Image Forming Apparatus Business Use Classification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing image forming apparatuses lack the ability to accurately distinguish between business and private use, leading to difficulties in managing and separating power consumption expenses, as users are often required to manually track and report usage, which can be cumbersome and prone to errors.
Innovation Solution
An image forming apparatus equipped with a communication device and a control device that includes a processor, decider, used time detector, and transmitter, which registers terminal devices for business or private use based on IP addresses and logs usage modes to transmit usage data to a management apparatus, enabling automated separation of business and private use expenses.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If manual tracking and reporting of usage is implemented, then power consumption management can be performed, but user burden increases and errors occur
Solution Approach 1:
The image forming apparatus automatically detects and reports its own usage status to the management apparatus without requiring user intervention. The apparatus self-monitors operation modes, time, and terminal device information, eliminating the need for users to manually track and report usage while ensuring accurate data collection.
Solution Approach 2:
The manual mechanical process of user tracking and reporting is replaced with an automated electronic system. The control device automatically generates usage records and the communication device transmits this data to the management apparatus, substituting human effort with automated electronic monitoring and communication.
2Measurement precision
If terminal device information is collected to distinguish business and private use, then expense management improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The management apparatus serves as an intermediary that receives and processes terminal device information from the image forming apparatus. By offloading the complex tasks of data analysis, classification, and expense calculation to the external management apparatus, the image forming apparatus maintains simplicity while achieving accurate usage distinction.
Solution Approach 2:
The system separates the functions of data collection (performed by the image forming apparatus) from data processing and classification (performed by the management apparatus). This segmentation allows the image forming apparatus to remain relatively simple while the specialized management apparatus handles the complex analysis of terminal device information for business versus private use classification.
Data Source
AI summary
An image forming apparatus includes a control device. The control device acts, when a built-in processor executes a control program, as a decider that decides whether the image forming apparatus has been used for business, depending on whether the terminal device that has requested a job to the image forming apparatus, or is to receive an output from the image forming apparatus, is registered in advance as a device for business use, or a device for private use, a used time detector that detects a time decided by the decider to have been used for business by the image forming apparatus, with respect to each of operation modes, and a transmitter that transmits information indicating the time used for business, with respect to each of the operation modes, detected by the used time detector, to a management computer installed in an office, through a network I/F.