METHODS AND SYSTEM FOR CONSUMABLE VALIDITY VERIFICATION IN PREPAID DOCUMENT PROCESSING DEVICES

• US 20110188068A1
• Filed: 01/29/2010
• Published: 08/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Patterson, Brian, Jones, Brent Rodney, Carlson, Charles Robert
• Granted Patent: US 8,873,086 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing

Abstract

Document processing devices and account manager systems are presented which verify validity of pairings of installed consumables and document processing devices for permissive enablement of document processing functionality based on validity of the pairings.

Claims

1. A document processing device, comprising:

at least one document processing component operative to perform one or more document processing operations using at least one consumable;

a memory storing device ID information indicating at least one of an identity or a type of the document processing device;

a communications interface operative to interface the device with a customer network; and

a programmable processing element coupled with the memory, the document processing component, and the communications interface, the programmable processing element being operative in response to installation of a consumable in the device to selectively disable or restrict at least one document processing function and to generate a transaction code based at least partially on consumable ID information associated with the consumable and the device ID information, the programmable processing element being operative in response to receipt of a validation determination from an external account manager system indicating validity of the transaction code to selectively enable at least one previously disabled document processing function.

2. The document processing device of claim 1, further comprising a user interface operative to receive inputs from a user and to provide outputs to the user, where the programmable processing element is operative to read the consumable ID information from a memory of the consumable or to obtain the consumable ID information from the user via the user interface.

3. The document processing device of claim 2, where the programmable processing element is operative in response to receipt of a validation determination from the account manager system indicating invalidity of the transaction code to selectively indicate the invalidity determination to the user via the user interface.

4. The document processing device of claim 2, where the programmable processing element is operative to send the transaction code to the account manager system via the communications interface.

5. The document processing device of claim 2, where the consumable ID information includes at least one of a consumable identity, a consumable type, a geographical indicator indicating a geographical region from which the consumable was purchased, and a program participation indicator indicating whether the consumable was obtained under a pre-paid account.

6. The document processing device of claim 2:

where the consumable ID information includes a program participation indicator indicating whether the consumable was obtained under a pre-paid account;

where the memory stores a remaining print unit value indicating an amount of print units currently available to enable the document processing device to perform the one or more document processing operations;

where the programmable processing element is operative to determine a job cost print unit value for performing a document processing operation associated with a given document processing job and to selectively decrement the remaining print unit value according to the determined job cost print unit value; and

where the programmable processing element is operative if the consumable ID information does not indicate that the consumable was obtained under a pre-paid account to at least partially refrain from decrementing the remaining print unit value in association with at least one document processing operation associated with a given document processing job.

7. The document processing device of claim 1, where the programmable processing element is operative to send the transaction code to the account manager system via the communications interface.

8. The document processing device of claim 1, where the consumable ID information includes at least one of a consumable identity, a consumable type, a geographical indicator indicating a geographical region from which the consumable was purchased, and a program participation indicator indicating whether the consumable was obtained under a pre-paid account.

9. The document processing device of claim 1:

where the consumable ID information includes a program participation indicator indicating whether the consumable was obtained under a pre-paid account;

where the memory stores a remaining print unit value indicating an amount of print units currently available to enable the document processing device to perform the one or more document processing operations;

where the programmable processing element is operative to determine a job cost print unit value for performing a document processing operation associated with a given document processing job and to selectively decrement the remaining print unit value according to the determined job cost print unit value; and

where the programmable processing element is operative if the consumable ID information does not indicate that the consumable was obtained under a pre-paid account to at least partially refrain from decrementing the remaining print unit value in association with at least one document processing operation associated with a given document processing job.

10. The document processing device of claim 1, further comprising a user interface operative to receive inputs from a user and to provide outputs to the user, where the programmable processing element is operative to obtain the consumable ID information from the user via the user interface.

11. The document processing device of claim 10, where the programmable processing element is operative to obtain the validation determination from the user via the user interface.

12. The document processing device of claim 11, further comprising a user interface operative to receive inputs from a user and to provide outputs to the user, where the programmable processing element is operative to obtain the validation determination from the user via the user interface.

13. A method for operating a document processing device, the method comprising:

in a document processing device, storing device ID information indicating at least one of an identity or a type of the document processing device;

in response to installation of a consumable in the document processing device, selectively disabling or restricting at least one document processing function;

in response to installation of the consumable in the document processing device, generating a transaction code based at least partially on consumable ID information associated with the consumable and the device ID information; and

in response to receipt of a validation determination from an account manager system indicating validity of the transaction code, selectively enabling at least one previously disabled document processing function.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising one of reading the consumable ID information from a memory of the consumable and obtaining the consumable ID information via a user interface.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising in response to receipt of a validation determination from the account manager system indicating invalidity of the transaction code, selectively indicating the invalidity determination to a user via the user interface.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising sending the transaction code to the account manager system via a communications interface.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

storing a remaining print unit value indicating an amount of print units currently available to enable the document processing device to perform the one or more document processing operations;

determining a job cost print unit value for performing a document processing operation associated with a given document processing job;

determining whether the consumable was obtained under a pre-paid account;

if the consumable was obtained under a pre-paid account, selectively decrementing the remaining print unit value according to the determined job cost print unit value; and

if the consumable was not obtained under a pre-paid account, at least partially refraining from decrementing the remaining print unit value in association with at least one document processing operation associated with a given document processing job.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising obtaining the consumable ID information from a user via a user interface associated with the document processing device.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising obtaining the validation determination from the user via the user interface.

20. The method of claim 13, further comprising obtaining the validation determination from a user via a user interface associated with the document processing device.

21. An account manager system for managing prepaid usage of at least one document processing device configured to allow customer initiated operation based on available print units applied to the device, the account manager system comprising:

a server operatively coupled with a network to communicate and exchange data with one or more customer networks;

a data store operatively coupled with the server to store account information for a plurality of accounts, the individual accounts being associated with a corresponding customer, the account information for individual accounts comprising device ID information indicating an identity of a document processing device registered to the account; and

an account management component operatively coupled with the data store and with the server to receive a transaction code indicating a pairing of a particular consumable with a particular document processing device, to determine whether the particular transaction code is valid or not, and to send a validation indication to the particular document processing device if the particular transaction code is valid.

22. The account manager system of claim 21, where the account management component is operative to determine the identity of the particular consumable from the transaction code.

23. The account manager system of claim 21, where the account management component is operative to determine the identity of the particular consumable based at least partially on the account information.

24. The account manager system of claim 21, where the account management component is operative to determine whether the particular transaction code is valid or not based at least partially on whether or not the particular consumable was obtained under a pre-paid account.

25. A method for managing prepaid usage of at least one document processing device configured to allow customer initiated operation based on available print units applied to the device, the method comprising:

storing account information in a data store for a plurality of accounts, the individual accounts being associated with a corresponding customer, the account information for individual accounts comprising device ID information indicating an identity of a document processing device registered to the account;

receiving a transaction code indicating a pairing of a particular consumable with a particular document processing device;

using a computer processor, determining whether the transaction code is valid or not; and

using the computer processor, sending a validation indication to the particular document processing device if the particular transaction code is valid.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising determining the identity of the particular consumable from the transaction code.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising determining the identity of the particular consumable based at least partially on the account information.

28. The method of claim 25, further comprising determining whether the particular transaction code is valid or not based at least partially on whether or not the particular consumable was obtained under a pre-paid account.