Title of Invention

A RENDERING DEVICE AND METHOD FOR DETECTING THE QUALITY OF PRINTING PAPER

Abstract

The device is an add-on to existing rendering devices such as printers and copiers. It involves two metal plates of the width of the page used by the rendering device. The two metal plates, along with the air and paper between them, for a parallel plate capacitor. All paper passing from the input tray to the rendering mech"anism passes through the plates. As the paper passes from the input tray to the rendering mechanism between the plates, the device measures the capacitance of the resulting capacitor. From this, it determines the dielectric value and hence the quality of the paper. If the paper is of bad quality, it is not allowed to pass into the rendering mechanism; instead, it is sent out of the rendering device using an auxiliary outlet. If the page is of good quality, then the rendering mechanism prints on it and it passes into the regular output tray.

Full Text

FIELD OF THE TECHNOLOGY This invention in general relates to the multifunctional devices and rendering devices including devices such as printers, scanners, copiers and fax machines. More particularly, this invention relates to a rendering device capable of detecting the quality of paper used for producing hardcopies of documents. DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART In the present scenario, there are printers which are capable of detecting the type of paper used in them for printing. The US Patent 6,725,207 describes a mechanism that is capable of carrying out the media selection with the help of neural networks. The said patent is titled "Media selection using neural network". Large textile industries use capacitance variance when the textile is passed through a parallel plate capacitor setup, for generating control parameters of carbonation process. The capacitance used in the present invention is directly proportional to the thickness of the dielectric and varies by impurities present in it such as water. With reference to Figure 1 which shows a print media detection system of a printer comprising an illuminating source 22 configured to direct a modified light beam 24 onto an incoming print medium 26 at a region of interest 28, a diffuse sensor 30 configured to receive a diffuse reflectance light beam 32 reflected off from the region of interest and a specular sensor 34 configured to receive a specular reflectance light beam 36 reflected off from the region of interest. For capturing print medium data, the illuminating source may be an LED (light emitting diode) for emitting a single pulse of light for each sampling. The emitted pulse may be diffracted by an optical element (not shown) into the modified beam that is focused onto the region of interest. After striking the region of interest, the modified beam is reflected off the medium as both the diffuse reflectance beam and the specular reflectance beam. The diffuse deflected beam has a flame-light scattering of rays arranged in a Lambertian distribution. The specular deflected beam is reflected off the region of interest at the same angle at which the modified beam impinges the region of interest. The diffuse sensor 30 and the specular sensor 34 convert the detected beams into signals for subsequent processing. A controller 38 that is operationally coupled to the illuminating source, diffuse sensor and specular sensor by respective channels 40 controls the illumination of the light source and the capturing of the data reflected off from the illuminated region of interest. With reference to figure 1, the signals corresponding to the detected diffuse reflectance beam 32 and the specular reflectance beam 36 are subjected to data transformation into a suitable format for subsequent analysis. Prior to the transformation, the signals may be subjected to a Hanning or Welch windowing function, but this is not critical to the invention. Following the windowing function, a discrete Fourier Transform function is performed on the data to provide 84 frequency-related components for the diffuse reflectance signals and 84 frequency-related components for the specular reflectance signals. A subsequent pre-scaling step, such as subjecting each of the 168 frequency component to a log(n) or sqrt(n) function, may be performed. Referring again to figure 1, the major neural network 42 is configured to receive frequency data from the controller 38 for a major media type determination. After identifying the incoming medium 26 as one of the five major media types, the medium is further subjected to analysis within the specific media-identifying neural network 43 for a specific media type determination. Subsequently, a print mode is selected by a printer driver 45 for the incoming medium. STRUCTURE AND STEPS OF RELATED ART The related art describes a method and system for automatically classifying a print medium entering a printing device as being a print medium type having known properties relevant to print operations. A detection system captures data indicative of optical characteristics of the incoming medium. The data is spectrally examined to derive frequency-related information. At least one neural network utilizes the frequency-related information to determine a medium type. In one embodiment, a major category network determines the medium type as one of five major medium types. Subsequently, the medium is subjected to analysis with a specific neural network for differentiating the identified major media type into narrower categories. Each neural network comprises a layer of adaptive decisionmaking nodes. Each node includes an activation function for processing the sum of multiple weighted inputs for generating an output. The output is directed to the output level that is at least partially utilized for a medium type determination. OPERATION OF RELATED ART Related art uses the optical properties of a medium to determine the type of the same. A neural network based setup is used to process the data generated in such a way and since the neural network is self learning, it will be more and more rugged as the use increases. LIMITATIONS While the above referenced devices in the prior art accomplish their respective tasks, the application in a wide sense is limited for a number of reasons. The system is very complicated to be implemented as it uses neural networks and optical properties. It only detects the type of the media that is coming to the rendering device/copier. It does not alert the user about bad medium. It does not stop printing when a bad medium is found. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a prior art of the invention involving neural networks. Figure 2 is a block diagram of a system for the present invention. OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The primary object of this invention is to invent a rendering device capable of detecting the quality of the paper used in documents. It is another object of the invention to provide a rendering device as above which reduces the wastage of printer or copier paper. The paper printed and the non-printed paper gets mixed, it is difficult to sort them. But when a paper has printing ink on it, its dielectric constant will vary from the blank paper. If blank and used papers get mixed, they can be fed into the new device and the device will intelligently remove the used papers and use only the un-used ones. The removed papers can be sent to another collecting bin if necessary. It is also an object of the invention to a rendering device as above which will alert the user about bad medium and will stop printing in such a case. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Very often paper gets jammed in a rendering device because it is of low quality. This leads to downtime and repair costs. Manual intervention is required to get the rendering device working again. In this invention, a method is proposed for a rendering device to automatically detect the quality of paper provided to it, and inform the user about bad quality paper that can potentially get stuck in its mechanism. The following modifications could be made: 1. Very often multiple sheets of paper adhere to each other in the input tray due to moisture. This leads to paper jams when they are picked up by the traction mechanism. The new device also detects such anomalies by noticing the sudden change in dielectric value of the input paper. By passing out the pages through an auxiliary outlet and not letting them enter the rendering mechanism, the device prevents a potential paper jam. 2. The device can provide information on the quality of the paper on the user interface or control panel, or report it to another device using the network etc. 3. The user can be provided the option of accepting a paper even after the page quality is not good. 4. The values for which a paper is acceptable can be configurable by the user. Figure 2 shows the theory behind the invention where the paper which acts as the dielectric is passed between the metallic plates arranged to form parallel plate capacitor. Accordingly, the present invention encompasses a rendering device for detecting the quality of the paper used in the device, comprising: a. two metal plates of at least the width of the page used by the rendering device; and b. a parallel plate capacitor formed by the two metal plates, along with the air and paper between them. Accordingly, the present invention further encompasses a method for detecting the quality of the paper used in rendering devices comprising the steps of: a. passing the paper from an input tray to a rendering mechanism between the plates; b. measuring capacitance of a resulting capacitor formed by the plates and paper by the device; c. determining dielectric value and the quality of the paper by means of the said value; d. sending out the paper using an auxiliary outlet when the dielectric value of paper is of insufficient thickness; and e. printing on the paper when the dielectric value of the paper is of sufficient thickness, and passing out into the regular output tray. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood however that the disclosed embodiment is merely exemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. The following description and drawings are not to be construed as limiting the invention and numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention, as the basis for the claims and as a basis for teaching one skilled in the art how to make and/or use the invention. However in certain instances, well-known or conventional details are not described in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention in detail. In the present invention the paper being fed into the rendering peripheral device for printing acts as the dielectric and is passed between the metallic plates arranged to form a parallel plate capacitor. STRUCTURE OF THE INVENTION The device is an add-on technology to the existing rendering devices such as printers and copiers. It involves two metal plates of the width of the page used by the rendering device. The two metal plates, along with the air and paper between them, form a parallel plate capacitor. All paper passing from the input tray to the rendering mechanism passes through the plates. Figure 2 shows the theory behind the invention where the paper which acts as the dielectric is passed between the metallic plates arranged to form parallel plate capacitor. The capacitance used in the present invention is directly proportional to the thickness of the dielectric and varies by impurities present in it such as water. The above setup will work based on the principle of parallel plate capacitor. The metallic plates will be placed in such a way that the paper going into the printer will be passing in between them. This paper will work as a dielectric and change the capacitance measured between the plates. Any standard method for measuring the capacitance can be employed here. It is assumed that, the device knows the optimum capacitance value of the printing paper. (This could be entered as a constant by the operator (around 3 for normal paper) or the printer can be trained initially by feeding a few blank papers to it. OPERATION OF THE INVENTION As the paper passes from the input tray to the rendering mechanism between the plates, the device measures the capacitance of the resulting capacitor. The capacitance is measured using the principle of parallel plate capacitor. The formula used for this purpose is εr=Cd/eoA. This is obtained by rearranging the parallel plate capacitance formula C=£o £rA/d. C=Capacitance. £r=Relative dielectric constant (Characteristic of paper and its quality). £o=Dielectric constant of air. A=Area of metal plates. d=Distance between the two metal plates. However, for a given setup, £oA/d is a constant. Hence, measuring the capacitance is as good as measuring the relative dielectric constant. From this, it determines the dielectric value and hence the quality of the paper. If the paper is of bad quality, it will not be allowed to pass into the rendering mechanism; instead, it is sent out of the rendering device using an auxiliary outlet. If the page is of good quality, then the rendering mechanism prints on it and it passes into the regular output tray. The device compares the obtained value of relative dielectric constant with the relative dielectric constant value good blank paper already known to the device, and determines if the two values are close to each other. The dielectric threshold values for good quality of the paper and the threshold for bad quality of the paper are both pre-specified values. The said threshold values may be assigned by the manufacturer of the MFP device or may be user specified. (Any one of these methods can be adopted in storing the value of the dielectric of paper. Also, as mentioned earlier, the user can be given an option to train the device with a few good papers before using this method). The device reduces the wastage of paper without the addition of too much hardware by sorting used and unused paper from a bundle which has both. Hence this device is very eco-friendly. The reusable pages are automatically selected from a pile of previously used pages by the rendering device. No manual intervention is required. The operation of the device is based on the principle of change in capacitance based on the change in dielectric constant of the printing medium used. The device under consideration is printer or a multifunction device with a parallel plate capacitance setup to measure the dielectric constant of the printing media. The device is capable of controlling the printing process based on the quality/type of media determined by measuring the dielectric value of the same. The device knows the dielectric constants corresponding to a good printing medium. It then compares the value obtained for the current medium with the known values. Based on the match or mismatch, the device decides if the medium is proper for the job and controls the printing based on this. There are many applications for this process. The most obvious one is that, if the medium is not suitable for printing, it can stop the printing or alert the operator. Another application is that, if the dielectric constant matches that of another well known printing medium, it can control the printing parameters accordingly, For instance, if a transparency is found instead of paper, the heating parameters can be controlled based on the above detection. The device can optionally perform any other pre-determined operations based on this detection. It will also be obvious to those skilled in the art that other control methods and apparatuses can be derived from the combinations of the various methods and apparatuses of the present invention as taught by the description and the accompanying drawings and these shall also be considered within the scope of the present invention. Further, description of such combinations and variations is therefore omitted above. It should also be noted that the host for storing the applications include but not limited to a computer, rendering device or a multi function device. Although the present invention has been fully described in connection with the preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that various changes and modifications are possible and are apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications are to be understood as included within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims unless they depart therefrom. Although the preferred embodiment described above deals with the detection of the quality of paper, it is understood that the quality of other media may also be detected by other embodiments of this invention. WE CLAIM 1. A rendering device for detecting the quality of the paper used in the device, comprising: a. two metal plates of at least the width of the page used by the rendering device; and b. a parallel plate capacitor formed by the two metal plates, along with the air and paper between them. 2. A rendering device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said device comprises an alert mechanism by which the user is alerted about any paper of insufficient thickness. 3. A rendering device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said device is adapted to stop printing once paper of insufficient thickness is detected. 4. A rendering device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the sudden increase in dielectric value of the input paper indicates adhesion of papers together. 5. A method for detecting the quality of the paper used in rendering devices comprising the steps of: a. passing the paper from an input tray to a rendering mechanism between the plates; b. measuring capacitance of a resulting capacitor formed by the plates and paper by the device; c. determining dielectric value and the quality of the paper by means of the said value; d. sending out the paper using an auxiliary outlet when the dielectric value of paper is of insufficient thickness; and e. printing on the paper when the dielectric value of the paper is of sufficient thickness, and passing out into the regular output tray. 6. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein said method alerts the user about the quality of paper detected. 7. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the rendering device is adapted to optionally accept a paper by the user even after the page quality is of insufficient thickness. 8. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the values for which a paper is of sufficient or insufficient thickness is optionally configurable by the user. 9. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the bad papers are passed out through an auxiliary outlet bypassing the rendering mechanism to prevent paper jam. 10. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the alert providing information on the quality of the paper is displayed on a user interface or a control panel in the rendering device. 11. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein alert providing information on the quality of the paper is displayed to a second device using the network. 12. A rendering device for detecting the quality of the paper substantially herein described particularly with reference to the accompanying drawings. WE CLAIM 1. A rendering device for detecting the quality of the paper used in the device, comprising: a. two metal plates of at least the width of the page used by the rendering device; and b. a parallel plate capacitor formed by the two metal plates, along with the air and paper between them. 2. A rendering device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said device comprises an alert mechanism by which the user is alerted about any paper of insufficient thickness. 3. A rendering device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said device is adapted to stop printing once paper of insufficient thickness is detected. 4. A rendering device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the sudden increase in dielectric value of the input paper indicates adhesion of papers together. 5. A method for detecting the quality of the paper used in rendering devices comprising the steps of: a. passing the paper from an input tray to a rendering mechanism between the plates; b. measuring capacitance of a resulting capacitor formed by the plates and paper by the device; c. determining dielectric value and the quality of the paper by means of the said value; d. sending out the paper using an auxiliary outlet when the dielectric value of paper is of insufficient thickness; and e. printing on the paper when the dielectric value of the paper is of sufficient thickness, and passing out into the regular output tray. 6. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein said method alerts the user about the quality of paper detected. 7. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the rendering device is adapted to optionally accept a paper by the user even after the page quality is of insufficient thickness. 8. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the values for which a paper is of sufficient or insufficient thickness is optionally configurable by the user. 9. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the bad papers are passed out through an auxiliary outlet bypassing the rendering mechanism to prevent paper jam. 10. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the alert providing information on the quality of the paper is displayed on a user interface or a control panel in the rendering device. 11. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein alert providing information on the quality of the paper is displayed to a second device using the network. 12. A rendering device for detecting the quality of the paper substantially herein described particularly with reference to the accompanying drawings. WE CLAIM 1. A rendering device for detecting the quality of the paper used in the device, comprising: a. two metal plates of at least the width of the page used by the rendering device; and b. a parallel plate capacitor formed by the two metal plates, along with the air and paper between them. 2. A rendering device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said device comprises an alert mechanism by which the user is alerted about any paper of insufficient thickness. 3. A rendering device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said device is adapted to stop printing once paper of insufficient thickness is detected. 4. A rendering device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the sudden increase in dielectric value of the input paper indicates adhesion of papers together. 5. A method for detecting the quality of the paper used in rendering devices comprising the steps of: a. passing the paper from an input tray to a rendering mechanism between the plates; b. measuring capacitance of a resulting capacitor formed by the plates and paper by the device; c. determining dielectric value and the quality of the paper by means of the said value; d. sending out the paper using an auxiliary outlet when the dielectric value of paper is of insufficient thickness; and e. printing on the paper when the dielectric value of the paper is of sufficient thickness, and passing out into the regular output tray. 6. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein said method alerts the user about the quality of paper detected. 7. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the rendering device is adapted to optionally accept a paper by the user even after the page quality is of insufficient thickness. 8. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the values for which a paper is of sufficient or insufficient thickness is optionally configurable by the user. 9. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the bad papers are passed out through an auxiliary outlet bypassing the rendering mechanism to prevent paper jam. 10. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the alert providing information on the quality of the paper is displayed on a user interface or a control panel in the rendering device. 11. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein alert providing information on the quality of the paper is displayed to a second device using the network. 12. A rendering device for detecting the quality of the paper substantially herein described particularly with reference to the accompanying drawings. WE CLAIM 1. A rendering device for detecting the quality of the paper used in the device, comprising: a. two metal plates of at least the width of the page used by the rendering device; and b. a parallel plate capacitor formed by the two metal plates, along with the air and paper between them. 2. A rendering device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said device comprises an alert mechanism by which the user is alerted about any paper of insufficient thickness. 3. A rendering device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said device is adapted to stop printing once paper of insufficient thickness is detected. 4. A rendering device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the sudden increase in dielectric value of the input paper indicates adhesion of papers together. 5. A method for detecting the quality of the paper used in rendering devices comprising the steps of: a. passing the paper from an input tray to a rendering mechanism between the plates; b. measuring capacitance of a resulting capacitor formed by the plates and paper by the device; c. determining dielectric value and the quality of the paper by means of the said value; d. sending out the paper using an auxiliary outlet when the dielectric value of paper is of insufficient thickness; and e. printing on the paper when the dielectric value of the paper is of sufficient thickness, and passing out into the regular output tray. 6. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein said method alerts the user about the quality of paper detected. 7. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the rendering device is adapted to optionally accept a paper by the user even after the page quality is of insufficient thickness. 8. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the values for which a paper is of sufficient or insufficient thickness is optionally configurable by the user. 9. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the bad papers are passed out through an auxiliary outlet bypassing the rendering mechanism to prevent paper jam. 10. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the alert providing information on the quality of the paper is displayed on a user interface or a control panel in the rendering device. 11. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein alert providing information on the quality of the paper is displayed to a second device using the network. 12. A rendering device for detecting the quality of the paper substantially herein described particularly with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Documents:

1019-che-2004-abstract.pdf

1019-che-2004-claims faild.pdf

1019-che-2004-claims grand.pdf

1019-che-2004-correspondnece-others.pdf

1019-che-2004-correspondnece-po.pdf

1019-che-2004-description(complete) faild.pdf

1019-che-2004-description(complete) grand.pdf

1019-che-2004-drawings.pdf

1019-che-2004-form 1.pdf

1019-che-2004-form 13.pdf

1019-che-2004-form 26.pdf

1019-che-2004-form 5.pdf