Class / Patent application number | Description | Number of patent applications / Date published |
399079000 | Accounting | 30 |
20080232840 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF THE SAME - The number of prints necessary for execution of a print job of a storage type, together with the surplus number of prints, is calculated. A difference B between an upper limit value A and the number C of prints is calculated during execution of a print job. When there is a print job of the storage type having the number of prints not lower than the difference B, notification that the upper limit value of the number of prints approaches is given to a user having issued the print job. | 09-25-2008 |
20080240765 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, MARKET SUPPORT SYSTEM, CONTROL METHOD AND PROGRAM - An image forming apparatus for reducing time required for adjusting the image forming conditions and transport conditions and minimizing the number of recording material used for the adjustment. Image forming conditions and transport conditions for the recording material are adjusted according to the characteristic properties of the recording material. Associated data including an adjustment value obtained from the adjustment of the image forming conditions and transport conditions made by the adjustment unit and the characteristic properties of the recording material associated with the adjustment value is generated. The associated data stored in the storage unit is transmitted to the data collection/delivery apparatus. Delivery data regarding the adjustment of the image forming conditions and transport conditions is received from the data collection/delivery apparatus. | 10-02-2008 |
20080310875 | Machine integrated semi-automated service credit for a metered device - A metered device includes a printing system for generating billable and non-billable electrostatographic images. The device includes a billing meter configured to store usage data related to the generation of the electrostatographic images. A CPU or processing unit is configured to increment the billing meter for each billable and non-billable electrostatographic image generated by the printing system. A user interface configured for controlling the image capture device, enables interrogation of the CPU. The device further includes a service counter for storing usage data related to the generation of non-billable electrostatographic images. The service counter is configured for editing by the CPU through the user interface to credit the usage data stored on the billing meter. The device further includes a network interface for transmitting the usage data stored on the billing meter to a billing service and a memory for storing the usage data that is transmitted to the billing service. | 12-18-2008 |
20090080929 | PRINTING SYSTEM AND METHOD OF CHARGING TO PRINT DOCUMENT THEREIN - A printing system and a method of charging to print a document therein. The printing system includes a server and a printing apparatus. The sever includes a storing part in which reference information on a document to be printed, a host communication part which receives a document including relevant information, and a host controller which charges a document registrant corresponding to the relevant information to print the document. The printing apparatus includes a printer communication part which receives the document, and a printer controller which prints the document received through the printer communication part. | 03-26-2009 |
20090142089 | POWER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, POWER MANAGEMENT METHOD AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM STORING PROGRAM, ALLOWING POWER MANAGEMENT OF A PLURALITY OF IMAGE FORMING APPARATUSES - When there are a plurality of candidate image forming apparatuses that are to be turned ON, a CPU refers to an MFP wearout degree table and obtains wearout degree of each candidate. Then, the CPU determines whether there is any candidate of which wearout degree is lower than a prescribed lower threshold value or not. If there is a candidate of which wearout degree is lower than the prescribed lower threshold value, the CPU determines the image forming apparatus as the object to be powered ON. | 06-04-2009 |
20090154949 | PRINTER WITH MODULAR CARTRIDGE | 06-18-2009 |
20090190948 | Imaging device with click count fragmentation - An imaging device utilizes click count fragmentation to provide separate click counts for service and billing purposes. Click count fragmentation maintains uninterrupted service counts and derives from service counts billing counts that more accurately reflect the number of pages generated that are usable by a customer. Billing counts may be paused, resumed, reset and displayed by authorized personnel via a local or remote imaging device interface. Accesses of billing counts by authorized personnel may be recorded in an audit trail. | 07-30-2009 |
20090238599 | TERMINAL DEVICE, PRINTING CHARGING SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR CHARGING PRINTING COSTS - A method of charging printing costs using a printing charging system that is connected to an image forming apparatus, the method including: setting printing costs for each of a plurality of people; generating print data for each person, of the plurality of people, based on the set printing costs; and transmitting the generated print data to the image forming apparatus. | 09-24-2009 |
20090257771 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS FOR MANAGING BILLING DESTINATION - Upon registration of such document data that a general affairs department issues a request to print out the document data to a sales department, the document data is registered in a billing management box designated as a registration destination in an MFP allocated to the sales department. The MFP adds a department ID of the general affairs department which is authentication information at this operation, as billing destination information, to the document data. When the general affairs department sets an upper limit of printout of the print data, an upper limit value counter is added to the document data. When the general affairs department issues a request of notification, a fact that the document data is registered is displayed on a panel of the MFP allocated to the sales department; thus, the sales department receives the notification. | 10-15-2009 |
20100247132 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING ORDERING OF COLOR TONER BASED ON A SERVICE CONTRACT - A system and method for managing customer color orders associated with at least one printer device, including a processor and a supply control module including a series of programmable instructions executable by the processor for: receiving color usage data from the at least one printer device indicative of consumption of one or more of a plurality of color toners; calculating for each printer device of the at least one printer device a permissible amount of each color toner of the plurality of color toners that can be ordered for the printer device by a customer based on a contract; and receiving a customer color order request for selectively ordering an amount of one or more color toners of the plurality of color toners for a printer device of the at least one printer device under the contract. | 09-30-2010 |
20110026962 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - There is provided an image forming apparatus in which when printing is performed based on an electrophotographic process, counting is performed by a counter for each print operation, and billing corresponding to the kind of the print operation is performed based on the count value of the counter, and which includes, as counters, a number-of-sheet counter to count the number of sheets for each print operation, an integrating counter to integrate the counter value of the number-of-sheet counter, and a billing counter to determine billing from the counter values of the number-of-sheet counter and the integrating counter, and a multiplication rate previously stored in a data table. | 02-03-2011 |
20110076044 | Image forming apparatus server connected to image forming apparatus and print charging method thereof - Disclosed are an image forming apparatus server connected to an image forming apparatus and a print charging method thereof. A print charging method for at least one image forming apparatus, the method including: setting charging standards for a print usage volume of the at least one image forming apparatus; collecting usage volume information of the at least one image forming apparatus according to the set charging standards; and changing the charging standards by using the collected usage volume information and calculating charges by using the changed charging standards. With this, the image forming apparatus server uses the changed CPP reflecting the change to thereby reduce errors in the initial charging standards, actively respond to the changed user environment and win confidence from both a supplier and a user. | 03-31-2011 |
20110135336 | Image forming apparatus and method of charging usage fee of image forming apparatus - An image forming apparatus counts a number of sheets to be printed with a limited number of colorants or a limited amount of colorant using an other counter that is provided other than a color counter and a monochrome counter. The counter value of the other counter is adjusted using a weighting factor before being added to or subtracted from a counter value of the color counter or the monochrome counter. | 06-09-2011 |
20110135337 | Image forming apparatus and method of charging usage fee of image forming apparatus - An image forming apparatus counts a number of sheets to be printed with a limited number of colorants or a limited amount of colorant using an other counter that is provided other than a color counter and a monochrome counter. The counter value of the other counter is adjusted using a weighting factor having a value determined based on a number of colors of colorant or an amount of colorant that is used for printing in the economical printing mode, before being added to a counter value of the color counter or the monochrome counter. | 06-09-2011 |
20120195618 | IMAGE PROCESSING SYSTEM, IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, CONTROL METHOD OF THE SAME, PROGRAM, AND STORAGE MEDIUM - In an image processing system, a charging process for an executed print process is executed using one of a first charging method and a second charging method. Especially, when executing a print process of an image including a plurality of pages, it is determined before the start of the print process of the image including the plurality of pages on the basis of balance information managed in advance whether execution of the print process of the image including the plurality of pages is possible. When the first charging method is selected, execution of the print process is controlled on the basis of the result of determination. When the second charging method is selected, the print process is executed without determination. | 08-02-2012 |
20140064772 | IMAGE FORMATION APPARATUS, CHARGE MANAGEMENT APPARATUS, AND PRINT CHARGE SYSTEM - An image formation apparatus includes: an image data processor to generate page data representing images to be printed on a page basis based on print data; a print work execution unit to form images for two pages on both faces of each recording media based on the page data upon two-sided printing; and a charge information generator to generate charge information according to the image formation executed by the print work execution unit. The image data processor generates, where the number of pages of the images represented by the print data is an odd number upon the two-sided printing, edited image data for an even number of pages including a blank page with a blank image which does not correspond to the print data as the page data. The charge information generator generates the charge information without the blank page being set as a charge item. | 03-06-2014 |
20160011554 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING SUBSCRIPTION AND TRADE BASED PRINTER SUPPLIES | 01-14-2016 |
399080000 | User access | 13 |
20080226327 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND AUTHENTICATION METHOD - An image forming apparatus including applications and system side software for providing system side services to the applications is provided, in which the image forming apparatus includes: an authentication module for displaying an authentication screen on an operation panel of the image forming apparatus, wherein the authentication module allows the image forming apparatus to display a screen for using the image forming apparatus instead of the authentication screen if authentication data input from the authentication screen satisfies an authentication condition, and wherein the authentication module is provided in the image forming apparatus separately from the system side software. | 09-18-2008 |
20080232841 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF THE SAME - When a USB memory | 09-25-2008 |
20090103937 | Image Forming Apparatus - Disclosed is an image forming apparatus which forms an image on a sheet, including: an image forming section to form an image; a display section to display an operation procedure for maintenance associated with a maintenance object; a first input section to input identification information to identify a user; a storage section to store permission information showing whether or not to allow display of the operation procedure with respect to users and maintenance objects; and a control section to perform a user authentication according to the identification information input in the first input section, to refer to the permission information associated with the authenticated user, and to display the operation procedure permitted to be displayed on the display section. | 04-23-2009 |
20090263152 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND AUTHENTICATION METHOD - An image forming apparatus including applications and system side software for providing system side services to the applications is provided, in which the image forming apparatus includes: an authentication module for displaying an authentication screen on an operation panel of the image forming apparatus, wherein the authentication module allows the image forming apparatus to display a screen for using the image forming apparatus instead of the authentication screen if authentication data input from the authentication screen satisfies an authentication condition, and wherein the authentication module is provided in the image forming apparatus separately from the system side software. | 10-22-2009 |
20100092202 | MULTI-ARRANGE ABLE AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - According to an embodiment of the present invention, an image forming apparatus includes an image forming section to fix a developer image to a sheet material and to output it, an output sheet material holding section to hold the sheet material to which the developer image is fixed, and a cover mechanism to prevent the sheet material outputted to the output sheet material holding section from being taken out. | 04-15-2010 |
20100142989 | IMAGE FORMING SYSTEM, USER AUTHENTICATING METHOD THEREOF, AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF - An image forming system, and a user authenticating method and a control method thereof, the image forming system including a plurality of image forming apparatuses communicably connected and performing a first authentication of a user in a first image forming apparatus of the plurality of image forming apparatuses; requesting a second authentication of the user from at least one second image forming apparatus of the plurality of image forming apparatuses in response to the first authentication failing in the first image forming apparatus; and finally authenticating the user based on a result of the second authentication. | 06-10-2010 |
20110020026 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE SAME, AND STORAGE MEDIUM - An image forming apparatus includes an acquisition unit for acquiring information for identifying a user, a log-in unit for allowing the user to log in the image forming apparatus when the acquisition unit acquires the information for identifying the user, a log-off unit for causing the logged-in user to log off from the image forming apparatus after a first predetermined time period elapses, a determination unit for determining whether a secure printing job to be performed based on the acquired information for identifying the user is present in the image forming apparatus, and a control unit for controlling the log-off unit to cause the user to log off from the image forming apparatus within a second predetermined time period which is shorter than the first predetermined period time, when the determination unit determines that the secure printing job is present in the image forming apparatus. | 01-27-2011 |
20110044714 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND AUTHENTICATION METHOD - An image forming apparatus including applications and system side software for providing system side services to the applications is provided, in which the image forming apparatus includes: an authentication module for displaying an authentication screen on an operation panel of the image forming apparatus, wherein the authentication module allows the image forming apparatus to display a screen for using the image forming apparatus instead of the authentication screen if authentication data input from the authentication screen satisfies an authentication condition, and wherein the authentication module is provided in the image forming apparatus separately from the system side software. | 02-24-2011 |
20120039621 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND AUTHENTICATION METHOD - An image forming apparatus including applications and system side software for providing system side services to the applications is provided, in which the image forming apparatus includes: an authentication module for displaying an authentication screen on an operation panel of the image forming apparatus, wherein the authentication module allows the image forming apparatus to display a screen for using the image forming apparatus instead of the authentication screen if authentication data input from the authentication screen satisfies an authentication condition, and wherein the authentication module is provided in the image forming apparatus separately from the system side software. | 02-16-2012 |
20150378296 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND IMAGE FORMING METHOD - An image forming apparatus may include an image forming unit configured to form an image on a printing medium and a control unit configured to perform at least one of a user authentication operation, an image forming preparation operation, and an image forming operation according to distance information between a portable electronic device and the image forming apparatus. | 12-31-2015 |
20160062289 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS TO BE CONTROLLED DEPENDING ON ALARM LEVEL OF DISASTER INFORMATION - Provided is an image forming apparatus that controls a user authentication and a switching action for switching into a specific operation mode (either one of first and second power saving modes, and emergency stop), depending an alarm level of disaster information. A user authentication function circuit is for performing the user authentication. An operation mode switching circuit is for switching a current operation mode into the specific operation mode. A disaster information acquire circuit is for receiving disaster information representing the alarm level. A system control circuit controls, depending on the alarm level, the user authentication operation by the user authentication function circuit and a switching of one of the operation modes by the operation mode switching circuit. The aforementioned specified operation mode is either one of the user authentication mode, the first power saving mode, the second power saving mode, and the emergency stop. | 03-03-2016 |
20160062291 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND IMAGE FORMING METHOD - In absence of a paper feed source matching paper information specified in settings that are input by a user for a job to be executed, permission information associated with the user may not permit use of a manual feed tray as a substitute paper feed source. Upon completion of the job executed in response to selection of a forced execution key, a forced execution determination section determines whether or not an execution number exceeds a predetermined threshold. The execution number indicates how many times a job has been executed in response to selection of the forced execution key. When the execution number exceeds the threshold, a permission information updating section updates the permission information associated with the user so as to permit use of the manual feed tray as the substitute paper feed source. | 03-03-2016 |
20170235264 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, FOREIGN OBJECT DETECTING SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING FOREIGN OBJECT DETECTING SYSTEM | 08-17-2017 |