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US 8,797,571 B2Granted
Host device and method to set distributed printing
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorTae-kook Kong
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A host device and method for a distributed printing setup includes a plurality of image forming apparatuses registered to a database and a user interface (UI) generator to generate a UI screen to generate a workflow relating to the image forming apparatuses. When the distributed printing setup of a file to be printed is requested on the generated UI screen, a workflow generator generates a workflow by combining the image forming apparatuses to distribute the printing job to the registered image forming apparatuses.
Claims24
A host device for a distributed printing setup, comprising:
- a user interface (UI) generator to generate a UI screen to allow a user to select a plurality of image forming apparatuses for a distributed printing;
- a workflow generator to generate, when the plurality of image forming apparatuses are selected in the generated UI screen, a workflow by combining distributed printing setup of the selected plurality of image forming apparatuses to distribute a printing job of a file to be printed, such that the workflow is mapped to the user,
- a communication unit to communicate with the image forming apparatuses over a communication network;
- and
- a host controller to control the communication unit to send a workflow list mapped to the user and including the workflow and other workflows mapped to the user therein to one of the selected plurality of image forming apparatuses in response to a user authentication succeeding to allow a user to select from among the workflow and the other workflows within the workflow list such that the printing job is distributedly performed among the selected plurality of image forming apparatuses,
- wherein the workflow is used for distributing a number of copies of a same file to the selected plurality of image forming apparatuses.
3 more elements
A distributed printing setup method, comprising:
- requesting, by a plurality of image forming apparatuses, to generate a workflow for a distributed printing;
- displaying a user interface (UI) screen for the workflow generation;
- selecting the image forming apparatuses in the displayed UI screen;
- generating a workflow by combining distributed printing setup of the selected image forming apparatuses to distribute a printing job of a file to be printed such that the workflow is mapped to a user;
- and
- sending a workflow list mapped to the user and including the workflow and other workflows mapped to the user therein to one of the selected plurality of image forming apparatuses in response to a user authentication succeeding to allow a user to select from among the workflow and the other workflows within the workflow list such that the printing job is distributedly performed among the selected plurality of image forming apparatuses,
- wherein the workflow is used for distributing a number of copies of a same file to the selected plurality of image forming apparatuses.
4 more elements
A distributed printing system, comprising:
- a plurality of image forming apparatuses;
- a host device including a user interface (UI) generator to display a UI screen to allow a user to select two or more of the plurality of image forming apparatuses to distribute printing jobs, and a workflow generator to generate a workflow by combining a distributed printing setup of the selected image forming apparatuses to distribute the respective printing and to send a workflow list mapped to the user and including the workflow and other workflows mapped to the user therein to one of the to the selected image forming apparatus in response to a user authentication succeeding to allow a user to select from among the workflow and the other workflows within the workflow list such that the printing job is distributedly performed among the selected plurality of image forming apparatuses,
- wherein the workflow is used for distributing a number of copies of a same file to the selected plurality of image forming apparatuses.
A distributed printing method, comprising:
- accessing a host device;
- displaying a user interface (UI) screen;
- selecting two or more of the plurality of image forming apparatuses from the user interface screen which to distribute printing jobs;
- generating workflow by combining a distributed printing setup of the selected image forming apparatuses to distribute the respective printing jobs by distributing a total number of print jobs among the selected image forming apparatuses such that a number of printing jobs distributed to each of the selected image forming apparatuses differ from each other by no more than one print job;
- and
- sending a workflow list mapped to the user and including the workflow and other workflows mapped to the user therein to one of the selected plurality of image forming apparatuses in response to a user authentication succeeding to allow a user to select from among the workflow and the other workflows within the workflow list such that the printing job is distributedly performed among the selected plurality of image forming apparatuses,
- wherein the workflow is used for distributing a number of copies of a same file to the selected plurality of image forming apparatuses.
4 more elements
A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having embodied thereon a computer program to execute a method, wherein the method comprises:
- accessing a host device;
- displaying a user interface (UI) screen;
- selecting two or more of the plurality of image forming apparatuses from the user interface screen which to distribute printing jobs;
- generating workflow by combining a distributed printing setup of the selected image forming apparatuses to distribute the respective printing jobs by distributing a total number of print jobs among the selected image forming apparatuses such that a number of printing jobs distributed to each of the selected image forming apparatuses differ from each other by no more than one print job;
- and
- sending a workflow list mapped to the user and including the workflow and other workflows mapped to the user therein to one of the selected plurality of image forming apparatuses in response to a user authentication succeeding to allow a user to select from among the workflow and the other workflows within the workflow list such that the printing job is distributedly performed among the selected plurality of image forming apparatuses,
- wherein the workflow is used for distributing a number of copies of a same file to the selected plurality of image forming apparatuses.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.