-Doc Reference 507. In this case the M-Doc 500
is passed directly onto the M-Doc Printing Service 503. Unless the
sender of the message knows the capability of the handset receiving
the M-Doc 500, the M-Doc 500 may not be able to be rendered
appropriately, hence the M-Doc Reference 507 approach is preferred,
but in some cases, such as a subscription, the sender may know the
capabilities of the handset and hence be able to by-pass the M-Doc
Retrieval process and deliver the M-Doc 500 directly.
1.1.3 M-Doc Printing Service
[0172] The M-Doc Printing Service 503 prints the document 500 to
the printer 4 in the mobile device 100. M-Doc's 500 may have
different document formats, but the M-Doc Retriever stage ensures
that it retrieves an M-Doc 500 in a format that can be printed by
the mobile device 100 without any further network interactions.
1.1.4 Nugget Production
[0173] A Nugget is the distillation of the content of a web page
onto an M-Print sized printout. In general this not only involves
reducing the web layout so that the content fits onto the M-Print
printout. The process also involves selecting the key pieces of
information on the web page and explicitly composing an M-Doc 500
that presents the information appropriately. Nugget support can be
provided in two ways: [0174] 1. As part of the design of the
application 514 [0175] 2. By a nugget generating service 519.
[0176] Providing nugget support as part of the design of web
application 514 requires the author of the web interface to provide
a link to a nugget on the web page. Depending on the nature of the
web content the nugget could either be statically authored along
with the page or it could be dynamically authored based on the
dynamic content on the web page.
[0177] For web sites that do not support Nuggets as part of the
interface, nuggets can be generated by a nugget generation service
519.
[0178] Referring to FIG. 3, the Nugget Generation Service 519 is
activated when a special form of a M-Doc Reference 507 is passed to
the M-Doc Retriever 502 on the mobile device 100, which references
a web page rather than an M-Doc. The Nugget Retrieval Service
detects this and passes the request onto the Nugget Creation
Service 519.
[0179] The Nugget Creation Service 519 generates a nugget for the
supplied web page in one of two ways: [0180] 1. If the supplied web
page comes from an explicitly supported web application, it passes
the web page onto the nugget generator for that web application.
Common web applications such as: Google, e-bay, Yahoo, Wikipedia
and Amazon could be supported. [0181] 2. If the web page is not
from a supported application, then the contents is scaled to fit
into an M-Doc 500.
[0182] The nugget generator for supported applications include
knowledge of the structure of the web page and the main purpose of
the web application, and thus be able to extract information from
the key fields and present that in a nugget. For example: [0183] A
Google web page could be distilled to a nugget by showing the:
search criteria; the top ten hits; how many other hits where
returned. [0184] An Amazon web page could be distilled to showing
the contents of the shopping cart. [0185] A Wikipedia web page
could be distilled to the term and the definition.
1.2 Applications
[0186] This section discusses some applications of Internet Based
M-Document printing architecture. Any M-Doc 500 can be Netpage
enabled.
1.2.1 Daily Subscription Services
[0187] Many people buy the daily newspapers to access a few small
sections of the paper, eg. puzzles, crosswords or cartoons. Using
M-Doc printing it is possible for a user to browse online to the
content and then request a printout of the content of their choice.
To avoid having to browse each day, a subscription service that
"pushes" the user's desired sections out to them each day can be
set up. The service could use: SMS, MMS or e-mail to "push" the
M-Doc References out to the mobile device. The user can then print
then content of the subscription when required.
[0188] Some of the sections of a newspaper that would suit this
form of distribution are: [0189] Crossword puzzles: Crossword grid
on one sheet; clues on another. [0190] Number puzzles, eg. Sudoku
[0191] Jokes [0192] Cartoons [0193] Local Weather
1.2.2 Navigation and Location Based Services
[0194] Web services such as "WhereIs" (www.whereis.com) provide
both the ability to get a list of directions to go from one
location to another and/or a map. Using a mobile device's browser
504 the user can enter the destination and their current location
and then have the map and directions delivered as an M-Doc 500 to
be printed.
[0195] This gives a more convenient presentation of the map and
directions to refer to while driving. Also in many regions in the
world it is illegal to look at a mobile phone while driving, but it
is not illegal to consult a map or written directions.
[0196] Mobile devices 100 that support location services are able
to supply their location automatically. In this case it is only
necessary to specify the destination to receive a map and/or a set
of directions to print.
[0197] As well as assisting navigation, location based services can
be used to present of list of possible destinations. For example:
[0198] A service that prints out the list of restaurants within
walking distance; [0199] Directions to the closest Service Station
(or any type of shop); [0200] Directions to the closest public
transport stop.
1.2.3 Company Business Cards
[0201] Corporate websites often promote a company's public image,
this can be extended by providing the ability to print a "Company
Business Card" that gives the general information about the company
and its general contact details. As well as a general "Company
Business Card", individual departments could easily have their own
business cards, eg. the Service Department contact details.
[0202] Web sites for companies normally have a page dedicated to
how to find them, that is, directions on how to get to their
buildings from major transport hubs. These sites could easily
include M-Documents 500 showing maps of: [0203] How to get to the
company's premises [0204] Where the closest parking is [0205] Where
the closest Hotel is [0206] Directions on how to navigate from one
building to another.
1.2.4 Discount Coupon/Voucher
[0207] Discount coupons can be delivered by M-Documents 500. These
can be delivered via the web as part of an advertisement, either
directly with the advertisement containing a link to a M-Document
500 or a coupon could be delivered to the mobile device as a reward
for clicking through an advertisement to the companies web
site.
[0208] A company could "push" out via SMS, MMS or e-mail vouchers
to members of their loyalty scheme or just to the general public as
a promotion. Another variation on this scheme is the ability to
deliver a voucher or coupon to a user who enters a competition or
votes on-line. For example, using an SMS to vote on a reality TV
show could result in an MMS being returned with a coupon for a
prize, or voting from a web site could return an M-Doc 500 with an
advertisement and the possibility of a prize.
1.2.5 On-Line Receipts
[0209] When performing on-line transactions from a mobile device
100 a receipt for the transaction can be returned via an M-Doc 500.
This gives a printout that can be filed with a user's other
receipts. The receipts can contain bar codes and/or be Netpage
enabled to allow the transaction to be recalled on-line on demand.
Some example on-line transactions this could be used for are:
[0210] Betting, the nugget can record: the selected options, the
odds, the money wagered and the possible payouts; [0211] Banking,
the nugget can be similar to an EFTPOS receipt; [0212] Purchasing,
the nugget can be similar to a shop receipt; [0213] Paying bills;
[0214] Taxi payment
1.2.6 Ticketing
[0215] For tickets that do not require magnetic stripes it is
possible to deliver them over-the-air at the time of purchase. This
could included: Public transport tickets; Theme park ride tickets;
Theatre tickets; Cinema tickets.
1.2.7 Web CAM Print
[0216] While viewing a web cam on your mobile device, a user can
select print and have an M-Document 500 of the image at that time
sent to the users phone.
1.2.8 On-Line Gaming
[0217] On-line games can use Nuggets to provide additional
information about the game. They can be used to provide: Cheat
sheets; Maps; Character summaries; Brag cards, to demonstrate what
level you have reached; Vouchers or Coupons as rewards for
achievement.
2. Player Architecture
[0218] A Netpage Player 520 is a physical or virtual device capable
of "playing" requests of various types. A play request 521 consists
of three parts: [0219] 1. The target 522, which specifies which
player 520 the request 521 should be played. [0220] 2. The
operation 523, which specifies the action to be performed. [0221]
3. A set of values 524, which are supplied as parameters to the
operation 523'. Typically play requests 521 arise in response to
user actions. For example, the user clicks on a tagged surface with
a Netpage pointer, or interacts with an application that is in
contact with the Netpage system. Play requests 521 can be used to
provide a simple feedback mechanism (such as a request to display a
text string to the user), or may be used to cause more
sophisticated interactions with physical devices (such as setting
the thermostat temperature on a home air conditioning system).
[0222] Individual players 520 can be associated with a user 525 as
shown in FIG. 4. A user 525 may be associated with multiple players
520 each of which supports the playing of possibly overlapping sets
of PlayRequests 521.
[0223] It is likely that in many cases a single physical
NetpagePlayer device 520 is shared between multiple users 525. For
example, a hi-fi audio system in a family room may be configured as
an audio player for multiple members of the family. For the sake of
brevity, this section focuses on cases where physical players are
exclusively used by a single user, however, it will be appreciated
that this section may be applied to multiple users.
[0224] Central to the NetpagePlayer 520 concept is the notion of a
PlayRequest 521 which are objects that represent a request to
perform an operation on some device. This sections describes
various details related to PlayRequests 521.
2.1 Structure of a PlayRequest
[0225] A PlayRequest (see FIG. 5) consists of three parts, each of
which is optional: [0226] 1. An optional target 522 which specifies
which Netpage player 520 the request 521 should be played, [0227]
2. An optional operation 523 which specifies the type of action to
be performed on the target player 522, and [0228] 3. An optional
list of values 524 which are supplied as parameters to the
operation 523.
[0229] A play request 521 may either be fully or partially
specified. A fully specified play request completely specifies all
of the information (target, operation, and parameters) required to
unambiguously deliver the request to the target 522 and to perform
the desired operation 532. A partially specified play request
provides some indication of the request 521 to be played, but does
not provide enough information in order for the play request 521 to
be successfully delivered and played without further
processing.
[0230] A target 522 may either fully or partially specify the
target 522 of a play request 521. A fully specified target
completely identifies the physical player 520 on which the request
521 should be played. A partially specified target provides some
indication of the desired target 522, but does not provide enough
information in order for the play request 521 to be delivered
without further processing. An operation 523 can also be fully or
partially specified. A Value 524 consists of a physical type 525
and associated data 526. For example, the physical type 525 might
be "image/jpeg" and the data 526 would be the binary image
data.
2.2 Values and Types
[0231] A Value 524 represents an instance of some physical type
525. Each Value 524 has an associated physical type 525 and zero or
more associated type categories. The physical type identifies the
structure of the data element of the Value 524. A possible
mechanism would be to use MIME types. For example, if the physical
type 525 is image/jpeg then the data element would contain the
binary data of an image in jpeg format.
[0232] Referring to FIG. 6, a Value is also optionally associated
with one or more Categories 527. A Category 527 is used to provide
additional information about the value 524 which may allow it to be
handled more sensibly by the system (i.e. to allow a PlayRequest to
be better matched against the capabilities of candidate targets
during request routing). As an example, an image value produced by
a digital camera may have the physical type 525 image/jpeg, but may
also be associated with a category 527 of "photo", whereas an image
value produced by a fax package might also have the physical type
525 image/jpeg, but could be associated with a category 527 of
"facsimile" or with no category at all.
[0233] RequestRouters can take into account both the physical type
525 of a value 524 and the categories 527 to which it belongs when
determining the most appropriate way to handle a request 521.
2.3 Sample PlayRequests
[0234] To better demonstrate the PlayRequest concept, this section
provides a number of sample PlayRequests 521. A PlayRequest 521 can
be viewed in tabular form as shown below by example in Table 1.
TABLE-US-00003 TABLE 1 target <identification of the target of
the request> operation <the name of the operation to be
performed> parameters <physical type and categories of
<value of parameter parameter 1> 1> ... ... <physical
type and categories of <value of parameter parameter n>
n>
[0235] Firstly, the Request 1 shows a fully specified PlayRequest
521 for dialling a number on a specific mobile phone.
TABLE-US-00004 Request 1 target mobile-phone-xyz56474238 operation
dial parameters phone-number "555 6754"
[0236] The target field 522 is fully specified and indicates that
the request 521 is to be performed on the device 520 identified by
the name/address "mobile-phone-xyz56474238". Note that for
simplicity, simple text strings to indicate the address of each
physical target 522. The play request 521 contains an operation of
"dial" which is understood by the mobile phone's NetpagePlayer 520.
The request 521 also includes a phone number which is a required
parameter 528 to the "dial" operation 523.
[0237] As shown below, Request 2 is only partially specified due to
only containing a partially specified target 522. The target 522
specifies that the request 521 should be played on a mobile phone,
but does not specify which mobile phone.
TABLE-US-00005 Request 2 target mobile phone operation dial
parameters phone-number "555 6754"
[0238] Request 3 shown below is also only partially specified. In
this case, the target 522 has been completely left out. Although
only being partially specified, the request 521 has a definite
meaning: "dial the phone number 555 6754". The device to be used to
dial the number is still to be determined
TABLE-US-00006 Request 3 target operation dial parameters
phone-number "555 6754"
[0239] Request 4 is even less fully specified that Request 3.
Request 4 simply contains the phone number "555 6754". The
operation to be performed with the number and the device to handle
the request (the target) is still to be determined and the device
to handle the request (the target) is still to be determined.
TABLE-US-00007 Request 4 target operation parameters phone-number
"555 6754"
[0240] Request 5 contains a fully specified target 522, but does
not specify an operation 523. Thus, the target of the request 521
is known, but what the target 522 is to do with the request (the
operation) is still to be determined
TABLE-US-00008 Request 5 target mobile-phone-xyz56474238 operation
parameters phone-number "555 6754"
[0241] Request 6 can be used to send a simple text message to the
user. The target 522 is not specified, so the request means display
the following message on whichever player is the most appropriate
at the current time.
TABLE-US-00009 Request 6 target operation display parameters text
"Temperature in Sydney is 28.degree. C."
2.4 Invocation of PlayRequests
[0242] Play requests 521 can arise in one of two ways: [0243] 1.
The user interacts with a printed Netpage form that has been
authored to include invocations of play requests 521. [0244] 2. An
arbitrary application sends a play request 521 to a Netpage Server
529.
[0245] These are discussed in the following sections.
2.4.1 Authored PlayRequests
[0246] PlayRequests 521 can be authored directly into a printed
Netpage document. FIG. 7 provides an example of an interactive
business card 530. The business card 530 contains interactive
elements 531 that can be triggered by clicking on them with a
Netpage pointer. Each interactive element causes a PlayRequest 521
to be invoked. The Netpage Server 529 then arranges for the request
521 to be played by routing it to the appropriate player device
520.
[0247] For example, referring to FIG. 7, consider a user with a
Netpage-enabled mobile phone device 100 with a built-in Netpage
pointer. The user clicks on the mobile phone icon 532 on the
business card 530 which causes the PlayRequest 521 to be triggered.
The server 529 routes the play request 521 to the user's mobile
phone 100 and upon receiving the request 521, the mobile phone 100
commences dialling the required number.
2.4.2 Application Invoked PlayRequests
[0248] FIG. 8 shows a typical example of an application invoked
PlayRequest 521. The steps are as follows: [0249] 1. A Netpage pen
533 transmits a digital ink stroke 534 to the Netpage Server 529.
[0250] 2. The stroke 534 is determined to be a request 521 to
submit a Netpage form for processing. [0251] 3. The form is
submitted to the corresponding Application 535. [0252] 4. As part
of the form submission processing, the application 535 requests
that a play request 521 be played by a Netpage Player 520
associated with the user 525 who made the submission. [0253] 5. The
Server 529 determines the target device 522 and relays the play
request 521 to that device 522.
2.5 Player Devices
[0254] Netpage Player instances can be deployed on various Player
devices (platforms). Individual players support some subset of the
full range of PlayRequests 521 supported by Netpage. Table 2 shows
some examples of Netpage Player Devices.
TABLE-US-00010 TABLE 2 Example Netpage Player Devices Player Device
Comments Desktop This device is a powerful computing unit usually
with fixed network Player 585 connectivity. A desktop player is
capable of playing a wide range of PlayRequests (e.g. audio, video,
image, html, etc). The player can interact with various external
software/hardware components running on the device. Thin Mobile
This device is a mobile unit with limited computing power such as
web- Player enabled or low-end mobile phones. 587 The thin player
running on such mobile device is capable of playing various
PlayRequests by utilizing the capabilities of the device. Examples
include sending SMS objects, dialling phone number objects, etc.
Due to the processing limitations of the device, a remote server
(Netpage and Application Server) processes the input strokes/clicks
and provides the objects to the player. Smart Mobile This device is
a mobile unit with more computing and storage Player capabilities,
such as a high-end smart mobile phone or a PDA. 588 Such device is
capable of enabling most of the Netpage functionality by running a
Micro edition of the Netpage Server locally. In such an
environment, the player can receive PlayRequests from the local
server (running on the device) and no on-line connectivity to a
remote server peer would be necessarily required at the time of
playing. Embedded An embedded player is a custom device that is
built for a specific Player application. Examples of such players
are Digital Camera, capable of playing (i.e. showing) images and
possibly video; or Audio Player, capable of playing audio. The
Netpage player is either built into the device or as a detachable
unit.
[0255] Note that while some of the devices mentioned in Table 2 are
also capable of recording/capturing objects (e.g. a digital camera
of a mobile phone is capable of capturing images), access to such
captured data is not accessible via the Netpage Player concept, but
can be accessed via a Netpage Clipboard, which will be discussed in
more detail.
2.6 Request Processing
[0256] This sections describes how PlayRequest objects 521 are
processed throughout the Netpage system. The processing of requests
includes two operations: [0257] 1. The routing of requests 521 from
one NetpagePlayer 520 to another. [0258] 2. The transformation of
PlayRequests 521 (for example to change a partially specified
request more specified) as they are being routed.
2.6.1 Request Routing
[0259] A play request 521 is routed from source to the eventual
destination via one or more intermediary RequestRouters 536 as
shown in FIG. 9. RequestRouters 536 implement the NetpagePlayer
interface, and are responsible for routing each PlayRequest 521
they receive to an appropriate target NetpagePlayer 520. Each
RequestRouter 536 maintains a set of potential targets 538.
Eventually a PlayRequest 521 arrives at a PlayerAgent 537 which is
responsible for actually performing the play request 521.
[0260] All PlayRequests 521 from (or on behalf of) a user 525 are
initially handled by a RequestRouter 536 inside the Netpage Server
529. This router is called the UserRequestRouter 539 (see FIG. 10).
Typically the UserRequestRouter 539 forwards requests to a
RequestRouter 536 residing on a physical device, although such
forwarding may pass through an arbitrary number of intermediary
RequestRouters 536 along the way. Device based RequestRouters 536
are responsible for routing requests 521 to the various player
agents 537 running on the device.
[0261] The typical scenario is shown in FIG. 11. The
UserRequestRouter 539 has a set of potential targets 538 which are
all RequestRouters 536 residing on physical devices. Each device's
RequestRouter 536 then has a set of potential PlayerAgent targets.
The PlayerAgents are the NetpagePlayers 520 that actually play
requests 521.
2.6.2 Request Transformation
[0262] Each RequestRouter 536 can optionally transform the
PlayRequest 521 it receives before passing it on to a subsequent
NetpagePlayer 520. The transformation typically produces a more
fully specified version of the supplied PlayRequest 521, but may
also produce a completely new PlayRequest 521 with no fields in
common with the source PlayRequest 521.
2.6.3 Player Capabilities
[0263] Different players have different capabilities. That is, each
player is capable of playing a different set of PlayRequests 521.
The capabilities of a NetpagePlayer 520 are specified in a
CapabilitySpecification 540. The capabilities 541 of each child
player are taken into account by RequestRouters 536 when handling
PlayRequests 521. The capabilities 541 of different players may
overlap, potentially resulting in ambiguous PlayRequests 521. Such
ambiguities are resolved by RequestRouters using methods described
in further detail below.
[0264] The CapabilitySpecification 540 is not limited to simply
specifying which operations 523 can be performed on which value
types 524. It may also specify finer grained details. For a
specific PlayRequest 521 the CapabilitySpecification 540 might
specify that it can only handle a subset of possible values. For
example, a player 520 that supports the playing of audio objects
could place a limitation on the size of audio objects
supported.
2.6.3.1 Capability and Request Propagation
[0265] As shown in FIG. 12, a PlayerAgent 537 advertises its
capabilities 541 to its parent RequestRouter 542 which in turn
propagates the aggregation of its children's capabilities 544 to
its parent RequestRouter 543. Eventually the propagation reaches
the UserRequestRouter 539 which then has an overall view of the
capabilities 545 of all of the players at its disposal. PlayRequest
propagation moves in the opposite direction. Requests 521 start at
the UserRequestRouter which determines the most appropriate child
to which the request should be sent. The (possibly transformed)
request is sent to the selected child which in turn propagates the
request to one of its children. Eventually the request reaches a
PlayerAgent 537 which is responsible for actually playing the
request.
2.6.3.2 Capability Aggregation and Transformation
[0266] As a RequestRouter propagates player capabilities (541, 544,
545) to its parent RequestRouter 536, it may perform capability
aggregation and transformation. Capability Aggregation is where the
router 536 combines the capabilities of its children into a single
capability specification 548. Capability Transformation is where
the router 536 modifies the advertised capabilities of its children
due to capabilities (or perhaps limitations) of the router
itself.
[0267] FIG. 13 provides an example of a simple capability
aggregation. The router has two children 550, 551, the first child
550 of which advertises the capability to display jpeg images, the
second child advertises the capability 553 to display plain text.
The router 536 then aggregates the child capabilities 552, 553 into
a single capability specification 540 which is capable of
displaying both jpeg images and plain text.
[0268] FIG. 14 provides an example of a capability transformation.
The PlayerAgent 537 advertises its capability 555 to display
image/jpegs. The RequestRouter 536 has access to an image converter
559 that can convert images in png format to jpeg format. As such,
the capability specification 555 is transformed before propagation
into a capability specification 556 that includes the ability to
display files in png format as well as in jpeg format.
2.6.4 Dynamic Capabilities
[0269] The capabilities advertised by a particular NetpagePlayer
520 can change over time. For example: [0270] 1. Additional
hardware or software can be installed/removed to/from a device,
enabling the player to support more/less PlayRequests 521. [0271]
2. The maximum object size supported by a player may change
depending on the spare capacity in the player's memory. [0272] 3. A
mobile player might be capable of receiving streaming media when it
is connected to the network through a high-bandwidth network.
[0273] 4. Common user interactions with the player (e.g. starting
an application, changing a setting) can cause the player to
advertise more or less capabilities.
[0274] Such changes in capabilities are to be communicated to the
player's parent RequestRouter 536, and potentially, but not always,
to the parent's parent, and so on all the way to the
UserRequestRouter 539.
[0275] At the same time, as dynamic capability changes are being
propagated, requests 521 are being routed in the opposite direction
(as shown in FIG. 12). This creates a race condition between
capability propagation and request routing, such that by the time a
request arrives at a RequestRouter 536, either the request can no
longer be handled by the player 520, or the player 520 is no longer
the most appropriate recipient for that request 521. Either case
may require that a request 521 be rejected by the player 520 (be it
a router or an agent) and re-routed to the appropriate player
520.
[0276] Additionally, dynamic propagation of capability changes
could potentially cause an undesirable level of network traffic,
harming overall system performance.
2.6.5 Request Handling by the UserRequestRouter
[0277] As already discussed, all PlayRequests 521 presented to the
NetpageServer 529 are handled by the UserRequestRouter 539. The
purpose of the UserRequestRouter 539 is twofold: (i) To determine
the most appropriate child NetpagePlayer (the target 522) to which
the request 521 should be routed; and (ii) To determine any
required transformations to the request 521 that are necessary in
order for the selected target 521 to be able to handle the request
521.
[0278] In order to determine both of the above, the
UserRequestRouter 539 takes into account the content of the
PlayRequest 521 and the context within which it is handled. The
context includes a large range of factors, including, but not
limited to the following: [0279] 1. The capabilities of each of the
available children NetpagePlayers. Availability being partially
determined by the user identity. [0280] 2. The current contents of
the Netpage clipboard. [0281] 3. The originating source of the
request (e.g. the Netpage pointer device which triggered the play
request) and/or the route via which the request arrived. [0282] 4.
The current player profile. [0283] 5. The current date and
time.
2.6.6 Player Profiles
[0284] It is possible that multiple players registered with a user
support the same PlayRequests 521. As a concrete example, consider
the following scenario where a user has registered the following
players. The user 525 has three registered players 520 all of which
are capable of playing images: [0285] A camera phone for playing
phone numbers, plain text, and images. [0286] A digital camera for
playing images. [0287] A desktop application for playing plain
text, html, images, video and audio. [0288] Now consider the case
where the UserRequestRouter 539 receives the following partially
specified PlayRequest 521:
TABLE-US-00011 [0288] target operation display parameters image
contents of image
[0289] The request 521 could potentially be played on any of the
devices 520 mentioned. As such, the request 521 is ambiguous.
[0290] PlayerProfiles 557 are one mechanism which can be used in
order to allow the UserRequestRouter 539 to resolve such
ambiguities. A PlayerProfile 557 provides a (typically restricted)
view of the set of players 520 available for a particular user 525
and the set of PlayRequests 521 that can be played on those players
520. A user 525 may have multiple player profiles 525 indicating
the various scenarios within which they use the Netpage system. At
any point in time, one of these profiles 525 is set as the Current
Profile 558 as shown in FIG. 15.
[0291] For example, a user might have the following profiles:
[0292] An "office" profile that directs most player requests to
their desktop PC. [0293] A "home" profile that directs requests to
various devices throughout the user's house. [0294] A "mobile"
profile that directs player requests to various portable devices
(e.g. a smart phone). [0295] A "car" profile that directs player
requests to devices within the user's automobile.
[0296] A user can quickly change their current profile by a simple
user action. For example, if in the office, the user could select
the profile via a desktop GUI. Alternatively the user could use
their Netpage pen/pointer to select a profile from a printed
interface 559 such as that shown in FIG. 16. The system could also
allow a user to specify regular scheduled times at which their
current profile should switch.
2.6.7 An Example Request Routing
[0297] Consider the interactive business card 530 shown in FIG. 7.
The business card contains a number of interactive elements
including the two fields 560, 561 highlighted in FIG. 17. Each of
the fields 560, 561 is represented by a partially specified
PlayRequest 562, 563. Clicking on either field 560, 561 with a
Netpage pointer causes the corresponding play request 562, 563 to
be submitted to the Netpage Server 529 for processing.
[0298] FIG. 18 provides an example of how such a field might be
routed. At step 564 we have the original play request as submitted
to the server. At step 565 the UserRequestRouter interrogates the
PlayRequest and the current context. and determines that the
request should be routed to the user's mobile phone. As such it
transforms the original PlayRequest to produce the request shown in
step 566 and routes the play request to the RequestRouter on the
mobile phone. At step 567 the mobile phone's RequestRouter checks
whether the phone is in a quiescent state (i.e. no applications
running) If so, it transforms the PlayRequest by setting the
operation to "dial", and is routed to the voice communications
sub-system agent 568. If, however, the SMS creation application is
running, then the PlayRequest is transformed by setting the
operation to "set-destination-number", and it is routed to the
running SMS creation application 569. Lastly, if instead the
Contacts application is running, then the PlayRequest is
transformed by setting the operation to "add-contact", and it is
routed to the Contacts application 570.
[0299] The end result is that the act of clicking on a telephone
number on the business card can have very different results
depending on the context within which it is applied. In this
example, both the current context within the Netpage Server 529 and
the current context on the mobile phone were taken into account
when processing the PlayRequest 521.
2.7 Communicating with Players
[0300] Various communication methods are used between a Netpage
Server 529, intermediate gateways 570 and the Netpage client to
enable the playing of PlayRequests 521 on the Player device 520.
Environmental factors such as the following affect the selected
communication mechanism: [0301] Available network connectivity.
[0302] Type of player device being targeted. [0303] Size and type
of objects being transferred and the nature of the operation being
played.
[0304] This section describes categories of messaging mechanisms.
Note that in a single play scenario a combination of messaging
methods can be used.
2.7.1 RPC (Synchronous) Messaging
[0305] Referring to FIG. 19, in an environment where a persistent
connection can be maintained between the Netpage Server 529 and the
Player 520, the server 529 can send the play request 521 to the
player, block till play a request is handled and a response 571 is
returned. A Desktop Player in an active session can communicate to
the server 529 using this method.
2.7.2 Notification (Asynchronous) Messaging
[0306] Referring to FIG. 20, notification messaging is used when
the environment allows playing of an Object through an asynchronous
play( ) request 521 initiated from the Netpage Server 529 to the
Netpage Player 520, delivering the object to be played. The server
529 may continue its activities and optionally receive a future
response from the Player. The example of a notification based
request delivery is when Netpage server pushes an image to a
Netpage Player.
[0307] Depending on the underlying network infrastructure, a
suitable protocol is used to push notifications to the Netpage
Player, i.e. WAP push, SMS, etc.
2.7.3 Streaming
[0308] Referring to FIG. 21, for certain media types, it is
preferable to be able to stream data to a player rather than
transmitting the entire object before playing commences. The
reasons are that: [0309] Large objects may take significant time to
transmit in their entirety to the player. Streaming allows for
playing to take place before the entire object has arrived at the
player thereby reducing latency. [0310] Target player devices may
not have the capacity to hold the entire object. In that case,
streaming is one option for playing the object on the device due to
this limitation. [0311] Unbounded objects such as live video can be
transmitted by streaming.
[0312] Video and audio provide the most significant examples of
types that are typically better suited to streaming To enable the
streaming Netpage Server would be involved in the player selection
process and would then leave actual streaming up to the two
parties. Otherwise the server is likely to be a bottleneck and a
source of additional latency.
[0313] Player can perform read-ahead operations to buffer the data
ahead of playing and avoid network delays and jitters which can
affect the user's experience.
2.7.4 Interactive Messaging
[0314] Referring to FIG. 22, in some scenarios multiple
user/pointer interactions with the Netpage Server 529 invoking
multiple play requests is required to complete a user play
experience. For instance consider a scenario where a user has a
Netpage printout photo that he/she would like to send as a MMS
message to a friend. One way of achieving this is by the user
clicking on the friend's business card's MMS hyperlink. This action
sends a play request to the player activating the MMS editor with
the phone number to which the message is being sent. At this point
user can choose to click on the photo to attach it to the MMS
message. This results in the photo being sent as a second play
request to the Player, wherein the photo is attached to the MMS
content. The state of the player 520 allows chaining multiple play
requests 521 to complete a transaction.
2.7.5 Hybrid Messaging
[0315] Referring to FIG. 23, in some scenarios a multi-transaction
messaging without user interaction is performed to play an object.
Some examples of hybrid messaging are: [0316] Consider a scenario
where a low-end mobile phone player without support for the
suitable push-based notification, wishes to play an unbounded
object. A hybrid solution can be adopted to push a small
notification to the device, notifying the player application (i.e.
through SMS) to initiate a stream-based communication to the
Netpage Server request (i.e. WSP) for delivery of the object.
[0317] Displaying a URL object also uses a multi-transaction hybrid
messaging, where the original object (the URI) is pushed to the
device using a Notification message. At this point the player
(without user interaction) retrieves the URI content by sending a
synchronous request/response message through HTTP.
2.7.6 Player Session Establishment
[0318] When players 520 are instantiated on devices (for instance
during user login on a desktop player or on-demand by the mobile
user), the player 520 registers the mobile device 100 is available
for play requests by initiating a player session 580 with the
Netpage Server 529.
[0319] FIG. 24 shows the basic lifecycle of a NetpagePlayer session
580. First, a process, which is typically running on a remote
machine/device, calls the startPlayerSession( ) method 581 to
commence a NetpagePlayer session 581 with the Netpage Server 529. A
userId 582 is provided which indicates the user 525 to which the
supplied player 520 should be associated. Upon reception of a
startPlayerSession( ) request 581, the server 529 creates a
PlayerSession object which is returned to the remote process 583.
This object can be used at some later time to terminate the session
by calling the terminate( )method.
[0320] FIG. 25 shows more details of the handling a player session
580 within the server 529. As shown previously, a player session is
created 589 by calling the startPlayerSession( )method on the
Netpage Server's CommandProcessor. This causes the creation of a
PlayerSession which in turn creates a NetpagePlayerProxy which is
run within the server and acts as a proxy for the real player by
implementing the NetpagePlayer interface and passing all requests
on to the real player. NetpagePlayerManager::addSession( ) is
called to register the session with the NetpagePlayerManager. The
NetpagePlayerManager is a singleton object responsible for managing
all NetpagePlayer sessions and also for coordinating all
NetpagePlayer traffic within the server.
2.8 Player Deployment
2.8.1 Player Connectivity
[0321] Netpage Player 520 can be deployed on various devices with
different network connectivity capabilities. Table 3 lists some
examples of player network connectivity and transmission
mechanisms. Note that a deployment environment may utilize a
combination of connectivity types. Each connectivity type explains
how one hop communicates to the next hop. For instance a player
communicates with a wireless gateway on the path to the Netpage
Server.
TABLE-US-00012 TABLE 3 Netpage Player Connectivity Types Player
Connectivity Comments Example Standards Local On a desktop device
or a smart mobile, the player Shared memory, communicates with the
next hop locally through the TCP/IP on the on-board IPC mechanisms.
The next hop could be the loop-back server running on the same
desktop, or the micro interface, etc. server running on the smart
mobile, or the gateway to the remote server running locally. Fixed
The connectivity to the next hop is over a fixed TCP over the
Network (wired) network. For instance the desktop player Internet
through a communicates to the remote server through IP-based
dial-up serial link, protocols over Internet. etc. Short-range The
player connects to the next hop through a IrDA, Bluetooth, wireless
Wireless Personal Area network (WPAN). For 802.15, etc. instance a
player running on a PDA uses Bluetooth to communicate to a Relay
module running on a local desktop. Long-range The player
communicates with the next hop through a 802.11a, b, g, wireless
long-range wireless network with national (WLAN) or GPRS, WCDMA,
global (WWAN and Satellite) coverage. For instance etc. the player
is a WAP-enabled cell phone connecting to the remote server over
GPRS wireless network.
2.8.2 Player Deployment Configuration
[0322] Different combinations of player devices and connectivity
types can be configured to provide a suitable Netpage Player and
Server integration environment. FIGS. 26 to 29 demonstrate some of
the more widely applicable types of deployment environments.
Example pen connectivity is demonstrated for clarity.
3. Object Association Design
3.1 Object Associations Overview
[0323] A Netpage object association allows content (objects 601) to
be associated with locations 513 on Netpage documents 603 and
printouts. Arbitrary content types can be supported, but common
examples include pictures/photos, audio, and video.
[0324] An object 601 can either be associated 616 with a document
during the authoring of the document (static association) or can be
associated with a particular document printout at some arbitrary
time after that printout has been created (dynamic
association).
[0325] Additionally, an association 616 may either be an impression
association or a field association. An impression association is a
dynamic association that is associated with a particular {x,y}
location 613 on an impression. A field association is associated
with a particular field of a form (static association) or form
instance (dynamic association).
3.2 Communicating Status to the User
[0326] At times the mechanisms described require communication of
status information (often errors) to the user. The simplest way to
achieve this is to make use of the Netpage Player
infrastructure.
[0327] Special operations (e.g. show-status-ok-message and
show-status-error-message) can be designated for transmitting
status information to the user. The player architecture would
determine, for each message, the most appropriate device (or
devices) on which to display the message and the way in which to
display it. For example, it may be that in certain situations the
pointer is the only available player, in which case an error status
might be "played" by illuminating a red LED on the pointer or
playing a short sound.
3.3 Impression Associations
[0328] An object 601 can be associated dynamically with a specific
{x,y} location 613 on an impression. The associations 616 are
stored inside the Netpage Server 529 and can then be viewed in a
number of ways: [0329] 1. By interacting with the physical
impression using a device that communicates with the Netpage Server
529 to retrieve the associated objects 601. [0330] 2. By
interacting with a virtual view of the impression from within a
graphical software application 602. 3.4 Interacting with Dynamic
Associations
[0331] Referring to FIG. 30, an associated object 601 can be viewed
by interacting with the physical impression using a Netpage Tag
aware device. This shows an example where a tag reading device with
built in screen is passed over a physical impression. The device
communicates impression locations to the Netpage server 529 which
responds with information regarding any associated object 601 that
is currently sensed by the device. Depending on configuration, the
device might begin immediately playing each associated object or
present the user 525 with the option of playing the object 601. If
multiple objects 601 are within the device's field of view, then
the device could present the user with a list of the objects 601
for selection.
[0332] Associated objects 601 can also be viewed by interacting
with a virtual view of the impression from within a graphical
software application 602. There are a number of possible mechanisms
for displaying associated objects 601 in such an application 602.
Each mechanism is responsible for: [0333] Indicating the presence
of an associated object (or objects 601), and [0334] Displaying the
actual content of an associated object 601.
[0335] An example mechanism is shown in FIG. 31 where a graphical
"Netpage Explorer" application 602 is being used to view an
impression which contains associated objects 601. The example shows
an approach in which some visible token 603 (in this case a black
star) is displayed that indicates the locations that contain object
associations 616. The display of the tokens 603 can be toggled by
clicking on a toolbar button 609. To view an associated object 601
the user clicks (or alternatively double-clicks) on the relevant
token 603 which causes the Netpage Explorer application 602 to
retrieve the associated object 601 from the Netpage Server 529 and
to then play the object 601. Depending on the capabilities of the
Netpage Explorer application 602, the object 601 can either be
played within the Netpage Explorer application 602 itself, or by an
external application.
3.5 Methods for Creating Impression Associations
[0336] This section describes various alternative techniques that
may be provided to allow users to dynamically associate content
with a location on an impression. They include: [0337] Modal
association mechanisms [0338] Sticker based mechanisms [0339] Swipe
Based mechanisms [0340] Swipe Based Stickers
3.5.1 Modal Association
[0341] A Modal Association involves first placing the user/pen
session in a mode in which the next pointer click is interpreted as
the specification of an impression location to which a current
clipboard object 601 should be associated.
[0342] FIG. 32 shows an example of how an impression object
association 617 might be created modally. In this case, the user
attaches a photo to an impression. The steps are as follows: [0343]
1. The user takes a photograph using their digital camera 610.
[0344] 2. The user pushes the photograph to the Netpage clipboard
on the Netpage Server 529 (possibly implicitly). [0345] 3. The user
clicks with their Netpage pointer 533 on a printed toolbar 611. In
this case, the user clicks on the "Attach Object" button 612. This
places the pointer session into a mode in which the next click with
the pointer 533 is interpreted as the specification of an
impression location to which the current clipboard object 601
should be associated. [0346] 4. The user clicks on the desired
location 613 on a printed page 614. This causes the Netpage Server
527 to retrieve the current object 601 from the user's clipboard
615 and to associate the object with the impression location
selected in step 3.
[0347] An alternative approach requires steps 3 and 4 to be
performed in the opposite order. That is, the "Attach Object"
command is interpreted to mean associate the object with the
impression location most recently touched by the user.
[0348] Modal association mechanisms can be implemented on top of
the Netpage Clipboard 615 mechanism.
3.5.2 Tagged Stickers
[0349] A tagged sticker 620 is a physical adhesive sticker which is
Netpage tag encoded 617. That is, it is a Netpage impression
printed onto a physical sticker. Clicking on a tagged sticker
causes an object to be associated with that sticker (impression).
Tagged stickers 620 can be physically attached to any surface
whether it be tagged or otherwise (eg. books, desks, walls, etc)
and thus provide a very flexible mechanism for dynamically
associating objects with locations.
[0350] FIG. 33 shows an example of a simple tagged sticker 620. In
order to associate an object 601 with the sticker 620, the user
would perform the following steps. [0351] 1. Push object 601 into
Netpage Clipboard 615 [0352] 2. Physically paste sticker 620 onto
any surface [0353] 3. Use Netpage pointer 533 to click on the
sticker 620 to associate the object 620.
[0354] Once an object 601 has been associated with a sticker 620,
there are various ways in which the user can retrieve/play the
object 601. Firstly, the object 601 can be interacted with using a
physical Netpage Player device 520. Secondly, simply clicking on
the sticker 620 with a Netpage pointer 533 would cause the object
601 to be played. This latter behaviour suggests that sticker
associations would actually be implemented as field associations
618.
3.5.3 Reusable Stickers
[0355] As so far described, once an object 601 is associated with a
sticker 620, that association 616 cannot be altered. A reusable
sticker 621 allows for the object associated with a sticker to be
changed, or erased. Such a sticker 621 is shown in FIG. 34. The
"Attach" button 622 is used to associate an object 601 with the
sticker 621 and allows for a new object 601 to be associated with
the sticker 621, overwriting any previous association 616. The
"Clear" button 623 allows for any association 616 to be
removed.
[0356] Both "Attach" 622 and "Clear" 623 are destructive operations
in that they remove any association 616 that may have been in place
before the operation took place. As such, it may be desirable to be
able to protect against accidental invocation of such operations,
especially in the sticker scenario in which the entire sticker is a
clickable area.
[0357] One mechanism for doing that is shown in FIG. 35 in which a
sticker 621 has a "Confirm Action" button 624. In order for a
destructive operation to be confirmed, the user must first select
the operation and subsequently select the "Confirm Action" button
624. A suitable timeout (say 10 seconds) can be used such that
confirmations must take place within the timeout period in order to
be valid.
[0358] An alternative for preventing accidental invocation of
destructive operations is to limit the interactivity of the sticker
to small areas within the sticker as shown in FIG. 36. The
associated object 601 is only played when the user selects the
"Play" operation 625. The overall sticker 621 is not interactive.
As such, accidental invocation of destructive operations should be
much less likely.
3.5.4 Category Specific Stickers
[0359] So far we have described stickers which retrieve the object
601 most recently assigned to the Netpage Clipboard 615. The
Netpage Clipboard 615 can store multiple objects 601 per user 625
with each object 601 falling into an object category or set of
categories. As such, it is possible to have Category Specific
Stickers 627 that retrieve current objects from the Netpage
Clipboard 615 by category.
[0360] FIG. 37 provides examples. Clicking "Attach" on the left
sticker causes the current clipboard object 601 with a category of
"video" to be associated with the sticker 620. The sticker on the
right achieves a similar effect for objects in the "photo"
category.
3.5.5 Swipe Based mechanisms
[0361] The printed toolbar in FIG. 38 allows an impression
association 617 to be created by swiping a command from a printed
toolbar 626 to the location on an impression to which the object
601 is to be associated. The user temporarily places the toolbar
626 on top of the destination impression and swipes from the
toolbar 626 to the impression. The swiping action provides the
system with digital ink samples from both the toolbar and the
destination impression. These samples enable the determination of
both which object 601 is to be associated (for the card shown the
possibilities being the current video clip, current photo, current
audio clip, or in the case of the "Any" icon, the current object
regardless of type) and to which impression and location on that
impression the object 601 is to be associated.
3.5.6 Swipe Based Stickers
[0362] A limitation of the stickers described earlier is that they
do not actually create an association 616 between the object 601
and the underlying impression on which the sticker is applied. For
example, consider the situation where a sticker has been applied to
a tagged impression, and subsequently an object 601 is associated
with the sticker. If the underlying impression is viewed within the
Netpage Explorer application, then the sticker and associated
object 601 is not be displayed since the Netpage Server 529 is not
aware that the sticker has been applied to that impression.
[0363] The above problem can be solved by applying the swipe based
approach to stickers. The user steps involved are: [0364] 1. Push
object 601 into Netpage Clipboard 615 [0365] 2. Physically paste
sticker 620 onto a tagged impression 600 [0366] 3. Use Netpage
pointer 533 to swipe from sticker 620 to impression 600.
[0367] The action of swiping across both the sticker 620 and the
impression 600 creates a triple association between the impression
600, the sticker 620, and the object 601. Specifically, the Netpage
server 529 is now aware of: [0368] The sticker 620 to which the
object 601 has been associated, and [0369] The impression 600 on
which the sticker 620 has been placed, and the location 613 on the
impression 600 at which the sticker 620 has been placed, and
thereby the location 613 on the impression 600 to which the object
601 is associated.
[0370] The above associations 616 allow the object 601 and sticker
620 to be displayed inside tools such as Netpage Explorer 602.
[0371] A variant of the swipe based sticker is shown in FIG. 39. It
includes a transparent region 628 which allows the tags of the
underlying impression 600 to be seen through the sticker 620. This
makes it possible to create a triple association 616 with a swipe
that remains within the confines of the sticker 620.
[0372] In addition, the transparent region 628 may be transparent
in the infrared spectrum in order for the Netpage pointer 533 to be
able to see the Netpage tags on the underlying impression 600. This
allows for the transparent region 628 to be non-transparent in the
visible spectrum. As such, graphics can be printed over the
transparent region 628. For example, a swipe based category
specific sticker can be constructed which includes indicative
graphics printed over the transparent region 628 as shown in FIG.
40. It is also possible that the instead of using a transparent
region 628, the sticker 620 may alternatively include a hole.
3.5.7 Impression Associations Object Model
[0373] FIG. 41 shows the basic object model representation of
impression associations 617. An ImpressionAssociation 617 includes
a location and the object's content. An ImpressionLocation includes
an {impression,x,y} tuple 629. The content of an associated object
is represented as a PlayRequest 521. In the common case, the
PlayRequest 521 includes a single value, but it also possible to
associate targets and operations. For example, any PlayRequest 521
can be associated with an impression.
[0374] A swipe based sticker is associated with an
ImpressionAssociation on the underlying impression.
3.6 Field Associations
[0375] An object 601 can be dynamically associated with a
particular field of a form instance 630. Such an associated object
601 is then delivered to the relevant application as part of a
submission of the form instance 630. This can be used, for example,
to dynamically attach images (e.g. photos) to a Netpage form 632
and to then have those images sent to the application when the user
clicks on the "submit" form command.
[0376] The relationship between field associations 618 and
impression associations 617 is shown in FIG. 42. A FieldAssociation
618 consists of a specification of the field with which the object
601 is associated and a reference to the underlying impression
association 617 which provides details of the actual object 601.
The ImpressionAssociation 617 structure has been described. The
field is specified by a FieldInstanceAddress 631 which specifies a
form 632 instance 630 and a field number 633 within that form
instance 630. A FormInstance 630 is a specific instance of a Form
632 which is printed on to a Printout 633.
3.6.1 A Sample Application
[0377] FIG. 43 shows a simple application that demonstrates the use
of field associations 618. Use of the application proceeds as
follows: [0378] 1. The user clicks on the "Click here to attach
photo" button 640 with a Netpage pen 533 or pointing device. This
causes the application to request the current photo from the
Netpage clipboard 615 associated with the user 525. That photo is
then associated with the large rectangular field 641. [0379] 2. The
user can click on the large field 641 in order to retrieve the
associated photo and display it on a suitable Netpage Player device
associated with that user 525. [0380] 3. The overall form can be
submitted by clicking on the "Submit" button 642. This causes a
form submission to be sent to the relevant application. The form
submission includes the photo currently associated with the large
field 641.
[0381] The following sections use the sample application to
describe the remaining details of the field association
mechanism.
3.6.2 Form Design for the Sample Application
[0382] In order to design a form 632 that supports a simple
application, two forms are specified. The first form 643 is a
standard application form. The second form 644 is a special form
that include fields that share the same impression coordinates as
elements from the first form, but are overlayed on top of the first
form's fields.
[0383] The underlying (first) form 643 is shown in FIG. 44. This
includes a submit button 642 for the application and also a field
of type ObjectReceiver 644. It is to this second field 644 that an
object is to be assigned. The actual assignment occurs as a result
of user interaction with the overlayed form as described below.
[0384] The overlayed form 644 is shown in FIG. 45. The application
name for the overlayed form 644 is the system supplied
"sys:object-associator" application. This is a standard internal
application that expects to receive a form submission with a
"submit" button having one of the names as shown in Table 4. The
table describes the meanings of each of the possible submit
buttons. Note that an object-associator form does not need to
provide all four submit buttons, although it must minimally provide
both a "set" and a "target" button.
TABLE-US-00013 TABLE 4 Submit buttons supported by the sys:
object-associator application Name Description set The set command
indicates that an object of the specified type is to be fetched
from the Netpage clipboard and associated with an ObjectReceiver
field on the underlying form. The location of the relevant
ObjectReceiver field is indicated by the "target" field that must
also be part of this form. The type of object to be associated is
indicated by the field's value. If it is left blank, then the
current clipboard object (regardless of type) is retrieved and
associated. clear The clear command indicates that the object
association currently assigned to the "target" field should be
removed. show The show command causes the object associated with
the target field (if any) to be displayed on a suitable Netpage
Player. target The target field has two roles. Firstly it indicates
the location/field on which the set, clear and show commands should
act. Secondly, if the target field is clicked then it behaves as if
it is a show command.
[0385] The below pseudo code outlines the handling of the set
command. The main principle to note is that the center of the
target field provides the {x,y} location to which the retrieved
object should be associated. This {x,y} location is also used to
locate a form field with which the object is to be associated. This
is achieved by determining the uppermost field on the page that
intersects with {x,y} and that is also receptive to object
associations. In the case of the example, the uppermost field on
the page that intersects {x,y} is the target field itself, but it
being a submit field, is not receptive to object associations. The
next uppermost field that intersects {x,y} is the ObjectReceiver
field on the underlying form. The end result is that the object is
associated with a field on the underlying application form rather
than the overlayed sys:object-associator form.
TABLE-US-00014 ObjectAssociatorApp::handleSetCommand(a_submission,
a_formDescription) { let l_setField = a_submission.getSubmitButton(
) // fetch the target field for the current form let l_targetField
= a_formDescription.fetchField("target") // Calculate the
impression location to which the object is to be // associated. The
center of the "target" field is used as the // location to place
the object. let l_targetCenter = l_targetField.center( ) let
l_location = ImpressionLocation(a_submission.getImpressionId( ),
targetCenter); // Look for a receptive field to which we can
associate the object. // A receptive field is a field with a type
that indicates it is // receptive to object associations. "submit"
fields are not // receptive, but most other field types are. N.B.
The receptive // field is typically on another form. let
l_targetField = (the uppermost receptive field on the page that
includes l_location) // Retrieve an object of the appropriate type
from the NetpageClipboard. // The type to retrieve is indicated by
the "value" element of the // "set" field let l_objectRequestType =
l_setField.value( ) let l_clipboard =
getClipboard(l_submission.userId( )) let l_object =
l_clipboard.fetchObject(l_objectRequestType) // create the
associations let l_impressionAssoc =
createImpressionAssociation(l_location, l_object)
createFieldAssociation(l_targetField, l_impressionAssoc) }
3.6.3 Field Associations and Form Submissions
[0386] Netpage forms 632 generally have one or more form submission
buttons 642. Clicking on such a button 642 with a pointer 533
causes the Netpage server 529 to perform handwriting recognition of
the digital ink (if any) assigned to the form 632, and to bundle
the result into a form submission which is then posted to the
application associated with the form 632. The handwriting
recognition largely involves converting handwriting fields (such as
textual combs, and check boxes) into their digital equivalents (for
example digital ink in textual combs is converted to text).
[0387] Associated objects 601 can optionally be submitted as part
of such form submissions. The requirement to transfer an associated
object 601 (or otherwise) as part of the form submission is
specified in the form definition for that form.
3.7 Static Associations (Embedded Objects)
[0388] Objects 601 can be associated with a document at document
creation time. As with dynamic associations, such associations can
either be impression associations 617 or field associations 618.
Static associations are specified in the Interface Description for
the document. Static associations are represented as PlayRequests
521.
4. Netpage Clipboard
[0389] The Netpage Clipboard 615 is a system supplied, per user
object repository to which the user can push an object 601. The
object 601 thus pushed is considered to be the user's "current
object" which may then be accessed by applications, in particular
by the UserRequestRouter, but in general by any application that is
acting on behalf of the user.
4.1 Representation of Clipboard Objects
[0390] Clipboard objects are stored as Netpage Player PlayRequest
objects 521. A PlayRequest 521 corresponds to a request to perform
an action. It consists of three parts: [0391] 1. A target, which
specifies on which player (device) the request should be executed.
[0392] 2. The operation, which specifies the action to be taken.
[0393] 3. A set of values, which are supplied as parameters to the
operation.
[0394] A Value represents an instance of some physical type and
consists of a type specification and data. The type specification
has a physical type and zero or more associated type categories.
The physical type identifies the structure of the data element of
the Value. This document does not specify a particular
representation for physical types. A possible mechanism would be to
use MIME types. For example, if the physical type is image/jpeg
then the data element would contain the binary data of an image in
jpeg format.
[0395] A shorthand form of specifying PlayRequests will now be used
in this section. As an example, instead of using the tabular form
this section will use the following syntax for PlayRequests that
only have a single item: [0396] value {phone-number, "555
3473"}
TABLE-US-00015 [0396] target operation values phone-number "555
3473"
4.2 Mechanisms for Pushing Values to the Clipboard
[0397] In general, a user performs an explicit user action in order
to push a value to the clipboard. Such actions may take various
forms as described in the following sections. Once a value is in
the clipboard any application can access the value. For example the
value can be dynamically associated with a form field on a printed
impression.
4.2.1 Push via Printed Netpage Form
[0398] Values can be pushed to the clipboard by interacting with a
printed Netpage form such as that shown in FIG. 46. The form has
been authored such that clicking on any of the phone numbers causes
that phone number to be sent to the Netpage clipboard 615 for that
user 525. For example, clicking on the phone number for "Susan
Wilson" 615 causes the following value to be pushed to the
clipboard 615: [0399] value {phone-number, "151 425 0617"}
4.2.2 Push Via Physical Device
[0400] Values 524 can be pushed to the clipboard 615 by Netpage
aware devices that are capable of capturing and/or storing typed
objects. Table 5 provides some example devices and scenarios in
which they might push values to the Netpage clipboard 615.
TABLE-US-00016 TABLE 5 Examples of Netpage aware devices capable of
pushing objects to the clipboard Device Example scenario Digital
Camera User takes a photo with the digital camera and then selects
"Send to Netpage" from a menu. This results in the photo being
added to the Netpage clipboard (say with type: image/jpeg). mp3
audio players User chooses a favourite song (or song collection) on
the audio player and selects "Send to Netpage" from a menu. Video
camera Similar to the digital camera scenario, but for video
instead of still photo. Dictation device User records a message and
then pushes the audio file to the Netpage clipboard.
4.2.3 Implicit Push
[0401] To improve usability, it may be possible for certain devices
to support implicit (or auto) push which is where certain user
interactions with a device cause a value to be automatically pushed
to the Netpage clipboard 615. As an example, the user may configure
their digital camera so that taking a photo causes the photo to be
pushed to the Netpage clipboard 615.
4.3 Netpage Clipboard Interface
[0402] In order for a device or application to push a value to the
Netpage clipboard 615 or retrieve the current object 601, the
device or application first retrieves a reference to a
NetpageClipboard object for that user from the Netpage server 629.
The following listing shows the NetpageClipboard interface in its
most basic form. The interface allows the current clipboard value
to be set, fetched and cleared.
TABLE-US-00017 interface NetpageClipboard { void setObject(in
PlayRequest a_object); PlayRequest fetchObject( ); void clear( );
};
[0403] The sections that follow discuss alternatives for various
aspects of the Netpage clipboard interface.
4.3.1 Multiple Values Per User
[0404] The Netpage clipboard 615 is able to support multiple
current values each of which belong to a different category. For
example, the clipboard 615 can hold a current audio and current
video at the same time. PlayRequest values can specify one or more
categories to which that value belongs. Note that an object
category is generally independent of the specific physical type of
the value being added to the clipboard. For example, setObject( )
might be called with a value that has a category of "photo", and a
physical type of image/jpeg.
[0405] This listing shows a NetpageClipboard interface that
supports multiple current values.
TABLE-US-00018 interface NetpageClipboard { void setObject(in
PlayRequest); PlayRequest fetchObject( ); PlayRequest
fetchObject(in ObjectCategory); void clear(in ObjectCategory); void
clearAll( ); };
[0406] Such a clipboard would still support the current object
concept which would return the most recently added object. To that
end, the clipboard interface in the listing has two fetch Object( )
methods. The first takes no parameters and returns the most
recently added object. The second takes an ObjectCategory as a
parameter and returns the most recently added object which belongs
to the specified object category.
[0407] More generally the clipboard could reuse the general
capability matching mechanism required by RequestRouters in the
Netpage Player architecture. This would provide the clipboard with
a very powerful interface for retrieving PlayRequests.
4.3.2 Multiple Representations of Values
[0408] As with clipboards in standard desktop environments, it may
be desirable to allow the Netpage clipboard to support multiple
representations of values, each of which would have a different
MIME type. For example, a text object could be stored as both a
text/plain and a text/rtf document.
4.3.3 Using Values from the Netpage Clipboard
[0409] Once a user places a value in the clipboard, the value can
be accessed by applications in response to actions by the user. The
basic clipboard interaction model is shown in FIG. 47. Referring to
FIGS. 47 and 48, the clipboard starts empty 652. A value can then
be pushed 653 into the clipboard 615. At that point an operation
can be selected 654 by the user at which point the selected
operation is executed against the current value in the clipboard.
If an operation is selected while the clipboard is empty, then an
error 655 is returned to the user.
[0410] The model presented in FIG. 47 is called the value first
model as it requires the user to first select the parameter to an
operation, and to then select the operation itself.
[0411] One way in which an operation can be invoked by a user is
for the user to interact with a printed Netpage form 660 which
contains a set of PlayRequests which specify operations. FIG. 48
shows such a printed command sheet and Table 6 describes the
meaning of each operation. When a field is selected by the user (by
clicking on it with a Netpage pointer), the corresponding operation
is performed on the value currently stored in the clipboard
TABLE-US-00019 TABLE 6 Description of commands Command Descriptions
Play Executes the default action for the current clipboard value.
For example, for a phone number object, the default action might be
to dial the number, while for an image it might be to display the
image on a device capable of image display. Display Display the
current clipboard value. This is different to play, since for a
phone number, for example, the phone number is displayed rather
than dialled. Attach Associate the current clipboard value with a
location on to Page a printed page. Print Print the current
value.
4.4 Placing Operations and Targets in the Clipboard
[0412] As clipboard entries are actually stored as PlayRequests 521
it is also possible to push operations and targets to the clipboard
615.
[0413] 4.4.1 Adding Operations to the Clipboard
[0414] FIG. 49 shows a clipboard model which allows operations 523
to be stored in the clipboard 615 rather than values. In this
model, the user pushes an operation 523 to the clipboard 615 at
step 661, and then selects the value 524 to which the command 523
should be applied at step 662. So, for example, a "play" operation
could be pushed to the clipboard 615, and then a phone number could
be subsequently selected from a contacts list as already shown in
FIG. 46. This model is called the operation first model as it
requires the user to first select an operation 523, and to then
select the parameter 524 for the operation 523.
4.4.2 Allowing both Value First and Operation First Models
[0415] It is possible to simultaneously support both the value
first and operation first models as shown in FIG. 50. In this model
an empty clipboard 615 allows an operation 523 or a value 524 to be
pushed at steps 663 or 664. This gives the user the freedom to
perform operations 523 in whichever order seems natural. Also, if a
user is using operation first, then once the user has placed an
operation 523 in the clipboard 615, they can perform that operation
523 on as many values 623 as required simply by pushing values to
the clipboard 615 at step 665 (and vice-versa for value first at
step 666). In order for a user to switch between models, however,
the clipboard 615 must be explicitly cleared at steps 667 and
668.
[0416] The following examples show the two models in action. In
each case, the user's steps are shown numbered and the contents of
the clipboard 615 are shown after each step. In the first case, the
user uses the value first model by first pushing a phone number to
the clipboard 615, and then selecting the operation 523 to be
applied to that object:
TABLE-US-00020 Push value value { phone-number, "555 1287" } Push
operation value { phone-number, "555 1287" } operation { play }
[0417] At this point, an observer of the clipboard 615 (likely the
UserRequestHandler) determines that the PlayRequest 521 as shown
below can be produced by combining the operation 523 and value 524
PlayRequests 521. The resultant PlayRequest 521 can then be routed
by the UserRequestHandler. Typically the UserRequestHandler "plays"
a phone-number by sending the request to a device capable of
dialling the phone number. [0418] PlayRequest created by merging
contents of clipboard:
TABLE-US-00021 [0418] target operation play values phone-number
"555 1287"
[0419] The second case uses the operation first model:
TABLE-US-00022 Push operation operation { play } Push value
operation { play } value { phone-number, "555 1287" }
[0420] At this point, the clipboard 615 determines that the
PlayRequest 521 can be produced by combining the operation 523 and
value 524 PlayRequests 521.
4.4.3 Ambiguous Usage
[0421] One problem associated with this mechanism of pushing values
524 or operations 523 to the clipboard 615 is a value 529 or
operation 523 can remain in the clipboard 615 indefinitely. As
such, it is easy for a user 525 to forget that an object 601 is in
the clipboard 615 and for unexpected results to emerge. This is
particularly the case if we simultaneously allow both the value
first and operation first models. As an example, suppose the user
performs the following actions: [0422] 1. Push "play" operation to
the clipboard [0423] 2. Push a phone number (the number is dialed)
[0424] 3. An hour later, click on another phone number.
[0425] Using the state machine indicated by FIG. 50, step (3) would
cause the number to be dialed. This may not be what the user
expected as they have likely forgotten the fact that the "play"
operation is currently residing in the clipboard.
[0426] There are a number of approaches to addressing these
usability concerns: [0427] Single Use Clipboard Entries [0428]
Clipboard Timeouts
4.4.4. Single Use Clipboard Entries
[0429] FIG. 51 provides an alternate model to that previously
described. In this model, using an item in the clipboard 615 at
either of steps 525 or 626 results in that item being removed from
the clipboard 615 at state 670. That is, operations 523 and values
524 only remain in the clipboard 615 for a single use after which
the clipboard 615 is returned to the Clipboard Empty state 627.
This model largely avoids the usability concerns described above,
although not completely, as will be described in further
detail.
4.4.5 Clipboard Timeouts
[0430] While a single-use clipboard model improves the usability of
the Netpage clipboard 615, there are still problematic scenarios
which result from allowing both value first and operation first
models to coexist. Consider the following steps: [0431] Push "play"
operation to the clipboard 615 [0432] An hour later, push a phone
number
[0433] In the above, it is not clear whether the user 525 has
indicated that they would like to apply the "play" command to the
phone number, or whether they had forgotten that they had pushed
the "play" operation an hour ago and were actually attempting to
simply push a phone number to the clipboard 615.
[0434] In order to address the ambiguity, the concept of clipboard
timeouts can be introduced, as shown in FIG. 52. In this model,
objects only remain in the clipboard for a limited duration, 60
seconds in the example for steps 675 and 676, but the exact value
could be user configurable.
[0435] FIG. 52 shows clipboard timeouts in the context of a
single-use clipboard. It is also possible to introduce clipboard
timeouts within a multi-use clipboard, as shown in FIG. 53. Each
application of an operation to a value at steps 680 and 681 resets
the timeout period which allows for multiple values to be applied
to an operation without having to push the operation each time.
Similarly, it allows multiple operations to be applied to a value
without having to push the value each time.
4.4.6 Multi Value Operations
[0436] The clipboard 615 concept can be extended to support
operations that require more than one parameter 524. The basic
approach is to allow multiple values 524 to be pushed to the
clipboard 615. The clipboard 615 can then combine the values 524
with a pushed operation 523 to create a PlayRequest 521 with
multiple parameters.
4.4.7 Adding Targets to the Clipboard
[0437] Consider the command sheet already shown in FIG. 48.
Clicking on each operation with a Netpage pointer 533 causes the
corresponding operation 523 to be pushed to the clipboard 615.
[0438] The operation 523 does not necessarily take effect
immediately. The operation takes effect when there is sufficient
information available in order to determine the full details of the
PlayRequest 621 being requested by the user 525. There are cases in
which it proves valuable to allow the user 525 to be able to
specify the target 522 of an operation 623. For example, suppose a
user wishes to print a photo from their digital camera, but does
not wish to print it to their default printer.
[0439] Selection of the printer can be achieved by selecting the
printer from a list of printers printed on a Netpage card 700 as
shown in FIG. 54. Clicking on a printer 707 on the card simply
causes the details of that printer to be pushed to the Netpage
clipboard 615.
[0440] FIG. 55 shows the details of each of the fields on the card.
Each field corresponds to a PlayRequest (521a, 521b, 521c, 521d,
521e, 521f, 521g) that specifies a target 522 and nothing else.
[0441] The following steps provide an example in which the user
pushes a target to the clipboard.
TABLE-US-00023 1. Push photo of family dog to clipboard value {
image/png category ="photo", <contents of photo of dog> } 2.
Select printer by clicking on card value { image/png category
="photo", <contents of photo of dog> } target {
home-color-printer } 3. Push "print" command to clipboard (e.g.
using printed command sheet shown in FIG. 3 value { image/png
category ="photo", <contents of photo of dog> } target {
home-color-printer } operation { print }
[0442] At this point, a PlayRequest 521 can be constructed that
combines all the elements from the clipboard 515 as shown in FIG.
52.
TABLE-US-00024 PlayRequest created by merging contents of clipboard
target home-color-printer operation print values image/png category
="photo" <contents of photo of dog>
[0443] Once the full PlayRequest 521 is determined, it is performed
and, depending on the clipboard model being used, the clipboard 615
would either be cleared of all contents (the single-use model), or
left as is in readiness for future related requests 521 (the
multi-use model). In the latter case, the subsequent act of pushing
another photo (say of the family cat) to the clipboard 615 would
leave the clipboard 615 in the following state:
TABLE-US-00025 target { home-color-printer } operation { print }
value { image/png category ="photo", <contents of photo of
cat> }
[0444] At this point, the clipboard contents indicate that the user
wishes to print the newly selected photo on the color inkjet
printer at home. This approach allows the user to request the
printout of a number of photos on a particular printer, without
having to specify the target 522 or the operation 523 each time, by
simply clicking on each required photo.
[0445] Even in the multi-use case, if the user is inactive for some
configurable period of time, then a clipboard timeout causes the
clipboard 615 to be cleared.
4.4.8 Pushing More Fully Specified PlayRequests
[0446] As the clipboard 615 supports the pushing of PlayRequests
521, the application author is not limited to pushing values 524,
operations 523, and targets 522. It is also possible to push
PlayRequests 521 that are more fully specified. For example,
consider the printed command sheet 710 shown in FIG. 56. It
contains various commands 711 that can be invoked by clicking on
the sheet with a Netpage pointer 533.
[0447] FIG. 57 shows the configuration of one of the commands.
Namely, the "print using . . . office printer" command 712. As can
be seen, it corresponds to a PlayRequest 521 that specifies both a
target 522 and a command 712.
TABLE-US-00026 1. Push photo of family dog to clipboard value {
image/png category ="photo", <contents of photo of dog> } 2.
Click on "print using ... office printer" field value { image/png
category ="photo", <contents of photo of dog> } target {
office-personal-printer } operation { print }
[0448] At this point, a PlayRequest 521 can be constructed that
combines all the elements from the clipboard 615 as shown in FIG.
52. As such, the "print using . . . office printer" command 711 has
reduced the number of clicks required by the user to perform the
action from three clicks to two.
TABLE-US-00027 PlayRequest created by merging contents of clipboard
target office-personal-printer operation print values image/png
category ="photo" <contents of photo of dog>
4.4.9 Communicating Status to the User
[0449] At times the mechanisms described may require communication
of status information (often errors) to the user. One method is to
make use of the Netpage Player infrastructure. Special operations
(eg. show-status-ok-message and show-status-error-message) can be
designated for transmitting status information to the user. The
player architecture would determine, for each message, the
appropriate device (or devices) on which to display the message and
the way in which to display it. For example, it may be that in
certain situations the pointer 533 is the only available player in
which case an error status might be "played" by illuminating a red
LED on the pointer 533 or playing a short sound.
5. Downloadable Content Billing
5.1 Overview
[0450] There is already an existing market place for purchasing and
downloading products to mobile devices. Products such as: ringtones
(monophone, polyphonic and real tone); wallpapers; games and other
applications; music; music videos; films and TV. The printing
capabilities of M-Print can add further to this list of
products.
[0451] The traditional methods for purchasing and downloading such
products are based around web browsing and SMS to initiate the
download and EMS or MMS to deliver the product to the phone 100,
see FIG. 58. The user enters and sends a product code via SMS at
steps 720 and 721 to a vendor 723 who then delivers the product to
the originating handset 100, or to the mobile number supplied with
the product code at step 724.
[0452] Netpage and M-Print technologies have the ability to
simplify the user experience in accessing and purchasing these
products, while also being able to utilise the existing
infrastructure for the billing and delivery of the products.
[0453] FIG. 59 shows the typical sequence of events for a Netpage
play sequence, cast in terms of downloading a preview of a
ringtone. In the general Netpage play sequence a Netpage click at
step 730 triggers a form submission which in turn results in a
general "play" event being routed at steps 732 and 734 to a Netpage
player via the Netpage Player Architecture. For downloadable
content the form submission is shown as a simple hyperlink 731 and
the "play" event is shown as a download of content, in this case a
ringtone.
[0454] Using a Netpage pen or pointer 533 the user 525 can click on
a printed advertisement 715 in a magazine, newspaper, direct mail,
on a product's packaging or possibly on a product itself. This can
automatically deliver some content to the user's preferred Netpage
Player 520 for that content. Most likely the Netpage Player 520 is
the user's mobile phone 100, as is shown in FIG. 59. Alternatively
it can commence a dialogue with the user via the device's UI to
determine what the user wants to do with the product they selected
via their click. For content like ringtones or phone themes, this
provides a more convenient interface than the existing SMS
interfaces in use today.
[0455] M-Print devices can provide a Netpage scan operation, and
this can also be used to initiate a product download or purchase as
above. The card that is scanned could have been printed on a
M-Print printer 4 or it could be provided along with another
product, e.g. a card in a breakfast cereal box.
[0456] Combining the abilities of M-Print and Netpage can lead to a
powerful suite of new product promotion and sales tools. For
example, a user can use a Netpage pointer 533 in a mobile phone 100
to click on the latest ringtone advertisement in their favorite
magazine. This results in purchasing the ringtone, charging it to
their mobile phone account, download and install it on their phone
100. It can also print on their phone a promotional card that
allows a one time download of the same ringtone for them to give a
friend. When their friend scans the card they receive the same
ringtone downloaded and installed on their phone. Depending on the
promotion running at the time the friend may receive the ringtone
for free or at a discounted rate.
5.2 Downloading Content
[0457] FIG. 59 shows the typical Netpage player sequence of events
that are involved in downloading a product, in this case a
ringtone, from a Netpage based application. In the diagram the
ringtone download event being routed to the phone in steps 732 and
734 consist of a ringtone, with the play operation of preview 716.
It may have the target handset specified or it may rely on the
Netpage player request routing mechanisms to determine the
appropriate target 522 for the play request 521.
[0458] It has already been noted that the mobile computing
environment already has some well established mechanisms for
satisfying on-line product purchases. Below are three possible ways
Netpage player requests can be integrated into the existing
mechanisms to provide the user with a simpler user experience. In
each of the cases the request to purchase or preview the product is
instigated via a Netpage stroke, click or scan The differences
arise in how the Netpage application 733 procures the product and
delivers it to the user.
5.3 Netpage as Middle Man
[0459] FIG. 60 shows a scenario where the Netpage ringtone
application is used as an alternative interface and delivery
mechanism to an existing ringtone vendor 723. The Netpage
application 733 does not own the rights to the products it is
providing. Instead it is acting as a middleman, forwarding the
requests at step 736 onto the product vendor 723 on behalf of the
Netpage user and routing the requested product at step 739 back to
the Netpage user via the Netpage player mechanism.
[0460] This approach allows the user to benefit from the Netpage
Player Architecture, which allows the user to customize the way
they want the product to be routed after they have received it from
the vendor. It also allows for the Netpage Player to provide
extended handling of products on the mobile device. For example,
the player may prompt the user if they wish to back up their
existing ringtone before installing a new ringtone or it may guide
the user through installing the ringtone as a custom ringtone for a
particular phone number or set of phone numbers.
5.4 Netpage as a Sales Agent
[0461] FIG. 61 shows the Netpage application 733 acting as a sales
agent for the product vendor 723. The play request 521 contains the
user information and the product ID, and is routed to a special
player 743 at step 741 that passes the request onto the vendor 725
at step 742. The vendor 723 then delivers the product in its normal
way, in this case via EMS/MMS at step 744.
5.6 Hybrid Approach
[0462] FIG. 62 shows a hybrid scenario where the both the Netpage
Player Architecture and the existing mobile technologies are used
to deliver the purchased product. The request 521 to purchase the
product may be satisfied by the ringtone application 733 either
internally as a pure Netpage application or acting as a middle man.
The play request is dispatched containing both the purchased
product and a voucher to be printed.
[0463] The play request 521 is routed as a Netpage player request
and when it reaches a player 745 deployed within the mobile
network, acting a mobile device proxy, it is split into a product
delivery and a print job. The product is sent out via an EMS/MMS
message at step 746 and delivered to the mobile device 100 in the
same way as a traditionally purchased product at step 747. The
print job in the form of an M-Doc reference 507 is delivered to the
phone 100 via one of the mechanisms initiating a print job on the
mobile device 100.
5.7 Billing for Downloaded Content
[0464] The ability to bill or charge for services and products is
at the heart of all businesses. To be able to bill you need to be
able to: [0465] 1. identify a party to bill; [0466] 2. have a
mechanism to deliver and ensure payment of a bill; and, [0467] 3.
be able to justify the bill based on records of services or
products provided.
[0468] When accessing a service or purchasing a product over a
mobile network the user is typically charged for both the data or
call traffic involved in making the transaction and also for the
product or service purchased. For example, if a ringtone was
purchased via Netpage, there is a charge for the ringtone and also
a charge the data traffic used to download the content to the
mobile device. It is possible for a 3rd party vendor to enter into
a commercial relationship with the carrier whereby the carrier
waives or reduces the data transfer costs, in return for a payment
from the vendor. Mobile carriers play a central role in billing.
They own the private networks used by mobile devices to connect to
both the public telephone and data networks and it is at their
discretion that a mobile device has access to any services. They
already have a billing relationship with each of their customers
and hence are able to identify them and bill them. Over time the
billing options offered by carriers have evolved from the simple
post-pay phone bill to include pre-paid, post-paid and plan-based
billing, where customers are committed to paying a certain amount
per period for which they can access a range of services. Carriers
also have the ability to adjust or waive billing based on a user's
activity over a billing period, for example, if you send more than
certain number of SMSs in a day then all SMSs is to be charged at a
different rate.
[0469] For pre-paid accounts the account balance is checked before
the transaction is commenced to ensure it has sufficient credit to
pay for the service. Not all services can predict the total cost
before they are delivered and in those cases it is up to the
individual carriers to decide whether those services are to be made
available to pre-paid customers or not.
[0470] Mobile carriers recognise the value of their ability to
identify and bill customers and make it available to third parties
on a commercial basis. They do not make it freely available. The
ability to integrate into a carrier's billing system is typically
offered in a number of different ways, of which some are: [0471] 1.
SMS/MMS-based services [0472] 2. Hosting of 3rd party applications
and billing the traffic for those applications differently [0473]
3. Billing of data traffic to nominated servers at different rates
[0474] 4. The ability to bill on behalf of a third party, based on
billing records provided by the third party.
[0475] To bill for products or services attained via Netpage
interactions it is necessary to identify where in the sequence of
events it makes sense to generate billing records and which party
in the transaction is responsible for maintaining and acting on
those billing records. To make these services available to users
with pre-paid mobile accounts it may be necessary to be able to
predict ahead of time the total cost of the transaction.
[0476] If we consider the SMS-based content download scenario, FIG.
58, there are three billing opportunities: 1. The SMS to initiate
the transaction may be a billable SMS [0477] 2. The purchase of the
content from the vendor [0478] 3. The delivery of the content via a
SMS or MMS.
[0479] The first SMS is a standard SMS that the user may be billed
for, it may be billed differently given that it is destined for a
vendor who has a business relationship with the carrier. The second
SMS/MMS is not billed to the sender, as would normally happen, but
it is billed to the receiver, via an agreement between the vendor
and mobile carrier. In both of these cases the mobile carrier
generates and manages the billing records. The purchase cost for
the content is also billed to the receiver and the vendor is
responsible for generating the billing record. In most cases this
billing record is forwarded onto the mobile carrier, typically once
a day via a batch transfer. The carrier accumulates these records
and includes them on the user's phone bill as a service for the
vendor. The carrier then makes a periodic payment of funds
collected on the vendor's behalf to the vendor. This alleviates the
need for the vendor to establish a billing relationship with each
of its customers and also allows the mobile carrier to derive more
revenue from its existing billing relationship with the
customer.
[0480] For the vendor to be able to generate billing records that a
mobile carrier can incorporate into a customer's bill the mobile
carrier needs to provide the vendor with a "customer id" or
"billing id" per transaction that the carrier can use to link a
billing record with a customer. The provision of customer id and
the ability to generate billing records needs to be done in a
secure way to reduce the possibility of fraud. To ensure the
required security is maintained each vendor enters into a
contractual relationship with each mobile carrier before the
"customer id" data is shared with them.
[0481] In situations where a vendor cannot or does not want to work
with a mobile carrier they need to implement their own means of
identifying and billing their customers. Identifying a user of a
mobile device without the assistance of the mobile carrier in a
uniform way across all mobile devices is non-trivial.
[0482] Introducing Netpage and M-Print technologies provide a
number of new billing opportunities for all parties involved. If we
consider the case where Netpage acts a middle man, there are two
billing opportunities: [0483] 1. When Netpage application retrieves
the content from the content vendor; [0484] 2. For the network
traffic used to deliver the click and the ringtone.
[0485] The Netpage application fetching the content from the vendor
generates a billing record for the customer. As for the SMS case
above, it is possible to arrange with a mobile vendor to accept
these billing records and to bill on the application's behalf To do
this the data traffic associated with the hyperlink activation is
to be tagged with a "customer id" to be associated with the billing
record.
[0486] The mobile carrier tracks the data traffic used to send the
click event and deliver the play request. By default that traffic
would be billed in the same way as all other data traffic to and
from the device. In a situation were the Netpage application is
billing via the carrier it may be possible to strike a deal with
the mobile carrier where by they waive the data traffic costs in
return for a payment per transaction.
[0487] In the case of Netpage acting as a Sales Agent, the Netpage
system is not involved in delivering the product but only in making
the sale. In this case there are four billing opportunities: [0488]
1. The data traffic for the Netpage click; [0489] 2. The forwarding
of the purchase request to the vendor; [0490] 3. The purchase of
the content; [0491] 4. The delivery of the content
[0492] The mobile carrier tracks and generate billing records for
the data traffic and the delivery of the content. As in the SMS
case the delivery message is charged to the receiver rather than
the sender, via an agreement with the carrier.
[0493] In this case the billing record for the content purchase
generated by the ringtone vendor and would be handled in same way
as for the SMS case above. It would be possible to have an
agreement with the carrier whereby the cost of the data traffic and
the delivery message are waived in return for a payment from the
vendor.
[0494] In most cases the Netpage application would be managed by
the vendor as an alternative interface to their existing business
and as such it does not need to bill for its forwarding services.
If it is run by a different business then it generates a billing
record for the forwarding service. This may be delivered either to
the user or to the vendor who has agreed to pay for forwarded
requests.
[0495] The billing options for the hybrid approach are essentially
the same as for when Netpage is a middle man but the number of
deliveries, and hence billable events, to the mobile device is
increased. In this case the bill for delivering the M-Doc may be
changed to the vendor rather than the customer since it is an
unsolicited promotion. Each of these billable events could be
filtered by the mobile carrier based on later billing records that
enter the system. For example, the cost of delivering the M-Doc may
be waived or credited back, if the offer on the printout is taken
up by another user.
5.8 Digital Rights Management
[0496] Closely related to billing is ensuring that the product or
service is only used for the purpose(s) it was purchased for, eg. a
ringtone purchased for one phone, can not be installed on more than
one phone, or a music file that is downloaded as a sample can only
be played X times before being purchased.
[0497] Digital Rights Management (DRM) schemes are being adopted by
mobile device manufactures and mobile carriers. Where content is
being delivered via the existing mobile mechanisms DRM is
automatically triggered. The Netpage Player on a mobile device is
implemented to hook into the DRM mechanisms on the mobile device.
It prevents a user by-passing DRM restrictions on downloaded
content.
5.9 Identifying the User
[0498] Mobile carriers identify the user of a mobile device when
the device negotiates access to the network, either at boot time or
when it comes within range of a base station. For GSM and CDMA
networks a user's identity is determined by matching the
International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) with a user's
records held by the carrier. The IMSI is not sent during
negotiation but rather an identity derived from it called a
Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identifier (TMSI) is sent. Access to
the IMSI can be protected by a PIN and most phones can be set up to
prompt the user for a PIN when it is turned on. This is used to
gain access to protected data, such as the IMSI. During the
connection time negotiations the International Mobile Equipment
Identity (IMEI) is also transmitted. This is not used to determine
who the user is, but it is used to filter out mobile devices that
are blocked from the network, e.g. stolen mobiles can be blocked
based on their IMEI.
[0499] When a mobile network allows a user on a GSM network, they
assign the user a SIM card and then activate the SIM card. For a
non-pre-paid SIM card the user needs to present sufficient
identification information that the carrier is satisfied they know
who the person is, that they are able to pay their bill, and where
to send the bill. For a pre-paid account the carrier does not need
such information, but some countries do require carriers to collect
user identity information even for pre-paid accounts. Once the user
has an activated SIM card it can be used from any handset and the
correct account is billed for usage. Users are encouraged to
protect their SIM cards with a PIN, so that it cannot be used until
a PIN is supplied. However this is not enforced by the carriers, as
it is a user choice.
[0500] The Netpage system, includes the concept of a Netpage user,
each of whom has a Netpage account. Some Netpage applications
require knowledge of the user. To be able to access those
applications via a Netpage pointer or scanner built into a mobile
device, a link between the mobile device and a Netpage user is
established. To do this there is a configuration and activation
step, similar to a SIM card activation where the Netpage
sub-systems on the mobile device are configured and a mapping is
setup between the user identity for the mobile device and a Netpage
user. If the Netpage account is being established for the first
time then, as with a mobile carrier, the user identifies themselves
so that the Netpage network operator is able to bill the user for
any Netpage related costs incurred.
[0501] There are times where a mobile user's identity cannot be
determined via a mobile carrier: possibly a company does not want
to or cannot get the information from a carrier; the mobile device
may be connecting to the network without a carrier being involved;
or the carrier may not have the information required, eg. anonymous
pre-paid accounts. In these situations the functionality available
to the user can be reduced to functionality that does not require
knowledge of the user's identity or additional Netpage specific
information can be used to establish the user's identity to the
satisfaction of the Netpage system.
[0502] Netpage-specific user identity information is stored on the
device during the Netpage registration/activation process. To give
the same level of user identity portability as a SIM card the
information can be stored on the SIM card, if it is present. If
that is not possible, due to a mobile carrier denying access to it
or it not being present, it can be stored in a secure store within
the device and if that is not possible, on the normal file system
of the device. If the identity information is stored on the SIM
card, it can automatically move with the user's carrier identity
when they swap SIM cards.
6. Use Cases
6.1 M-Print Blanks
[0503] The M-Print printer 4 is able to print on special M-Print
blanks that are specially designed to provide optimal print quality
in a M-Print printer 4. The blanks are purchased by a user in packs
and loaded one-by-one into the printer when a print is being
made.
[0504] To ensure valid blanks are loaded into the printer 4, a
mechanism for validating the supplied blanks and rejecting
imitations can be supplied. This can be done by reading an ID from
the blank during printing and validating that ID either locally or
via a network service.
[0505] The blanks are pre-tagged. For Netpage to be able to
correctly register a printout an ImpressionID is determined from
the pre-tagged blank when the printout is printed. This implies the
M-Print printer is able to read the ImpressionID from the
blank.
[0506] Both cases can use the ID encoded on the blank. The proposed
scheme for validating the ID involves reading a second number from
the blank called the signature. The signature and ID can then be
validated as a pair.
[0507] The proposed mechanism for this is to consult a network
based service that securely stores the ID and signature pairs that
have been manufactured.
[0508] Both the ID and the signature are readable by the printer 4
and in the Netpage case by a Netpage pointer 533. The M-Print
printer 4 does not contain a Netpage pointer 533, but it includes a
bar code reader. This means the ID and the signature are provided
on the back of the blank as a linear bar code, most likely in IR
ink, for the printer 4 and on the front of the blank encoded in the
Netpage tag encoding for the Netpage pointer 533.
[0509] In some circumstances, validation of the ID may not be
possible in real time before the printout completes. Thus, users
are informed if non-genuine blanks are being loaded into the
printer and warn the user that loaded non-genuine blanks may
decrease the lifetime of the printer's printhead.
[0510] While complete validation of the ID may not be possible
before printing, coding on the blank can be detected that indicates
the orientation of the blank and also the start of the timing codes
that allow the printer 4 to detect the speed at which the blank is
moving through the printer 4. If these can not be detected the
blank may be rejected before printing commences.
6.1.1 Loading a Card
[0511] Referring to FIG. 63, a print job has been submitted to the
printer 4, before it can commence it must be supplied with a valid
blank the right way up. [0512] 1. The user is prompted to insert a
blank (step 750) [0513] 2. The user inserts a blank (step 751)
[0514] If the user inserts the paper upside down at option 752, the
user is prompted to re-insert the blank the other way. If the
loaded paper is uncoded or incorrectly coded, the user is prompted
to insert a genuine M-Print blank.
6.1.2 Validate an ID
[0515] Referring to FIG. 64, during or immediately after printing
the printer 4 sends back the ID and possibly the signature of the
blank at step 750. In the background the M-Print services on the
mobile device validates the ID at step 757, either locally at step
759 or via a network service at step 758, and if the validation
fails it informs the user at step 763. There is a timing issue here
in that the user may no longer be looking at the mobile device 100
when the result of validation is known, to alert the user that the
blank they have printed on is not valid and that using that media
shortens the life of the printhead the M-Print service on the
device can deliver the message as a local SMS causing the device to
alert the user of a new message.
[0516] Once the ID and signature have been validated it is passed
at step 762 onto a Netpage microserver 761 for processing as the
ImpressionID of the printout. The user is alerted that the last
print was done on an invalid blank and continuing to use such
blanks shortens the life of the printer 4.
6.2 Printing
[0517] Common to all the use cases present below is printing. From
a users perspective, printing normally has two stages, a third may
be added if an error occurs or the blank is invalid: [0518] 1.
Loading the blank [0519] 2. Printing [0520] 3. Error reporting
[0521] The user view of loading the blank and reporting an invalid
blank are covered above. The user's view of printing is both: a
progress dialog that allows the user to view the progress of the
print and cancel the print; and being able to see the blank move
through the printer and emerge from the device.
[0522] Cancelling the print stops the printer using any more ink,
but the ID and signature from the blank may still be read for
validation.
6.2.1 Print
[0523] 1. The user is prompted to load a card. [0524] 2. A print
progress dialogue is displayed, with a cancel button [0525] 3. The
blank is drawn fully through the printer and the print progress
dialogue is removed
[0526] If the user wants to cancel the print job the user presses
cancel on the print progress bar which results in the print job
stopping and the blank being ejected. If an error occurs such as a
paper jam, an error message may be provided to alert the user. The
user may then dismiss the dialog of the error message and progress
dialogs are removed. If a blank fails validation, the user is
alerted of the failure.
[0527] FIG. 65 shows a Printer DC 770 as the object that exposes
the graphics model used by applications 514 to build up the printed
image. It shows the printing following after the application 514
has completed drawing the page. On some systems these operations
may overlap or the application 514 may be requested to draw the
page multiple times with different clipping regions, eg. rendering
in bands, either way the logical flow should still be the same. If
capturing all printed documents as Netpage documents is supported
then fully composed page is lodged with the Microserver 761, the
Microserver 761 treats this a document lodgement, and records a
printout for that document, when the ID and signature are
successfully validated and passed onto the microserver 761.
[0528] FIG. 65 shows the ID and signature being passed out from the
printer 4 soon after printing has commenced, the timing of the
transmission of the ID and signature is not significant for the
user since they only know about it if the validation fails which
occurs after the print has completed. For Netpage enabled
printouts, this timing is more critical, since a situation can
occur where a printout is immediately handed to another user who
clicks on it with a Netpage pointer or pen 733 and expects a
result. Where the printing device does not have network
connectivity this may not work at all. If the printing device does
have network connectivity it still might not work, or at least have
a perceivable latency, while the network validation and the ID and
registration of the printout is completed.
6.3 Uploading and Downloading Data
[0529] Moving data on and off mobile devices via the wireless
network reliably presents a number of challenges: [0530] 1.
Wireless networks are inherently unreliable and the link can be
lost at any point. This can occur due to signal loss or the mobile
device having to disable the radio link to conserver power or to
allow another power hungry activity to start up, eg. printing.
[0531] 2. The bandwidth available on the existing 2.5G networks is
limited and it could take up to several minutes to transmit a high
resolution photo on or off the device [0532] 3. The cost of
transferring data over a mobile network can vary and it may be
significantly cheaper to delay the transfer to a non-peak time,
e.g. late at night. [0533] 4. Mobile carriers might prefer
non-urgent data transfers to happen during lulls in the network
traffic. [0534] 5. It may be cost effective to support different
means of transferring data. A HTTP Put over GPRS is the most
obvious way, but it may be possible to take advantage of carrier
price subsidies and send the same data via an MMS or SMS
message.
[0535] Referring to FIGS. 66 and 67, to provide flexibility in how
data uploading and downloading is achieved and to insulate the rest
of the architecture from it, each mobile device 100 has a service
responsible for delivering and receiving data from the network. It
queues data transfer requests 780 and guarantees delivery of the
data in the an efficient manner. It supports partial transfers and
resumption of transfers after a break in the data link to minimise
the data sent over a wireless network. An equivalent service can be
located in the network to both receive data from the mobile device
and forward it on to its destinations and also to queue data being
sent to the mobile device.
[0536] The network based component of this service provides a
carrier integration point. A carrier may choose to host this
service and bill the traffic for it differently to encourage usage
of the M-Print and Netpage services. It also provides a single
point of modification to take advantage of new features in the
carrier networks, eg. a new data push model not based on SMS.
[0537] The device based component of this service provides a simple
interface to the device based M-Print and Netpage services, while
providing the ability to exploit all the features of a mobile
device 100 to access network based services. This may include
taking advantage of WLAN connectivity where possible.
[0538] The download sequence shown in FIG. 67 illustrates how "data
push" to a mobile device can be achieved which cannot be directly
reached from the general internet. It shows a SMS message being
sent to the device to inform the download service that there are
downloads waiting to be fetched. The message may include some
information about the urgency of the downloads, to allow the device
side download service to decide when it should fetch the
download(s).
6.4 Netpage Pointer/Scanner
[0539] In the printing scenario a blank's ID is read during
printing. This ID is used to both facilitate validation of the
blank as a valid M-Print blank and also as an Impression ID for
Netpage. The Impression ID is used by the Netpage server 529 to
associate the M-Print printout with the document that was printed
onto the blank.
[0540] An M-Print blank has the ID encoded on the back of the blank
in a way that is readable by the paper feed mechanism. If the blank
has been pre-tagged with Netpage tags then the ID is also embedded
in the Netpage tags. To initiate a Netpage interaction the first
step is for the user to perform an action that retrieves the ID and
supplies it to a Netpage server. The ID can be retrieved by: [0541]
1. A stroke or click with a Netpage Pen; [0542] 2. A click with a
Netpage Pointer; [0543] 3. Scanning the ID on the back of the
card.
[0544] The first two of these actions use Netpage specific devices
to read the Netpage tags. The pen 533 provides a stream of digital
ink along with the ID and the pointer provides a position on the
printout along with the ID. The last uses a scanning mechanism to
read the ID from the back of the printout. It can be the same
scanner as is used in the M-Print printer paper feed mechanism or
it can be a dedicated scanner that the printout is feed into or
passed over, similar to a bar code reader. This mechanism only
provides the ID, it does not provide any positional information,
but Netpage applications can be authored to support a "scan" of the
printout as well as a click or a stroke on the printout.
6.4.1 Activate a Netpage Application Via a Scan
[0545] The user passes an existing M-Print printout back through
their M-Print printer to activate the associated Netpage
application.
[0546] The printout is drawn through the printer and a Netpage
application is launched. If there is no Netpage application for the
printout, the user is told the printout has no associated
application. If the printout fails validation, the user is alerted
of the failure.
[0547] The effect the user sees as a result of a Netpage
application being launched varies depending on the application,
some examples are: [0548] For a photo the use may see the photo
displayed on the screen with the option to reprint it or send to
someone. [0549] For a business card the user may receive a vCard on
their mobile device which can be processed in the normal way.
[0550] For a coupon a completed SMS/MMS/email may be displayed
asking the user if they wish to send it off to enter the
competition. [0551] Any printout may be displayed on the mobile
device showing the print image and allowing the user to navigate
the hyperlinks and fields in the printout and activate them. If the
device has a touch screen, the user can use a pointer to select
fields and generate digital ink.
[0552] FIG. 68 is a sequence fragment that shows the processing of
a scanned ID from the paper feed mechanism in the printer. If a
scanned ID and signature is returned to the Print Service while it
is printing, see FIG. 65, it is validated and then passed onto the
Netpage Microserver 761 triggering the submission of the Netpage
document. The validation is performed by the Print Service 754 in
this case to ensure the user can be warned about using invalid
media as early as possible. If the Printer Service receives a
scanned ID and signature while it is not printing at step 790 then
it passes it directly to the Netpage Microserver 761 as a
pseudo-click or scan. The Microserver 761 processes it in a similar
way to the way it processes a Netpage pointer click.
7. Applications
7.1 Photo Printing
[0553] Photo printing is a major application for M-Print. In its
simplest form, photo printing can be done completely locally,
without any dependence on network services or interactions.
Printing a photo can interact with a photo archive. If a photo is
printed then it is likely the user may wish to access or print the
photo again. When a photo is printed it can be pushed out to the
photo archive making it available for on-line retrieval or access.
Netpage functionality offers a convenient and natural way of
interacting with a printed photo. A Netpage enabled photo can act
as a permission token, giving the holder of the printout permission
to retrieve and reprint the photo from the archive. Photo archiving
from mobile devices is an independent application from photo
printing. Users typically take more photos that they wish to keep
in an archive than they wish to print.
7.1.1 Local Photo Printing
[0554] Referring to FIG. 69, a camera phone user takes a photo at
step 795 and elects to print it. [0555] 1. The user uses the
default photo application 796 on their device and takes a photo at
step 795 [0556] 2. The user selects print from the applications
menu [0557] 3. The user is prompted to load a blank [0558] 4. The
print is produced
[0559] Other options include: [0560] The user prints with a border
at step 797 by selecting print options from the menu before
printing and selects to print with a border, and the user can then
select print from the applications menu. [0561] The user requests
the date is printed with the photo at step 798 by selecting print
options from the menu and selecting the print date and time option,
and the user can then select print from the applications menu.
[0562] The user adds a caption at step 799 where the user selects
photo options from the menu and selects add caption, [0563] wherein
the user is prompted to enter a caption and the user selects print
from the applications menu.
7.1.2 Printing a Photo Archives the Photo
[0564] Referring to FIG. 70, printing a photo generally implies
that the photo has more worth to the user than the photos the user
has taken and not printed, it is more likely to be shared and hence
more likely to be referred to in an archive. This scenario
describes pushing a photo that is printed to the photo archive on
the mobile device 100 to give it priority in being transferred off
the device 100 and into the archive 800.
[0565] When the photo is pushed to the archive the user is given
the opportunity to specify what access permission's should be
applied to the photo at step 801 in the archive 800. In this
scenario it is kept to public or private 802 for simplicity, but it
could easily be a more complex selection from various ACLs (Access
Control Lists) maintained by the user. [0566] 1. The user uses the
default photo application 796 on their device 100 and takes a
photo. [0567] 2. The user may set some print options 801 [0568] 3.
The user selects print from the applications menu 803 [0569] 4. The
user is prompted whether the photo should be public or private in
the archive 802 [0570] 5. The user is prompted to load a blank
[0571] 6. The print is produced.
[0572] Optionally, default settings may be applied for archiving
the images where the user may not be prompted if the default
settings indicate whether all photos should be public or
private.
[0573] This sequence diagram shows the most likely case, where
uploading the photo to the archive occurs after printing has
finished. This is the most likely case, since power demands of
printing require the network connectivity section of the phone to
be powered down, or at least avoided. Some devices may be able to
support both, in which case the upload could occur during the
print. The photo archive is accessible from both a browser on a
mobile device 100 or a desktop browser. The user is able to print a
photo from the archive to either a desktop printer or the printer
in their mobile device.
7.1.3 Printing Archives a Netpage Enabled Photo
[0574] In this use case the user interactions are the same as for
"Printing a Photo Archives the Photo", but in the background, the
document, the printout, and the impression ID are registered with
the Netpage infrastructure. The printout can be interacted with via
a Netpage pointer 533 immediately on the device it was printed on,
but it is not be active for other pointers or pens until it has
been successfully uploaded to the network based Netpage
services.
[0575] Referring to FIG. 71, for Netpage enabled photos that
already are being archived in a general purpose photo archive it is
not desirable for the Netpage server 529 to also store the photo,
so the Netpage server 529 stores a reference to the photo in the
archive 800, allowing it to be retrieved when necessary. The
Netpage server 529 still tracks user interactions with the photo:
reprints, digital ink, etc but it generally does not store the
actual image itself. When the photo is pushed to the archive the
pusher receives a reference to the photo that can be used to
retrieve the photo when it is required.
[0576] The need to move the photo and the Netpage document
associations out into the network to enable general Netpage
interactive on the printed photo, gives the pushing of the photo to
the photo archive more importance. In this case the push to the
archive includes a flag indicating the photo should be moved to the
off device archive as soon as possible. The registering of a
printout with the Netpage services can not complete until the blank
has been validated since the ID is used as the Netpage impression
ID.
[0577] In this case the photo reference rather than the photo is
lodged with the Netpage microserver. The printout can be interacted
with via a Netpage pointer on the same device after the ID and
signature have been validated, but other pointers and pens can only
interact with the document after it has been successfully uploaded
to the Netpage network server.
8. Player Use Cases
8.1 Business Card Application
[0578] This section covers the Netpage Player PlayRequests 521 used
in the interactive Netpage Business Card and describes the
behaviour of the Player Agents 537 handling such objects and
commands. FIG. 72 shows the sample business card 810. The fields
(text 811 and images 812) are generally associated with
PlayRequests 521 that (partially) specify what action is required
when a user clicks on one of the fields with a Netpage pointer
533.
8.1.1 Phone Number
[0579] Referring to FIG. 73, the phone number fields 817, 818 on
the business card 810 are associated with PlayRequests 816, 819
that simply specify a phone number, without specifying the
operation to be performed or the target of the operation. The
author of the business card 810 is thus providing maximum freedom
to the receiver of the business card 810 to make use of the phone
number fields as they see fit. For example, one user may have their
system configured to react to such PlayRequests 816, 819 by having
their mobile phone dial the specified number, while another user
may prefer to have such PlayRequests 816, 819 simply pushed to the
Netpage Clipboard 615 for later use.
[0580] The mobile phone icon 813 is configured with a more fully
specified PlayRequest 809 than the phone number fields 817, 818.
The PlayRequest 809 specifies an operation ("dial") that should be
performed when that field is selected. The operation overrides the
default handling of phone-number values that might otherwise be
performed in the absence of an explicit operation. Note that the
target of the request is still left unspecified. This gives the
routing system the freedom to determine the most appropriate device
with which to make the call. This is especially appropriate for a
business card 810 which might be handed out to hundreds of users
who each typically have their own phone. Placing a specific target
in the PlayRequest would have been possible, although inappropriate
in this case. The landline telephone icon 813 is configured
similarly to the mobile phone icon, but with a different value for
the phone number.
8.1.2 Fax Number
[0581] Referring to FIG. 74, the Fax phone number field 820 is
configured exactly as for the phone number fields except that the
phone number value is now also marked as belonging to the "fax"
category 823. This additional information can potentially be used
during request routing in order to select targets which
specifically cater for "fax" phone numbers rather than targets
which simply specify that they cater for phone numbers in general.
The "fax" button field 821 specifies an operation ("fax") in the
PlayRequest 822. The exact semantics of that operation are target
dependant. For example, on a mobile phone, the Fax Agent might
launch the Fax editor with the destination fax number
pre-configured.
8.1.3 Web Address
[0582] Referring to FIG. 75, the web URL field 824 and "WWW" icon
825 are configured similarly to the phone number field and phone
icons. The icon 825 is specifically configured to cause a web
browser to be invoked 826 on the specified URL, whereas the
PlayRequest 827 for the URL field is less fully specified and is
therefore more flexible in terms of its possible
interpretations.
8.1.4 SMS and MMS Fields
[0583] Referring to FIG. 76, the "SMS" field 829 is configured to
invoke an "SMS" operation 831. This request could be routed to an
SMS Agent running on the user's mobile phone which would launch the
SMS editor with the destination phone number filled in. The "MMS"
field 828 is configured similarly to the "SMS" field.
8.1.5 Email Address
[0584] Referring to FIG. 77, the web email address field 833 and
"Email" icon 832 are configured similarly to the phone number field
and phone icons. The icon 832 is specifically configured to perform
a "create-email" operation 834, which can typically be handled
routing the request to an agent which is capable of launching email
tool with the destination email address pre-configured. The email
address field 833 is less fully specified and is therefore more
flexible in terms of its possible interpretations.
8.1.6 Street Address
[0585] Referring to FIG. 78, the Street Address field 836 is
configured to map to a PlayRequest 837 that contains a location
value 841 specified using a type of location. The specific details
of this type are not specified in this document. The important
thing to note is that it stores information that specifies the
location in various ways. As such, the value can be handled
differently by a large number of agents. Examples might be: [0586]
A Web MAP Search Agent which presents the location in a web browser
by accessing a web-based map search facility [0587] A Print Agent
on an m-print phone which prints the location details (and possibly
directions) on an m-print card. [0588] A GPS Navigator Agent which
displays the location in a handheld GPS device.
8.1.7 Photo
[0589] Referring to FIG. 79, the Name field 838 and "Photo" icon
839 are configured to map to a PlayRequest 840 that specifies a j
peg photograph. Typically, this request can be routed to an agent
capable of displaying the image.
8.2 Scanning Support
[0590] Referring to FIG. 80, interactive Netpage documents can be
authored to specify an action upon reception of a scan event. A
scan event simply contains the ID of the printed document without
any {x,y} coordinate information. In the m-print context, a scan is
achieved by feeding a printed card back through the paper feed
mechanism. This enables the m-print device to determine the ID of
the card and to transmit a scan-hit to the Netpage Server 529. Upon
reception of a scan-hit, the server 529 invokes any scan action
that has been registered for the identified printout.
[0591] The printed business card 820 can be authored to invoke a
PlayRequest 851 in response to a scan event. Typically, such a
PlayRequest 851 provides information pertaining to the entire
content of the printout. In the case of the business card, the
document can be authored to invoke a PlayRequest 851 that contains
a text/directory object 852 that specifies most of the details from
the card. Such a PlayRequest 851 would typically be routed to a
Contacts Application (such as vCard Agent) which would then modify
its database to include the details from the business card.
8.2.1 M-Print Photo Cards Including Scan support
[0592] FIG. 81 shows a printed photo card 855. The card 855 can be
made to be interactive as shown in FIG. 82. The card 855 contains
two fields. The first field is a standard Netpage field 856, while
the second is the scan event field 857. Both fields 856, 857 are
configured to map to a PlayRequest 858 that contains the contents
of the photo in electronic form (in this case as a jpeg image).
Typically, this request 858 is routed to an agent capable of
displaying the image, although the fact that the request is only
partially specified (the target and operation field are empty)
gives the request router (and therefore the user) more freedom to
interpret the request as appropriate. For example, previous actions
by the user may mean that clicking on the photo is interpreted as a
request to associate the photo with a particular location on
printed Netpage document.
8.3 Printout Interactivity on the Mobile Device GUI
[0593] When a scan of an M-Print printout is performed on a mobile
device 100 the action taken can vary. One possible action is to
display the printout on the mobile device's GUI with the hyperlinks
and form fields active so that a user can navigate between them and
fill them in or activate them, in the same way a Netpage user can
on a printout using a Netpage pen or pointer.
[0594] If the mobile device has a touch screen and a stylus then it
is possible to support all the interactions that a user with a
Netpage pen could have with the printout. If the mobile device
doesn't support a touch screen and stylus then it is possible to
tab through the hyperlinks and submit fields on the form and
activate them in the same way that a user with Netpage pointer and
a printout could.
[0595] FIG. 83 shows a mobile phone 100 where an M-Print printout
of a business card 820 has been scanned and the printout is now
displayed on the phone's screen 860 with the first hyperlink 861
highlighted ready to be selected. The user can move through the
active areas using standard navigation keys 862 on the mobile
device 100, in the same way they can navigate the hyperlinks on a
web page. Selecting a hyperlink in this way via the GUI is the same
as clicking a Netpage Pointer 533 on the printout of the business
card 820.
[0596] Below is a use case illustrating the sequence of events for
a user to activate a hyperlink by scanning the printout.
8.3.1 Scan a Business Card and Send an MMS to the Person
[0597] 1. The user inserts a printout into the paper feed slot on
the mobile device (870) [0598] 2. The printout is drawn through the
mobile device [0599] 3. The image on the printout is displayed on
the mobile device (880), the first hyperlink has a focus region
drawn around it [0600] 4. The user moves focus to the MMS hyperlink
and selects it [0601] 5. The MMS editor on the device is displayed
with the address filled out from the details on the business card
(890).
[0602] The upper portion of the sequence diagram in FIG. 84 is a
repeat of the sequence for the case where a scan is occurring. When
the Netpage Microserver receives the "scan click" it retrieves the
document and displays it on the screen using the Document
Displayer. The Document Displayer allows the user to step through
the hyperlinks and fields and select them. When one is selected the
Netpage Microserver is sent a click event, just as if it had come
from a Netpage pointer. The Netpage processing results in a play
request being sent to the Netpage Player on the device, which
responds by opening up the MMS editor with the message already
addressed to the recipient identified by the business card that was
scanned in.
9.0 Mobile Telecommunications Device Overview
[0603] Whilst the main embodiment includes both Netpage and
printing functionality, only one or the other of these features is
provided in other embodiments.
[0604] One such embodiment is shown in FIG. 85, in which a mobile
telecommunications device in the form of a mobile phone 1 (also
known as a "cellphone") includes a mobile phone module 2 and a
printer module 4. The mobile 30 phone module is configured to send
and receive voice and data via a telecommunications network (not
shown) in a conventional manner known to those skilled in the art.
The printer module 4 is configured to print a page 6. Depending
upon the particular implementation, the printer module 4 can be
configured to print the page 6 in color or monochrome.
[0605] The mobile telecommunications device can use any of a
variety of known operating systems, such as Symbian (with UIQ and
Series 60 GUIs), Windows Mobile, PalmOS, and Linux.
[0606] In the preferred embodiment (described in more detail
below), the print media is pre-printed with tags, and the printer
module 4 prints visible information onto the page 6 in registration
with the tags. In other embodiments, Netpage tags are printed by
the printer module onto the page 6 along with the other
information. The tags can be printed using either the same visible
ink as used to print visible information, or using an infrared or
other substantially invisible ink.
[0607] The information printed by the printer module 4 can include
user data stored in the mobile phone 1 (including 10 phonebook and
appointment data) or text and images received via the
telecommunications network or from another device via a
communication mechanism such as Bluetooth.TM. or infrared
transmission. If the mobile phone 1 includes a camera, the printer
module 4 can be configured to print the captured images. In the
preferred form, the mobile phone module 2 provides at least basic
editing capabilities to enable cropping, filtering or addition of
text or other image data to the captured image before printing. The
configuration and operation of the printer module 4 is described in
more detail below in the context of various types of mobile
telecommunication device that incorporate a printhead.
[0608] FIG. 86 shows another embodiment of a mobile
telecommunications device, in which the printer module 4 is
omitted, and a Netpage tag sensor module 8 is included. The Netpage
module 8 enables interaction between the mobile phone 1 and a page
10 including Netpage tags. The configuration and operation of the
Netpage pointer in a mobile phone 1 is described in more detail
below. Although not shown, the mobile phone 1 with Netpage module 8
can include a camera.
[0609] FIG. 87 shows a mobile phone 1 that includes both a printer
module 4, and a Netpage tag sensor module 8. As with the embodiment
of FIG. 86, the printer module 4 can be configured to print tagged
or untagged pages. As shown in FIG. 87, where tagged pages 10 are
produced (and irrespective of whether the tags were pre-printed or
printed by the printer module 4), the Netpage tag sensor module 8
can be used to interact with the resultant printed media.
[0610] A more detailed architectural view of the mobile phone 1 of
FIG. 87 is shown in FIG. 88, in which features corresponding to
those shown in FIG. 87 are indicated with the same reference
numerals. It will be appreciated that FIG. 88 deals only with
communication between various electronic components in the mobile
telecommunications device and omits mechanical features. These are
described in more detail below.
[0611] The Netpage tag sensor module 8 includes a monolithically
integrated Netpage image sensor and processor 12 that captures
image data and receives a signal from a contact switch 14. The
contact switch 14 is connected to a nib (not shown) to determine
when the nib is pressed into contact with a surface. The sensor and
processor 12 also outputs a signal to control illumination of an
infrared LED 16 in response to the stylus being pressed against the
surface. The image sensor and processor 12 outputs processed tag
information to a Netpage pointer driver 18 that interfaces with the
phone operating system 20 running on the mobile telecommunications
device's processor (not shown).
[0612] Output to be printed is sent by the phone operating system
20 to a printer driver 22, which passes it on to a MoPEC chip 24.
The MoPEC chip processes the output to generate dot data for supply
to the printhead 26, as described in more detail below. The MoPEC
chip 24 also receives a signal from a media sensor 28 indicating
when the media is in position to be printed, and outputs a control
signal to a media transport 30.
[0613] The printhead 26 is disposed within a replaceable cartridge
32, which also includes ink 34 for supply to the printhead.
9.1 Mobile Telecommunications Device Module
[0614] FIG. 89 shows the mobile phone module 2 in more detail. The
majority of the components other than those directly related to
printing and Netpage tag sensing are standard and well known to
those in the art. Depending upon the specific implementation of the
mobile phone 1, any number of the illustrated components can be
included as part of one or more integrated circuits.
[0615] Operation of, and communication between, the mobile phone
module 2 components is controlled by a mobile phone controller 36.
The components include: [0616] `mobile radio transceiver 38 for
wireless communication with a mobile telecommunications network;
[0617] program memory 40 for storing program code for execution on
the mobile phone controller 36; [0618] working memory 42 for
storing data used and generated by the program code during
execution. Although shown as separate from the mobile phone
controller 36, either or both memories 40 and 42 may be
incorporated in the package or silicon of the controller; [0619]
keypad 44 and buttons 46 for accepting numerical and other user
input; [0620] touch sensor 48 which overlays display 50 for
accepting user input via a stylus or fingertip pressure; [0621]
removable memory card 52 containing non-volatile memory 54 for
storing arbitrary user data, such as digital photographs or files;
[0622] local area radio transceiver 56, such as a Bluetoothrm
transceiver; [0623] GPS receiver 58 for enabling determination of
the location of the mobile telecommunications device (alternatively
the phone may rely on mobile network mechanisms for determining its
location); [0624] microphone 60 for capturing a user's speech;
[0625] speaker 62 for outputting sounds, including voice during a
phone call; [0626] camera image sensor 64 including a CCD for
capturing images; [0627] camera flash 66; [0628] power manager 68
for monitoring and controlling power consumption of the mobile
telecommunications device and its components; and [0629] SIM
(subscriber Identity Module) card 70 including SIM 72 for
identifying the subscriber to mobile networks.
[0630] The mobile phone controller 36 implements the baseband
functions of mobile voice and data communications protocols such as
GSM, GSM modem for data, GPRS and CDMA, as well as higher-level
messaging protocols such as SMS and MMS. The one or more local-area
radio transceivers 56 enable wireless communication with
peripherals such as headsets and Netpage pens, and hosts such as
personal computers. The mobile phone controller 36 also implements
the baseband functions of local-area voice and data communications
protocols such as IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15, and Bluetooth.TM..
[0631] The mobile phone module 2 may also include sensors and/or
motors (not shown) for electronically adjusting zoom, focus,
aperture and exposure in relation to the digital camera. Similarly,
as shown in FIG. 90, components of the printer module 4 include:
[0632] print engine controller (PEC) 74 in the form of a MoPEC
device; [0633] program memory 76 for storing program code for
execution by the print engine controller 74; [0634] working memory
78 for storing data used and generated by the program code during
execution by the print engine controller 74; and [0635] a master QA
chip 80 for authenticating printhead cartridge 32 via its QA chip
82.
[0636] Whilst the printhead cartridge in the preferred form
includes the ink supply 34, the ink reservoirs can be housed in a
separate cartridge in alternative embodiments.
[0637] FIG. 91 shows the components of the tag sensor module 8,
which includes a CMOS tag image processor 74 that communicates with
image memory 76. A CMOS tag image sensor 78 sends captured image
data to the processor 74 for processing. The contact sensor 14
indicates when a nib (not shown) is brought into contact with a
surface with sufficient force to close a switch within the contact
sensor 14. Once the switch is closed, the infrared LED 16
illuminates the surface, and the image sensor 78 captures at least
one image and sends it to the image processor 74 for processing.
Once processed (as described below in more detail), image data is
sent to the mobile phone controller 36 for decoding.
[0638] In an alternative embodiment, shown in FIG. 92, the tag
sensor module 8 is replaced by a tag decoder module 81. The tag
decoder module 81 includes all the elements of the tag sensor
module 8, but adds a hardware-based tag decoder 82, as well as
program memory 84 and working memory 86 for the tag decoder. This
arrangement reduces the computational load placed on the mobile
phone controller, with a corresponding increase in chip area
compared to using the tag sensor module 8.
[0639] The Netpage sensor module can be incorporated in the form of
a Netpage pointer, which is a simplified Netpage pen suitable
mostly for activating hyperlinks. It preferably incorporates a
non-marking stylus in place of the pen's marking nib (described in
detail later in the specification); it uses a surface contact
sensor in place of the pen's continuous force sensor; and it
preferably operates at a lower position sampling rate, making it
unsuitable for capturing drawings and hand-writing. A Netpage
pointer is less expensive to implement than a Netpage pen, and tag
image processing and tag decoding can potentially be performed by
software without hardware support, depending on sampling rate.
[0640] The various aspects of the invention can be embodied in any
of a number of mobile telecommunications device types. Several
different devices are described here, but in the interests of
brevity, the detailed description will concentrate on the mobile
telecommunications device embodiment.
9.2 Mobile Device
[0641] One preferred embodiment is the non-Netpage enabled `candy
bar` mobile telecommunications device in the form of a mobile phone
shown in FIGS. 92 to 98. While a candy bar style phone is described
here, it could equally take the form of a "flip" style phone, which
includes a pair of body sections that are hinged to each other.
Typically, the display is disposed on one of the body sections, and
the keypad is disposed on the other, such that the display and
keypad are positioned adjacent to each other when the device is in
the closed position.
[0642] In further embodiments, the device can have two body
sections that rotate or slide relative to each other. Typically,
the aim of these mechanical relationships between first and second
body sections is to protect the display from scratches and/or the
keypad from accidental activation. Photo printing is considered one
of the most compelling uses of the mobile Memjet printer. A
preferred embodiment of the invention therefore includes a camera,
with its attendant processing power and memory capacity.
[0643] The elements of the mobile telecommunications device are
best shown in FIG. 93, which (for clarity) omits minor details such
as wires and hardware that operatively connect the various elements
of the mobile telecommunications device together. The wires and
other hardware will be well known to those skilled in the art. The
mobile phone 100 comprises a chassis moulding 102, a front moulding
104 and a rear cover moulding 106. A rechargeable battery 108, such
as a lithium ion or nickel metal hydride battery, is mounted to the
chassis moulding 102 and covered by the rear cover moulding 106.
The battery 108 powers the various components of the mobile phone
100 via battery connector 276 and the camera and speaker connector
278.
[0644] The front moulding 104 mounts to the emphasis to enclose the
various components, and includes numerical interface buttons 136
positioned in vertical rows on each side of the display 138. A
multi-directional control pad 142 and other control buttons 284
enable menu navigation and other control inputs. A daughterboard
280 is mounted to the chassis moulding 102 and includes a
directional switch 286 for the multi directional control pad 142.
The mobile telecommunications device includes a cartridge access
cover 132 that protects the interior of the mobile
telecommunications device from dust and other foreign objects when
a print cartridge 148 is not inserted in the cradle 124.
[0645] An optional camera module 110 is also mounted to the chassis
moulding 102, to enable image capture through a hole 112 in the
rear cover moulding 106. The camera module 110 includes a lens
assembly and a CCD image sensor for capturing images. A lens cover
268 in the hole 112 protects the lens of the camera module 110. The
rear cover moulding 106 also includes an inlet slot 228 and an
outlet slot 150 through which print media passes.
[0646] The chassis moulding 102 supports a data/recharge connector
114, which enables a proprietary data cable to be plugged into the
mobile telecommunications device for uploading and downloading data
such as address book information, photographs, messages, and any
type of information that might be sent or received by the mobile
telecommunications device. The data/recharge connector 114 is
configured to engage a corresponding interface in a desktop stand
(not shown), which holds the mobile telecommunications device in a
generally upright position whilst data is being sent or received by
the mobile telecommunications device. The data/recharge connector
also includes contacts that enable recharging of the battery 108
via the desktop stand. A separate recharge socket 116 in the
data/recharge connector 114 is configured to receive a
complimentary recharge plug for enabling recharging of the battery
when the desktop stand is not in use.
[0647] A microphone 170 is mounted to the chassis moulding 102 for
converting sound, such as a user's voice, into an electronic signal
to be sampled by the mobile telecommunications device's analog to
digital conversion circuitry. This conversion is well known to
those skilled in the art and so is not described in more detail
here. A SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) holder 118 is formed in
the chassis moulding 102, to receive a SIM card 120. The chassis
moulding is also configured to support a print cartridge cradle 124
and a drive mechanism 126, which receive a replaceable print
cartridge 148. These features are described in more detail below.
Another moulding in the chassis moulding 102 supports an aerial
(not shown) for sending and receiving RF signals to and from a
mobile telecommunications network.
[0648] A main printed circuit board (PCB) 130 is supported by the
chassis moulding 102, and includes a number of momentary
pushbuttons 132. The various integrated and discrete components
that support the communications and processing (including printing
processing) functions are mounted to the main PCB, but for clarity
are not shown in the diagram.
[0649] A conductive elastomeric overlay 134 is positoned on the
main PCB 130 beneath the keys 136 on the front 40 moulding 104. The
elastomer incorporates a carbon impregnated pill on a flexible
profile. When one of the keys 136 is pressed, it pushes the carbon
pill to a 2-wire open circuit pattern 132 on the PCB surface. This
provides a low impedance closed circuit. Alternatively, a small
dome is formed on the overlay corresponding to each key 132.
[0650] Polyester film is screen printed with carbon paint and used
in a similar manner to the carbon pills. Thin adhesive film with
berrylium copper domes can also be used. A loudspeaker 144 is
installed adjacent apertures 272 in the front moulding 104 to
enable a user to hear sound such as voice communication and other
audible signals.
[0651] A color display 138 is also mounted to the main PCB 130, to
enable visual feedback to a user of the mobile telecommunications
device. A transparent lens moulding 146 protects the display 138.
In one form, the transparent lens is touch-sensitive (or is omitted
and the display 138 is touch sensitive), enabling a user to
interact with icons and input text displayed on the display 138,
with a finger or stylus.
[0652] A vibration assembly 274 is also mounted to the chassis
moulding 102, and includes a motor that drives an eccentrically
mounted weight to cause vibration. The vibration is transmitted to
the chassis 102 and provides tactile feedback to a user, which is
useful in noisy environments where ringtones are not audible.
10. Print Media Printing
[0653] A Netpage printer normally prints the tags which make up the
surface coding on demand, i.e. at the same time as it prints
graphic page content. As an alternative, in a Netpage printer not
capable of printing tags such as the preferred embodiment,
pre-tagged but otherwise blank Netpages can be used. The printer,
instead of being capable of tag printing, typically incorporates a
Netpage tag sensor. The printer senses the tags and hence the
region ID of a blank either prior to, during, or after the printing
of the graphic page content onto the blank. It communicates the
region ID to the Netpage server, and the server associates the page
content and the region ID in the usual way.
[0654] A particular Netpage surface coding scheme allocates a
minimum number of bits to the representation of spatial coordinates
within a surface region. If a particular media size is
significantly smaller than the maximum size representable in the
minimum number of bits, then the Netpage code space may be
inefficiently utilised. It can therefore be of interest to allocate
different sub-areas of a region to a collection of blanks. Although
this makes the associations maintained by the Netpage server more
complex, and makes subsequent routing of interactions more complex,
it leads to more efficient code space utilisation. In the limit
case the surface coding may utilise a single region with a single
coordinate space, i.e. without explicit region IDs.
[0655] If regions are sub-divided in this way, then the Netpage
printer uses the tag sensor to determine not only the region ID but
also the surface coding location of a known physical position on
the print medium, i.e. relative to two edges of the medium. From
the surface coding location and its corresponding physical position
on the medium, and the known (or determined) size of the medium, it
then determines the spatial extent of the medium in the region's
coordinate space, and communicates both the region ID and the
spatial extent to the server. The server associates the page
content with the specified sub-area of the region.
[0656] A number of mechanisms can be used to read tag data from a
blank. A conventional Netpage tag sensor incorporating a
two-dimensional image sensor can be used to capture an image of the
tagged surface of the blank at any convenient point in the
printer's paper path. As an alternative, a linear image sensor can
be used to capture successive line images of the tagged surface of
the blank during transport. The line images can be used to create a
two-dimensional image which is processed in the usual way. As a
further alternative, region ID data and other salient data can be
encoded linearly on the blank, and a simple photodetector and ADC
can be used to acquire samples of the linear encoding during
transport.
[0657] One important advantage of using a two-dimensional image
sensor is that tag sensing can occur before motorised transport of
the print medium commences. For example, if the print medium is
manually inserted by the user, then tag sensing can occur during
insertion. This has the further advantage that if the tag data is
validated by the device, then the print medium can be rejected and
possibly ejected before printing commences. For example, the print
medium may have been pre-printed with advertising or other graphic
content on the reverse side from the intended printing side. The
device can use the tag data to detect incorrect media insertion,
i.e. upside-down or back-to-front. The device can also prevent
accidental overprinting of an already-printed medium. And it can
detect the attempted use of an invalid print medium and refuse
printing, eg. to protect print quality. The device can also derive
print medium characteristics from the tag data, to allow it to
perform optimal print preparation.
[0658] If a linear image sensor is used, or if a photodetector is
used, then image sensing must occur during motorised transport of
the print medium to ensure accurate imaging. Unless there are at
least two points of contact between the transport mechanism and the
print medium in the printing path, separated by a minimum distance
equal to the tag data acquisition distance, tag data cannot be
extracted before printing commences, and the validation advantages
discussed above do not obtain. In the case of a linear image
sensor, the tag data acquisition distance equals the diameter of
the normal tag imaging field of view. In the case of a
photodetector, the tag data acquisition distance is as long as the
required linear encoding.
[0659] If the tag sensor is operable during the entire printing
phase at a sufficiently high sampling rate, then it can also be
used to perform accurate motion sensing, with the motion data being
used to provide a line synchronisation signal to the print engine.
This can be used to eliminate the effects of jitter in the
transport mechanism.
[0660] FIGS. 100 to 106 show one embodiment of the encoded medium
and the media sensing and printing system within the mobile
telecommunications device. While the encoding of the cards is
briefly discussed here, it is described in detail in the Coded
Media sub-section of this specification.
[0661] Referring to FIG. 100, the `back-side` of one of the cards
226 is shown. The back-side of the card has two coded data tracks:
a `clock track` 434 and a `data track` 436 running along the
longitudinal sides of the cards. The coded data may be in the form
of a two-dimensional grid or pattern. The cards are encoded with
data indicating, inter alia: [0662] the orientation of the card;
[0663] the media type and authenticity; [0664] the longitudinal
size; [0665] the pre-printed side; [0666] detection of prior
printing on the card; and, [0667] the position of the card relative
to the printhead IC.
[0668] In one form, the encoded data is printed in IR ink so that
it is invisible and does not encroach on the space available for
printing visible images.
[0669] In a basic form, the M-Print cards 226 are only encoded with
a data track and clocking (as a separate clock track or a
self-clocking data track). However, in the more sophisticated
embodiment shown in the figures, the cards 226 have a pre-printed
Netpage tag pattern 438 covering the majority of the back-side. The
front side may also have a pre-printed tag pattern. It is preferred
in these embodiments that the data track encodes first information
that is at least indicative of second information encoded in the
tags. Most preferably, the first information is simply the document
identity that is encoded in each of the tags.
[0670] The clock track 434 allows the MoPEC 326 (see FIG. 101) to
determine, by its presence, that the front of the card 226 is
facing the printhead 202, and allows the printer to sense the
motion of the card 226 during printing. The clock track 434 also
provides a clock for the densely coded data track 436.
[0671] The data track 436 provides the Netpage identifier and
optionally associated digital signatures which allows MoPEC 326 to
reject fraudulent or un-authorised media 226, and to report the
Netpage identifier of the front-side Netpage tag pattern to a
Netpage server. It should be noted that a fragment of a digital
signature can also be considered a digital signature in its own
right.
[0672] FIG. 101 shows a block diagram of an M-Print system that
uses media encoded with separate clock and data tracks. The clock
and data tracks are read by separate optical encoders. The system
may optionally have an explicit edge detector 474 which is
discussed in more detail below in relation to FIG. 104.
[0673] FIG. 102 shows a simplified circuit for an optical encoder
which may be used as the clock track or data track optical encoder.
It incorporates a Schmitt trigger 466 to provide the MoPEC 326 with
an essentially binary signal representative of the marks and spaces
encountered by the encoder in the clock or data track. An IR LED
472 is configured to illuminate a mark-sized area of the card 226
and a phototransistor 468 is configured to capture the light 470
reflected by the card. The LED 472 has a peak wavelength matched to
the peak absorption wavelength of the infrared ink used to print
the media coding.
[0674] As an alternative, the optical encoders can sense the
direction of media movement by configuring them to be `quadrature
encoders`. A quadrature encoder contains a pair of optical encoders
spatially positioned to read the clock track 90 degrees out of
phase. Its in-phase and quadrature outputs allow the MoPEC 326 to
identify not just the motion of the clock track 434 but also the
direction of the motion. A quadrature encoder is generally not
required, since the media transport direction is known a priori
because the printer controller also controls the transport motor.
However, the use of a quadrature encoder can help decouple a
bi-directional motion sensing mechanism from the motion control
mechanism.
[0675] FIG. 103 shows a block diagram of the MoPEC 326. It
incorporates a digital phase lock loop (DPLL) 444 to track the
clock inherent in the clock track 434 (see FIG. 100), a line sync
generator 448 to generate the line sync signal 476 from the clock
446, and a data decoder 450 to decode the data in the data track
436. De-framing, error detection and error correction may be
performed by software running on MoPEC's general-purpose processor
452, or it may be performed by dedicated hardware in MoPEC.
[0676] The data decoder 450 uses the clock 446 recovered by the
DPLL 444 to sample the signal from the data track optical encoder
442. It may either sample the continuous signal from the data track
optical encoder 442, or it may actually 5 trigger the LED of the
data track optical encoder 442 for the duration of the sample
period, thereby reducing the total power consumption of the LED.
The DPLL 444 may be a PLL, or it may simply measure and filter the
period between successive clock pulses.
[0677] The line sync generator 456 consists of a
numerically-controlled oscillator which generates line sync pulses
476 at a rate which is a multiple of the rate of the clock 446
recovered from the clock track 434.
[0678] As shown in FIG. 101, the print engine may optionally
incorporate an explicit edge detector 474 to provide longitudinal
registration of the card 226 with the operation of the printhead
202. In this case, as shown in FIG. 104, it generates a page sync
signal 478 to signal the start of printing after counting a fixed
number of line syncs 476 after edge detection. Longitudinal
registration may also be achieved by other card-in detection
mechanisms ranging from opto-sensors, de-capping mechanical
switches, drive shaft/tension spring contact switch and motor load
detection.
[0679] Optionally, the printer can rely on the media coding itself
to obtain longitudinal registration. For example, it may rely on
acquisition of a pilot sequence on the data track 436 to obtain
registration. In this case, as shown in FIG. 105, it generates a
page sync signal 478 to signal the start of printing after counting
a fixed number of line syncs 476 after pilot detection. The pilot
detector 460 consists of a shift register and combinatorial logic
to recognise the pilot sequence 480 provided by the data decoder
450, and generate the pilot sync signal 482. Relying on the media
coding itself can provide superior information for registering
printed content with the Netpage tag pattern 438 (FIG. 100).
[0680] As shown in FIG. 106, the data track optical encoder 442 is
positioned adjacent to the first clock data encoder 440, so that
the data track 436 (see FIG. 100) can be decoded as early as
possible and using the recovered clock signal 446. The clock must
be acquired before printing can commence, so a first optical
encoder 440 is positioned before the printhead 202 in the media
feed path. However, as the clock needs to be tracked throughout the
print, a second clock optical encoder 464 is positioned coincident
with or downstream of the printhead 202. This is described in more
detail below.
[0681] FIG. 99 shows the printed card 226 being withdrawn from the
print cartridge, 148. It will be appreciated that the printed card
226 needs to be manually withdrawn by the user. Once the trailing
edge of the card 226 has passed between the drive shaft 178 and the
spring fingers 238, it is no longer driven along the media feed
path. However, as the printhead 202 is less than 2 mm from the
drive shaft 178, the momentum of the card 226 projects the trailing
edge of past the printhead 202.
[0682] While the momentum of the card is sufficient to carry the
trailing edge past the printhead, it is not enough to fling it out
of the exit slot 150 (FIG. 98). Instead, the card 226 is lightly
gripped by the opposed lock actuator arms 232 as it protrudes from
the exit slot 150 in the side of the mobile phone 100. This retains
the card 226 so it does not simply fall from exit slot 150, but
rather allows users to manually remove the printed card 226 from
the mobile phone 100 at their convenience. This is important to the
practicality of the mobile telecommunications device because the
card 226 is fed into one side of the mobile telecommunications
device and retrieved from the other, so users will typically want
to swap the hand that holds the mobile telecommunications device
when collecting the printed card. By lightly retaining the printed
card, users do not need to swap hands and be ready to collect the
card before completion of the print job (approximately 1-2 secs).
Alternatively, the velocity of the card as it leaves the roller can
be made high enough that the card exits the outlet slot 123 under
its own inertia.
10.1 M-Print Flip Printing
[0683] One can allow a previously printed m-print Netpage card to
be re-inserted into the printing mechanism "flipped-over", so that
the side not previously printed on (i.e. the back of the card) is
now facing towards the print head. The printer would detect such an
insertion and would automatically print additional information on
to the back of the card. The additional information would
typically, but not necessarily, be application and context
specific. That is: [0684] the application which created the
original printout would determine what is printed onto the back
side of the card, and [0685] would be able to take into account
context specific information such as the impression ID of the
card.
[0686] This allows applications to print information onto the back
side of the card which is specific to the original printout on the
front side of the card. There are many potential uses for such a
mechanism. For the sake of discussion, one such case is described
below.
10.1.1 Camera Use-Case
[0687] 1. User takes a photo using an m-print enabled camera phone
[0688] 2. User prints photo onto Netpage tagged card [0689] 3. User
feeds card back through printer flipped-over [0690] 4. Various
details about the photo would then be printed onto the back of the
card.
[0691] Examples of details might be: [0692] The date and time the
photo was taken; [0693] Location where photo was taken, either
automatically determined by a geographical positioning system
within the phone (eg. GPS or cell-based location detection), or
manually entered after the fact by the user; and/or [0694]
Arbitrary textual information entered by the user (perhaps entered
on the phone itself or via a web-based photo archiving application
sometime after the photo was taken).
[0695] The time duration between the user taking the original photo
and inserting the flipped-over card could be arbitrarily long. As
such, the mechanism can act as a "what is this photo that I just
found?" facility. Another advantage is that it removes the need to
have text obscuring parts of the photo in order to provide
date/time information.
11. General Netpage Overview
[0696] Netpage interactivity can be used to provide printed user
interfaces to various phone functions and applications, such as
enabling particular operational modes of the mobile
telecommunications device or interacting with a calculator
application, as well as providing general "keypad", "keyboard" and
"tablet" input to the mobile telecommunications device. Such
interfaces can be pre-printed and bundled with a phone, purchased
separately (as a way of customizing phone operation, similar to
ringtones and themes) or printed on demand where the phone
incorporates a printer.
[0697] A printed Netpage business card provides a good example of
how a variety of functions can be usefully combined in a single
interface, including: [0698] loading contact details into an
address book [0699] displaying a Web page [0700] displaying an
image [0701] dialing a contact number [0702] bringing up an e-mail,
SMS or MMS form [0703] loading location info into a navigation
system [0704] activating a promotion or special offer
[0705] Any of these functions can be made single-use only. A
business card may be printed by the mobile telecommunications
device user for presentation to someone else, or may be printed
from a Web page relating to a business for the mobile
telecommunications device user's own use. It may also be
pre-printed.
[0706] As described below, the primary benefit of incorporating a
Netpage pointer or pen in another device is synergy. A Netpage
pointer or pen incorporated in a mobile phone, smartphone or
telecommunications-enabled PDA, for example, allows the device to
act as both a Netpage pointer and as a relay between the pointer
and the mobile phone network and hence a Netpage server. When the
pointer is used to interact with a page, the target application of
the interaction can display information on the phone display and
initiate further interaction with the user via the phone
touchscreen. The pointer is most usefully configured so that its
"nib" is in a corner of the phone body, allowing the user to easily
manipulate the phone to designate a tagged surface. The phone can
incorporate a marking nib and optionally a continuous force sensor
to provide full Netpage pen functionality.
[0707] An exemplary Netpage interaction will now be described to
show how a sensing device in the form of a Netpage enabled mobile
device interacts with the coded data on a print medium in the form
of a card. Whilst in the preferred form the print medium is a card
generated by the mobile device or another mobile device, it can
also be a commercially pre-printed card that is purchased or
otherwise provided as part of a commercial transaction. The print
medium can also be a page of a book, magazine, newspaper or
brochure, for example. The print medium can be provided with coded
data in a variety of formats, the coded data encoding a range of
information, preferably, at least some of the information being
indicative of the print media identifier. The information can be
indicative of a two-dimensional coordinate grid, and the format can
be a two-dimensional pattern.
[0708] For example, the print medium can be provided with first
coded data in a first format and second coded data in a second
format, the first coded data encoding first information and the
second coded data encoding second information, with at least some
of the first information being indicative of the print media
identifier, the first format being a linear pattern, and with at
least some of the second information being indicative of the print
media identifier and of a two-dimensional coordinate grid, the
second format being a two-dimensional pattern. In a particular
example form, the information is further indicative of at least
part of a digital signature associated with the print media
identifier, the sensor module determining, by reading at least some
of the coded data, at least part of the digital signature, and the
printer module can then print, if the digital signature is
authentic, content on the print media.
[0709] The mobile device senses a tag using an area image sensor
and detects tag data. The mobile device uses the sensed data tag to
generate interaction data, which is sent via a mobile
telecommunications network to a document server. The document
server uses the ID to access the document description, and
interpret the interaction. In appropriate circumstances, the
document server sends a corresponding message to an application
server, which can then perform a corresponding action.
[0710] Typically Netpage pen and Netpage-enabled mobile device
users register with a registration server, which associates the
user with an identifier stored in the respective Netpage pen or
Netpage enabled mobile device. By providing the sensing device
identifier as part of the interaction data, this allows users to be
identified, allowing transactions or the like to be performed.
Netpage documents are generated by having an ID server generate an
ID which is transferred to the document server. The document server
determines a document description and then records an association
between the document description and the ID, to allow subsequent
retrieval of the document description using the ID. The ID is then
used to generate the tag data, as will be described in more detail
below, before the document is printed by a suitable printer, using
the page description and the tag map.
[0711] Each tag is represented by a pattern which contains two
kinds of elements. The first kind of element is a target. Targets
allow a tag to be located in an image of a coded surface, and allow
the perspective distortion of the tag to be inferred. The second
kind of element is a macrodot. Each macrodot encodes the value of a
bit by its presence or absence. The pattern is represented on the
coded surface in such a way as to allow it to be acquired by an
optical imaging system, and in particular by an optical system with
a narrowband response in the near-infrared. The pattern is
typically printed onto the surface using a narrowband near-infrared
ink.
[0712] In the preferred embodiment, the region typically
corresponds to the entire surface of an M-Print card, and the
region ID corresponds to the unique M-Print card ID. For clarity in
the following discussion we refer to items and IDs, with the
understanding that the ID corresponds to the region ID. The surface
coding is designed so that an acquisition field of view large
enough to guarantee acquisition of an entire tag is large enough to
guarantee acquisition of the ID of the region containing the tag.
Acquisition of the tag itself guarantees acquisition of the tag's
two-dimensional position within the region, as well as other
tag-specific data. The surface coding therefore allows a sensing
device to acquire a region ID and a tag position during a purely
local interaction with a coded surface, e.g. during a "click" or
tap on a coded surface with a pen.
[0713] Optional embodiments of the present invention may also be
said to broadly consist in the parts, elements and features
referred to or indicated herein, individually or collectively, in
any or all combinations of two or more of the parts, elements or
features, and wherein specific integers are mentioned herein which
have known equivalents in the art to which the invention relates,
such known equivalents are deemed to be incorporated herein as if
individually set forth.
[0714] Although a preferred embodiment has been described in
detail, it should be understood that various changes,
substitutions, and alterations can be made by one of ordinary skill
in the art without departing from the scope of the present
invention.
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