Field Metering Patrol System and Method for Metering and Monitoring Printers
AssigneeDex Imaging
InventorMarvin Scaff
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A standalone printer monitoring device comprising a processing unit, a memory capable of communicating with the processing unit, a network interface interconnected to the processing unit wherein the network interface is configured to receive DC power over a network to power the device, a printer discovery engine configured to discover a plurality of printers on a network, a printer patrol engine configured to patrol the printers discovered by the printer discovery engine, and a reporting engine configured to report to a centralized repository information collected by the printer patrol engine.
Claims14
A standalone printer monitor for monitoring printers on a powered network, comprising in combination
- a processing unit;
- a Universal Serial Bus interface interconnected to the processing unit;
- a status indicator interconnected to the processing unit;
- an Ethernet network interface interconnected to the processing unit wherein the network interface is configured to receive power over the network to power the monitor via Power over Ethernet;
- the processing unit including a memory for storing information about the printers on the powered network, the processing unit including:
- a printer discovery engine for discovering a plurality of printers on the network;
- a printer patrol engine for patrolling the discovered plurality of printers;
- and
- a reporting engine for reporting patrolling information obtained by the printer patrol engine to a centralized repository;
- and
- a standalone housing, Universal Serial Bus interface, the status indicator, the processing unit, and network interface being mounted within the standalone housing.
A printer monitor for monitoring printers on a powered network, comprising:
- a network interface configured to receive power over the network to power the monitor, and
- a processing unit interconnected to the network interface, wherein the processing includes:
- a printer discovery engine for discovering a plurality of printers on the network;
- a printer patrol engine for patrolling the discovered plurality of printers;
- and
- a reporting engine for reporting patrolling information obtained by the printer patrol engine to a centralized repository.
A method of monitoring printers connected to a network, the method comprising:
- discovering printers connected to the network in a discovery module which is connected to the network via an Ethernet connection and is configured to receive DC power over the network;
- monitoring predefined criteria of the printers discovered;
- and
- reporting information concerning the discovered printers to a centralized database.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.