Print Device Location Tracking via User Login Coordinates
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current tracking solutions for print devices require additional hardware and incur significant costs, as well as compliance issues in security-conscious environments, making them inefficient for monitoring the location of print devices.
Innovation Solution
A system that tracks the activities of print device users rather than the devices themselves, using existing network infrastructure to identify user events and estimate the location of print devices based on user login coordinates, eliminating the need for additional hardware and infrastructure costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If beacons are attached to print devices and wireless access points are used to track location, then location tracking capability is improved, but hardware costs and infrastructure complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces user activities as an intermediary to indirectly track print device location. Instead of directly tracking the print device with beacons, the system tracks user activities (login locations, print job submissions) and uses these as proxies to infer print device location. This mediator approach achieves location tracking without requiring physical tracking hardware on the print devices themselves.
Solution Approach 2:
The system leverages existing user electronic devices and their built-in location capabilities to perform the tracking function. Users' smartphones or computers, which already have location services, effectively become the tracking sensors. This eliminates the need for separate tracking hardware while utilizing resources users already possess and carry.
2Measurement precision
If beacons and wireless access points are deployed for tracking, then location data accuracy is improved, but installation and maintenance costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent repurposes existing multi-functional user electronic devices for location tracking purposes. These devices already serve multiple functions (communication, computing, navigation), and the system adds location tracking capability by leveraging their existing sensors and connectivity. This universal approach avoids dedicated single-function tracking hardware and its associated deployment costs.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a virtual model of print device location based on user activity patterns rather than physical measurement. By copying and analyzing login location data and print job submission patterns, the system reconstructs print device location information without direct physical sensing, achieving accurate tracking through data replication rather than hardware deployment.
3Reliability
If additional tracking hardware is installed, then location monitoring capability is improved, but security protocol compliance becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
User activities serve as a secure intermediary that bridges location monitoring needs and security constraints. By tracking authorized user activities (logins, print jobs) rather than installing unauthorized tracking hardware, the system obtains location information through legitimate, authenticated channels that already comply with security protocols. The intermediary user activity data provides location insights without breaching security boundaries.
Data Source
AI summary
A system of tracking a location of a print device in an environment. For each of one or more users of a print device during a time period, the system identifies an event that is initiated at the print device over a network where the event is associated with the user and a print job, and determines whether the user is registered with the location tracking system. In response to determining that the user is registered with the location tracking system, the system determines a login location of the user, determines whether the login location is current, and in response to determining that the login location is current, stores the one or more location coordinates in a data store such that they are associated with the print device. The system estimates a location of the print device, and provides the location of the print device to an asset management system.