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US 2014/0210898 A1Published application
System and method for estimating ink usage in an inkjet printer
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorsDavid A. Mantell, David J. Metcalfe, Martin L. Frachioni, Raymond J. Clark
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An inkjet printer estimates ink usage in the printer with reference to image pixels and a history of inkjet firing for each inkjet. The printer includes an apparatus that generates an ink mass for each image pixel with reference to the image pixel and a predetermined number of previously ejected image pixels and identifies a total ink mass measurement for a printhead with reference to the ink masses generated for the image pixels of an image to be printed by the inkjet printer.
Claims17
An apparatus for estimating ink mass usage in a printing system comprising:
- a memory in which image pixels are stored;
- an ink usage measurement generator configured to generate an ink usage measurement for an image pixel stored in the memory with reference to the image pixel and to a predetermined number of image pixels previously ejected by an inkjet that ejects the image pixel for which the ink usage measurement is being generated, and to identify a total ink usage measurement for a printhead with reference to the ink usage measurements generated for each inkjet in the printhead, the ink usage measurement generator having a pattern converter that identifies a pattern for the image pixel and the predetermined number of previously ejected image pixels and that generates an estimated ejected ink mass with reference to each pattern identified by the pattern converter;
- and
- a controller that is configured to identify a cost for a print job with reference to the total ink usage measurement accumulated for the printhead.
1 more element
(canceled)
An apparatus for estimating ink mass usage in a printing system comprising:
- a memory in which image pixels that correspond to a low resolution image of an image to be printed by the printing system are stored;
- an ink usage measurement generator configured to generate an ink usage measurement for an image pixel stored in the memory with reference to the image pixel and a predetermined number of image pixels previously ejected by an inkjet that ejects the image pixel for which the ink usage measurement is being generated, the ink usage measurement generator being further configured to identify a total ink usage measurement for a printhead with reference to the ink usage measurements generated for each inkjet in the printhead;
- and
- a controller that is configured to identify a cost for a print job with reference to the total ink usage measurement accumulated for the printhead.
1 more element
An apparatus for estimating ink mass usage in a printing system comprising:
- a memory in which image pixels are stored;
- an ink usage measurement generator being configured to generate an ink usage measurement for an image pixel stored in the memory with reference to the image pixel and to a predetermined number of image pixels previously ejected by an inkjet that ejects the image pixel for which the ink usage measurement is being generated, and to identify a total ink usage measurement for a printhead with reference to the ink usage measurements generated for each inkjet in the printhead, the ink usage measurement generators including:
- a serial buffer operatively connected to the memory to receive image pixels and shift the image pixels through the serial buffer, the serial buffer being configured to store the predetermined number of image pixels;
- a lookup memory having an address space that corresponds to the predetermined number of image pixels in the serial buffer, the lookup memory being configured to output an ink mass estimate from an address in the address space that corresponds to the image pixels stored in the serial buffer;
- and
- a device configured to identify the ink mass estimates output by the lookup memory to generate the total ink mass measurement for the printhead;
- and
- a controller that is configured to identify a cost for a print job with reference to the total ink usage measurement accumulated for the printhead.
5 more elements
A method for estimating ink mass usage in a printing system comprising:
- generating contone image pixels with reference to image pixels of an image to be printed by the printing system;
- identifying a pattern of image pixels for each image pixel of the image to be printed by the printing system with reference to the contone image pixels;
- generating an estimated ejected ink mass with reference to all of the identified patterns;
- generating an ink usage measurement for each image pixel with reference to the image pixel and to a predetermined number of image pixels previously ejected by an inkjet that ejects the image pixel for which the ink usage measurement is being generated;
- identifying a total ink usage measurement for a printhead with reference to the ink usage measurements generated for each inkjet in the printhead;
- and
- identifying a cost for a print job with reference to the total ink usage measurement accumulated for the printhead.
4 more elements
11-12. (canceled)
A method for estimating ink mass usage in a printing system comprising:
- generating image pixels that correspond to a low resolution image of an image to be printed by the printing system;
- identifying a pattern of image pixels for each image pixel of the image to be printed by the printing system with reference to the low resolution image;
- generating an estimated ejected ink mass with reference to all of the identified patterns;
- generating an ink usage measurement for each image pixel with reference to the image pixel and to a predetermined number of image pixels previously ejected by the inkjet that ejects the image pixel for which the ink usage measurement is being generated;
- identifying a total ink usage measurement for a printhead with reference to the ink usage measurements generated for each inkjet in the printhead;
- and
- identifying a cost for a print job with reference to the total ink usage measurement accumulated for the printhead.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.