HP’s new patent for a “printable” electronic device that can be plugged into an external power supply for up or 6 months is a major development for the company’s online printer business.
The company has just issued an application to the USPTO for the device, which is expected to be available this year.
This could be the first step in what is expected, if it is granted, to HP’s online printing business, which it describes as the world’s largest online retailer of printers and other products.
HP has already been working on the patent for some time, according to Bloomberg, and this latest filing could be an attempt to gain a competitive edge over its competition.
In the patent, HP states that a device with this type of design “can be configured to operate with a specified output power.”
This output power is defined as the “power supply voltage and/or the power delivery voltage” and includes, but is not limited to, a power supply voltage of 3.7V and a power delivery volt of 5V.
This specification is “for a non-powered device,” according to the patent.
The patent specifies the output power range and the voltage of the device that the device can operate in, and specifies that the output voltage can be controlled using a “configurable software interface.”
HP claims the output of this interface can be configured for an output voltage of 2.7-3.7 V, and for an input voltage of 6.7 volts.
These are not the output and voltage ranges of current consumer and consumer-grade printers.
The power supply and voltage of this output can be independently controlled using software, according the patent and “other software and hardware,” including “software and hardware that can determine the output current and/and the output voltages and power delivery characteristics.”
According to the company, the device “can optionally provide a plurality of output current levels” and “the device can provide multiple output current level settings.”
In other words, the HP printer can have a maximum output current of 100mA, and a maximum input current of 2mA, which are not a limitation in the patent or any of the company ‘s previous patents.
The HP printer patent is not the first time that HP has been working with an online retailer on a printing technology.
The company has been using its online printer to sell accessories for printers that it has designed and manufactured.
In the last few years, HP has also made it possible for printers to print to an external USB storage device that was designed and built by a company called Xapto, which makes a number of other printer accessories.
