CONTROLLING DISTRIBUTION OF A DEPLETABLE RESOURCE ON A NETWORK-ENABLED DEVICE

• US 20150370518A1
• Filed: 01/31/2013
• Published: 12/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: RAMCHANDRAN, Padmanabhan
• Granted Patent: US 9,684,478 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/5079 for maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/553 Monitoring or warning means for exhaustion or lifetime end of consumables, e.g. indication of insufficient copy sheet quantity for a job
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/30 Monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3013 where the computing system is an embedded system, i.e. a combination of hardware and software dedicated to perform a certain function in mobile devices, printers, automotive or aircraft systems testing or monitoring of control systems or parts thereof G05B23/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/629 to features or functions of an application
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1218 Reducing or saving of used resources, e.g. avoiding waste of consumables or improving usage of hardware resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1219 with regard to consumables, e.g. ink, toner, paper
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1239 Restricting the usage of resources, e.g. usage or user levels, credit limit, consumables, special fonts
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1288 in client-server-printer device configuration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring

Abstract

A network-enabled device can operate to permit user access to the depletable resource only if information stored on the device indicates that the replenishment for the depleted resource is being obtained from an appropriate or approved source.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium that stores instructions for controlling a network-enabled device, the computer-readable medium including instructions, that when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

processing, on the network-enabled device, an input for performing a particular action requiring a replacement of a depletable resource of the network-enabled device;

making a determination as to whether a replacement for the depletable resource has been requested from a particular source; and

if the determination is that replacement of the depletable resource has been requested from the particular source, then enabling the action to be performed;

if the determination is that replenishment resource has not been requested from the particular source, then precluding the action from being performed.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein processing includes receiving an input corresponding to a user attempting to access the depletable resource.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein making the determination includes determining whether the replacement was requested from a web-service associated with the network-enabled device.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 3, wherein the web-service includes a subscription based web-service.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the computing device corresponds to a network-enabled printer, and wherein the depletable resource corresponds to an ink resource.

6. A method for controlling a printer, the method comprising:

supplying an ink resource to the printer as part of a subscription service; and

configuring the printer to preclude access to the ink resource unless the ink resource has been requested or ordered through the subscription service.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein configuring the printer to preclude access to the ink resource includes receiving an input corresponding to a user attempting to access the ink resource.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein configuring the printer to preclude access to the ink resource includes determining whether the ink resource was requested from the subscription service.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein configuring the printer includes detecting a depletion condition of a depleted ink resource on the printer.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein configuring the printer to preclude access to the ink resource includes determining that the ink resource includes one or more identification features corresponding to the subscription service.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the printer is network-enabled, and wherein configuring the printer includes enabling the ink resource to be installed with the printer.

12. A printer comprising:

a processor;

a communication interface to communicate with a network service over a network;

an ink retention mechanism;

wherein the processor communicates with the network service to make a determination as to whether an ink resource was ordered; and

wherein the processor controls the ink retention mechanism to enable replacement of an existing ink resource only if the processor determines that the ink resource was ordered from the network service.

13. The printer of claim 12, wherein the processor automatically caused the ink resource to be ordered in response to a depletion condition.

14. The printer of claim 12, wherein enabling replacement of an existing ink resource includes enabling installation of an ink cartridge.

15. The printer of claim 12, wherein the determination that the ink resource was ordered from the network service is based on data stored on the printer.