Patent attributes
Techniques are disclosed herein for estimating parameters of a model of a thermal print head for use in performing thermal history control. In particular, techniques are disclosed for use in conjunction with a thermal print head having a plurality of print head elements and an associated heat sink. A sensitivity of a thermal print media to a temperature of the heat sink is identified. A sensitivity of the thermal print medium to a temperature of the plurality of print head elements is then identified based on the identified sensitivity of the thermal print medium to the temperature of the heat sink. Techniques are also disclosed for deriving conditions on estimated parameters of the print head model that determine the stability of the resulting thermal history control algorithm. Techniques are also disclosed for iteratively optimizing the values of those parameters.