Systems and methods for managing facsimile documents

• US 20080316521A1
• Filed: 06/21/2007
• Published: 12/25/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/21/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Lesage, Philippe, Maruggi, Aurelio
• Application Number:
  US11/821,275
• Publication Number:
  US 20080316521A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32614 related to a single-mode communication, e.g. at the transmitter or at the receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32635 of reproducing apparatus or receiver, e.g. out of paper
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32673 Adjusting or controlling an operating mode, e.g. from paper reception to memory reception H04N1/32678 takes precedence; inhibiting an operation H04N1/00925
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0093 Facsimile machine H04N2201/0094 takes precedence

Abstract

Systems and methods for managing facsimile documents can be utilized to ensure a faxed document or any portion of a faxed document is not lost. An amount of printing material available to a printing device can be determined. Based on the determined amount of printing material available, an incoming facsimile document can be printed or stored to memory to ensure that data is not lost. Similarly, an amount of available memory within a printing device can be determined to ensure that facsimile data being stored to memory is not lost due to a memory limitation. Utilizing the systems and methods disclosed, facsimile documents can be interactively managed so that information is not lost due to printing material or memory limitations.

Claims

1. A system for managing facsimile documents comprising:

a printing device operable to receive and print a facsimile document, wherein the printing device has a device memory and a facsimile analyzer, the facsimile analyzer operable to determine whether an amount of available printing material is below a printing material threshold, and upon determining the amount of printing material is below the printing material threshold to begin storing to the device memory one or more pages of the facsimile document received.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the facsimile analyzer is further operable to communicate with the device memory to determine whether available memory in the device memory is below a memory threshold.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the facsimile analyzer is further operable to change the status of the printing device from a facsimile receive mode to a facsimile no receive mode where the available memory in the device memory is below the memory threshold.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the printing device is further operable to perform at least one of printing, copying, and scanning documents.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the printing material threshold is a minimum amount of printing material necessary to print a page of a received facsimile document.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the memory threshold is a minimum amount of memory necessary to store a page of a received facsimile document.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a print cartridge operable for providing printing material for printing, wherein the print cartridge has a cartridge memory operable to at least store information for determining an amount of printing material in the print cartridge.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the print cartridge further comprises an indicator operable to indicate whether the print cartridge is a new print cartridge or a used print cartridge

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the facsimile analyzer is further operable to read the indicator of the print cartridge.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the printing device is further operable to adjust the indicator of the print cartridge from a new indication to a used indication when a first printing operation occurs.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the printing device is further operable to provide a user with printing options when a used print cartridge is installed.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the printing options comprise at least one of printing one or more documents and storing to the device memory the one or more documents.

13. The system of claim 7, wherein the cartridge memory comprises a key.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the key includes printing material fill level information on the printing material fill level of the print cartridge.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the printing device is further operable to provide a warning communication when the facsimile analyzer is unable to at least one of communicate with the cartridge memory, read the indicator, and communicate with the device memory.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a print cartridge operable for providing printing material for printing, wherein the print cartridge has identifying information for determining a model type of the print cartridge.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the device memory is operable to store information on the amount of printing material in a new print cartridge model type, and the facsimile analyzer is operable to read the identifying information on the print cartridge and associate the stored information on the amount of printing material in the new print cartridge model type with the print cartridge to determine an amount of printing material in the print cartridge.

18. A method for managing facsimile documents comprising:

receiving a page of a facsimile document in a printing device operable to receive facsimile documents, the printing device having device memory;

determining an amount of printing material available to a print cartridge within the printing device upon receiving a page of the facsimile document,

comparing the amount of printing material in the print cartridge to a printing material threshold; and

printing the page of the facsimile document where the amount of printing material in the print cartridge meets or exceeds the printing material threshold, and storing the page of the facsimile document to the device memory where the amount of printing material is below the printing material threshold.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the printing material threshold is a minimum amount of printing material necessary to print the page of the facsimile document.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising determining an amount of available memory in the device memory.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising comparing the amount of available memory in the device memory to a memory threshold.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising changing a status of the printing device from a facsimile receive mode to a facsimile no receive mode where the available device memory is below a memory threshold.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the memory threshold is a minimum amount of memory necessary to store the page of the facsimile document.

24. The method of claim 18, wherein print cartridge information is stored on at least one of an indicator on the print cartridge and a key on the print cartridge.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein determining the amount of printing material available to the print cartridge comprises determining print cartridge use information.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein determining print cartridge use information comprises at least one of:

determining an amount of printing material in a new print cartridge; and

determining an amount of printing material in a used print cartridge.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein determining an amount of printing material in a new print cartridge comprises reading the indicator on the print cartridge and reading the key on the print cartridge.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein determining an amount of printing material in a new print cartridge comprises reading the indicator on the print cartridge, reading the key on the print cartridge, and communicating with the device memory.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein determining an amount of printing material in a used print cartridge comprises reading the indicator on the print cartridge, reading the key on the print cartridge, and communicating with the device memory.

30. The method of claim 24, wherein the indicator on the print cartridge indicates whether the print cartridge is a new cartridge or a used cartridge.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising adjusting the indicator on the print cartridge from a new indication to a used indication when a first printing operation occurs.

32. The method of claim 24, wherein the key on the print cartridge indicates printing material fill level information on the printing material fill level of the print cartridge.

33. The method of claim 28, wherein the key on the print cartridge indicates identifying information for determining a model type of the print cartridge, and wherein communicating with the device memory comprises associating stored information on the amount of printing material in the new print cartridge model type with the print cartridge to determine an amount of printing material in the print cartridge.

34. The method of claim 29, wherein communicating with the device memory comprises analyzing stored printer usage information to determine an amount of printing material from the print cartridge that the printing device has used.

35. A method of ensuring a faxed document is not lost, the method comprising:

determining an amount of printing material available to a facsimile device;

determining whether the amount of printing material available is adequate to print a facsimile document; and

instructing the facsimile device to print the facsimile document where there is an adequate amount of printing material to print the facsimile document, and to store to a memory device of the facsimile device the facsimile document where there is not an adequate amount of printing material to print the facsimile document.

36. The method of claim 35, further comprising determining an amount of available memory within the memory device of the facsimile.

37. The method of claim 36, further comprising determining whether the amount of available memory is adequate to store the facsimile document.

38. The method of claim 37, further comprising instructing the facsimile device to store the facsimile document to the memory device where there is an adequate amount of available memory to store the facsimile document, and to switch the facsimile device to a no receive mode where there is not an adequate amount of available memory is to store the facsimile document.

39. Computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 35.