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EP-4553639-B1 - INSPECTION PRODUCTION CONTROL MECHANISM

EP4553639B1EP 4553639 B1EP4553639 B1EP 4553639B1EP-4553639-B1

Inventors

  • JOHNSON, SCOTT R.
  • HOPPER, SAMUEL
  • VO, MINH
  • Shouldice, Kenneth

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20241111

Claims (11)

  1. A system (1300) comprising: at least one physical memory device (1327) storing inspection logic (640); and one or more processors (1310) coupled with the at least one physical memory device (1327) to execute the inspection logic (640) to: capture a page image of a print job page printed on a print medium; determine a page identifier value on the page image; determine whether the page identifier value is within a first production range associated with a first inspection production; and perform inspection processing using a first inspection production on the page image upon a determination that the page identifier value is within the first production range, wherein the one or more processors (1310) is coupled with the at least one physical memory device (1327) to execute the inspection logic (640) to perform inspection processing using a second inspection production on the page image upon a determination that the page identifier value is not within the first production range, and the at least one physical memory device (1327) stores interface logic and the one or more processors to execute the interface logic to receive a production message including a name of an inspection production and a page identifier indicating a first page in a range to use an inspection production.
  2. The system (1300) of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors (1310) is coupled with the at least one physical memory device (1327) to execute the interface logic to transmit a page identifier command to the inspection logic, wherein the page identifier command comprises the page identifier and the name of an inspection production.
  3. The system (1300) of claim 2, wherein the one or more processors (1310) is coupled with the at least one physical memory device (1327) to execute the inspection logic further to: receive the page identifier command; and add the page identifier command to a queue of inspection productions.
  4. The system (1300) of claim 3, wherein the one or more processors (1310) is coupled with the at least one physical memory device (1327) to execute the inspection logic to acquire memory resources associated with the page identifier command to perform the inspection productions, wherein the memory resources comprise an inspection production.
  5. The system (1300) of claim 1, wherein the at least one physical memory device stores insertion logic and the one or more processors (1310) is coupled with the at least one physical memory device (1327) to execute the insertion logic to: receive a page of print job data; insert the page identifier into the print job data to be applied to the page; and transmit the production message to the inspection logic.
  6. The (1300) system of claim 5, wherein the one or more processors (1310) is coupled with the at least one physical memory device (1327) to execute the insertion logic to receive update messages from the inspection logic including a list of inspection productions currently implemented at a print verification system.
  7. The (1300) system of claim 6, wherein the one or more processors (1310) is coupled with the at least one physical memory device (1327) to execute the insertion logic to receive data indicating a selection of one or more inspection productions that are to be associated with the print job data.
  8. The system (1300) of claim 1, further comprising a printer to print the print job on the print medium.
  9. A method comprising: capturing (910) a page image of a print job page printed on a print medium; determining (920) a page identifier value on the page image; determining (930) whether the page identifier value is within a first production range associated with a first inspection production; performing (940) inspection processing using a first inspection production on the page image upon a determination that the page identifier value is within the first production range; performing inspection processing using a second inspection production on the page image upon a determination that the page identifier value is not within the first production range, and receiving (710) a production message including a name of an inspection production and a page identifier indicating a first page in a range to use an inspection production.
  10. The method of claim 9, further comprising transmitting (740) a page identifier command, wherein the page identifier command comprises the page identifier and the name of an inspection production.
  11. A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, which when executed by one or more processors, cause the processors to carry out the method of any one of claims 9 to 11.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to the field of printing systems, and in particular, to image processing in a printing system. BACKGROUND High speed print production systems often implement a print verification system (PVS) to detect defects in print data applied to a medium (e.g., paper). Print defects most often result from impurities included in the medium, or from partial drying and clumping of ink at the mouth of print nozzles. While some defects are acceptable, others cause printed matter to be rejected and destroyed. JP 2007 089005 A discloses a multifunction machine and a printed image inspection method for use with the multifunction machine which is able to access specific pages with regard to that printing quality. US 2023 177672 A1 discloses an information processing apparatus inspecting printed contents of a printed sheet, wherein the information processing apparatus includes a recognition unit configured to recognize the printed contents printed on the sheet, an acquisition unit configured to acquire an attribute value from information recognized by the recognition unit, a specification unit configured to specify a time required for inspection of the printed contents of the sheet by using the attribute value acquired by the acquisition unit, and a notification unit configured to issue a notification to a user based on a result of comparison between the required time specified by the specification unit and a time limit for inspection of the printed contents. SUMMARY The invention is defined by claims 1 and 9. The dependent claims relate to preferred embodiments of the invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS A better understanding of the present invention can be obtained from the following detailed description in conjunction with the following drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a printing system;Figures 2A&2B are block diagrams illustrating embodiment of a print controller;Figure 3 illustrates one embodiment of an inspection production module;Figures 4A&4B illustrate embodiments of a graphical user interface;Figures 5A&5B are flow diagram illustrating embodiments of processes performed by an inspection production module;Figure 6 illustrates one embodiment of a print verification system;Figure 7 is a flow diagram illustrating one embodiment of a process for performing print verification;Figure 8 is a flow diagram illustrating another embodiment of a process for performing print verification;Figure 9 is a flow diagram illustrating one embodiment of an inspection process; andFigure 10 illustrates one embodiment of a computer system. DETAILED DESCRIPTION A mechanism to automatically control inspection production is described. In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without some of these specific details. Therefore, references to details of various embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the invention, which is defined by the appended claims. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form to avoid obscuring the underlying principles of the present invention. Reference in the specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase "in one embodiment" in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Throughout this document, terms like "logic", "component", "module", "engine", "model", "calculator" and the like, may be referenced interchangeably and include, by way of example, software, hardware, and/or any combination of software and hardware, such as firmware. Further, any use of a particular brand, word, term, phrase, name, and/or acronym, should not be read to limit embodiments to software or devices that carry that label in products or in literature external to this document. Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of a printing system 130. A host system 110 is in communication with the printing system 130 to print a sheet image 120 onto a print medium 180 (e.g., paper) via a printer 160. The resulting print medium 180 may be printed in color and/or in any of a number of gray shades, including black and white (e.g., Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and blacK, (CMYK)). The host system 110 may include any computing device, such as a personal computer, a server, cloud infrastructure, or even a digital imaging device, such as a digital camera or a scanner. The sheet image 120 may be any file or data that describes how an image on a sheet of print medium 180 should be printed. For example, the sheet image 120 may include PostScript data, Print