Controlling distribution of a depletable resource on a network-enabled device

• US 9,684,478 B2
• Filed: 01/31/2013
• Issued: 06/20/2017
• 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
• Primary Examiner(s): DICKERSON, CHAD S
• Application Number:
  US14/764,743
• Publication Number:
  US 20150370518A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,601 Days
• Field of Search: 705410, 713171, 726 2, 726 34, 726 35, 399 8- 13, 399 24- 29, 358 111- 118, 358403, 358504, 400693, 902 31, 49503, 235382, 340 52
• 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 non-transitory computer-readable medium that stores instructions for controlling a network-enabled device, the non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions, that when executed by one or more processors of the network-enabled device, cause the network-enabled device to:

detect a particular action required to access a depletable resource of the network-enabled device;

in response to the detection of the particular action required to access the depletable resource, determine, whether a data store of the network-enabled device contains an acknowledgement indicating that a replacement of the depletable resource is provided from a particular network service;

in response to a determination that the data store of the network-enabled device contains the acknowledgement indicating that the replacement of the depletable resource is provided from the particular network service, enable the particular action to be performed to permit access to the depletable resource for replacement; and

in response to a determination that the data store of the network-enabled device does not contain the acknowledgement indicating that the replacement of the depletable resource is provided from the particular network service, preclude the particular action from being performed.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions cause the network-enabled device to receive an input corresponding to a user attempting to access the depletable resource.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein instructions further cause the network-enabled device to determine whether the replacement was requested from a web-service associated with the network-enabled device.

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

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the network-enabled 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:

detecting, by a processor of the printer, a particular action required to access an ink resource of the printer;

in response to detecting the particular action required to access the ink resource of the printer, determining, by the processor of the printer, whether a data store of the printer contains an acknowledgement indicating that a replacement of the ink resource is provided from a particular network service;

in response to a determination that the data store of the printer contains the acknowledgement indicating that the replacement of the ink resource is provided from the particular network service, enabling, by the processor of, the printer, the particular action to be performed to permit access to the ink resource for replacement; and

in response to a determination that the data store does not contain the acknowledgement indicating that the replacement of the ink resource is provided from the particular network service, configuring the printer to preclude access to the ink resource.

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

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the method further includes determining whether the ink resource was requested due to a subscription service.

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

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

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the printer is network-enabled, and wherein enabling the particular action to be performed includes enabling the ink resource to be installed at the printer.

12. A printer comprising:

a processor;

a data store;

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

an ink retention mechanism;

wherein the processor, in response to detecting a particular action required to access and replace an existing ink resource, is to determine whether the data store of the printer contains an acknowledgement indicating that an ink resource is provided from the network service; and

wherein the processor controls the ink retention mechanism to enable a replacement of the existing ink resource only if the processor determines that the data store of the printer contains the acknowledgement indicating that the ink resource is provided from the network service.

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

14. The printer of claim 12, wherein to enable the replacement of the existing ink resource, the processor is to enable an installation of an ink cartridge.