WO2001002948A1 - Interactive printer reward scheme - Google Patents

Abstract

A preferred embodiment of the invention is specifically configured to allow a printer's or a user's account to accumulate a credit balance and for all or a portion of this balance to be presented to the corresponding user or users as a collection of 'points'. If the printer account has a credit balance, then the corresponding points may be redeemed by the user or users for particular products or services. Users thereby learn to associate fee-earning activities in relation to the printer, such as the printing of advertising and online purchasing, with the accumulation of points, thus maximising the likelihood that a particular printer will not become a cost burden to its provider.

Description

INTERACTIVE PRINTER REWARD SCHEME

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to generally to systems, apparatus, devices and methods for interacting with computers and in particular to a system and method for providing to a user printed information The invention has been developed primarily to allow a large number of distributed users to interact with networked information via printed matter and optical sensors, thereby to obtain interactive printed matter on demand via high-speed networked color printers Although the invention will largely be described herein with reference to this use, it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to use in this field

CO-PENDING APPLICATIONS Various methods, systems and apparatus relating to the present invention are disclosed in the following co- pending applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention simultaneously with the present application

PCT/AU00/00762, PCT/AUOO/00763, PCT/AU00/00761, PCT/AU00/00760, PCT/AU00/00759, PCT/AU00/00758, PCT/AU00/00764, PCT/AUOO/00765, PCT/AU00/00766, PCT/AU00/00767, PCT/AU00/00768, PCT/AU00/00773, PCT/AU00/00774, PC I /AU00/00775, PC 1 /AU00/00776, PCT/AU00/00777, PCT/AU00/00770, PCT/AU00/00769, PCT/AU00/00772, PCT/AU00/00754, PCT/AU00/00755, PCT/AU00/00756, PC 1 /AU00/00757

The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incoφorated herein by cross-reference Various methods, systems and apparatus relating to the present invention are disclosed in the following co- pending applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention on 24 May 2000

PCT/AU00/00518, PC r/AU00/00519, PCT/AU00/00520, PCT/AU00/00521 , PCT/AU00/00523,

PCT/AU00/00524, PCT/AU00/00525, PCT/AU00/00526, PCT/AU00/00527, PCT/AU00/00528, PCT/AU00/00529, PCT/AU00/00530, PCT/AU00/00531, PCT/AU00/00532, PCT/AU00/00533, PC 1 /AU00/00534, PCT/AU00/00535, PCT/AU00/00536, PCT/AU00/00537, PCT/AU00/00538, PPCC11 //AAUU0000//0000553399,, PPCCTT//AAUU0000//0000554400,, PCT/AU00/00541, PCT/AU00/00542, PCT/AU00/00543, PCT/AU00/00544, PCT/AU00/00545, PCT/AU00/00547, PCT/AU00/00546, PCT/AU00/00554, PCT/AU00/00556, PCT/AU00/00557, PCT/AU00/00558, PCT/AU00/00559, PCT/AU00/00560, PCT/AU00/00561 , PCT/AU00/00562, PCT/AUOO/00563, PC I /AU00/00564, PC r/AU00/00566, PCT/AU00/00567, PCT/AU00/00568, PCI /AU00/00569, PC r/AU00/00570, PC r/AU00/00571 , PCT/AU00/00572, PC1/AU00/00573, PC r/AU00/00574, PCT/AU00/00575, PCT/AU00/00576, PCT/AU00/00577, PCT/AU00/00578, PCT/AU00/00579, PCT/AU00/00581, PCT/AUOO/00580, PCT/AU00/00582, PCT/AU00/00587, PCT/AU00/00588, PCT/AU00/00589, PCT/AU00/00583, PCT/AU00/00593, PCT/AU00/00590, PCT/AU00/00591 , PCT/AU00/00592, PCT/AU00/00594, PC 1 /AU00/00595, PCT/AU00/00596, PC r/AU00/00597, PCT/AU00/00598, PCT/AU00/00516, PCI /AU00/00517 and PCT/AU00/0051 1

The disclosures of these co-pending applications are incorporated herein by cross-reference BACKGROUND

Paper is widely used to display and record information. Printed information is easier to read than information displayed on a computer screen. Hand-drawing and handwriting afford greater richness of expression than input via a computer keyboard and mouse. Moreover, paper doesn't run on batteries, can be read in bright light, more robustly accepts coffee spills, and is portable and disposable.

Online publication has many advantages over traditional paper-based publication. From a consumer's point of view, information is available on demand, information can be navigated via hypertext links, searched and automatically personalized.

From the publisher's point of view, the costs of printing and physical distribution are eliminated, and the publication becomes more attractive to the advertisers who pay for it because it can be targeted to specific demographics and linked to product sites.

Online publication also has disadvantages. Computer screens are inferior to paper. At the same quality as a magazine page, an SVGA computer screen displays only about a fifth as much information. Both CRTs and LCDs have brightness and contrast problems, particularly when ambient light is strong, while ink on paper, being reflective rather than emissive, is both bright and shaφ in ambient light.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention, at least in the preferred embodiments, to overcome or ameliorate at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art, or to provide a useful alternative.

According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a system for providing printed information to a user, the system including: a user printer module for interfacing the user with a first database containing first information, the module being responsive to the user requesting the first information from the first database for obtaining the first information and generating a first printed media that displays to the user the first information; identifier means for applying an identifier to the first printed media such that designation of the identifier by the user results in the module generating a second printed media that displays to the user second information obtained from a second database; memory means for storing account data indicative of either or both of: the number of times the first information is obtained from the first database; or the number of times the second information is obtained from the second database; and account means being responsive to the account data for selectively accumulating a credit that is allocated to the user and which is redeemable by the user for obtaining selected goods and/or services.

Preferably, the system includes: a first server means of a first party for containing the first database, the first server means being accessed selectively by the module for obtaining the first information; and a second server means of a second party for containing the second database, the second server means being accessed selectively by the module for obtaining the second information.

Preferably, the first party and the second party are separate legal entities and the account data is indicative of both the number of times first information is obtained from the first database and the number of times second information is obtained from the second database, the system including calculation means responsive to the account data for determining a financial debit to be applied by the first party against the second party

In a preferred form, the module is provided to the user by a third party and the calculation means is responsive to the account data for determining a financial debit to be applied by the third party against the first party or by the third party against the second party

Preferably, the calculation means determines a financial debit to be applied by the third party against the first party in proportion to the number of times first information was obtained by the module from the first database, and a financial debit to be applied by the third party against the second party in proportion to the number of times second information was obtained by the module from the second database

In a preferred form, the system includes a plurality of modules for a corresponding plurality of users and the calculation means is responsive to the separate memory means for determining the number of times in total that the first and the second databases are accessed by the modules Preferably, the credit must be redeemed within a predetermined peπod More preferably, the peπod commences from the time that the credit is applied

Preferably also, the credit is added with any non-redeemed credit that has previously been accumulated by the user

In a preferred form, the credit is reduced selectively based upon one or more of the following the passage of time, a failure of the user to timely pay a system usage fee, or as part or full payment of the system usage fee

According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a system for providing pnnted information to a user, the system including a user printer module for interfacing the user with a first database containing first information, the module being responsive to the user requesting the first information from the first database for obtaining the first information and generating a first printed media that displays to the user the first information, an identifier database for supplying an identifier to the first pnnted media such that designation of the identifier by the user results in the module generating a second pnnted media that displays to the user second information obtained from a second database, an account server for stonng account data indicative of either or both of the number of times the first information is obtained from the first database, or the number of times the second information is obtained from the second database, and an account maintained by the account server and being responsive to the account data for selectively accumulating a credit that is allocated to the user and which is redeemable by the user for obtaining selected goods and/or services Preferably, the system includes: a first server of a first party for containing the first database, the first server being accessed selectively by the module for obtaining the first information; and a second server of a second party for containing the second database, the second server being accessed selectively by the module for obtaining the second information.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Preferred and other embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of non-limiting example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic of a the relationship between a sample printed netpage and its online page description; Figure 2 is a schematic view of a interaction between a netpage pen, a netpage printer, a netpage page server, and a neφage application server;

Figure 3 illustrates a collection of netpage servers and printers interconnected via a network;

Figure 4 is a schematic view of a high-level structure of a printed netpage and its online page description;

Figure 5 is a plan view showing a structure of a netpage tag; Figure 6 is a plan view showing a relationship between a set of the tags shown in Figure 5 and a field of view of a netpage sensing device in the form of a netpage pen;

Figure 7 is a flowchart of a tag image processing and decoding algorithm;

Figure 8 is a perspective view of a netpage pen and its associated tag-sensing field-of-view cone;

Figure 9 is a perspective exploded view of the netpage pen shown in Figure 8; Figure 10 is a schematic block diagram of a pen controller for the netpage pen shown in Figures 8 and 9;

Figure 11 is a perspective view of a wall-mounted netpage printer;

Figure 12 is a section through the length of the netpage printer of Figure 11;

Figure 12a is an enlarged portion of Figure 12 showing a section of the duplexed print engines and glue wheel assembly;

Figure 13 is a detailed view of the ink cartridge, ink, air and glue paths, and print engines of the netpage printer of Figures 11 and 12;

Figure 14 is a schematic block diagram of a printer controller for the netpage printer shown in Figures 11 and 12;

Figure 15 is a schematic block diagram of duplexed print engine controllers and Memjet™ printheads associated with the printer controller shown in Figure 14;

Figure 16 is a schematic block diagram of the print engine controller shown in Figures 14 and 15; Figure 17 is a perspective view of a single Memjet™ printing element, as used in, for example, the netpage printer of Figures 10 to 12;

Figure 18 is a perspective view of a small part of an array of Memjet™ printing elements;

Figure 19 is a series of perspective views illustrating the operating cycle of the Memjet™ printing element shown in Figure 13;

Figure 20 is a perspective view of a short segment of a pagewidth Memjet™ printhead;

Figure 21 is a schematic view of a registration server class diagram;

Figure 22 is a schematic view of a storage provider class diagram; Figure 23 is a schematic view of a user class diagram;

Figure 24 is a schematic view of a printer class diagram;

Figure 25 is a schematic view of a pen class diagram;

Figure 26 is a schematic view of an application class diagram;

Figure 27 is a schematic view of a page server class diagram; Figure 28 is a schematic view of a document and page description class diagram;

Figure 29 is a schematic view of a document and page ownership class diagram;

Figure 30 is a schematic view of a terminal element specialization class diagram;

Figure 31 is a schematic view of a static element specialization class diagram;

Figure 32 is a schematic view of a hyperlink element class diagram; Figure 33 is a schematic view of a hyperlink element specialization class diagram;

Figure 34 is a schematic view of a hyperlinked group class diagram;

Figure 35 is a schematic view of a form class diagram;

Figure 36 is a schematic view of a digital ink class diagram;

Figure 37 is a schematic view of a field element specialization class diagram; Figure 38 is a schematic view of a checkbox field class diagram;

Figure 39 is a schematic view of a text field class diagram;

Figure 40 is a schematic view of a signature field class diagram;

Figure 41 is a flowchart of an input processing algorithm;

Figure 41 a is a detailed flowchart of one step of the flowchart of Figure 41 ; Figure 42 is a schematic view of a subscription delivery protocol;

Figure 43 is a schematic view of a hyperlink request class diagram;

Figure 44 is a schematic view of a hyperlink activation protocol;

Figure 45 is a schematic view of a form submission protocol;

Figure 46 is a schematic view of a commission payment protocol; Figure 47 is a schematic view of an advertising fee payment protocol;

Figure 48 is a schematic view of a click-through fee payment protocol; Figure 49 is a schematic view of a sales commission payment protocol, Figure 50 is a schematic view of an advertising fee commission payment protocol, Figure 51 is a schematic view of a click-through fee commission payment protocol, and Figure 52 is a schematic view of a sales commission commission payment protocol

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED AND OTHER EMBODIMENTS

Note Memjet™ is a trade mark of Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd, Australia

In the prefened embodiment, the invention is configured to work with the netpage networked computer system, a detailed overview of which follows It will be appreciated that not every implementation will necessaπly embody all or even most of the specific details and extensions discussed below in relation to the basic system However, the system is descnbed in its most complete form to reduce the need for external reference when attempting to understand the context m which the preferred embodiments and aspects of the present invention operate

In bnef summary, the preferred form of the neφage system employs a computer interface in the form of a mapped surface, that is, a physical surface which contains references to a map of the surface maintained in a computer system The map references can be quened by an appropπate sensing device Depending upon the specific implementation, the map references may be encoded visibly or invisibly, and defined in such a way that a local query on the mapped surface yields an unambiguous map reference both within the map and among different maps The computer system can contain information about features on the mapped surface, and such information can be retneved based on map references supplied by a sensing device used with the mapped surface The information thus retneved can take the form of actions which are initiated by the computer system on behalf of the operator in response to the operator's interaction with the surface features

In its prefened form, the netpage system relies on the production of, and human interaction with, netpages These are pages of text, graphics and images pnnted on ordinary paper, but which work like interactive web pages Information is encoded on each page using ink which is substantially invisible to the unaided human eye The ink, however, and thereby the coded data, can be sensed by an optically imaging pen and transmitted to the netpage system In the preferred form, active buttons and hyperlinks on each page can be clicked with the pen to request information from the network or to signal preferences to a network server In one embodiment, text wntten by hand on a netpage is automatically recognized and converted to computer text in the netpage system, allowing forms to be filled in In other embodiments, signatures recorded on a netpage are automatically venfied, allowing e-commerce transactions to be securely authonzed As illustrated in Figure 1, a pnnted netpage 1 can represent a interactive form which can be filled in by the user both physically, on the pnnted page, and "electronically", via communication between the pen and the netpage system The example shows a "Request" form containing name and address fields and a submit button The netpage consists of graphic data 2 pnnted using visible ink, and coded data 3 pnnted as a collection of tags 4 using invisible ink The corresponding page descnption 5, stored on the netpage network, descnbes the individual elements of the netpage In particular it descnbes the type and spatial extent (zone) of each interactive element (l e text field or button in the example), to allow the neφage system to correctly inteφret input via the netpage The submit button 6, for example, has a zone 7 which coπesponds to the spatial extent of the corresponding graphic 8

As illustrated in Figure 2, the netpage pen 101, a prefeπed form of which is shown in Figures 8 and 9 and described in more detail below, works in conjunction with a netpage pnnter 601, an Internet-connected pnnting appliance for home, office or mobile use The pen is wireless and communicates securely with the netpage pnnter via a short-range radio link 9

The netpage pnnter 601, a preferred form of which is shown in Figures 1 1 to 13 and descnbed in more detail below, is able to deliver, penodically or on demand, personalized newspapers, magazines, catalogs, brochures and other publications, all pnnted at high quality as interactive netpages Unlike a personal computer, the netpage pnnter is an appliance which can be, for example, wall-mounted adjacent to an area where the morning news is first consumed, such as in a user's kitchen, near a breakfast table, or near the household's point of departure for the day It also comes in tabletop, desktop, portable and miniature versions Netpages pnnted at their point of consumption combine the ease-of-use of paper with the timeliness and interactivity of an interactive medium

As shown m Figure 2, the netpage pen 101 interacts with the coded data on a pnnted netpage 1 and communicates, via a short-range radio link 9, the interaction to a netpage pnnter The pnnter 601 sends the interaction to the relevant netpage page server 10 for inteφretation In appropnate circumstances, the page server sends a conesponding message to application computer software running on a neφage application server 13 The application server may in turn send a response which is pnnted on the onginating pnnter

The netpage system is made considerably more convenient in the prefened embodiment by being used in conjunction with high-speed microelectromechanical system (MEMS) based inkjet (Memjet™) pnnters In the prefened form of this technology, relatively high-speed and high-quality pnnting is made more affordable to consumers In its prefened form, a netpage publication has the physical charactenstics of a traditional newsmagazine, such as a set of letter- size glossy pages pnnted in full color on both sides, bound together for easy navigation and comfortable handling

The netpage pnnter exploits the growing availability of broadband Internet access Cable service is available to 95% of households in the United States, and cable modem service offenng broadband Internet access is already available to 20% of these The netpage pnnter can also operate with slower connections, but with longer delivery times and lower image quality Indeed, the netpage system can be enabled using existing consumer mkjet and laser pnnters, although the system will operate more slowly and will therefore be less acceptable from a consumer's point of view In other embodiments, the netpage system is hosted on a pnvate intranet In still other embodiments, the netpage system is hosted on a single computer or computer-enabled device, such as a pnnter

Neφage publication servers 14 on the netpage network are configured to deliver pnnt-quahty publications to netpage pnnters Peπodical publications are delivered automatically to subscnbing netpage pnnters via pomtcasting and multicasting Internet protocols Personalized publications are filtered and formatted according to individual user profiles

A netpage pnnter can be configured to support any number of pens, and a pen can work with any number of netpage pnnters In the prefened implementation, each netpage pen has a unique identifier A household may have a collection of colored netpage pens, one assigned to each member of the family This allows each user to maintain a distinct profile with respect to a netpage publication server or application server

A netpage pen can also be registered with a netpage registration server 11 and linked to one or more payment card accounts This allows e-commerce payments to be securely authonzed using the netpage pen The netpage registration server compares the signature captured by the netpage pen with a previously registered signature, allowing it to authenticate the user's identity to an e-commerce server Other biometπcs can also be used to venfy identity A version of the netpage pen includes fingeφnnt scanning, venfied in a similar way by the netpage registration server Although a netpage pnnter may deliver penodicals such as the morning newspaper without user intervention, it can be configured never to deliver unsolicited junk mail In its prefened form, it only delivers penodicals from subscnbed or otherwise authonzed sources In this respect, the netpage pnnter is unlike a fax machine or e-mail account which is visible to any junk mailer who knows the telephone number or email address

1 NETPAGE SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

Each object model in the system is descnbed using a Unified Modeling Language (UML) class diagram A class diagram consists of a set of object classes connected by relationships, and two kinds of relationships are of interest here associations and generalizations An association represents some kind of relationship between objects, l e between instances of classes A generalization relates actual classes, and can be understood in the following way if a class is thought of as the set of all objects of that class, and class A is a generalization of class B, then B is simply a subset of A The UML does not directly support second-order modelling - I e classes of classes

Each class is drawn as a rectangle labelled with the name of the class It contains a list of the attnbutes of the class, separated from the name by a honzontal line, and a list of the operations of the class, separated from the attribute list by a honzontal line In the class diagrams which follow, however, operations are never modelled An association is drawn as a line joining two classes, optionally labelled at either end with the multiplicity of the association The default multiplicity is one An astensk (*) indicates a multiplicity of "many", I e zero or more Each association is optionally labelled with its name, and is also optionally labelled at either end with the role of the conesponding class An open diamond indicates an aggregation association ("ls-part-of '), and is drawn at the aggregator end of the association line A generalization relationship ("ls-a") is drawn as a solid line joining two classes, with an arrow (m the form of an open tnangle) at the generalization end

When a class diagram is broken up into multiple diagrams, any class which is duplicated is shown with a dashed outline in all but the main diagram which defines it It is shown with attnbutes only where it is defined

1.1 NETPAGES Netpages are the foundation on which a netpage network is built They provide a paper-based user interface to published information and interactive services

A neφage consists of a pnnted page (or other surface region) invisibly tagged with references to an online descnption of the page The online page descnption is maintained persistently by a netpage page server The page descnption descnbes the visible layout and content of the page, including text, graphics and images It also descnbes the input elements on the page, including buttons, hyperlinks, and input fields A netpage allows markings made with a netpage pen on its surface to be simultaneously captured and processed by the netpage system

Multiple netpages can share the same page descnption However, to allow input through otherwise identical pages to be distinguished, each netpage is assigned a unique page identifier This page ID has sufficient precision to distinguish between a very large number of netpages Each reference to the page descnption is encoded in a pnnted tag The tag identifies the unique page on which it appears, and thereby indirectly identifies the page descnption The tag also identifies its own position on the page Charactenstics of the tags are descnbed in more detail below

Tags are pnnted in mfrared-absoφtive ink on any substrate which is infrared-reflective, such as ordinary paper Near-mfrared wavelengths are invisible to the human eye but are easily sensed by a solid-state image sensor with an appropnate filter

A tag is sensed by an area image sensor in the netpage pen, and the tag data is transmitted to the netpage system via the nearest netpage pnnter The pen is wireless and communicates with the netpage pnnter via a short-range radio link Tags are sufficiently small and densely aπanged that the pen can reliably image at least one tag even on a single click on the page It is important that the pen recognize the page ID and position on every interaction with the page, since the interaction is stateless Tags are eπor-coπectably encoded to make them partially tolerant to surface damage

The netpage page server maintains a unique page instance for each pnnted netpage, allowing it to maintain a distinct set of user-supplied values for input fields in the page descnption for each pnnted netpage The relationship between the page descnption, the page instance, and the pnnted neφage is shown in Figure

4 The pnnted netpage may be part of a pnnted netpage document 45 The page instance is associated with both the netpage pnnter which pnnted it and, if known, the netpage user who requested it

1.2 NETPAGE TAGS

1.2.1 Tag Data Content In a prefeπed form, each tag identifies the region in which it appears, and the location of that tag within the region A tag may also contain flags which relate to the region as a whole or to the tag One or more flag bits may, for example, signal a tag sensing device to provide feedback indicative of a function associated with the immediate area of the tag, without the sensing device having to refer to a descnption of the region A netpage pen may, for example, illuminate an "active area" LED when in the zone of a hyperlink As will be more clearly explained below, in a prefeπed embodiment, each tag contains an easily recognized invaπant structure which aids initial detection, and which assists in minimizing the effect of any waφ induced by the surface or by the sensing process The tags preferably tile the entire page, and are sufficiently small and densely aπanged that the pen can reliably image at least one tag even on a single click on the page It is important that the pen recognize the page ID and position on every interaction with the page, since the interaction is stateless In a prefeπed embodiment, the region to which a tag refers coincides with an entire page, and the region ID encoded in the tag is therefore synonymous with the page ID of the page on which the tag appears In other embodiments, the region to which a tag refers can be an arbitrary subregion of a page or other surface For example, it can coincide with the zone of an interactive element, in which case the region ID can directly identify the interactive element

Table 1 - Tag data

Each tag contains 120 bits of information, typically allocated as shown in Table 1 Assuming a maximum tag density of 64 per square inch, a 16-bit tag ID supports a region size of up to 1024 square inches Larger regions can be mapped continuously without increasing the tag ID precision simply by using abutting regions and maps The 100-bit region ID allows 2¹⁰° (-10³⁰ or a million tnlhon tnlhon) different regions to be uniquely identified 1.2.2 Tag Data Encoding

The 120 bits of tag data are redundantly encoded using a (15, 5) Reed-Solomon code This yields 360 encoded bits consisting of 6 codewords of 15 4-bit symbols each The (15, 5) code allows up to 5 symbol eπors to be coπected per codeword, l e it is tolerant of a symbol eπor rate of up to 33% per codeword Each 4-bit symbol is represented in a spatially coherent way in the tag, and the symbols of the six codewords are interleaved spatially within the tag This ensures that a burst eπor (an eπor affecting multiple spatially adjacent bits) damages a minimum number of symbols overall and a minimum number of symbols in any one codeword, thus maximising the likelihood that the burst eπor can be fully coπected

1.2.3 Physical Tag Structure The physical representation of the tag, shown in Figure 5, includes fixed target structures 15, 16, 17 and vanable data areas 18 The fixed target structures allow a sensing device such as the netpage pen to detect the tag and infer its three-dimensional onentation relative to the sensor The data areas contain representations of the individual bits of the encoded tag data

To achieve proper tag reproduction, the tag is rendered at a resolution of 256x256 dots When pnnted at 1600 dots per inch this yields a tag with a diameter of about 4 mm At this resolution the tag is designed to be suπounded by a "quiet area" of radius 16 dots Since the quiet area is also contnbuted by adjacent tags, it only adds 16 dots to the effective diameter of the tag

The tag includes six target structures A detection nng 15 allows the sensing device to initially detect the tag The nng is easy to detect because it is rotationally invaπant and because a simple coπection of its aspect ratio removes most of the effects of perspective distortion An onentation axis 16 allows the sensing device to determine the approximate planar onentation of the tag due to the yaw of the sensor The onentation axis is skewed to yield a unique onentation Four perspective targets 17 allow the sensing device to infer an accurate two-dimensional perspective transform of the tag and hence an accurate three-dimensional position and onentation of the tag relative to the sensor

All target structures are redundantly large to improve their immunity to noise The overall tag shape is circular This supports, amongst other things, optimal tag packing on an lπegular triangular gnd In combination with the circular detection nng, this makes a circular aπangement of data bits within the tag optimal To maximise its size, each data bit is represented by a radial wedge in the form of an area bounded by two radial lines and two concentnc circular arcs Each wedge has a minimum dimension of 8 dots at 1600 dpi and is designed so that its base (its inner arc), is at least equal to this minimum dimension The height of the wedge in the radial direction is always equal to the minimum dimension Each 4-bit data symbol is represented by an aπay of 2x2 wedges

The 15 4-bit data symbols of each of the six codewords are allocated to the four concentnc symbol nngs 18a to 18d m interleaved fashion Symbols are allocated alternately in circular progression around the tag

The interleaving is designed to maximise the average spatial distance between any two symbols of the same codeword In order to support "single-click" interaction with a tagged region via a sensing device, the sensing device must be able to see at least one entire tag in its field of view no matter where in the region or at what onentation it is positioned The required diameter of the field of view of the sensing device is therefore a function of the size and spacing of the tags Assuming a circular tag shape, the minimum diameter of the sensor field of view is obtained when the tags are tiled on a equilateral tnangular gnd, as shown in Figure 6

1.2.4 Tag Image Processing and Decoding

The tag image processing and decoding performed by a sensing device such as the netpage pen is shown in Figure 7 While a captured image is being acquired from the image sensor, the dynamic range of the image is determined

(at 20) The center of the range is then chosen as the binary threshold for the image 21 The image is then thresholded and segmented into connected pixel regions (l e shapes 23) (at 22) Shapes which are too small to represent tag target structures are discarded The size and centroid of each shape is also computed

Binary shape moments 25 are then computed (at 24) for each shape, and these provide the basis for subsequently locating target structures Central shape moments are by their nature invanant of position, and can be easily made invanant of scale, aspect ratio and rotation

The nng target structure 15 is the first to be located (at 26) A nng has the advantage of being very well behaved when perspective-distorted Matching proceeds by aspect-normalizing and rotation-normalizing each shape's moments Once its second-order moments are normalized the nng is easy to recognize even if the perspective distortion was significant The nng's onginal aspect and rotation 27 together provide a useful approximation of the perspective transform

The axis target structure 16 is the next to be located (at 28) Matching proceeds by applying the πng's noπnalizations to each shape's moments, and rotation-normalizing the resulting moments Once its second-order moments are normalized the axis target is easily recognized Note that one third order moment is required to disambiguate the two possible oπentations of the axis The shape is deliberately skewed to one side to make this possible Note also that it is only possible to rotation-normalize the axis target after it has had the nng's noπnalizations applied, since the perspective distortion can hide the axis target's axis The axis target's oπgmal rotation provides a useful approximation of the tag's rotation due to pen yaw 29

The four perspective target structures 17 are the last to be located (at 30) Good estimates of their positions are computed based on their known spatial relationships to the nng and axis targets, the aspect and rotation of the nng, and the rotation of the axis Matching proceeds by applying the πng's noπnalizations to each shape's moments Once their second-order moments are normalized the circular perspective targets are easy to recognize, and the target closest to each estimated position is taken as a match The onginal centioids of the four perspective targets are then taken to be the perspective-distorted corners 31 of a square of known size in tag space, and an eight-degree-of-freedom perspective transform 33 is infeπed (at 32) based on solving the well-understood equations relating the four tag-space and image- space point pairs (see Heckbert, P , Fundamentals of Texture Mapping and Image Waφing, Masters Thesis, Dept of EECS, U of California at Berkeley, Technical Report No UCB/CSD 89/516, June 1989, the contents of which are herein incoφorated by cross-reference)

The infeπed tag-space to image-space perspective transform is used to project (at 36) each known data bit position in tag space into image space where the real-valued position is used to bilinearly inteφolate (at 36) the four relevant adjacent pixels in the input image The previously computed image threshold 21 is used to threshold the result to produce the final bit value 37

Once all 360 data bits 37 have been obtained in this way, each of the six 60-bit Reed-Solomon codewords is decoded (at 38) to yield 20 decoded bits 39, or 120 decoded bits in total Note that the codeword symbols are sampled in codeword order, so that codewords are implicitly de-interleaved duπng the sampling process

The nng target 15 is only sought in a subarea of the image whose relationship to the image guarantees that the nng, if found, is part of a complete tag If a complete tag is not found and successfully decoded, then no pen position is recorded for the cuπent frame Given adequate processing power and ideally a non-minimal field of view 193, an alternative strategy involves seeking another tag in the cuπent image

The obtained tag data indicates the identity of the region containing the tag and the position of the tag within the region An accurate position 35 of the pen nib in the region, as well as the overall onentation 35 of the pen, is then infeπed (at 34) from the perspective transform 33 observed on the tag and the known spatial relationship between the pen's physical axis and the pen's optical axis

1.2.5 Tag Map

Decoding a tag results in a region ID, a tag ID, and a tag-relative pen transform Before the tag ID and the tag-relative pen location can be translated into an absolute location with the tagged region, the location of the tag within the region must be known This is given by a tag map, a function which maps each tag ID in a tagged region to a coπesponding location The tag map class diagram is shown in Figure 24, as part of the neφage pnnter class diagram A tag map reflects the scheme used to tile the surface region with tags, and this can vary according to surface type When multiple tagged regions share the same tiling scheme and the same tag numbenng scheme, they can also share the same tag map

The tag map for a region must be retπevable via the region ID Thus, given a region ID, a tag ID and a pen transform, the tag map can be retneved, the tag ID can be translated into an absolute tag location within the region, and the tag-relative pen location can be added to the tag location to yield an absolute pen location withm the region

1.2.6 Tagging Schemes

Two distinct surface coding schemes are of interest, both of which use the tag structure descnbed earlier in this section The prefeπed coding scheme uses "location-indicating" tags as already discussed An alternative coding scheme uses object-indicating tags A location-indicating tag contains a tag ID which, when translated through the tag map associated with the tagged region, yields a unique tag location within the region The tag-relative location of the pen is added to this tag location to yield the location of the pen within the region This in turn is used to determine the location of the pen relative to a user interface element in the page descnption associated with the region Not only is the user interface element itself identified, but a location relative to the user interface element is identified Location-indicating tags therefore tnvially support the capture of an absolute pen path in the zone of a particular user interface element

An object-indicating tag contains a tag ID which directly identifies a user interface element in the page descnption associated with the region All the tags in the zone of the user interface element identify the user interface element, making them all identical and therefore indistinguishable Object-indicating tags do not, therefore, support the capture of an absolute pen path They do, however, support the capture of a relative pen path So long as the position sampling frequency exceeds twice the encountered tag frequency, the displacement from one sampled pen position to the next within a stroke can be unambiguously determined

With either tagging scheme, the tags function m cooperation with associated visual elements on the netpage as user interactive elements in that a user can interact with the pnnted page using an appropnate sensing device order for tag data to be read by the sensing device and for an appropnate response to be generated in the netpage system

1.3 DOCUMENT AND PAGE DESCRIPTIONS

A prefeπed embodiment of a document and page descnption class diagram is shown in Figures 28 and 29

In the netpage system a document is descnbed at three levels At the most abstract level the document 836 has a hierarchical structure whose terminal elements 839 are associated with content objects 840 such as text objects, text style objects, image objects, etc Once the document is pnnted on a pnnter with a particular page size and according to a particular user's scale factor preference, the document is paginated and otherwise formatted Formatted terminal elements 835 will in some cases be associated with content objects which are different from those associated with their coπesponding teπmnal elements, particularly where the content objects are style-related Each pnnted instance of a document and page is also descnbed separately, to allow input captured through a particular page instance 830 to be recorded separately from input captured through other instances of the same page descnption

The presence of the most abstract document descnption on the page server allows a user to request a copy of a document without being forced to accept the source document's specific format The user may be requesting a copy through a pnnter with a different page size, for example Conversely, the presence of the formatted document descnption on the page server allows the page server to efficiently inteφret user actions on a particular pnnted page

A formatted document 834 consists of a set of formatted page descnptions 5, each of which consists of a set of formatted terminal elements 835 Each formatted element has a spatial extent or zone 58 on the page This defines the active area of input elements such as hyperlinks and input fields

A document instance 831 coπesponds to a formatted document 834 It consists of a set of page instances 830, each of which coπesponds to a page descnption 5 of the formatted document Each page instance 830 descnbes a single unique pnnted netpage 1, and records the page ID 50 of the netpage A page instance is not part of a document instance if it represents a copy of a page requested in isolation

A page instance consists of a set of terminal element instances 832 An element instance only exists if it records instance-specific information Thus, a hyperlink instance exists for a hyperlink element because it records a transaction ID 55 which is specific to the page instance, and a field instance exists for a field element because it records input specific to the page instance An element instance does not exist, however, for static elements such as textflows

A terminal element can be a static element 843, a hyperlink element 844, a field element 845 or a page server command element 846, as shown in Figure 30 A static element 843 can be a style element 847 with an associated style object 854, a textflow element 848 with an associated styled text object 855, an image element 849 with an associated image element 856, a graphic element 850 with an associated graphic object 857, a video clip element 851 with an associated video clip object 858, an audio clip element 852 with an associated audio clip object 859, or a scnpt element 853 with an associated scnpt object 860, as shown in Figure 31

A page instance has a background field 833 which is used to record any digital ink captured on the page which does not apply to a specific input element In the prefeπed form of the invention, a tag map 811 is associated with each page instance to allow tags on the page to be translated into locations on the page

1.4 THE NETPAGE NETWORK

In a prefeπed embodiment, a netpage network consists of a distnbuted set of netpage page servers 10, netpage registration servers 11, netpage ID servers 12, netpage application servers 13, netpage publication servers 14, and netpage printers 601 connected via a network 19 such as the Internet, as shown in Figure 3.

A netpage registration server 11 is a server which records relationships between users, pens, printers, applications and publications, and providers of various kinds, as shown in Figures 21 to 27, and thereby authorizes various network activities. It authenticates users and acts as a signing proxy on behalf of authenticated users in application transactions. It also provides handwriting recognition services. The netpage network includes any number of registration servers, each identified by a unique registration server ID 63, and each handling a subset of users etc.

As described above, a netpage page server 10 maintains persistent information about page descriptions and page instances, as shown in Figures 28 to 40. The netpage network includes any number of page servers, each identified by a unique server ID 53, and each handling a subset of page instances. Since a page server also maintains user input values for each page instance, clients such as netpage printers send netpage input directly to the appropriate page server.

The page server inteφrets any such input relative to the description of the coπesponding page.

As shown in Figure 22, each page server is associated with a storage provider, and the system maintains, on a registration server, an account on behalf of each storage provider, to allow it to consolidate the costs incuπed by the storage provider in running its page server(s). Other system participants, such as application providers and printer providers, contribute to a global fund from which the system ultimately reimburses storage providers for their running costs.

A netpage ID server 12 allocates document IDs 51 on demand, and provides load-balancing of page servers via its ID allocation scheme. A netpage printer uses the Internet Distributed Name System (DNS), or similar, to resolve a netpage page ID

50 into the network address of the netpage page server handling the coπesponding page instance.

A neφage application server 13 is a server which hosts interactive neφage applications. A netpage publication server 14 is an application server which publishes netpage documents to netpage printers. They are described in detail in Section 2. Neφage servers can be hosted on a variety of network server platforms from manufacturers such as IBM,

Hewlett-Packard, and Sun. Multiple netpage servers can run concuπently on a single host, and a single server can be distributed over a number of hosts. Some or all of the functionality provided by netpage servers, and in particular the functionality provided by the ID server and the page server, can also be provided directly in a netpage appliance such as a netpage printer, in a computer workstation, or on a local network.

1.5 THE NETPAGE PRINTER

The netpage printer 601 is an appliance which is registered with the netpage system and prints neφage documents on demand and via subscription. Each printer has a unique printer ID 62, and is connected to the netpage network via a network such as the Internet, ideally via a broadband connection.

Apart from identity and security settings in non-volatile memory, the netpage printer contains no persistent storage. As far as a user is concerned, "the network is the computer". Netpages function interactively across space and time with the help of the distributed netpage page servers 10, independently of particular netpage printers.

The netpage printer receives subscribed netpage documents from netpage publication servers 14. Each document is distributed in two parts: the page layouts, and the actual text and image objects which populate the pages. Because of personalization, page layouts are typically specific to a particular subscnber and so are pointcast to the subscπber's pπnter via the appropnate page server Text and image objects, on the other hand, are typically shared with other subscnbers, and so are multicast to all subscnbers' pnnters and the appropπate page servers

The netpage publication server optimizes the segmentation of document content into pointcasts and multicasts After receiving the pointcast of a document's page layouts, the pnnter knows which multicasts, if any, to listen to

Once the pnnter has received the complete page layouts and objects that define the document to be pnnted, it can pπnt the document

The pnnter rastenzes and pnnts odd and even pages simultaneously on both sides of the sheet It contains duplexed pnnt engine controllers 760 and pnnt engines utilizing Memjet™ pnntheads 350 for this puφose

The pnnting process consists of two decoupled stages rasteπzation of page descnptions, and expansion and pnnting of page images The raster image processor (RIP) consists of one or more standard DSPs 757 running in parallel The duplexed pnnt engine controllers consist of custom processors which expand, dither and pπnt page images in real time, synchronized with the operation of the pnntheads in the pnnt engines Pnnters not enabled for IR pnnting have the option to pnnt tags using IR-absoφtive black ink, although this restricts tags to otherwise empty areas of the page Although such pages have more limited functionality than IR-pnnted pages, they are still classed as netpages

A normal netpage pnnter pnnts netpages on sheets of paper More specialised netpage pnnters may pπnt onto more specialised surfaces, such as globes Each pnnter supports at least one surface type, and supports at least one tag tiling scheme, and hence tag map, for each surface type The tag map 811 which descnbes the tag tiling scheme actually used to pnnt a document becomes associated with that document so that the document's tags can be coπectly inteφreted

Figure 2 shows the netpage pnnter class diagram, reflecting pnnter-related information maintained by a registration server 11 on the netpage network

A prefened embodiment of the neφage pnnter is descnbed in greater detail in Section 6 below, with reference to Figures 11 to 16

1.5.1 Memjet™ Printheads

The netpage system can operate using pnnters made with a wide range of digital pnnting technologies, ncluding thermal inkjet, piezoelectnc inkjet, laser electrophotographic, and others However, for wide consumer acceptance, it is desirable that a netpage pπnter have the following charactenstics photographic quality color pnnting high quality text pnnting high reliability low pnnter cost low ink cost low paper cost simple operation nearly silent pnnting high pnnting speed simultaneous double sided pnnting compact form factor low power consumption

No commercially available pnnting technology has all of these charactenstics

To enable to production of pnnters with these charactenstics, the present applicant has invented a new pπnt technology, refeπed to as Memjet™ technology Memjet™ is a drop-on-demand inkjet technology that incoφorates pagewidth pnntheads fabncated using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology Figure 17 shows a single pnnting element 300 of a Memjet™ pnnthead The netpage wallpπnter incoφorates 168960 pnnting elements 300 to form a 1600 dpi pagewidth duplex pπnter This pπnter simultaneously pnnts cyan, magenta, yellow, black, and infrared inks as well as paper conditioner and mk fixative

The pnnting element 300 is approximately 110 microns long by 32 microns wide Aπays of these pnnting elements are formed on a silicon substrate 301 that incoφorates CMOS logic, data transfer, timing, and dnve circuits (not shown)

Major elements of the pnnting element 300 are the nozzle 302, the nozzle nm 303, the nozzle chamber 304, the fluidic seal 305, the ink channel nm 306, the lever arm 307, the active actuator beam pair 308, the passive actuator beam pair 309, the active actuator anchor 310, the passive actuator anchor 311, and the ink inlet 312

The active actuator beam pair 308 is mechanically joined to the passive actuator beam pair 309 at the join 319 Both beams pairs are anchored at their respective anchor points 310 and 311 The combination of elements 308, 309, 310, 311, and 319 form a cantilevered electrothermal bend actuator 320

Figure 18 shows a small part of an aπay of pnnting elements 300, including a cross section 315 of a pnnting element 300 The cross section 315 is shown without ink, to clearly show the mk inlet 312 that passes through the silicon wafer 301 Figures 19(a), 19(b) and 19(c) show the operating cycle of a Memjet™ pnnting element 300

Figure 19(a) shows the quiescent position of the ink meniscus 316 pnor to pnnting an ink droplet Ink is retained in the nozzle chamber by surface tension at the ink meniscus 316 and at the fluidic seal 305 formed between the nozzle chamber 304 and the ink channel nm 306

While pnnting, the pnnthead CMOS circuitry distnbutes data from the pnnt engine controller to the coπect pnntmg element, latches the data, and buffers the data to dnve the electrodes 318 of the active actuator beam pair 308 This causes an electncal cuπent to pass through the beam parr 308 for about one microsecond, resulting in Joule heating The temperature increase resulting from Joule heating causes the beam pair 308 to expand As the passive actuator beam pair 309 is not heated, it does not expand, resulting in a stress difference between the two beam pairs This stress difference is partially resolved by the cantilevered end of the electrothermal bend actuator 320 bending towards the substrate 301 The lever arm 307 transmits this movement to the nozzle chamber 304 The nozzle chamber 304 moves about two microns to the position shown in Figure 19(b) This increases the ink pressure, forcing ink 321 out of the nozzle 302, and causing the ink meniscus 316 to bulge The nozzle nm 303 prevents the ink meniscus 316 from spreading across the surface of the nozzle chamber 304 As the temperature of the beam pairs 308 and 309 equalizes, the actuator 320 returns to its original position. This aids in the break-off of the ink droplet 317 from the ink 321 in the nozzle chamber, as shown in Figure 19(c). The nozzle chamber is refilled by the action of the surface tension at the meniscus 316.

Figure 20 shows a segment of a printhead 350. In a netpage printer, the length of the printhead is the full width of the paper (typically 210 mm) in the direction 351. The segment shown is 0.4 mm long (about 0.2% of a complete printhead). When printing, the paper is moved past the fixed printhead in the direction 352. The printhead has 6 rows of interdigitated printing elements 300, printing the six colors or types of ink supplied by the ink inlets 312.

To protect the fragile surface of the printhead during operation, a nozzle guard wafer 330 is attached to the printhead substrate 301. For each nozzle 302 there is a coπesponding nozzle guard hole 331 through which the ink droplets are fired. To prevent the nozzle guard holes 331 from becoming blocked by paper fibers or other debris, filtered air is pumped through the air inlets 332 and out of the nozzle guard holes during printing. To prevent ink 321 from drying, the nozzle guard is sealed while the printer is idle.

1.6 The Netpage Pen

The active sensing device of the netpage system is typically a pen 101, which, using its embedded controller 134, is able to capture and decode IR position tags from a page via an image sensor. The image sensor is a solid-state device provided with an appropriate filter to permit sensing at only near-infrared wavelengths. As described in more detail below, the system is able to sense when the nib is in contact with the surface, and the pen is able to sense tags at a sufficient rate to capture human handwriting (i.e. at 200 dpi or greater and 100 Hz or faster). Information captured by the pen is encrypted and wirelessly transmitted to the printer (or base station), the printer or base station inteφreting the data with respect to the (known) page structure.

The prefeπed embodiment of the netpage pen operates both as a normal marking ink pen and as a non- marking stylus. The marking aspect, however, is not necessary for using the netpage system as a browsing system, such as when it is used as an Internet interface. Each netpage pen is registered with the netpage system and has a unique pen ID 61. Figure 25 shows the netpage pen class diagram, reflecting pen-related information maintained by a registration server 11 on the netpage network.

When either nib is in contact with a netpage, the pen determines its position and orientation relative to the page. The nib is attached to a force sensor, and the force on the nib is inteφreted relative to a threshold to indicate whether the pen is "up" or "down". This allows a interactive element on the page to be 'clicked' by pressing with the pen nib, in order to request, say, information from a network. Furthermore, the force is captured as a continuous value to allow, say, the full dynamics of a signature to be verified.

The pen determines the position and orientation of its nib on the netpage by imaging, in the infrared spectrum, an area 193 of the page in the vicinity of the nib. It decodes the nearest tag and computes the position of the nib relative to the tag from the observed perspective distortion on the imaged tag and the known geometry of the pen optics. Although the position resolution of the tag may be low, because the tag density on the page is inversely proportional to the tag size, the adjusted position resolution is quite high, exceeding the minimum resolution required for accurate handwriting recognition.

Pen actions relative to a netpage are captured as a series of strokes. A stroke consists of a sequence of time- stamped pen positions on the page, initiated by a pen-down event and completed by the subsequent pen-up event. A stroke is also tagged with the page ID 50 of the netpage whenever the page ID changes, which, under normal circumstances, is at the commencement of the stroke. Each netpage pen has a cuπent selection 826 associated with it, allowing the user to perform copy and paste operations etc The selection is timestamped to allow the system to discard it after a defined time penod The cuπent selection descnbes a region of a page instance It consists of the most recent digital ink stroke captured through the pen relative to the background area of the page It is inteφreted in an application-specific manner once it is submitted to an application via a selection hyperlink activation

Each pen has a cunent nib 824 This is the nib last notified by the pen to the system In the case of the default netpage pen descnbed above, either the marking black ink nib or the non-marking stylus nib is cuπent Each pen also has a cuπent nib style 825 This is the nib style last associated with the pen by an application, e g in response to the user selecting a color from a palette The default nib style is the nib style associated with the cuπent nib Strokes captured through a pen are tagged with the cuπent nib style When the strokes are subsequently reproduced, they are reproduced in the nib style with which they are tagged

Whenever the pen is within range of a pnnter with which it can communicate, the pen slowly flashes its "online" LED When the pen fails to decode a stroke relative to the page, it momentanly activates its "eπor" LED When the pen succeeds in decoding a stroke relative to the page, it momentanly activates its "ok" LED A sequence of captured strokes is refeπed to as digital ink Digital ink forms the basis for the digital exchange of drawings and handwntmg, for online recognition of handwntmg, and for online venfication of signatures

The pen is wireless and transmits digital ink to the netpage pnnter via a short-range radio link The transmitted digital ink is encrypted for pnvacy and secunty and packetized for efficient transmission, but is always flushed on a pen-up event to ensure timely handling in the pnnter When the pen is out-of-range of a pnnter it buffers digital ink in internal memory, which has a capacity of over ten minutes of continuous handwntmg When the pen is once again within range of a pnnter, it transfers any buffered digital ink

A pen can be registered with any number of pnnters, but because all state data resides in netpages both on paper and on the network, it is largely immateπal which pnnter a pen is communicating with at any particular time A prefeπed embodiment of the pen is descnbed in greater detail in Section 6 below, with reference to Figures

8 to 10

1.7 NETPAGE INTERACTION

The netpage pnnter 601 receives data relating to a stroke from the pen 101 when the pen is used to interact with a netpage 1 The coded data 3 of the tags 4 is read by the pen when it is used to execute a movement, such as a stroke The data allows the identity of the particular page and associated interactive element to be determined and an indication of the relative positioning of the pen relative to the page to be obtained The indicating data is transmitted to the pnnter, where it resolves, via the DNS, the page ID 50 of the stroke into the network address of the netpage page server 10 which maintains the coπesponding page instance 830 It then transmits the stroke to the page server If the page was recently identified m an earlier stroke, then the pnnter may already have the address of the relevant page server in its cache Each netpage consists of a compact page layout maintained persistently by a netpage page server (see below) The page layout refers to objects such as images, fonts and pieces of text, typically stored elsewhere on the neφage network

When the page server receives the stroke from the pen, it retneves the page descnption to which the stroke applies, and determines which element of the page descnption the stroke intersects It is then able to inteφret the stroke in the context of the type of the relevant element A "click" is a stroke where the distance and time between the pen down position and the subsequent pen up position are both less than some small maximum An object which is activated by a click typically requires a click to be activated, and accordingly, a longer stroke is ignored The failure of a pen action, such as a "sloppy" click, to register is indicated by the lack of response from the pen's "ok" LED There are two kinds of input elements in a netpage page descnption hyperlinks and form fields Input through a form field can also tπgger the activation of an associated hyperlink

1.7.1 Hyperlinks

A hyperlink is a means of sending a message to a remote application, and typically elicits a pnnted response in the netpage system A hyperlink element 844 identifies the application 71 which handles activation of the hyperlink, a link ID 54 which identifies the hyperlink to the application, an "alias required" flag which asks the system to include the user's application alias ID 65 in the hyperlink activation, and a descnption which is used when the hyperlink is recorded as a favonte or appears in the user's history The hyperlink element class diagram is shown in Figure 32

When a hyperlink is activated, the page server sends a request to an application somewhere on the network The application is identified by an application ID 64, and the application ID is resolved in the normal way via the DNS There are three types of hyperlinks general hyperlinks 863, form hyperlinks 865, and selection hyperlinks 864, as shown in Figure 33 A general hyperlink can implement a request for a linked document, or may simply signal a preference to a server A form hyperlink submits the coπesponding form to the apphcation A selection hyperlink submits the cuπent selection to the application If the cuπent selection contains a single-word piece of text, for example, the application may return a single-page document giving the word's meaning within the context in which it appears, or a translation into a different language Each hyperlink type is charactenzed by what information is submitted to the application

The coπesponding hyperlink instance 862 records a transaction ID 55 which can be specific to the page instance on which the hyperlink instance appears The transaction ID can identify user-specific data to the application, for example a "shopping cart" of pending purchases maintained by a purchasing application on behalf of the user The system includes the pen's cuπent selection 826 in a selection hyperlink activation The system includes the content of the associated form instance 868 in a form hyperlink activation, although if the hyperlink has its "submit delta" attnbute set, only input since the last form submission is included The system includes an effective return path in all hyperlink activations

A hyperlinked group 866 is a group element 838 which has an associated hyperlink, as shown in Figure 34 When input occurs through any field element in the group, the hyperlink 844 associated with the group is activated A hyperlinked group can be used to associate hyperlink behavior with a field such as a checkbox It can also be used, in conjunction with the "submit delta" attnbute of a form hyperlink, to provide continuous input to an application It can therefore be used to support a "blackboard" interaction model, I e where input is captured and therefore shared as soon as it occurs

1.7.2 Forms

A form defines a collection of related input fields used to capture a related set of inputs through a pnnted netpage A form allows a user to submit one or more parameters to an application software program running on a server

A form 867 is a group element 838 in the document hierarchy It ultimately contains a set of terminal field elements 839 A form instance 868 represents a pnnted instance of a form It consists of a set of field instances 870 which coπespond to the field elements 845 of the foπn Each field instance has an associated value 871, whose type depends on the type of the coπesponding field element Each field value records input through a particular pnnted form instance, I e through one or more pnnted netpages The form class diagram is shown in Figure 35 Each form instance has a status 872 which indicates whether the form is active, frozen, submitted, void or expired A form is active when first pnnted A fonri becomes frozen once it is signed or once its freeze time is reached A form becomes submitted once one of its submission hyperlinks has been activated, unless the hyperlink has its "submit delta" attnbute set A form becomes void when the user invokes a void form, reset form or duplicate form page command A form expires when its specified expiry time is reached, I e when the time the form has been active exceeds the form's specified lifetime While the form is active, form input is allowed Input through a form which is not active is instead captured in the background field 833 of the relevant page instance When the form is active or frozen, form submission is allowed Any attempt to submit a form when the form is not active or frozen is rejected, and instead elicits an form status report

Each form instance is associated (at 59) with any form instances denved from it, thus providing a version history This allows all but the latest version of a form in a particular time penod to be excluded from a search

All input is captured as digital mk Digital ink 873 consists of a set of timestamped stroke groups 874, each of which consists of a set of styled strokes 875 Each stroke consists of a set of timestamped pen positions 876, each of which also includes pen onentation and mb force The digital ink class diagram is shown in Figure 36

A field element 845 can be a checkbox field 877, a text field 878, a drawing field 879, or a signature field 880 The field element class diagram is shown Figure 37 Any digital ink captured in a field's zone 58 is assigned to the field

A checkbox field has an associated boolean value 881, as shown in Figure 38 Any mark (a tick, a cross, a stroke, a fill zigzag, etc ) captured in a checkbox field's zone causes a true value to be assigned to the field's value

A text field has an associated text value 882, as shown in Figure 39 Any digital ink captured in a text field's zone is automatically converted to text via online handwntmg recognition, and the text is assigned to the field's value

Online handwntmg recognition is well-understood (see, for example, Tappert, C , C Y Suen and T Wakahara, "The State of the Art in On-Line Handwntmg Recognition", IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence,

Vol 12, No 8, August 1990, the contents of which are herein incoφorated by cross-reference)

A signature field has an associated digital signature value 883, as shown in Figure 40 Any digital ink captured m a signature field's zone is automatically venfied with respect to the identity of the owner of the pen, and a digital signature of the content of the form of which the field is part is generated and assigned to the field's value The digital signature is generated using the pen user's pnvate signature key specific to the application which owns the form Online signature venfication is well-understood (see, for example, Plamondon, R and G Lorette, "Automatic Signature Venfication and Wnter Identification - The State of the Art", Pattern Recognition, Vol 22, No 2, 1989, the contents of which are herein incoφorated by cross-reference)

A field element is hidden if its "hidden" attnbute is set A hidden field element does not have an input zone on a page and does not accept input It can have an associated field value which is included in the form data when the form containing the field is submitted

"Editing" commands, such as stnke-throughs indicating deletion, can also be recognized in form fields Because the handwntmg recognition algonthm works "online" (I e with access to the dynamics of the pen movement), rather than "offline" (l e with access only to a bitmap of pen markings), it can recognize run-on discretely- wntten characters with relatively high accuracy, without a wnter-dependent training phase A writer-dependent model of handwntmg is automatically generated over time, however, and can be generated up-front if necessary,

Digital ink, as already stated, consists of a sequence of strokes Any stroke which starts in a particular element's zone is appended to that element's digital ink stream, ready for inteφretation Any stroke not appended to an object's digital ink stream is appended to the background field's digital ink stream

Digital ink captured in the background field is inteφreted as a selection gesture Circumscπption of one or more objects is generally inteφreted as a selection of the circumscnbed objects, although the actual inteφretation is application-specific

Table 2 summaπses these vanous pen interactions with a netpage

Table 2 - Summary of pen interactions with a netpage

The system maintains a cuπent selection for each pen The selection consists simply of the most recent stroke captured in the background field The selection is cleared after an inactivity timeout to ensure predictable behavior

The raw digital ink captured in every field is retained on the netpage page server and is optionally transmitted with the form data when the form is submitted to the application This allows the application to inteπogate the raw digital ink should it suspect the onginal conversion, such as the conversion of handwntten text This can, for example, involve human intervention at the application level for forms which fail certain application-specific consistency checks As an extension to this, the entire background area of a form can be designated as a drawing field The application can then decide, on the basis of the presence of digital mk outside the explicit fields of the form, to route the form to a human operator, on the assumption that the user may have indicated amendments to the filled-in fields outside of those fields

Figure 38 shows a flowchart of the process of handling pen input relative to a netpage The process consists of receiving (at 884) a stroke from the pen, identifying (at 885) the page instance 830 to which the page ID 50 in the stroke refers, retrieving (at 886) the page descnption 5, identifying (at 887) a formatted element 839 whose zone 58 the stroke intersects, determining (at 888) whether the formatted element coπesponds to a field element, and if so appending (at 892) the received stroke to the digital ink of the field value 871, inteφreting (at 893) the accumulated digital ink of the field, and determining (at 894) whether the field is part of a hyperlinked group 866 and if so activating (at 895) the associated hyperlink, alternatively determining (at 889) whether the formatted element coπesponds to a hyperlink element and if so activating (at 895) the coπesponding hyperlink, alternatively, in the absence of an input field or hyperlink, appending (at 890) the received stroke to the digital ink of the background field 833, and copying (at 891) the received stroke to the cuπent selection 826 of the cuπent pen, as maintained by the registration server Figure 38a shows a detailed flowchart of step 893 in the process shown in Figure 41, where the accumulated digital ink of a field is inteφreted according to the type of the field. The process consists of determining (at 896) whether the field is a checkbox and (at 897) whether the digital ink represents a checkmark, and if so assigning (at 898) a true value to the field value; alternatively determining (at 899) whether the field is a text field and if so converting (at 900) the digital ink to computer text, with the help of the appropriate registration server, and assigning (at 901) the converted computer text to the field value; alternatively determining (at 902) whether the field is a signature field and if so verifying (at 903) the digital ink as the signature of the pen's owner, with the help of the appropriate registration server, creating (at 904) a digital signature of the contents of the coπesponding form, also with the help of the registration server and using the pen owner's private signature key relating to the coπesponding application, and assigning (at 905) the digital signature to the field value.

1.7.3 Page Server Commands

A page server command is a command which is handled locally by the page server. It operates directly on form, page and document instances.

A page server command 907 can be a void form command, a duplicate form command, a reset form command, a get form status command, a duplicate page command, a reset page command, a get page status command, a duplicate document command, a reset document command, or a get document status command.

A void form command voids the coπesponding form instance. A duplicate form command voids the coπesponding form instance and then produces an active printed copy of the cuπent form instance with field values preserved. The copy contains the same hyperlink transaction IDs as the original, and so is indistinguishable from the original to an application. A reset form command voids the coπesponding form instance and then produces an active printed copy of the form instance with field values discarded. A get form status command produces a printed report on the status of the coπesponding foπn instance, including who published it, when it was printed, for whom it was printed, and the form status of the form instance.

Since a form hyperlink instance contains a transaction ID, the application has to be involved in producing a new form instance. A button requesting a new form instance is therefore typically implemented as a hyperlink.

A duplicate page command produces a printed copy of the coπesponding page instance with the background field value preserved. If the page contains a form or is part of a form, then the duplicate page command is inteφreted as a duplicate form command. A reset page command produces a printed copy of the coπesponding page instance with the background field value discarded. If the page contains a form or is part of a form, then the reset page command is inteφreted as a reset form command. A get page status command produces a printed report on the status of the coπesponding page instance, including who published it, when it was printed, for whom it was printed, and the status of any forms it contains or is part of.

The netpage logo which appears on every netpage is usually associated with a duplicate page element.

When a page instance is duplicated with field values preserved, field values are printed in their native form, i.e. a checkmark appears as a standard checkmark graphic, and text appears as typeset text. Only drawings and signatures appear in their original form, with a signature accompanied by a standard graphic indicating successful signature verification.

A duplicate document command produces a printed copy of the coπesponding document instance with background field values preserved. If the document contains any forms, then the duplicate document command duplicates the forms in the same way a duplicate form command does. A reset document command produces a printed copy of the coπesponding document instance with background field values discarded. If the document contains any forms, then the reset document command resets the forms in the same way a reset form command does. A get document status command produces a printed report on the status of the coπesponding document instance, including who published it, when it was printed, for whom it was printed, and the status of any forms it contains.

If the page server command's "on selected" attribute is set, then the command operates on the page identified by the pen's cuπent selection rather than on the page containing the command. This allows a menu of page server commands to be printed. If the target page doesn't contain a page server command element for the designated page server command, then the command is ignored. An application can provide application-specific handling by embedding the relevant page server command element in a hyperlinked group. The page server activates the hyperlink associated with the hyperlinked group rather than executing the page server command.

A page server command element is hidden if its "hidden" attribute is set. A hidden command element does not have an input zone on a page and so cannot be activated directly by a user. It can, however, be activated via a page server command embedded in a different page, if that page server command has its "on selected" attribute set.

1.8 STANDARD FEATURES OF NETPAGES

In the prefeπed form, each netpage is printed with the netpage logo at the bottom to indicate that it is a netpage and therefore has interactive properties. The logo also acts as a copy button. In most cases pressing the logo produces a copy of the page. In the case of a form, the button produces a copy of the entire form. And in the case of a secure document, such as a ticket or coupon, the button elicits an explanatory note or advertising page.

The default single-page copy function is handled directly by the relevant netpage page server. Special copy functions are handled by linking the logo button to an application.

1.9 USER HELP SYSTEM

In a prefeπed embodiment, the netpage printer has a single button labelled "Help". When pressed it elicits a single help page 46 of information, including: status of printer connection status of printer consumables top-level help menu document function menu • top-level netpage network directory

The help menu provides a hierarchical manual on how to use the netpage system.

The document function menu includes the following functions:

• print a copy of a document

• print a clean copy of a form • print the status of a document A document function is initiated by selecting the document and then pressing the button. The status of a document indicates who published it and when, to whom it was delivered, and to whom and when it was subsequently submitted as a form.

The help page is obviously unavailable if the printer is unable to print. In this case the "eπor" light is lit and the user can request remote diagnosis over the network.

2 PERSONALIZED PUBLICATION MODEL

In the following description, news is used as a canonical publication example to illustrate personalization mechanisms in the netpage system. Although news is often used in the limited sense of newspaper and newsmagazine news, the intended scope in the present context is wider. In the netpage system, the editorial content and the advertising content of a news publication are personalized using different mechanisms. The editorial content is personalized according to the reader's explicitly stated and implicitly captured interest profile. The advertising content is personalized according to the reader's locality and demographic.

2.1 EDITORIAL PERSONALIZATION

A subscriber can draw on two kinds of news sources: those that deliver news publications, and those that deliver news streams. While news publications are aggregated and edited by the publisher, news streams are aggregated either by a news publisher or by a specialized news aggregator. News publications typically coπespond to traditional newspapers and newsmagazines, while news streams can be many and varied: a "raw" news feed from a news service, a cartoon strip, a freelance writer's column, a friend's bulletin board, or the reader's own e-mail.

The netpage publication server supports the publication of edited news publications as well as the aggregation of multiple news streams. By handling the aggregation and hence the formatting of news streams selected directly by the reader, the server is able to place advertising on pages over which it otherwise has no editorial control.

The subscriber builds a daily newspaper by selecting one or more contributing news publications, and creating a personalized version of each. The resulting daily editions are printed and bound together into a single newspaper. The various members of a household typically express their different interests and tastes by selecting different daily publications and then customizing them.

For each publication, the reader optionally selects specific sections. Some sections appear daily, while others appear weekly. The daily sections available from The New York Times online, for example, include "Page One Plus", "National", "International", "Opinion", "Business", "Arts/Living", "Technology", and "Sports". The set of available sections is specific to a publication, as is the default subset. The reader can extend the daily newspaper by creating custom sections, each one drawing on any number of news streams. Custom sections might be created for e-mail and friends' announcements ("Personal"), or for monitoring news feeds for specific topics ("Alerts" or "Clippings").

For each section, the reader optionally specifies its size, either qualitatively (e.g. short, medium, or long), or numerically (i.e. as a limit on its number of pages), and the desired proportion of advertising, either qualitatively (e.g. high, normal, low, none), or numerically (i.e. as a percentage).

The reader also optionally expresses a preference for a large number of shorter articles or a small number of longer articles. Each article is ideally written (or edited) in both short and long forms to support this preference. An article may also be wntten (or edited) in different versions to match the expected sophistication of the reader, for example to provide children's and adults' versions The appropnate version is selected according to the reader's age The reader can specify a "reading age" which takes precedence over their biological age

The articles which make up each section are selected and pπontized by the editors, and each is assigned a useful lifetime By default they are delivered to all relevant subscnbers, in pnonty order, subject to space constraints in the subscnbers' editions

In sections where it is appropnate, the reader may optionally enable collaborative filtenng This is then applied to articles which have a sufficiently long lifetime Each article which qualifies for collaborative filtenng is pnnted with rating buttons at the end of the article The buttons can provide an easy choice (e g "liked" and "disliked'), making it more likely that readers will bother to rate the article

Articles with high pnonties and short lifetimes are therefore effectively considered essential reading by the editors and are delivered to most relevant subscnbers

The reader optionally specifies a serendipity factor, either qualitatively (e g do or don't suφnse me), or numencally A high serendipity factor lowers the threshold used for matching duπng collaborative filtenng A high factor makes it more likely that the coπesponding section will be filled to the reader's specified capacity A different serendipity factor can be specified for different days of the week

The reader also optionally specifies topics of particular interest within a section, and this modifies the pnonties assigned by the editors

The speed of the reader's Internet connection affects the quality at which images can be delivered The reader optionally specifies a preference for fewer images or smaller images or both If the number or size of images is not reduced, then images may be delivered at lower quality (1 e at lower resolution or with greater compression)

At a global level, the reader specifies how quantities, dates, times and monetary values are localized This involves specifying whether units are impenal or metnc, a local timezone and time format, and a local cuπency, and whether the localization consist of in situ translation or annotation These preferences are denved from the reader's locality by default

To reduce reading difficulties caused by poor eyesight, the reader optionally specifies a global preference for a larger presentation Both text and images are scaled accordingly, and less information is accommodated on each page

The language in which a news publication is published, and its coπesponding text encoding, is a property of the publication and not a preference expressed by the user However, the netpage system can be configured to provide automatic translation services in vanous guises

2.2 ADVERTISING LOCALIZATION AND TARGETING

The personalization of the editonal content directly affects the advertising content, because advertising is typically placed to exploit the editonal context Travel ads, for example, are more likely to appear in a travel section than elsewhere The value of the editonal content to an advertiser (and therefore to the publisher) lies in its ability to attract large numbers of readers with the nght demographics

Effective advertising is placed on the basis of locality and demographics Locality determines proximity to particular services, retailers etc , and particular interests and concerns associated with the local community and environment Demographics determine general interests and preoccupations as well as likely spending patterns A news publisher's most profitable product is advertising "space", a multi-dimensional entity determined by the publication's geographic coverage, the size of its readership, its readership demographics, and the page area available for advertising.

In the netpage system, the netpage publication server computes the approximate multi-dimensional size of a publication's saleable advertising space on a per-section basis, taking into account the publication's geographic coverage, the section's readership, the size of each reader's section edition, each reader's advertising proportion, and each reader's demographic.

In comparison with other media, the netpage system allows the advertising space to be defined in greater detail, and allows smaller pieces of it to be sold separately. It therefore allows it to be sold at closer to its true value. For example, the same advertising "slot" can be sold in varying proportions to several advertisers, with individual readers' pages randomly receiving the advertisement of one advertiser or another, overall preserving the proportion of space sold to each advertiser.

The netpage system allows advertising to be linked directly to detailed product information and online purchasing. It therefore raises the intrinsic value of the advertising space. Because personalization and localization are handled automatically by netpage publication servers, an advertising aggregator can provide arbitrarily broad coverage of both geography and demographics. The subsequent disaggregation is efficient because it is automatic. This makes it more cost-effective for publishers to deal with advertising aggregators than to directly capture advertising. Even though the advertising aggregator is taking a proportion of advertising revenue, publishers may find the change profit-neutral because of the greater efficiency of aggregation. The advertising aggregator acts as an intermediary between advertisers and publishers, and may place the same advertisement in multiple publications.

It is worth noting that ad placement in a netpage publication can be more complex than ad placement in the publication's traditional counteφart, because the publication's advertising space is more complex. While ignoring the full complexities of negotiations between advertisers, advertising aggregators and publishers, the prefeπed form of the netpage system provides some automated support for these negotiations, including support for automated auctions of advertising space. Automation is particularly desirable for the placement of advertisements which generate small amounts of income, such as small or highly localized advertisements.

Once placement has been negotiated, the aggregator captures and edits the advertisement and records it on a netpage ad server. Coπespondingly, the publisher records the ad placement on the relevant netpage publication server. When the netpage publication server lays out each user's personalized publication, it picks the relevant advertisements from the netpage ad server.

2.3 USER PROFILES

2.3.1 Information Filtering

The personalization of news and other publications relies on an assortment of user-specific profile information, including:

• publication customizations

• collaborative filtering vectors • contact details

• presentation preferences

The customization of a publication is typically publication-specific, and so the customization information is maintained by the relevant netpage publication server A collaborative filteπng vector consists of the user's ratings of a number of news items It is used to coπelate different users' interests for the puφoses of making recommendations Although there are benefits to maintaining a single collaborative filtenng vector independently of any particular publication, there are two reasons why it is more practical to maintain a separate vector for each publication there is likely to be more overlap between the vectors of subscnbers to the same publication than between those of subscnbers to different publications, and a publication is likely to want to present its users' collaborative filtenng vectors as part of the value of its brand, not to be found elsewhere Collaborative filtenng vectors are therefore also maintained by the relevant netpage publication server

Contact details, including name, street address, ZIP Code, state, country, telephone numbers, are global by nature, and are maintained by a netpage registration server

Presentation preferences, including those for quantities, dates and times, are likewise global and maintained in the same way

The localization of advertising relies on the locality indicated in the user's contact details, while the targeting of advertising relies on personal information such as date of birth, gender, mantal status, income, profession, education, or qualitative denvatives such as age range and income range

For those users who choose to reveal personal information for advertising puφoses, the information is maintained by the relevant neφage registration server In the absence of such information, advertising can be targeted on the basis of the demographic associated with the user's ZIP or ZIP+4 Code

Each user, pen, pnnter, application provider and application is assigned its own unique identifier, and the netpage registration server maintains the relationships between them, as shown in Figures 23, 24, 25 and 26 For registration puφoses, a publisher is a special kind of application provider, and a publication is a special kind of application

Each user 800 may be authonzed to use any number of pnnters 802, and each pnnter may allow any number of users to use it Each user has a single default pnnter (at 66), to which penodical publications are delivered by default, whilst pages pnnted on demand are delivered to the pnnter through which the user is interacting The server keeps track of which publishers a user has authonzed to pnnt to the user's default pnnter A publisher does not record the ID of any particular pnnter, but instead resolves the ID when it is required The user may also be designated as having administrative pnvileges 69 on the pnnter, allowing the user to authonze other users to use the pnnter This only has meaning if the pnnter requires administrative pnvileges 84 for such operations

When a user subscnbes 808 to a publication 807, the publisher 806 (1 e application provider 803) is authonzed to pnnt to a specified pnnter or the user's default pnnter This authonzation can be revoked at any time by the user Each user may have several pens 801, but a pen is specific to a single user If a user is authonzed to use a particular pnnter, then that pnnter recognizes any of the user's pens

The pen ID is used to locate the coπesponding user profile maintained by a particular netpage registration server, via the DNS in the usual way A Web terminal 809 can be authonzed to pnnt on a particular netpage printer, allowing Web pages and netpage documents encountered duπng Web browsing to be conveniently pnnted on the nearest netpage pπnter

The netpage system can collect, on behalf of a pπnter provider, fees and commissions on income earned through publications pnnted on the provider's pnnters Such income can include advertising fees, click-through fees, e- commerce commissions, and transaction fees If the pπnter is owned by the user, then the user is the pnnter provider

Each user also has a netpage account 820 which is used to accumulate micro-debits and credits (such as those descnbed in the preceding paragraph), contact details 815, including name, address and telephone numbers, global preferences 816, including pnvacy, delivery and localization settings, any number of biometπc records 817, containing the user's encoded signature 818, fingeφπnt 819 etc, a handwntmg model 819 automatically maintained by the system, and SET payment card accounts 821, with which e-commerce payments can be made

In addition to the user-specific netpage account, each user also has a netpage account 936 specific to each pnnter the user is authonzed to use Each pnnter-specific account is used to accumulate micro-debits and credits related to the user's activities on that pπnter The user is billed on a regular basis for any outstanding debit balances

A user optionally appears in the netpage user directory 823, allowing other users to locate and direct e-mail (etc ) to the user

2.4 INTELLIGENT PAGE LAYOUT

The netpage publication server automatically lays out the pages of each user's personalized publication on a section-by-section basis Since most advertisements are in the form of pre-formatted rectangles, they are placed on the page before the editonal content The advertising ratio for a section can be achieved with wildly varying advertising ratios on individual pages within the section, and the ad layout algonthm exploits this The algonthm is configured to attempt to co-locate closely tied editonal and advertising content, such as placing ads for roofing mateπal specifically within the publication because of a special feature on do-it-yourself roofing repairs

The editonal content selected for the user, including text and associated images and graphics, is then laid out according to vanous aesthetic rules

The entire process, including the selection of ads and the selection of editonal content, must be iterated once the layout has converged, to attempt to more closely achieve the user's stated section size preference The section size preference can, however, be matched on average over time, allowing significant day-to-day vanations

2.5 DOCUMENT FORMAT Once the document is laid out, it is encoded for efficient distnbution and persistent storage on the netpage network

The pπmary efficiency mechanism is the separation of information specific to a single user's edition and mformation shared between multiple users' editions The specific information consists of the page layout The shared information consists of the objects to which the page layout refers, including images, graphics, and pieces of text A text object contains fully-formatted text represented in the Extensible Markup Language (XML) using the

Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) XSL provides precise control over text formatting independently of the region into which the text is being set, which in this case is being provided by the layout The text object contains embedded language codes to enable automatic translation, and embedded hyphenation hints to aid with paragraph formatting

An image object encodes an image in the JPEG 2000 wavelet-based compressed image format A graphic object encodes a 2D graphic in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format

The layout itself consists of a senes of placed image and graphic objects, linked textflow objects through which text objects flow, hyperlinks and input fields as descnbed above, and watermark regions These layout objects are summanzed in Table 3 The layout uses a compact format suitable for efficient distnbution and storage

Table 3 - netpage layout objects

2.6 DOCUMENT DISTRIBUTION As descnbed above, for puφoses of efficient distribution and persistent storage on the netpage network, a user-specific page layout is separated from the shared objects to which it refers

When a subscnbed publication is ready to be distnbuted, the netpage publication server allocates, with the help of the netpage ID server 12, a unique ID for each page, page instance, document, and document instance

The server computes a set of optimized subsets of the shared content and creates a multicast channel for each subset, and then tags each user-specific layout with the names of the multicast channels which will carry the shared content used by that layout The server then pointcasts each user's layouts to that user's pnnter via the appropnate page server, and when the pomtcasting is complete, multicasts the shared content on the specified channels After receiving its pointcast, each page server and pπnter subscnbes to the multicast channels specified in the page layouts Duπng the multicasts, each page server and pnnter extracts from the multicast streams those objects refeπed to by its page layouts The page servers persistently archive the received page layouts and shared content

Once a pnnter has received all the objects to which its page layouts refer, the pnnter re-creates the fully- populated layout and then rastenzes and pnnts it

Under normal circumstances, the pnnter pnnts pages faster than they can be delivered Assuming a quarter of each page is covered with images, the average page has a size of less than 400KB The pnnter can therefore hold in excess of 100 such pages in its internal 64MB memory, allowing for temporary buffers etc The pnnter pnnts at a rate of one page per second This is equivalent to 400KB or about 3Mbit of page data per second, which is similar to the highest expected rate of page data delivery over a broadband network

Even under abnormal circumstances, such as when the pnnter runs out of paper, it is likely that the user will be able to replenish the paper supply before the printer's 100-page internal storage capacity is exhausted.

However, if the printer's internal memory does fill up, then the printer will be unable to make use of a multicast when it first occurs. The netpage publication server therefore allows printers to submit requests for re-multicasts. When a critical number of requests is received or a timeout occurs, the server re-multicasts the coπesponding shared objects.

Once a document is printed, a printer can produce an exact duplicate at any time by retrieving its page layouts and contents from the relevant page server.

2.7 ON-DEMAND DOCUMENTS

When a netpage document is requested on demand, it can be personalized and delivered in much the same way as a periodical. However, since there is no shared content, delivery is made directly to the requesting printer without the use of multicast.

When a non-netpage document is requested on demand, it is not personalized, and it is delivered via a designated netpage formatting server which reformats it as a netpage document. A netpage formatting server is a special instance of a netpage publication server. The netpage formatting server has knowledge of various Internet document formats, including Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF), and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). In the case of HTML, it can make use of the higher resolution of the printed page to present Web pages in a multi-column format, with a table of contents. It can automatically include all Web pages directly linked to the requested page. The user can tune this behavior via a preference.

The netpage formatting server makes standard netpage behavior, including interactivity and persistence, available on any Internet document, no matter what its origin and format. It hides knowledge of different document formats from both the netpage printer and the netpage page server, and hides knowledge of the netpage system from Web servers.

3 SECURITY

3.1 CRYPTOGRAPHY Cryptography is used to protect sensitive information, both in storage and in transit, and to authenticate parties to a transaction. There are two classes of cryptography in widespread use: secret-key cryptography and public-key cryptography. The netpage network uses both classes of cryptography.

Secret-key cryptography, also refeπed to as symmetric cryptography, uses the same key to encrypt and decrypt a message. Two parties wishing to exchange messages must first aπange to securely exchange the secret key. Public-key cryptography, also refeπed to as asymmetric cryptography, uses two encryption keys. The two keys are mathematically related in such a way that any message encrypted using one key can only be decrypted using the other key. One of these keys is then published, while the other is kept private. The public key is used to encrypt any message intended for the holder of the private key. Once encrypted using the public key, a message can only be decrypted using the private key. Thus two parties can securely exchange messages without first having to exchange a secret key. To ensure that the private key is secure, it is normal for the holder of the private key to generate the key pair.

Public-key cryptography can be used to create a digital signature. The holder of the private key can create a known hash of a message and then encrypt the hash using the private key. Anyone can then verify that the encrypted hash constitutes the "signature" of the holder of the pnvate key with respect to that particular message by decrypting the encrypted hash using the public key and veπfying the hash against the message If the signature is appended to the message, then the recipient of the message can venfy both that the message is genuine and that it has not been altered in transit To make public-key cryptography work, there has to be a way to distnbute public keys which prevents impersonation This is normally done using certificates and certificate authoπties A certificate authonty is a trusted third party which authenticates the connection between a public key and someone's identity The certificate authonty venfies the person's identity by examining identity documents, and then creates and signs a digital certificate containing the person's identity details and public key Anyone who trusts the certificate authoπty can use the public key in the certificate with a high degree of certainty that it is genuine They just have to venfy that the certificate has indeed been signed by the certificate authoπty, whose public key is well-known

In most transaction environments, public-key cryptography is only used to create digital signatures and to securely exchange secret session keys Secret-key cryptography is used for all other puφoses

In the following discussion, when reference is made to the secure transmission of information between a neφage pnnter and a server, what actually happens is that the pπnter obtains the server's certificate, authenticates it with reference to the certificate authonty, uses the public key-exchange key in the certificate to exchange a secret session key with the server, and then uses the secret session key to encrypt the message data A session key, by definition, can have an arbitiaπly short lifetime

3.2 NETPAGE PRINTER SECURITY Each netpage pnnter is assigned a pair of unique identifiers at time of manufacture which are stored in readonly memory in the pnnter and the netpage registration server database The first ID 62 is public and uniquely identifies the pnnter on the netpage network The second ID is secret and is used when the pnnter is first registered on the network

When the pnnter connects to the netpage network for the first time after installation, it creates a signature public/pnvate key pair It transmits the secret ID and the public key securely to the neφage registration server The server compares the secret ID against the pnnter's secret ID recorded in its database, and accepts the registration if the IDs match It then creates and signs a certificate containing the pnnter's public ID and public signature key, and stores the certificate in the registration database

The netpage registration server acts as a certificate authoπty for netpage pnnters, since it has access to secret information allowing it to venfy pnnter identity When a user subscnbes to a publication, a record is created in the netpage registration server database authoπzing the publisher to pnnt the publication to the user's default pnnter or a specified pnnter Every document sent to a pπnter via a page server is addressed to a particular user and is signed by the publisher using the publisher's pnvate signature key The page server venfies, via the registration database, that the publisher is authonzed to deliver the publication to the specified user The page server venfies the signature using the publisher's public key, obtained from the publisher's certificate stored in the registration database

The netpage registration server accepts requests to add pnnting authonzations to the database, so long as those requests are initiated via a pen registered to the pπnter 3.3 NETPAGE PEN SECURITY

Each netpage pen is assigned a unique identifier at time of manufacture which is stored in read-only memory in the pen and in the netpage registration server database. The pen ID 61 uniquely identifies the pen on the netpage network. A netpage pen can "know" a number of netpage printers, and a printer can "know" a number of pens. A pen communicates with a printer via a radio frequency signal whenever it is within range of the printer. Once a pen and printer are registered, they regularly exchange session keys. Whenever the pen transmits digital ink to the printer, the digital ink is always encrypted using the appropriate session key. Digital ink is never transmitted in the clear.

A pen stores a session key for every printer it knows, indexed by printer ID, and a printer stores a session key for every pen it knows, indexed by pen ID. Both have a large but finite storage capacity for session keys, and will forget a session key on a least-recently-used basis if necessary.

When a pen comes within range of a printer, the pen and printer discover whether they know each other. If they don't know each other, then the printer determines whether it is supposed to know the pen. This might be, for example, because the pen belongs to a user who is registered to use the printer. If the printer is meant to know the pen but doesn't, then it initiates the automatic pen registration procedure. If the printer isn't meant to know the pen, then it agrees with the pen to ignore it until the pen is placed in a charging cup, at which time it initiates the registration procedure.

In addition to its public ID, the pen contains a secret key-exchange key. The key-exchange key is also recorded in the netpage registration server database at time of manufacture. During registration, the pen transmits its pen ID to the printer, and the printer transmits the pen ID to the netpage registration server. The server generates a session key for the printer and pen to use, and securely transmits the session key to the printer. It also transmits a copy of the session key encrypted with the pen's key-exchange key. The printer stores the session key internally, indexed by the pen ID, and transmits the encrypted session key to the pen. The pen stores the session key internally, indexed by the printer ID.

Although a fake pen can impersonate a pen in the pen registration protocol, only a real pen can decrypt the session key transmitted by the printer. When a previously unregistered pen is first registered, it is of limited use until it is linked to a user. A registered but "un-owned" pen is only allowed to be used to request and fill in netpage user and pen registration forms, to register a new user to which the new pen is automatically linked, or to add a new pen to an existing user.

The pen uses secret-key rather than public-key encryption because of hardware performance constraints in the pen.

3.4 SECURE DOCUMENTS

The netpage system supports the delivery of secure documents such as tickets and coupons. The netpage printer includes a facility to print watermarks, but will only do so on request from publishers who are suitably authorized. The publisher indicates its authority to print watermarks in its certificate, which the printer is able to authenticate.

The "watermark" printing process uses an alternative dither matrix in specified "watermark" regions of the page. Back-to-back pages contain minor-image watermark regions which coincide when printed. The dither matrices used in odd and even pages' watermark regions are designed to produce an interference effect when the regions are viewed together, achieved by looking through the printed sheet.

The effect is similar to a watermark in that it is not visible when looking at only one side of the page, and is lost when the page is copied by normal means.

Pages of secure documents cannot be copied using the built-in netpage copy mechanism described in Section 1.9 above. This extends to copying netpages on netpage-aware photocopiers.

Secure documents are typically generated as part of e-commerce transactions. They can therefore include the user's photograph which was captured when the user registered biometric information with the netpage registiation server, as described in Section 2.

When presented with a secure netpage document, the recipient can verify its authenticity by requesting its status in the usual way. The unique ID of a secure document is only valid for the lifetime of the document, and secure document IDs are allocated non-contiguously to prevent their prediction by opportunistic forgers. A secure document verification pen can be developed with built-in feedback on verification failure, to support easy point-of-presentation document verification.

Clearly neither the watermark nor the user's photograph are secure in a cryptographic sense. They simply provide a significant obstacle to casual forgery. Online document verification, particularly using a verification pen, provides an added level of security where it is needed, but is still not entirely immune to forgeries.

3.5 NON-REPUDIATION

In the netpage system, forms submitted by users are delivered reliably to forms handlers and are persistently archived on netpage page servers. It is therefore impossible for recipients to repudiate delivery.

E-commerce payments made through the system, as described in Section 4, are also impossible for the payee to repudiate.

4 ELECTRONIC COMMERCE MODEL

4.1 SECURE ELECTRONIC TRANSACTION (SET)

The netpage system uses the Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) system as one of its payment systems. SET, having been developed by MasterCard and Visa, is organized around payment cards, and this is reflected in the terminology. However, much of the system is independent of the type of accounts being used. In SET, cardholders and merchants register with a certificate authority and are issued with certificates containing their public signature keys. The certificate authority verifies a cardholder's registiation details with the card issuer as appropriate, and verifies a merchant's registration details with the acquirer as appropriate. Cardholders and merchants store their respective private signature keys securely on their computers. During the payment process, these certificates are used to mutually authenticate a merchant and cardholder, and to authenticate them both to the payment gateway.

SET has not yet been adopted widely, partly because cardholder maintenance of keys and certificates is considered burdensome. Interim solutions which maintain cardholder keys and certificates on a server and give the cardholder access via a password have met with some success.

4.2 SET PAYMENTS In the netpage system the netpage registration server acts as a proxy for the netpage user (i.e. the cardholder) in SET payment transactions. The netpage system uses biometπcs to authenticate the user and authonze SET payments Because the system is pen-based, the biometnc used is the user's on-line signature, consisting of time-varying pen position and pressure A fingeφnnt biometπc can also be used by designing a fingeφπnt sensor into the pen, although at a higher cost The type of biometπc used only affects the capture of the biometπc, not the authonzation aspects of the system The first step to being able to make SET payments is to register the user's biometnc with the netpage registration server This is done in a controlled environment, for example a bank, where the biometnc can be captured at the same time as the user's identity is venfied The biometnc is captured and stored in the registration database, linked to the user's record The user's photograph is also optionally captured and linked to the record The SET cardholder registration process is completed, and the resulting pnvate signature key and certificate are stored in the database The user's payment card information is also stored, giving the netpage registration server enough information to act as the user's proxy in any SET payment transaction

When the user eventually supplies the biometπc to complete a payment, for example by signing a netpage order form, the pπnter securely transmits the order information, the pen ID and the biometπc data to the netpage registration server The server venfies the biometnc with respect to the user identified by the pen ID, and from then on acts as the user's proxy m completing the SET payment transaction

4.3 MICRO-PAYMENTS

The netpage system includes a mechanism for micro-payments, to allow the user to be conveniently charged for pnnting low-cost documents on demand and for copying copyπght documents, and possibly also to allow the user to be reimbursed for expenses incurred in pnnting advertising matenal The latter depends on the level of subsidy already provided to the user

When the user registers for e-commerce, a network account is established which aggregates micro-payments The user receives a statement on a regular basis, and can settle any outstanding debit balance using the standard payment mechanism

The network account can be extended to aggregate subscnption fees for penodicals, which would also otherwise be presented to the user m the form of individual statements

4.4 TRANSACTIONS

When a user requests a netpage in a particular application context, the application is able to embed a user- specific transaction ID 55 in the page Subsequent input through the page is tagged with the transaction ID, and the application is thereby able to establish an appropπate context for the user's input When input occurs through a page which is not user-specific, however, the application must use the user's unique identity to establish a context A typical example involves adding items from a pre-pnnted catalog page to the user's virtual "shopping cart" To protect the user's pnvacy, however, the unique user ID 60 known to the neφage system is not divulged to applications This is to prevent different application providers from easily coπelating independently accumulated behavioral data The netpage registration server instead maintains an anonymous relationship between a user and an application via a unique alias ID 65, as shown in Figure 26 Whenever the user activates a hyperlink tagged with the "registered" attnbute, the netpage page server asks the netpage registration server to translate the associated application ID 64, together with the pen ID 61, into an alias ID 65 The alias ID is then submitted to the hyperlink's application The application maintains state information indexed by alias ID, and is able to retneve user-specific state information without knowledge of the global identity of the user

The system also maintains an independent certificate and pnvate signature key for each of a user's applications, to allow it to sign application transactions on behalf of the user using only application-specific information To assist the system in routing product bar code (UPC) "hyperlink" activations, the system records a favoπte application on behalf of the user for any number of product types

Each application is associated with an application provider, and the system maintains an account on behalf of each application provider, to allow it to credit and debit the provider for click-through fees etc

An application provider can be a publisher of peπodical subscnbed content The system records the user's willingness to receive the subscnbed publication, as well as the expected frequency of publication

5 COMMUNICATIONS PROTOCOLS

A communications protocol defines an ordered exchange of messages between entities In the netpage system, entities such as pens, pnnters and servers utilise a set of defined protocols to cooperatively handle user interaction with the netpage system Each protocol is illustrated by way of a sequence diagram in which the honzontal dimension is used to represent message flow and the vertical dimension is used to represent time Each entity is represented by a rectangle containing the name of the entity and a vertical column representing the lifeline of the entity Duπng the time an entity exists, the lifeline is shown as a dashed line Dunng the time an entity is active, the lifeline is shown as a double line Because the protocols considered here do not create or destroy entities, lifelines are generally cut short as soon as an entity ceases to participate in a protocol

5.1 SUBSCRIPTION DELIVERY PROTOCOL

A prefeπed embodiment of a subscnption delivery protocol is shown in Figure 42

A large number of users may subscnbe to a penodical publication Each user's edition may be laid out differently, but many users' editions will share common content such as text objects and image objects The subscnption delivery protocol therefore delivers document structures to individual pnnters via pointcast, but delivers shared content objects via multicast

The application (I e publisher) first obtains a document ID 51 for each document from an ID server 12 It then sends each document structure, including its document ID and page descnptions, to the page server 10 responsible for the document's newly allocated ID It includes its own application ID 64, the subscnber' s alias ID 65, and the relevant set of multicast channel names It signs the message using its pnvate signature key

The page server uses the application ID and alias ID to obtain from the registration server the coπesponding user ID 60, the user's selected pnnter ID 62 (which may be explicitly selected for the application, or may be the user's default pnnter), and the application's certificate

The application's certificate allows the page server to venfy the message signature The page server's request to the registration server fails if the application ID and alias ID don't together identify a subscnption 808

The page server then allocates document and page instance IDs and forwards the page descriptions, including page IDs 50, to the pnnter It includes the relevant set of multicast channel names for the pnnter to listen to It then returns the newly allocated page IDs to the application for future reference.

Once the application has distributed all of the document structures to the subscribers' selected printers via the relevant page servers, it multicasts the various subsets of the shared objects on the previously selected multicast channels.

Both page servers and printers monitor the appropriate multicast channels and receive their required content objects. They are then able to populate the previously pointcast document structures. This allows the page servers to add complete documents to their databases, and it allows the printers to print the documents.

5.2 HYPERLINK ACTIVATION PROTOCOL

A prefeπed embodiment of a hyperlink activation protocol is shown in Figure 44.

When a user clicks on a netpage with a netpage pen, the pen communicates the click to the nearest netpage printer 601. The click identifies the page and a location on the page. The printer already knows the ID 61 of the pen from the pen connection protocol.

The printer determines, via the DNS, the network address of the page server 10a handling the particular page ID 50. The address may already be in its cache if the user has recently interacted with the same page. The printer then forwards the pen ID, its own printer ID 62, the page ID and click location to the page server. The page server loads the page description 5 identified by the page ID and detennines which input element's zone 58, if any, the click lies in. Assuming the relevant input element is a hyperlink element 844, the page server then obtains the associated application ID 64 and link ID 54, and determines, via the DNS, the network address of the application server hosting the application 71.

The page server uses the pen ID 61 to obtain the coπesponding user ID 60 from the registration server 11, and then allocates a globally unique hyperlink request ID 52 and builds a hyperlink request 934. The hyperlink request class diagram is shown in Figure 43. The hyperlink request records the IDs of the requesting user and printer, and identifies the clicked hyperlink instance 862. The page server then sends its own server ID 53, the hyperlink request ID, and the link ID to the application.

The application produces a response document according to application-specific logic, and obtains a document ID 51 from an ID server 12. It then sends the document to the page server 10b responsible for the document's newly allocated ID, together with the requesting page server's ID and the hyperlink request ID.

The second page server sends the hyperlink request ID and application ID to the first page server to obtain the coπesponding user ID and printer ID 62. The first page server rejects the request if the hyperlink request has expired or is for a different application. The second page server allocates document instance and page IDs 50, returns the newly allocated page IDs to the application, adds the complete document to its own database, and finally sends the page descriptions to the requesting printer.

The hyperlink instance may include a meaningful transaction ID 55, in which case the first page server includes the transaction ID in the message sent to the application. This allows the application to establish a transaction- specific context for the hyperlink activation.

If the hyperlink requires a user alias, i.e. its "alias required" attribute is set, then the first page server sends both the pen ID 61 and the hyperlink's application ID 64 to the registration server 11 to obtain not just the user ID coπesponding to the pen ID but also the alias ID 65 coπesponding to the application ID and the user ID. It includes the alias ID in the message sent to the application, allowing the application to establish a user-specific context for the hyperlink activation.

5.3 HANDWRITING RECOGNITION PROTOCOL

When a user draws a stroke on a netpage with a netpage pen, the pen communicates the stroke to the nearest netpage printer. The stroke identifies the page and a path on the page.

The printer forwards the pen ID 61, its own printer ID 62, the page ID 50 and stroke path to the page server 10 in the usual way.

The page server loads the page description 5 identified by the page ID and determines which input element's zone 58, if any, the stroke intersects. Assuming the relevant input element is a text field 878, the page server appends the stroke to the text field's digital ink.

After a period of inactivity in the zone of the text field, the page server sends the pen ID and the pending stiokes to the registration server 11 for inteφretation. The registration server identifies the user coπesponding to the pen, and uses the user's accumulated handwriting model 822 to inteφret the strokes as handwritten text. Once it has converted the strokes to text, the registration server returns the text to the requesting page server. The page server appends the text to the text value of the text field.

5.4 SIGNATURE VERIFICATION PROTOCOL

Assuming the input element whose zone the stroke intersects is a signature field 880, the page server 10 appends the stroke to the signature field's digital ink.

After a period of inactivity in the zone of the signature field, the page server sends the pen ID 61 and the pending strokes to the registration server 11 for verification. It also sends the application ID 64 associated with the form of which the signature field is part, as well as the form ID 56 and the cuπent data content of the form. The registration server identifies the user coπesponding to the pen, and uses the user's dynamic signature biometric 818 to verify the strokes as the user's signature. Once it has verified the signature, the registration server uses the application ID 64 and user ID 60 to identify the user's application-specific private signature key. It then uses the key to generate a digital signature of the form data, and retums the digital signature to the requesting page server. The page server assigns the digital signature to the signature field and sets the associated form's status to frozen.

The digital signature includes the alias ID 65 of the coπesponding user. This allows a single form to capture multiple users' signatures.

5.5 FORM SUBMISSION PROTOCOL A prefeπed embodiment of a form submission protocol is shown in Figure 45.

Form submission occurs via a form hyperlink activation. It thus follows the protocol defined in Section 5.2, with some form-specific additions.

In the case of a form hyperlink, the hyperlink activation message sent by the page server 10 to the application 71 also contains the form ID 56 and the cuπent data content of the form. If the form contains any signature fields, then the application verifies each one by extracting the alias ID 65 associated with the coπesponding digital signature and obtaining the coπesponding certificate from the registration server 11. 5.6 COMMISSION PAYMENT PROTOCOL

A prefeπed embodiment of a commission payment protocol is shown in Figure 46.

In an e-commerce environment, fees and commissions may be payable from an application provider to a publisher on click-throughs, transactions and sales. Commissions on fees and commissions on commissions may also be payable from the publisher to the provider of the printer.

The hyperlink request ID 52 is used to route a fee or commission credit from the target application provider 70a (e.g. merchant) to the source application provider 70b (i.e. publisher), and from the source application provider 70b to the printer provider 72.

The target application receives the hyperlink request ID from the page server 10 when the hyperlink is first activated, as described in Section 5.2. When the target application needs to credit the source application provider, it sends the application provider credit to the original page server together with the hyperlink request ID. The page server uses the hyperlink request ID to identify the source application, and sends the credit on to the relevant registration server 11 together with the source application ID 64, its own server ID 53, and the hyperlink request ID. The registration server credits the coπesponding application provider's account 827. It also notifies the application provider. If the application provider needs to credit the printer provider, it sends the printer provider credit to the original page server together with the hyperlink request ID. The page server uses the hyperlink request ID to identify the printer, and sends the credit on to the relevant registration server together with the printer ID. The registration server credits the coπesponding printer provider account 814.

The source application provider is optionally notified of the identity of the target application provider, and the printer provider of the identity of the source application provider.

6 NETPAGE PEN DESCRIPTION

6.1 PEN MECHANICS

Referring to Figures 8 and 9, the pen, generally designated by reference numeral 101, includes a housing 102 in the form of a plastics moulding having walls 103 defining an interior space 104 for mounting the pen components. The pen top 105 is in operation rotatably mounted at one end 106 of the housing 102. A semi-transparent cover 107 is secured to the opposite end 108 of the housing 102. The cover 107 is also of moulded plastics, and is formed from semi- transparent material in order to enable the user to view the status of the LED mounted within the housing 102. The cover 107 includes a main part 109 which substantially suπounds the end 108 of the housing 102 and a projecting portion 110 which projects back from the main part 109 and fits within a coπesponding slot 111 foπned in the walls 103 of the housing 102. A radio antenna 112 is mounted behind the projecting portion 110, within the housing 102. Screw threads 113 suπounding an aperture 113 A on the cover 107 are aπanged to receive a metal end piece 114, including coπesponding screw threads 115. The metal end piece 114 is removable to enable ink cartridge replacement.

Also mounted within the cover 107 is a tri-color status LED 116 on a flex PCB 117. The antenna 112 is also mounted on the flex PCB 117. The status LED 116 is mounted at the top of the pen 101 for good all-around visibility. The pen can operate both as a normal marking ink pen and as a non-marking stylus. An ink pen cartridge 118 with nib 119 and a stylus 120 with stylus nib 121 are mounted side by side within the housing 102. Either the ink cartridge nib 119 or the stylus nib 121 can be brought forward through open end 122 of the metal end piece 114, by rotation of the pen top 105. Respective slider blocks 123 and 124 are mounted to the ink cartridge 118 and stylus 120, respectively. A rotatable cam baπel 125 is secured to the pen top 105 in operation and aπanged to rotate therewith. The cam baπel 125 includes a cam 126 in the form of a slot within the walls 181 of the cam baπel. Cam followers 127 and 128 projecting from slider blocks 123 and 124 fit within the cam slot 126. On rotation of the cam baπel 125, the slider blocks 123 or 124 move relative to each other to project either the pen nib 119 or stylus nib 121 out through the hole 122 in the metal end piece 1 14. The pen 101 has three states of operation. By turning the top 105 through 90° steps, the three states are:

Stylus 120 nib 121 out;

• Ink cartridge 118 nib 1 19 out; and

• Neither ink cartridge 118 nib 119 out nor stylus 120 nib 121 out.

A second flex PCB 129, is mounted on an electronics chassis 130 which sits within the housing 102. The second flex PCB 129 mounts an infrared LED 131 for providing infrared radiation for projection onto the surface. An image sensor 132 is provided mounted on the second flex PCB 129 for receiving reflected radiation from the surface. The second flex PCB 129 also mounts a radio frequency chip 133, which includes an RF transmitter and RF receiver, and a controller chip 134 for controlling operation of the pen 101. An optics block 135 (formed from moulded clear plastics) sits within the cover 107 and projects an infrared beam onto the surface and receives images onto the image sensor 132. Power supply wires 136 connect the components on the second flex PCB 129 to battery contacts 137 which are mounted within the cam baπel 125. A terminal 138 connects to the battery contacts 137 and the cam baπel 125. A three volt rechargeable battery 139 sits within the cam baπel 125 in contact with the battery contacts. An induction charging coil

140 is mounted about the second flex PCB 129 to enable recharging of the battery 139 via induction. The second flex

PCB 129 also mounts an infrared LED 143 and infrared photodiode 144 for detecting displacement in the cam baπel 125 when either the stylus 120 or the ink cartridge 118 is used for writing, in order to enable a determination of the force being applied to the surface by the pen nib 119 or stylus nib 121. The IR photodiode 144 detects light from the IR LED

143 via reflectors (not shown) mounted on the slider blocks 123 and 124.

Rubber grip pads 141 and 142 are provided towards the end 108 of the housing 102 to assist gripping the pen 101, and top 105 also includes a clip 142 for clipping the pen 101 to a pocket.

6.2 PEN CONTROLLER

The pen 101 is aπanged to deteraiine the position of its nib (stylus nib 121 or ink cartridge nib 119) by imaging, in the infrared spectrum, an area of the surface in the vicinity of the nib. It records the location data from the nearest location tag, and is aπanged to calculate the distance of the nib 121 or 119 from the location tab utilising optics 135 and controller chip 134. The controller chip 134 calculates the orientation of the pen and the nib-to-tag distance from the perspective distortion observed on the imaged tag.

Utilising the RF chip 133 and antenna 112 the pen 101 can transmit the digital ink data (which is encrypted for security and packaged for efficient transmission) to the computing system.

When the pen is in range of a receiver, the digital ink data is transmitted as it is formed. When the pen 101 moves out of range, digital ink data is buffered within the pen 101 (the pen 101 circuitry includes a buffer aπanged to store digital ink data for approximately 12 minutes of the pen motion on the surface) and can be transmitted later.

The controller chip 134 is mounted on the second flex PCB 129 in the pen 101. Figure 10 is a block diagram illustrating in more detail the architecture of the controller chip 134. Figure 10 also shows representations of the RF chip 133, the image sensor 132, the tri-color status LED 116, the IR illumination LED 131, the IR force sensor LED 143, and the force sensor photodiode 144. The pen controller chip 134 includes a controlling processor 145 Bus 146 enables the exchange of data between components of the controller chip 134 Rash memory 147 and a 512 KB DRAM 148 are also included An analog-to-digital converter 149 is aπanged to convert the analog signal from the force sensor photodiode 144 to a digital signal An image sensor interface 152 interfaces with the image sensor 132 A transceiver controller 153 and base band circuit 154 are also included to interface with the RF chip 133 which includes an RF circuit 155 and RF resonators and inductors 156 connected to the antenna 112

The controlling processor 145 captures and decodes location data from tags from the surface via the image sensor 132, monitors the force sensor photodiode 144, controls the LEDs 116, 131 and 143, and handles short-range radio commumcation via the radio transceiver 153 It is a medium-performance (~40MHz) general-puφose RISC processor

The processor 145, digital transceiver components (transceiver controller 153 and baseband circuit 154), image sensor interface 152, flash memory 147 and 512KB DRAM 148 are integrated in a single controller ASIC Analog RF components (RF circuit 155 and RF resonators and inductors 156) are provided in the separate RF chip

The image sensor is a 215x215 pixel CCD (such a sensor is produced by Matsushita Electronic Coφorahon, and is descnbed in a paper by Itakura, K T Nobusada, N Okusenya, R Nagayoshi, and M Ozaki, "A 1mm 50k-Pιxel IT CCD Image Sensor for Miniature Camera System", IEEE Transactions on Electronic Devices, Volt 47, number 1, January 2000, which is incoφorated herein by reference) with an IR filter

The controller ASIC 134 enters a quiescent state after a penod of inactivity when the pen 101 is not in contact with a surface It incorporates a dedicated circuit 150 which monitors the force sensor photodiode 144 and wakes up the controller 134 via the power manager 151 on a pen-down event

The radio tiansceiver communicates in the unlicensed 900MHz band normally used by cordless telephones, or alternatively in the unlicensed 2 4GHz industnal, scientific and medical (ISM) band, and uses frequency hopping and collision detection to provide interference-free communication

In an alternative embodiment, the pen incoφorates an Infrared Data Association (IrDA) interface for short- range communication with a base station or netpage pnnter

In a further embodiment, the pen 101 includes a pair of orthogonal accelerometers mounted in the normal plane of the pen 101 axis The accelerometers 190 are shown in Figures 9 and 10 in ghost outline

The provision of the accelerometers enables this embodiment of the pen 101 to sense motion without reference to surface location tags, allowing the location tags to be sampled at a lower rate Each location tag ID can then identify an object of interest rather than a position on the surface For example, if the object is a user interface input element (e g a command button), then the tag ID of each location tag within the area of the input element can directly identify the input element

The acceleration measured by the accelerometers m each of the x and y directions is integrated with respect to time to produce an instantaneous velocity and position Since the starting position of the stroke is not known, only relative positions within a stroke are calculated

Although position integration accumulates eπors in the sensed acceleration, accelerometers typically have high resolution, and the time duration of a stroke, over which eπors accumulate, is short 7 NETPAGE PRINTER DESCRIPTION

7.1 PRINTER MECHANICS

The vertically-mounted netpage wallprinter 601 is shown fully assembled in Figure 11. It prints netpages on

Letter/A4 sized media using duplexed 8'Λ" Memjet™ print engines 602 and 603, as shown in Figures 12 and 12a. It uses a straight paper path with the paper 604 passing through the duplexed print engines 602 and 603 which print both sides of a sheet simultaneously, in full color and with full bleed.

An integral binding assembly 605 applies a strip of glue along one edge of each printed sheet, allowing it to adhere to the previous sheet when pressed against it. This creates a final bound document 618 which can range in thickness from one sheet to several hundred sheets. The replaceable ink cartridge 627, shown in Figure 13 coupled with the duplexed print engines, has bladders or chambers for storing fixative, adhesive, and cyan, magenta, yellow, black and infrared inks. The cartridge also contains a micro air filter in a base molding. The micro air filter interfaces with an air pump 638 inside the printer via a hose 639. This provides filtered air to the printheads to prevent ingress of micro particles into the Memjet™ printheads 350 which might otherwise clog the printhead nozzles. By incoφorating the air filter within the cartridge, the operational life of the filter is effectively linked to the life of the cartridge. The ink cartridge is a fully recyclable product with a capacity for printing and gluing 3000 pages (1500 sheets).

Referring to Figure 12, the motorized media pick-up roller assembly 626 pushes the top sheet directly from the media tray past a paper sensor on the first print engine 602 into the duplexed Memjet™ printhead assembly. The two Memjet™ print engines 602 and 603 are mounted in an opposing in-line sequential configuration along the straight paper path. The paper 604 is drawn into the first print engine 602 by integral, powered pick-up rollers 626. The position and size of the paper 604 is sensed and full bleed printing commences. Fixative is printed simultaneously to aid drying in the shortest possible time.

The paper exits the first Memjet™ print engine 602 through a set of powered exit spike wheels (aligned along the straight paper path), which act against a rubberized roller. These spike wheels contact the 'wet' printed surface and continue to feed the sheet 604 into the second Memjet™ print engine 603.

Referring to Figures 12 and 12a, the paper 604 passes from the duplexed print engines 602 and 603 into the binder assembly 605. The printed page passes between a powered spike wheel axle 670 with a fibrous support roller and another movable axle with spike wheels and a momentary action glue wheel. The movable axle/glue assembly 673 is mounted to a metal support bracket and it is transported forward to interface with the powered axle 670 via gears by action of a camshaft. A separate motor powers this camshaft.

The glue wheel assembly 673 consists of a partially hollow axle 679 with a rotating coupling for the glue supply hose 641 from the ink cartridge 627. This axle 679 connects to a glue wheel, which absorbs adhesive by capillary action through radial holes. A molded housing 682 suπounds the glue wheel, with an opening at the front. Pivoting side moldings and sprung outer doors are attached to the metal bracket and hinge out sideways when the rest of the assembly 673 is thrust forward. This action exposes the glue wheel through the front of the molded housing 682. Tension springs close the assembly and effectively cap the glue wheel during periods of inactivity.

As the sheet 604 passes into the glue wheel assembly 673, adhesive is applied to one vertical edge on the front side (apart from the first sheet of a document) as it is transported down into the binding assembly 605. 7.2 PRINTER CONTROLLER ARCHITECTURE

The netpage pπnter controller consists of a controlling processor 750, a factory-installed or field-installed network interface module 625, a radio transceiver (transceiver controller 753, baseband circuit 754, RF circuit 755, and RF resonators and inductors 756), dual raster image processor (RIP) DSPs 757, duplexed pπnt engine controllers 760a and 760b, flash memory 658, and 64MB of DRAM 657, as illustrated in Figure 14

The controlling processor handles communication with the network 19 and with local wireless netpage pens 101, senses the help button 617, controls the user interface LEDs 613-616, and feeds and synchronizes the RIP DSPs 757 and pπnt engine controllers 760 It consists of a medium-performance general-puφose microprocessor The controlling processor 750 communicates with the pnnt engine controllers 760 via a high-speed senal bus 659 The RIP DSPs rastenze and compress page descnptions to the netpage pnnter's compressed page format

Each pnnt engine controller expands, dithers and pnnts page images to its associated Memjet™ pnnthead 350 in real time (I e at over 30 pages per minute) The duplexed pπnt engine controllers pπnt both sides of a sheet simultaneously

The master pπnt engine controller 760a controls the paper transport and monitors ink usage in conjunction with the master QA chip 665 and the ink cartndge QA chip 761 The pnnter controller's flash memory 658 holds the software for both the processor 750 and the DSPs 757, as well as configuration data This is copied to main memory 657 at boot time

The processor 750, DSPs 757, and digital transceiver components (transceiver controller 753 and baseband circuit 754) are integrated in a single controller ASIC 656 Analog RF components (RF circuit 755 and RF resonators and inductors 756) are provided in a separate RF chip 762 The network interface module 625 is separate, since netpage pnnters allow the network connection to be factory-selected or field-selected Flash memory 658 and the 2x256Mbit

(64MB) DRAM 657 is also off-chip The pπnt engine controllers 760 are provided m separate ASICs

A vanety of network interface modules 625 are provided, each providing a netpage network interface 751 and optionally a local computer or network interface 752 Netpage network Internet interfaces include POTS modems, Hybπd Fiber-Coax (HFC) cable modems, ISDN modems, DSL modems, satellite transceivers, cuπent and next-generation cellular telephone transceivers, and wireless local loop (WLL) transceivers Local interfaces include IEEE 1284 (parallel port), lOBase-T and 100Base-T Ethernet, USB and USB 2 0, IEEE 1394 (Firewire), and vanous emerging home networking interfaces If an Internet connection is available on the local network, then the local network interface can be used as the netpage network interface

The radio transceiver 753 communicates in the unlicensed 900MHz band normally used by cordless telephones, or alternatively in the unlicensed 24GHz mdustnal, scientific and medical (ISM) band, and uses frequency hopping and collision detection to provide interference-free communication

The pnnter controller optionally incoφorates an Infrared Data Association (IrDA) interface for receiving data "squirted" from devices such as netpage cameras In an alternative embodiment, the pnnter uses the IrDA interface for short-range communication with suitably configured netpage pens

7.2.1 RASTERIZATION AND PRINTING

Once the main processor 750 has received and venfied the document's page layouts and page objects, it runs the appropnate RIP software on the DSPs 757

The DSPs 757 rastenze each page descnption and compress the rastenzed page image The main processor stores each compressed page image in memory. The simplest way to load-balance multiple DSPs is to let each DSP rasterize a separate page. The DSPs can always be kept busy since an arbitrary number of rasterized pages can, in general, be stored in memory. This strategy only leads to potentially poor DSP utilization when rasterizing short documents.

Watermark regions in the page description are rasterized to a contone-resolution bi-level bitmap which is losslessly compressed to negligible size and which forms part of the compressed page image.

The infrared (IR) layer of the printed page contains coded netpage tags at a density of about six per inch. Each tag encodes the page ID, tag ID, and control bits, and the data content of each tag is generated during rasterization and stored in the compressed page image.

The main processor 750 passes back-to-back page images to the duplexed print engine controllers 760. Each print engine controller 760 stores the compressed page image in its local memory, and starts the page expansion and printing pipeline. Page expansion and printing is pipelined because it is impractical to store an entire 114MB bi-level CMYK+IR page image in memory.

7.2.2 PRINT ENGINE CONTROLLER

The page expansion and printing pipeline of the print engine controller 760 consists of a high speed IEEE 1394 serial interface 659, a standard JPEG decoder 763, a standard Group 4 Fax decoder 764, a custom halftoner/compositor unit 765, a custom tag encoder 766, a line loader/formatter unit 767, and a custom interface 768 to the Memjet™ printhead 350.

The print engine controller 360 operates in a double buffered manner. While one page is loaded into DRAM 769 via the high speed serial interface 659, the previously loaded page is read from DRAM 769 and passed through the print engine controller pipeline. Once the page has finished printing, the page just loaded is printed while another page is loaded.

The first stage of the pipeline expands (at 763) the JPEG-compressed contone CMYK layer, expands (at 764) the Group 4 Fax-compressed bi-level black layer, and renders (at 766) the bi-level netpage tag layer according to the tag format defined in section 1.2, all in parallel. The second stage dithers (at 765) the contone CMYK layer and composites (at 765) the bi-level black layer over the resulting bi-level CMYK layer. The resultant bi-level CMYK+IR dot data is buffered and formatted (at 767) for printing on the Memjet™ printhead 350 via a set of line buffers. Most of these line buffers are stored in the off-chip DRAM. The final stage prints the six channels of bi-level dot data (including fixative) to the Memjet™ printhead 350 via the printhead interface 768.

When several print engine controllers 760 are used in unison, such as in a duplexed configuration, they are synchronized via a shared line sync signal 770. Only one print engine 760, selected via the external master/slave pin 771, generates the line sync signal 770 onto the shared line.

The print engine controller 760 contains a low-speed processor 772 for synchronizing the page expansion and rendering pipeline, configuring the printhead 350 via a low-speed serial bus 773, and controlling the stepper motors 675, 676. In the δVi" versions of the netpage printer, the two print engines each prints 30 Letter pages per minute along the long dimension of the page (11"), giving a line rate of 8.8 kHz at 1600 dpi. In the 12" versions of the netpage printer, the two print engines each prints 45 Letter pages per minute along the short dimension of the page (8Vi"), giving a line rate of 10.2 kHz. These line rates are well within the operating frequency of the Memjet™ printhead, which in the cuπent design exceeds 30 kHz.

8 BUSINESS IMPLEMENTATION PROCEDURES

The netpage system accommodates a large variety of business implementation procedures for allowing users and providers of the technology to leverage off and to profit from their participation in the netpage system. To best understand the system the following description of the business implementation procedures and equipment should be read in conjunction with the description in the specification of the available hardware and software options, including printers, communication protocols, protocols for payment, determining account balances and the like.

The usual parties to the netpage system are:

• An online publisher who provides an online publication that is accessible via the netpage network; • One or more online advertisers who wish to place advertising in the online publication;

• A number of users, each of which is accesses the online publication with a printer module. Preferably, the modules are provided by a printer module provider to the users at no cost, or at a cost that is subsidised by the advertisers or the publisher. However, in some cases the user purchases the module at its market value; and

• A storage provider who maintains one or more databases which store the information required to allow the system to operate.

This particular invention is primarily concerned with the role and function of the users. Notwithstanding, the other roles will be outlined to assist the reader in understanding the invention and its various applications.

The parties interact to provide a structure that facilitates online dissemination of information and commerce. While the following embodiments illustrate specific ones of the many possible interactions it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other interactions are possible and are intended to fall within the scope of the claims.

It will also be appreciated by those skilled in the art that all the above named roles need not necessarily be performed by different entities. For example, in some cases the storage provider and the publisher are the same entity, while in other cases the printer provider and the publisher are the same entity.

Reference is also made in the description to "interactive paper". This is reference to paper that contains tags or other markings, visible or otherwise, that interact with the netpage system to allow identification of the page and, preferably, identification of the position on the page. Examples of these tags are described elsewhere in this specification and it will be understood that many other tags or identifiers can be used in a variety of configurations to achieve the same result.

Other terms used include "a printer using interactive paper" and "an on-demand printer". This is reference to a printer for interacting with the netpage system to apply the tags and or interacting with the user to determine which tag the user has designated. A variety of alternative printer configurations are available, some of which have been described in more detail elsewhere in the specification.

It will be understood that the term "printed medium" is used for convenience and can be substituted with the term "printed media". That is, the former term is intended to broadly encompass a printed product, whether this product includes one or more printed sheets, documents or the like.

8.1 NOTATION

To assist understanding of the prefeπed embodiments of the business implementation procedures and equipment use is made of diagrams, which follow, to illustrate the interactions between the vanous participant roles in a business procedure Each participant is shown as a pair of overlapping rectangles The front rectangle is labelled with the name of the participant and the back rectangle is used as the source and/or target of actions Each action is shown as an aπow joining a subject participant with an object participant Each action aπow is labelled with a descnption of the action Actions are spatially aπanged so that time proceeds from top to bottom and left to nght "Later" actions may coincide with, but never be earlier than, "earlier" actions

Any action is understood to be "caused" by the immediately pnor action which the subject of the action was an object of In the absence of a pnor action, the action is understood to be spontaneous

Respective reference numerals are used to label certain actions and participants to assist the reader's understanding of the embodiment being descnbed

8.2 COMBINATIONS OF DIFFERENT EMBODIMENTS WITHIN THE SCOPE OF THE INVENTION

The following prefeπed embodiments are separately descnbed to facilitate understanding of the invention

However, it will appreciated that more complex embodiments are obtained through the combination of these different embodiments to achieve advantageous results for specific circumstances Accordingly, the combination of different embodiments to form a hybnd system is intended to fall within the scope of the present invention and the following claims which define that invention

A prefeπed embodiment of a commission payment protocol, which provides support for vanous commission payments descnbed in the following sections, is descnbed in section 5 6 above and illustrated in Figure 46

8.2.1 Netpage Publisher In broad terms, this embodiment includes a system for providing a user with a pnnted publication from a first party who is an online publisher The system includes a publication source in the form of a computer based storage server for stonng publication data representative of the publication The publication data includes first information about a second party who is an advertiser in the online publication A user pnnter module, in the form of an on-demand interactive pnnter, interfaces the user with the publication server and is responsive to the user requesting the pnnted publication for reproducing the pnnted publication on a pnnted medium for viewing by the user Identifier means, in the form of a pnnter head and associated hardware and software contained within the pnnter, applies an identifier to the pnnted medium Upon designation of the identifier by the user the pnnter generates a second pnnted medium that displays to the user second information This second information is usually further information about the goods and/or services being offered for sale by the advertiser, or an order form for the specific goods and/or services contained in the advertisement, or a hyperlink to the advertiser's site Calculation means, in the form of the publication server, is responsive to the pnnter for determining a payment that is made by the advertiser to the publisher

In other embodiments the calculation means is the storage server In other embodiments, the calculation means is an account server separate from but linked to the other servers

The payment is calculated in one of a number of alternative methods which are agreed upon by the relevant parties, in advance For example, payment may be based upon

• The number of copies of the online publication that are requested

• The number of requests that are made for the third information

• The sales of the goods and/or services that are achieved by hits on the advertisement • The payment may be in addition to an agreed flat fee for a given period of time.

For example, in one embodiment, the advertiser pays a flat fee for each month that their advertisement is included, plus a payment based upon the number of copies of the publication that are requested by users of the system. That is, the system allows the advertiser to pay for the circulation that the publication achieves when including the desired advertising material, unlike the prior art systems which are based upon past circulation figures.

The system includes a plurality of modules associated with coπesponding users and the calculation means, in whatever form it takes, is responsive to the number of printed media generated that display one of: the first information; the second information; and the third information. That is, the first information is usually the editorial or other content of the publication, the second information is usually the advertisement, and the third information is either further information about the goods and/or services being offered for sale and/or an order form for those goods and/or services. Preferably, the calculation means is responsive to the number of printed media generated that display two or more of: the first information; the second information; and the third infoπnation. That is, the system allows a combination fee structure to be utilised, as required.

In the prefeπed embodiments, use is made of account means, usually in the form of an account server that is linked to the information server and one or more electronic bank accounts, for receiving the payment from the second party and for providing the payment to the first party.

Where the second party is a supplier of goods and/or services and the second information or the third information allows the user to purchase those goods and/or services at respective predetermined purchase prices, it is prefeπed that the calculation means is responsive to the monetary value of the purchases completed by the users for determining the payment. That is, the system provides a variety of options for calculating the payment including a combination of: a flat fee for each purchase; a fixed proportion of the purchase price for the goods and/or services that are purchased; and a proportion of the purchased price of the goods and/or services that are purchased, where that proportion is different for particular goods and/or services.

It will be appreciated that the system accommodates a plurality of second parties and a plurality of respective second information and third information that is derived from those parties. Preferably, the quantum of the payments made by the respective second parties is contingent upon one or more of the following characteristics of the second party: geographic location; quantity of purchases completed in a given time period; and relative geographic location with respect to the user.

As briefly foreshadowed above, it is prefeπed that the identifier is a tag although, in practice, it is usually embodied as a plurality of tags spaced apart on the respective printed medium. In other embodiments, however, the identifier is a character string that the user provides to the module to obtain the third information. In this case, the string preferably includes a sequence of numbers that are manually keyed into the module. However, in alternative embodiments the string is scanned by sensor means that are manually operated by the user.

In some embodiments, the account server automates the payments and provides the parties to the transactions with all the necessary reporting and summaries to substantiate the quantum of the payments. Preferably, the account server generates a disable signal if the payment calculated as payable by the second party is not made available or paid within a predetermined time, where the generation of the disable signal prevents the module from obtaining the first or the second information which is derived from that second party. That is, an automated debtor system is applied. Preferably, all parties to the transaction have electronic bank accounts that are accessible to the account server for effecting the necessary transactions. The system also allows the parties, and importantly the second party or the advertiser, to obtain an indication of the success of the advertising by monitoring one or more of the following:

• the number of times that the users designate the second information;

• the number and/or value of sales that are achieved through the users designating the second information; and

• the cost savings gained through the use of online selling over that of shop front retailing.

Where the second information is a link to a third party, the identifier is related to that second information such that designation by the user of the second information results in designation of the identifier which, in turn, ensures that the third information includes either or both of further information about the goods and/or services being offered for use and/or sale by the third party or instructions as to how the user should proceed to effect that use and/or a purchase of those goods and/or services of the third party. Preferably, the second party obtains an indication of the success of the link by monitoring one or more of: the number or proportion of users selecting the click-through; and the number or proportion of users purchasing or making use of the goods and/or services of the third party.

It will be appreciated that the monitoring allows the parties to accurately estimate the cost/benefit achieved by the advertising and, hence to plan for future promotions or advertising campaigns.

In other embodiments the first information includes advertising derived from a third party and the calculation means determines the quantum of a payment that is made by the third party to the first party. In some cases the advertising is solicited by the user, while in others the advertising is unsolicited.

The system also allows the first party to preferentially display of the advertising to the user. While in the above embodiments the printed media are generated by the user's printer module, as an alternative, or in addition to this, the printed media are selectively generated at a remote printer and subsequently provided to the user for viewing.

Some more specific examples follow and are described with reference to Figures 48 to 50.

8.2.1.1 Advertising Fees This embodiment allows the publisher, who publishes to the on-demand printers, to receive advertising fees on advertising placed within the publication. This provides a profitable role for the publisher, and allows the publisher to attract readers by being able to provide them with subsidised or free publications.

In some embodiments the publisher automatically delivers the publication to a subscribing user's printer on a periodic basis. For example, in the case of the publisher being an online newspaper, an updated publication is provided to the user's printer each weekday morning at a predetermined time. This time will default to a non-peak processing time for the publisher. However, the user can specify the time, and may be coordinated with the normal rising time of the user.

In other embodiments, the publication is delivered to a user's printer ad hoc at the user's request.

Preferably, the publication is printed as interactive paper.

As illustrated in Figure 48, this embodiment operates as follows: • The advertiser, which is indicated generally by reference numeral 42, places an advertisement 501 with the publisher 41. • The publisher 41 eventually pnnts the advertisement, as represented by aπow 502, on the user's on-demand pnnter 44 This pnnting occurs typically as part of one of the publisher's publications and results in one or more pnnted pages 1 that contain the publication, including the advertising

• The publisher 41 charges the advertiser 42 an agreed advertising fee, as represented by aπow 503 • The advertiser pays the publisher the advertising fee, as represented by aπow 504

For practical puφoses, advertising fees are negotiated, invoiced and settled in bulk In some embodiments the fees are part of a wider advertising agreement

8.2.1.2 Click-Through Fees

This embodiment allows a publisher who publishes on interactive paper to receive click-through fees on advertising placed within its publications This provides a profitable role for a publisher who publishes on interactive paper, and allows the publisher to attract readers by being able to provide them with subsidised or free publications

As illustrated in Figure 49, where coπesponding features are denoted by coπesponding reference numerals, the embodiment operates as follows

• An advertiser 42 places a hyperlink 505 with a publisher 41 • The publisher 41 eventually pnnts the hyperlink, as represented by aπow 506, and typically as part of one of the publisher's publications The result is one or more pnnted pages 1 being created that contain the publication, including the hyperlink

• When a user 40 selects the hyperlink, as represented by aπow 507, for example to request a linked document from the advertiser, the advertiser 42 is notified, as represented by aπow 508 • The advertiser 42 pays the publisher 41 an agreed click-through fee 509

For practical puφoses, click-through fees are negotiated, invoiced and settled in bulk In some embodiments the fees are part of a wider advertising agreement

8.2.1.3 Sales Commissions

This embodiment allows a publisher who publishes on interactive paper to receive commissions on sales initiated through advertising placed within its publications This provides a profitable role for a publisher who publishes on interactive paper, and allows the publisher to attract readers by being able to provide them with subsidised or free publications

As illustrated in Figure 50, where coπesponding features are denoted by coπesponding reference numerals, this embodiment operates as follows • A merchant 43 places a hyperlink, as represented by aπow 510, with a publisher 41

• The publisher 41 eventually pnnts the hyperlink, as represented by aπow 511, typically as part of one of the publisher's publications The result is one or more pnnted pages 1 being created that contain the publication, including the hyperlink

• When a user 40 clicks on the hyperlink to request a linked document from the merchant 43, the merchant is notified • When the user 40 eventually makes an online purchase via the linked document (or via a document obtained via the linked document), the merchant 43 is notified.

• The merchant 43 pays the publisher 41 an agreed commission on the sale.

Preferably, the sales commission is a fixed fee. However, other embodiments make use of a commission that is based on the value of the sale. For practical puφoses, sales commissions are negotiated, invoiced and settled in bulk, and are often part of wider advertising agreements.

8.2.2 Netpage Printer Provider

In broad terms, this embodiment includes a system for providing to a user printed information obtained from a remote source in the form of the online publication. The system includes a user module in the form of an interactive printer for interfacing the user with the online publication. The module is responsive to the user requesting first information from the publication, which may be the publication itself, for generating a first printed medium that displays to the user the first information together with second infoπnation. The second information is the advertising information that is derived from the advertiser. Identifier means, in the form of the printer module, applies an identifier to the first printed medium such that designation of the identifier by the user results in the module generating a second printed medium that displays to the user third information. Calculation means, in the form of the online publisher's server, is responsive to the module for determining a payment to be made by the advertiser to the printer provider. In practice, the advertiser would pay the online publisher and, in the case where the printer provider was different to the publisher, the publisher would provide a payment to the printer provider.

As a default, the payment is a predetermined function of the number of reproductions of the printed publication that are generated. That is, where the second party is an advertiser in the publication the payment is a predetermined function of the circulation achieved by the publication. This allows the advertiser to pay for the actual circulation achieved, and the publisher to be rewarded for increasing that circulation.

The payment includes, in some embodiments, another component in addition to or as a substitute for the above. For example, where the second infoπnation is associated with the second party the payment is a predetermined function of the number of second printed media generated. So, where the second party is an advertiser the payment is increased for successful hits on their specific advertising.

The payment is, in other embodiments, a predetermined function of both the number of printed publications generated that display the first information and the number of second printed media generated that display the second information. Where the second party is a supplier of goods and/or services, the first information or the second information is usually aπanged to allow the user to purchase those goods and/or services at a predetermined purchase price. In turn, the payment is calculated as a predetermined function of the purchase price of the goods and/or services actually purchased by the user.

For some items the user will desire to obtain further information about the goods and/or services prior to proceeding further. Accordingly, in some embodiments the module is responsive to the designation of the identifier by the user for accessing advertising, technical or other information about particular goods and/or services of the second party. In these embodiments the calculation means is responsive to the designation of the identifier for determining the payment. If required, however, the calculation means is responsive only to the designation of the identifier for determining the payment such that the advertiser pays the publisher only for successful links to the advertising information. Some more specific examples follow and are described with reference to Figures 4 to 6.

8.2.2.1 Commissions on Advertising Fees

In this embodiment the provider of an interactive printer receives a percentage of advertising fees earned directly through the printer. This provides a profitable role for a provider of interactive printers, and allows the provider to attract users by partially or fully subsidising the capital and running costs of each user's printer.

As illustrated in Figure 51, where coπesponding features are denoted by conesponding reference numerals, the system is operates as follows:

• A printer provider 72 provides a user with a printer 45. While in this embodiment the provider 72 retains ownership of the printer, in other embodiments that ownership resides with the respective users. • An advertiser 42 places an advertisement, as represented by aπow 520, with a publisher 41.

• The publisher 41 eventually prints the advertisement on the printer 45, typically as part of one of the publisher's publications. The result is one or more printed pages 1 being created that contain the publication, including the advertisement.

• The publisher 41 charges the advertiser 42 an agreed advertising fee, as represented by aπow 523. • The advertiser 42 pays the publisher 41 the advertising fee, as represented by aπow 524.

• The publisher 41 pays the printer provider 72 an agreed commission on the advertising fee, as represented by aπow 525.

8.2.2.2 Commissions on Click-Through Fees

In another embodiment, the provider of an interactive printer receives a percentage of click-through fees earned directly through the printer. This provides a profitable role for the provider of interactive printers, and allows the provider to attract users by partially or fully subsidising the capital and running costs of each user's printer.

As illustrated in Figure 52, where coπesponding features are denoted by coπesponding reference numerals, the system operates as follows:

• The printer provider 72 provides the user 40 with a printer 45. • An advertiser 42 places a hyperlink with a publisher 41.

• The publisher eventually prints the hyperlink, typically as part of one of the publisher's publications. The result is one or more printed pages 1 being created that contain the publication, including the hyperlink.

• When the user 40 clicks on the hyperlink, as it is represented on the interactive paper, for example to request a linked document from the advertiser 42, the advertiser is notified. • The advertiser 42 pays the publisher 41 an agreed click-through fee.

• The publisher 41 pays the printer provider 72 an agreed commission on the click-through fee.

8.2.2.3 Commissions on Sales Commissions

This embodiment allows the provider of an interactive printer to receive a percentage of sales commissions earned directly through the printer. This provides a profitable role for the provider of interactive printers, and allows the provider to attract users by partially or fully subsidising the capital and running costs of each user's pnnter

As illustrated in Figure 53, where coπesponding features are denoted by coπesponding reference numerals, this embodiment operates as follows

• The pnnter provider 72 provides the user 40 with a pnnter 45 * An advertiser in the form of a merchant 43 places a hyperlink with a publisher 41

• The publisher 41 eventually pnnts the hyperlink, typically as part of one of the publisher's publications The result is one or more pnnted pages 1 being created that contain the publication, including the hyperlink

• When the user 40 clicks on the hyperlink to request a linked document from the merchant 43, the merchant is notified The "click" occurs through use of the interactive paper • When the user 40 eventually makes an online purchase via the linked document (or via a document obtained via the linked document), the merchant 43 is notified

• The merchant 43 pays the publisher 41 an agreed commission on the sale

• The publisher 41 pays the pnnter provider 72 an agreed commission on the sales commission

8.2.3 Netpage Storage Provider As discussed above, the netpage system preferably interfaces with a plurality of users via respective interactive pnnters These pnnters can access information contained on the system, as required, whether this be initiated by the user or another party to the system such as an online publisher

Prefeπed embodiments of the invention include a system database that is owned and/or operated by a storage provider This database includes data indicative of each page that is available to be pnnted by an interactive pnnter This data will be collectively refeπed to as page descnptions and preferably includes information that allows identification of the page as well as predetermined spatial locations on the page, when pnnted That is, the system includes a number of actual physical pages that are pnnted, each of which coπespond to a virtual page represented by the respective page descnptions While each pnnted page should have a page descnption, there may exist page descnptions that do not have actual physical counteφarts That being, that a user has not requested the pnnting of a physical page coπesponding to that virtual page

It is prefeπed that all pages available to be pnnted by an interactive pnnter are persistently stored by the storage provider so that any future interaction with the page can be inteφreted with reference to the structure and content of the page Because a pnnted page can persist, in effect, indefinitely, the coπesponding page descnption may have to persist indefinitely as well By way of example, if a user marks a page provided by the interactive pnnter, the respective page descnption is modified to include the marking This can be stored as a text or graphic object that overlies the onginal information, or the descnption could be simple updated The former is prefeπed as it will leave an audit trail of changes that are made by the user In any event, the system allows the user to subsequently request the page to be pnnted, and for the pnnter to provide a fresh pnnted page that displays the markings in addition to the onginal information In this embodiment, the storage provider is paid, by way of a reimbursement for the costs of providing such persistent storage, from a global fund associated with the neφage system In other embodiments the payment includes a margin over and above that of the costs so that the storage provider makes a profit In further embodiments the storage provider is paid a periodic service fee from the global fund.

The payments into the global fund can have a variety of sources. For example, these could include one or more of:

• A proportion of fees paid by users of the interactive printers (which potentially utilise the stored page descriptions);

• A proportion of fees related to advertising;

• A proportion of fees related to click-throughs; and

• A proportion of fees related to sales.

Examples of the derivation of these fees are described in the preceding sections. This embodiments allows the provision of persistent storage to be decoupled from fee-earning activities in a network of interactive printers. That is, it allows a profitable role for a participant who is purely a provider of persistent storage.

While the persistent storage provider is not explicitly illustrated in the Figures 48 to 53, it will be understood that that role overlies the functions of the other parties and can cooperate in addition to or separately from those other roles that are described.

8.2.4 Netpage Printer Account

While a number of applications of the netpage system have been outlined above, this particular embodiment is concerned with the user and the printer module that is utilised by the user to access the system. More particularly, each interactive printer or printer module has an account that contains data indicative of the usage of the printer. In some embodiments the account data is held at the individual printers while in other embodiments that data is held in a central account server.

Each printer account is debited with amortized capital costs and running costs of the respective printer, and credited with fees earned via the printer, such as fees related to advertising, click-throughs and sales as described above. In some embodiments, the running costs include costs of network access, costs of consumables such as paper and ink, and costs of printer maintenance.

In this embodiment a separate printer account (936 in Figure 23) is maintained for each user of a printer, although in other embodiments a single printer account is maintained for a printer, i.e. for all users of the printer, or for a group of users of a printer, or for all of a user' s printers (820 in Figure 23), or for a subset of a user' s printers, for example a subset specific to a particular printer provider. In a further embodiment, multiple account types are maintained, and particular kinds of debits and credits accrue in each type of account.

The user or users of a printer are preferably billed on a regular basis for any outstanding debit balances in the printer account or accounts. In other embodiments, however, the user pays a fixed periodic fee, say monthly, for the printer. This fee is then offset for the next month based upon the value of the credits that are accumulated in the present month. Alternatively, the user is isolated from this issue and the risk of funding the operation is borne entirely by the printer provider and/or the advertisers.

An interactive printer account provides a mechanism for a printer provider to subsidise the capital and running costs of a printer on the basis of fees earned via the printer, while ensuring that no printer becomes a cost burden. In some cases, a credit balance in a pπnter account is used to absorb micro-debits associated with other user activities in relation to the pnnter, such as the pnnting of copyrighted matenal

8.2.5 Reward Account

As descnbed above, in those embodiments where a pπnter or a user has an account, this can be used in a vaπety of ways In the immediately preceding section of this specification the account provides a basis for calculating payments that the user makes to a global account to subsidise, reimburse or otherwise provide a profitable role for other parties to the netpage system In this section, however, the embodiment of prefeπed embodiment of the invention is configured to allow the pnnter or the user's account to accumulate a credit balance All or a portion of this balance can be presented to the coπesponding user or users as a collection of "points" If the pnnter account has a credit balance, then the coπesponding points may be redeemed by the user or users for particular products or services Points may typically not be redeemed for cash

Examples of activities that give nse to credits being made to the user's account include

• The quantum of goods and/or services that the user purchases using the system,

• The value of goods and or services that the user purchases using the system, • The number of times in a given penod that a user accesses the system,

• The number of times in a given penod that a user accesses a particular page, and

• The number of times in a given penod that a user performs a particular click-through

Users thereby leam to associate fee-earning activities in relation to the pnnter, such as the pnnting of advertising and online purchasing, with the accumulation of points, thus maximising the likelihood that a particular pnnter will not become a cost burden to its provider

Preferably, the goods or services that are redeemable are the goods and services provided by advertisers that utilise the system More preferably, the advertisers provide those goods and services in consideration for the additional marketing exposure that they gain through use of the system That is, m this form, the cost of advertising on the system includes a component of "supply m kind" that is used for marketing the advertiser's goods and services as well as marketing the system itself

In some embodiments the points, once accumulated by the user, are available indefinitely for redemption However, in other embodiments some or all the points have a finite hfespan or a cut-off date by when they must be redeemed or they will cease to exist

A further feature that is included in some embodiments is that any accumulated points are terminated in other circumstances than the passage of time In one example, any accumulated points are terminated if the user's activity on the system falls below a predetermined threshold This acts as an incentive to the user to continue using the system

CONCLUSION

The present invention has been descnbed with reference to a prefeπed embodiment and number of specific alternative embodiments However, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the relevant fields that a number of other embodiments, diffenng from those specifically descnbed, will also fall within the spint and scope of the present invention Accordingly, it will be understood that the invention is not intended to be limited to the specific embodiments descnbed in the present specification, including documents incoφorated by cross-reference as appropnate The scope of the invention is only limited by the attached claims

Claims

1 A system for providing pnnted mfoπnation to a user, the system including a user pnnter module for interfacing the user with a first database containing first information, the module being responsive to the user requesting the first information from the first database for obtaining the first information and generating a first pnnted media that displays to the user the first information, identifier means for applying an identifier to the first pnnted media such that designation of the identifier by the user results in the module generating a second pnnted media that displays to the user second information obtained from a second database, memory means for stonng account data indicative of either or both of the number of times the first information is obtained from the first database, or the number of times the second information is obtained from the second database, and account means being responsive to the account data for selectively accumulating a credit that is allocated to the user and which is redeemable by the user for obtaining selected goods and/or services

2 A system according to claim 1 including a first server means of a first party for containing the first database, the first server means being accessed selectively by the module for obtaining the first information, and a second server means of a second party for containing the second database, the second server means being accessed selectively by the module for obtaining the second information

3 A system according to claim 2 wherein the first and the second server means are constituted by respective hardware and software

4 A system according to claim 2 wherein the first and second server means include common hardware and/or software

5 A system according to claim 2 wherein the first and second databases are separate

6 A system according to claim 5 wherein the first and second parties are separate legal entities 7 A system according to claim 2 wherein the databases are compnsed of different portions of a single database

8 A system according to claim 7 wherein the first and second parties are the same legal entity

9 A system according to claim 8 wherein the second information is denved from a fourth party and the calculation means is responsive to the account data for applying a financial debit from the first party and/or the second party against the fourth party

10 A system according to claim 2 wherein the first party and the second party are separate legal entities and the account data is indicative of both the number of times first information is obtained from the first database and the number of times second information is obtained from the second database, the system including calculation means responsive to the account data for determining a financial debit to be applied by the first party against the second party 11 A system according to claim 10 wherein the account data is a number and the debit is proportional to that number

12. A system according to claim 10 wherein the module is provided to the user by a third party and the calculation means is responsive to the account data for determining a financial debit to be applied by the third party against the first party or by the third party against the second party.

13. A system according to claim 12 wherein the calculation means determines: a financial debit to be applied by the third party against the first party in proportion to the number of times first information was obtained by the module from the first database; and a financial debit to be applied by the third party against the second party in proportion to the number of times second information was obtained by the module from the second database.

14. A system according to claim 2 including a plurality of modules for a conesponding plurality of users and the calculation means is responsive to the separate memory means for determining the number of times in total that the first and the second databases are accessed by the modules.

15. A system according to claim 14 wherein the memory means are collectively comprised of a central memory.

16. A system according to claim 1 wherein the credit is increased as a function of the number of times the first and/or second information is accessed.

17. A system according to claim 16 wherein the credit is redeemable by the user if it exceeds a predetermined threshold.

18. A system according to claim 17 including a plurality of predetermined thresholds, wherein the user is eligible to redeem the credit for respective goods and/or services once the credit exceeds the coπesponding threshold. 19. A system according to claim 17 wherein once a redemption occurs, the credit is reduced by the relevant threshold.

20. A system according to claim 17 wherein one or more of the first, second or third parties are providers of goods and/or services and the credit is redeemable by the user for obtaining one or more of those goods and/or services.

21. A system according to claim 17 wherein the products and/or services are provided by a party other than the first, second or third parties.

22. A system according to claim 1 wherein the credit must be redeemed within a predetermined period.

23. A system according to claim 22 wherein the period commences from the time that the credit is applied.

24. A system according to claim 1 wherein the credit added with any non-redeemed credit that has previously been accumulated by the user.

25. A system according to claim 1 wherein the credit is reduced selectively based upon one or more of the following: the passage of time; a failure of the user to timely pay a system usage fee; or as part or full payment of the system usage fee.

26. A system for providing printed infoπnation to a user, the system including: a user pπnter module for interfacing the user with a first database containing first information, the module being responsive to the user requesting the first information from the first database for obtaining the first information and generating a first pnnted media that displays to the user the first information, an identifier database for supplying an identifier to the first printed media such that designation of the identifier by the user results in the module generating a second pnnted media that displays to the user second information obtained from a second database, an account server for stonng account data indicative of either or both of the number of times the first information is obtained from the first database, or the number of times the second information is obtained from the second database, and an account maintained by the account server and being responsive to the account data for selectively accumulating a credit that is allocated to the user and which is redeemable by the user for obtaining selected goods and/or services

27 A system according to claim 26 including a first server of a first party for containing the first database, the first server being accessed selectively by the module for obtaining the first information, and a second server of a second party for containing the second database, the second server being accessed selectively by the module for obtaining the second information