1. A method of operating a host device coupled to a multi-mode peripheral phone where a vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool thereof specific to the coupled phone executes on the host device, the multi-mode phone having first and second operating modes, the method comprising:
a. at a time when the multi-mode peripheral mode is in a first of the operating modes, receiving a tool-phone-state-incompatible user tool command at the host device to modify the peripheral phone, the tool-phone-state-incompatible tool command being incompatible with the combination of the coupled phone in the first operating mode and the vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool executing on the host device;
b. in response to the receiving of the user command at the host device:
i. classifying the received user command to determine if the phone is required to be in the first operating mode in order to execute the user command; and
ii. contingent upon a positive classifying, blocking receipt or execution of the command by the vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool and sending the peripheral phone a mode-transition command not via the vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool to effect a mode transition from the first to the second operating mode so as to render the user command tool-phone-state-compatible; and
iii. after the sending of the mode-transition command, forwarding the user command to the vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool or unblocking execution of the user command by the vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first operating mode is an emergency operating mode and the second operating mode is a normal operating mode.
3. The method of any previous claim wherein the user tool command selected from the group consisting of: (I) a command for a host-side phone maintenance tool to flash the peripheral phone; (II) a command for a host-side phone maintenance tool to reset the peripheral phone.
4. A method of operating a multi-user-account host device coupled to a peripheral phone where a vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool specific to the coupled phone executes on the host device, the method comprising:
a. locally maintaining a cache of mobile phone ROM files that is accessible when the host device operates under a first user account;
b. when the host device operates under the first user account, executing code of the vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool so the tool generates a request to fetch a mobile phone ROM file from a local repository in a privileged location that is only accessible when the host device operates under a second user account having additional privileges not available when under the first user account;
c. responding to the request generated by the phone maintenance tool by:
i. fetching the requested mobile phone ROM file from the first-user-account-accessible local cache; and
ii. providing, to the vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool, a handle to the fetched requested mobile phone ROM file.
5. A method of operating a multi-user-account host device coupled to a peripheral phone where a vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool specific to the coupled phone executes on the host device, the method comprising:
a. when the host device operates under a first user account, the vendor-compliant tool, executing on the host device operating under the first user account so as to generate a request to access mobile phone ROM file(s) from a first local cache, responding to the request of step (a) by:
i. blocking the request of step (a) so that the vendor-compliant maintenance tool does not access the first local cache;
ii. fetching the mobile phone ROM file(s) requested by the maintenance tool in step (a) from a user-account-independent local cache;
iii. providing, to the maintenance tool, a handle to the mobile phone ROM file fetched in response to the request of step (a) from the user-account-independent local cache; and
b. when the host device operates under second user account and the vendor-compliant tool, executing on the host device operating under the second user account so as to generate a request to access mobile phone ROM file(s) from a second local cache, responding to the request of step (b) by:
i. blocking the request of step (b) so that the vendor-compliant maintenance tool does not access the second local cache;
ii. fetching the mobile phone ROM file(s) requested by the maintenance tool in step (b) from the user-account-independent local cache;
iii. providing, to the maintenance tool, a handle to the mobile phone ROM file fetched in response to the request of step (b) from the user-account-independent local cache.
6. A method of operating a host device coupled to a peripheral phone where a vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool specific to the coupled phone executes on the host device, the method comprising:
a. receiving a tool-phone-state-incompatible user tool-command at the host device to modify the peripheral phone, the tool-phone-state-incompatible tool command being incompatible with the combination of the coupled phone in its current state and the vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool executing on the host device;
b. in response to an attempted mode interrogation by the vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool executing on the host device of the peripheral phone, sending a falsified description of the peripheral phone state (e.g. indicating that the phone is in normal mode when, in fact, it is in emergency mode) to the executing vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool so that the user command is tool-phone-state compatible relative to the falsified description.
7. The method of claim 6 wherein the falsified description includes a falsified description of a normal modeemergency mode state.
8. The method of any of claims 6-7 wherein the falsified description includes a falsified description of the phone OS version.
9. A method of operating a multi-user-account host device coupled to a peripheral phone where a vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool specific to the coupled phone executes on the host device, the method comprising:
a. executing code of the vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool so that the tool respectively generates, for each of first and second privilege-limited user accounts, first and second host-local ROM repositories, each host-local ROM repository being only accessible when the host device operates under its corresponding user account;
b. maintaining on or local to the host device, an additional ROM repository that is host user-account independent;
c. when the host device is operating under the first privilege-limited user account, intercepting, on the host, an attempted access operation, by the vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool, of a requested phone firmware object from a host-local ROM repository specific to the first user account;
d. in response to the intercepting, fetching the phone firmware object requested by the vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool from the user-account-independent additional ROM repository; and
e. forwarding, to the vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool, a handle to the fetched phone firmware object.
10. A method of operating a host device coupled to a plurality of peripheral phones and where the host device simultaneously executes multiple phone maintenance tool instances such that each tool instance is compatible with all of the peripheral phones of the plurality the method comprising a. maintaining in host device memory, a tool instance-phone instance map between each phone maintenance tool instance and its matching peripheral phone; and b. whenever a given one of the phone maintenance tool instances attempts to access a candidate peripheral phone that is tool-compatible and map-incompatible, blocking the attempted access and providing a handle to a different peripheral phone other than the candidate phone that is selected from the plurality of coupled peripheral phones to match the given phone maintenance tool instance according to the tool instance-phone instance map.
11. A method of extending capabilities of a singleton-limited host-side phone maintenance software (SW) tool executing on a host device coupled to a plurality of peripheral phones by providing a semi-virtual host-side software environment to multiple instances of the singleton-limited host-side phone maintenance SW tool to route communication between each phone maintenance SW tool instance and its matching coupled peripheral phone, wherein:
i. the communication routing includes, when a given SW tool instance attempts to send phone commands to a non-matching peripheral phone, intercepting the phone commands and forwarding them to a matching peripheral phone instead; and
ii. the semi-virtual host-side software environment hides the existence of non-matching peripheral phones from each instance of the singleton-limited host-side phone maintenance software tool.
12. A method of operating a multi-account host device coupled to a peripheral phone where a vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool specific to the coupled phone executes on the host device, each account being associated with a different respective privilege level the method comprising:
when the user is logged in under an account lacking administrator privileges so that the host device is operating under a privilege-limited user account:
a. executing, in the background, a surrogate process having administrator privileges;
b. intercepting, from the vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool specific, a privilege-incompatible host-device OS request to modify the phone; and
c. routing at least a portion of the vendor-compliant phone maintenance tool generated request to modify the phone via the surrogate process so that host-side restricted resources required to complete the phone-modification request are provided by the surrogate process.
13. A method of operating a host device coupled to a peripheral phone where a phone maintenance tool executes on the host device, the method comprising:
a. detecting and blocking a request by the host-executing phone maintenance tool to locally backup user data from the phone onto the host device in an unencrypted form;
b. retrieving the user data from the phone, encrypting the user data on the host device, and storing the user data on the host device or remotely away from the host device;
c. sending a message to the host-executing phone maintenance tool that the user data has been backed up on the host device in an unencrypted form; and
d. at a later time, responding to a request, issued by the host-executing phone maintenance tool, to read the user data locally and in an unencrypted form by:
i. retrieving and decrypting the remotely stored encrypted user data, and
ii. providing the decrypted user data to the host-executing phone maintenance tool,
wherein the method is carried out so that the user data is never backed up, in an unencrypted form, on the host device.
14. The method of claim 13 wherein user data is only stored remotely away from the host device and no encrypted or unencrypted user data is stored on the host device.
15. A system configured to perform the method of any of claims 1-14.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A quality control method for a machine for processing flat objects for producing packaging, comprising:
a phase of defining a job of work, comprising:
acquiring a reference image of a flat object;
defining masked zones and unmasked zones of the object;
then perform a quality control phase of a set of flat objects comprising, for each flat object quality-controlled:
acquiring an image of the surface of the quality-controlled flat object;
determining the presence of defects as a function of the result of a comparison between the acquired image and the reference image;
giving consideration only to those defects that lie in an unmasked zone,
receiving a prepress file of the packaging, prior to the step of defining the masked and unmasked zones; then
mapping the reference image with the print blueprint of the prepress file, determining scaling factors and relative positions;
said step of defining masked zones and unmasked zones also comprises:
extracting the scoring and cutting blueprint from the prepress file; then
analyzing the scoring and cutting blueprint to identify all the closed zones of the blueprint and an exterior zone of the blueprint; then
automatically defining a masked zone on the basis of the exterior zone of the blueprint, of the scaling factors and of the relative positions; and
manually defining masked zones on the basis of the manual selection of closed zones of the scoring and cutting blueprint, the scaling factors and the relative positions.
2. A quality control method according to claim 1, wherein defining masked zones and unmasked zones also comprises manually defining masked zones on the basis of the reference image.
3. A quality control method according to claim 1, wherein defining masked zones and unmasked zones also comprises manually defining masked zones on the basis of the print blueprint from the prepress file, the scaling factors and the relative positions.
4. A quality control method according to claim 1, wherein defining masked zones also allows defining of warning zones, and different consideration of the defects identified in a warning zone.