Patent Publication Number: US-2005134910-A1

Title: Network printer capable of displaying printing state and method thereof

Description:
This application claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) from Korean Patent Application No. 2003-94741 filed on Dec. 22, 2003, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.  
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present invention relates to a network printer and a method for displaying the printing state for a network printer. More particularly, the present invention relates to a network printer and a method for displaying the printing state for a network printer that can display the printing state of print data received from a computer connected to the network printer when the print data is printed through the network printer.  
      2. Description of the Related Art  
      Most printers recently commercialized in the market can be shared and used by several computers through a Local Area Network (LAN). This kind of printer, which is called a network printer, is connected to a plurality of computers through the LAN, and operates by storing print information transferred from the respective computers in a storage medium. The printer forms an image based on the stored print information and prints the image on printing paper.  
       FIG. 1  is a schematic view illustrating a general network printing system. Referring to  FIG. 1 , the network printing system includes host computers  10 ,  20  and  30 , a hub  40 , and a network printer  50 . The respective host computers  10 ,  20  and  30  are connected to the network printer  50  through the hub  40 .  
      The network printer  50  is allocated with an Internet Protocol (IP) address in the same manner as the respective host computers  10 ,  20  and  30 . Each host computer  10 ,  20  and  30 , after a printer driver is installed, sets a port of the printer driver to the IP address allocated to the network printer  50 , and outputs a printout command to the set IP address. If the network printer  50  receives printout commands from the respective host computers  10 ,  20  and  30 , it discriminates the IPs of the host computers  10 ,  20  and  30  that output the printout commands, and performs the printing operation according to the print information corresponding to the received printout commands.  
      In the general network printing system as described above, if the plurality of the computers connected to one network printer simultaneously transfer printout commands to the network printer, the network printer sequentially performs the printing work in accordance with the received printout commands. A user of the respective host computer connected to the network printer can recognize the present printing state through a printing manager program displayed on the host computer, but the network printer side cannot recognize the state of printing work. In order to solve this problem, a network printer that can display an output state of the print data has been developed.  
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating the construction of a conventional network printer that can display an output state of print data. A network printer  200  connected to a PC  100  that is a host, includes a host interface  201 , a manipulation panel  203 , a controller  205 , a storage  207 , an engine interface  209 , and a printing part  211 . The network printer  200  is connected to one PC  100  for the sake of convenience in the explanation, however, it is natural that the network printer  200  may be connected to a plurality of PCs  100  as described above.  
      The host interface  201  is implemented by an interface that provides a bi-directional communication between the PC  100  and the printer. The host interface  201  receives various kinds of commands and data from the PC  100 , and transmits output signals to the PC  100 , for example, a status signal of the printer  200 .  
      The manipulation panel  203  is provided with a plurality of keys for inputting various kinds of commands and a display for displaying information produced according to the operation of the printer  200 . The controller  205  communicates with the PC  100  through the host interface  201  and prints work by controlling the printing part  211  according to the commands received from the PC  100  and the manipulation panel  203 .  
      The memory or storage  207  stores a drive program for operating the controller  205  and initial data, and temporarily stores various kinds of data produced according to the operation of the controller  205 . The engine interface  209  is connected between the controller  205  and the printing part  211 , and facilitates the transmission of input and output signals to and from the controller  205 . The printing part  211  includes various kinds of devices for transferring printing papers and performing a printing operation under the control of the controller  205 .  
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating a conventional network printing method performed by the network printer of  FIG. 2 . Referring to  FIG. 3 , if data to be printed is not received from the PC  100  with the network printer  200  being connected to the PC  100 , the network printer  200  is in an initialization and data reception waiting state at step S 301 .  
      When transmitting a document or image data prepared by an application program to the network printer  200  for printing, the host PC  100  transmits information related to the data to be printed to the network printer  200  before it transmits the document or image data. The information related to the data to be printed, which is transmitted by the PC  100 , includes a Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI) of the data to be printed and the whole size of the data, such as 10.5 Kilobytes, to be printed.  
      The network printer  200  receives the data-related information transmitted from the PC  100  at step S 303 , and simultaneously displays that the data reception is in progress on a display provided in the manipulation panel  203  at step S 305 .  
      If the transmission of the information related to the data to be printed is completed, the PC  1   00  transmits the data to be printed to the network printer  200  at step S 307 . The network printer  200  determines whether the reception of the print data transmitted from the PC  100  is completed at predetermined intervals at step S 309 . If it is determined that the reception of the print data is completed, it displays the completion of the data reception on the display at step S 311 . If it is determined that the reception of the print data is not completed, the controller  205  of the network printer  200  performs the printing work by transmitting the received print data to the printing part  211 .  
      As described above, the conventional network printer displays that the data is being received at a time point when the data reception starts, and displays that the data reception is completed at a time point when the data reception is completed. That is, the conventional network printer can display the receiving state of the print data only at the data-reception start time point and at the data-reception completion time point, but cannot provide information on the data receiving state during the time from the data-reception start time point to the data-reception completion time point. Accordingly, if the plurality of the computers, which are connected to the network printer, simultaneously transmit the print data to the network printer, a user who has transmitted the subsequent print data cannot recognize to what extent the printing is performed by the network printer or how much waiting time is required until the print data of the user himself or herself is printed.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      The present invention has been developed in order to solve the above drawbacks and other problems associated with the conventional arrangement. An exemplary aspect of the present invention provides a network printer and a method for displaying a printing state for a network printer that can improve the user&#39;s convenience by displaying in real-time information on the receiving rate of print data and the remaining time.  
      The foregoing and other aspects and advantages are substantially realized by providing a network printer, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, which comprises a display, an interface, a calculator, and a controller.The interface receives print data to be printed and related information of the print data from a connected host. The calculator calculates a receiving rate of the print data and a remaining time until reception of the print data is completed based on the related information received by the interface. The controller updates at predetermined intervals the receiving rate of the print data and the remaining time calculated by the calculator and displays the updated receiving rate and remaining time..  
      It is preferable that the related information that the interface receives from the host includes information on a whole size of the print data, such as 10.5 Kilobytes, and uniform resource identifiers (URI) of the print data.  
      It is also preferable that the calculator includes a search part for searching for the size of the received print data, and calculates the receiving rate and the remaining time based on the size of the print data searched by the search part.  
      It is also preferable that the calculator calculates the receiving rate and the remaining time by the following equations: 
 
Receiving rate (%)=(Size of received data/Whole size of print data)×100; 
 
Remaining time (seconds)=(Whole size of print data−Size of received data)/Receiving speed per second, 
 
 wherein the receiving speed per second=Size of received data/Elapsed time for receiving in seconds, Size of receiving data and Whole size of print data is expressed in either Kilobytes, Kilobits or Megabits. 
 
      In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for displaying the printing state for a network printer which comprises the steps of (a) receiving print data to be printed and related information of the print data from a connected host, (b) calculating a receiving rate of the print data and a remaining time until reception of the print data is completed based on the related information received in the step (a), and (c) updating at predetermined intervals the receiving rate of the print data and the remaining time calculated in the step (b), and displaying the updated receiving rate and remaining time on a display.  
      It is preferable that the related information received in step (a) includes information on a whole size of the print data and uniform resource identifiers (URI) of the print data.  
      It is also preferable that step (b) includes the step of searching for the size of the received print data. The receiving rate and the remaining time are calculated based on the size of the print data searched in step (d).  
      It is also preferable that step (b) calculates the receiving rate and the remaining time by a following equations: 
 
Receiving rate (%)=(Size of received data/Whole size of print data)×100; 
 
Remaining time (seconds)=(Whole size of print data−Size of received data)/Receiving speed per second, 
 
 wherein the receiving speed per second=Size of received data/Elapsed time in seconds, Size of receiving data and Whole size of print data is expressed in either Kilobytes, Kilobits or Megabits. 
 
      The network printer as described above can display the printing state of the print data transmitted from a connected computer when it prints the print data. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      The above aspects and features of the present invention will be more apparent by describing certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:  
       FIG. 1  is a schematic view illustrating a general network printing system;  
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating the construction of a conventional network printer that can display an output state of print data;  
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating a conventional network printing method performed by the network printer of  FIG. 2 ;  
       FIG. 4  is a block diagram illustrating the construction of a network printer according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;  
       FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating a method of displaying a printing state performed by the network printer of  FIG. 4  according to an embodiment of the present invention; and  
       FIG. 6  is a view illustrating an example of displaying a printing state through the network printer of  FIG. 4  according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS  
      Certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.  
      The matters defined in the description such as a detailed construction and elements are provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of the invention. Thus, it is apparent that the present invention can be carried out without those defined matters. Also, well-known functions or constructions will be omitted for he sake of clarity.  
       FIG. 4  is a block diagram illustrating the construction of a network printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
      Referring to  FIG. 4 , the network printer  400  according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes an interface  410 , a calculator  420 , a controller  430 , a display  440 , and a printing part  450 . The network printer  400  is connected to a computer  300  through the interface  410 . Also, the calculator  420  is preferably provided with a search part  423 .  
      The computer  300  converts a document or image data prepared through an installed application program into print data in a format such as Printer Command Language (PCL), and transmits the print data to the network printer  400  in order to print the prepared document or image data. The computer  300  transmits related information of the document or image data (hereinafter referred to as ‘print data’) to the network printer  400  together with the document or image data converted into the PCL. The related information includes information on the whole size of the print data and URI of the print data. Although the computer  300  is connected to the network printer  400  in this embodiment, a mobile device such as a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), portable phone, and notebook computer, may access the network printer  400  through a wireless interface. The mobile device or the computer may be called a host.  
      The interface  410  receives the print data and the related information of the print data transmitted from the computer  300 . The calculator  420  calculates the receiving rate of the print data and the remaining time until the reception of the print data is completed based on the related information received from the computer  300  through the interface  410 . The search part  423  provided in the calculator  420  searches for the size of the received print data. The size of the received print data denotes the size of the print data received until the present time.  
      The calculator  420  calculates the receiving rate and the remaining time by the following equation based on the size of the received print data searched by the search part  423 . 
 
Receiving rate (%)=(Size of received data/Whole size of print data)×100 
 
Remaining time (seconds)=(Whole size of print data−Size of received data)/Receiving speed per second   [Equation 1]
 
      In the above equation, the receiving speed per second=Size of received data/Elapsed time for receiving in seconds, Size of receiving data and Whole size of print data is expressed in either Kilobytes, Kilobits or Megabits.  
      The controller  430  updates at predetermined intervals the receiving rate of the print data and the remaining time calculated by the calculator  420 , and displays the updated receiving rate and remaining time on the display  440 . Also, the controller  430  controls the printing part  450  to print the received print data.  
       FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating a method of displaying a printing state performed by the network printer of  FIG. 4  according to an embodiment of the invention.  
      Referring to  FIG. 5 , the network printer  400  receives the print data and the related information of the print data from the host  300  through the interface  410  at step S 501 . If the print data and the related information of the print data are received from the host  300 , the search part  423  in the calculator  420  searches for the size of the received print data until the present time among the received print data at step  503 .  
      If the size of the received print data until the present time is searched through the search part  423 , the calculator  420  calculates the receiving rate of the received print data and the remaining time until the reception of the print data is completed according to equation  1  based on the whole size of the print data and the URI information of the print data included in the received related information at step S 505 .  
      The controller  430  transmits the receiving rate of the received print data and the remaining time calculated by the calculator  420  to the display  440 , and the display  440  displays the receiving rate and the remaining time received from the calculator  420  at step S 507 .  FIG. 6  illustrates an example of the display of a printing state through the network printer of  FIG. 4  according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to  FIG. 6 , the URI of the print data being received is ‘test.prn’, the receiving rate of the print data received until the present time is 13%, and the remaining time until the reception of the print data is completed is 34 seconds.  
      If the reception of the print data is completed at step S 509 , the display  440  displays the completion of the print data reception at step S 511 . The display  440  may display the completion of the data reception in a manner that it displays 100% as the receiving rate of the print data and ‘0’ second as the remaining time, or in a manner that it displays an expression ‘Data reception completed’.  
      Until the reception of the print data is completed, the controller  430  controls the printing part  450  to print the received print data at step S 513 . The controller  430  may store the received data page by page and print the stored print data in the form of an image through the printing part  450 , or may print the received print data line by line. Consequently, the network printer according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention can display information on the receiving rate of the received print data and the remaining time in real-time, and thus can improve the user&#39;s convenience.  
      The foregoing embodiment and advantages are merely exemplary and are not to be construed as limiting the present invention. The present teaching can be readily applied to other types of apparatuses. Also, the description of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention is intended to be illustrative, and not to limit the scope of the claims, and many alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art.