Patent ID: 7086055

Claim:
A method for distribution of a task, by a host computer, to a printer, where the printer comprises an operating system that includes a JAVA interpretation process and a processor that executes the JAVA interpretation process and operating system, the printer having an idle state during which printing is not performed, the method comprising the steps of: identifying a non-printing task at the host computer where the non-printing task is initially configured to be executed by the host computer and is identified to be distributed to the printer for processing by the printer where the printer functions as a distributed computing device; formulating the non-printing task into an executable form comprising JAVA code; wrapping task execution instructions and the JAVA code in a packet; labeling the packet for processing by the JAVA interpretation process; transmitting the packet to the printer for generation of results by the JAVA interpretation process in response to the JAVA code and the task execution instructions; and the host computer receiving the results from the printer.