Method and apparatus for metering printer/copier usage

Electrophotography – Machine operation – Accounting

Patent

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

377 8, 399 24, 399 27, G03G 2102

Patent

active

060525479

ABSTRACT:
The invention accurately meters usage of an electrophotographic printer/copier (EPC) by counting the number of pages that are ejected to an output bin of the EPC and incrementing a user charge value accordingly. Further, the invention determines a toner parameter value that is related to an amount of toner used on each page and bases the user charge value, at least in part, on such toner parameter value. The toner parameter value is preferably determined by counting a number of pixels that are imaged on a page. The invention further utilizes a non-volatile memory to maintain copies of usage total values, while concurrently storing such usage total values on a disk memory. If an attempt is made to substitute a different disk memory in the EPC, usage parameter values are updated thereon through use of values stored in the nonvolatile memory.

REFERENCES:
patent: 3872282 (1975-03-01), Long
patent: 3971919 (1976-07-01), Fantozzi
patent: 3974363 (1976-08-01), Malinich
patent: 3989930 (1976-11-01), Sohm
patent: 4019028 (1977-04-01), Polyzoes
patent: 4163897 (1979-08-01), Hubbard et al.
patent: 4229100 (1980-10-01), Travis
patent: 4707748 (1987-11-01), Ohtsuka et al.
patent: 5117258 (1992-05-01), Iwata
patent: 5160966 (1992-11-01), Shiina et al.
patent: 5272503 (1993-12-01), LeSueur et al.
patent: 5383129 (1995-01-01), Farrell
patent: 5572292 (1996-11-01), Chatani et al.
patent: 5754916 (1998-05-01), Kitayama et al.
patent: 5771420 (1998-06-01), Suzuki et al.
patent: 5850584 (1998-12-01), Robinson et al.
patent: 5937225 (1999-08-01), Samuels

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for the USA inventors and patents. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Method and apparatus for metering printer/copier usage does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Method and apparatus for metering printer/copier usage, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method and apparatus for metering printer/copier usage will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2343839

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.