A business method includes imaging documents with an imaging device placed at a location. The imaging device receives imaging requests from users upon payment. Unique lighting schemes notify users of their imaging requests. Payment is split between an entity owning or renting the imaging device and an entity where the imaging device is located. Over a cellular network, toner usage is monitored in the imaging device. Upon the toner level reaching a predetermined low, the entire imaging device is collected from the location and swapped with another imaging device having a toner lever above the low. Workers in the “gig” economy are expected to collect and swap the devices. No longer do users change or swap empty toner cartridges with full or fresh toner cartridges. Similarly, media usage in the imaging device is monitored over the cellular network for replacement of media. Other embodiments are envisioned.

Provided is a management apparatus includes: an acquisition unit acquiring remaining-quantity information indicating a remaining quantity of a consumable included in the image forming apparatus; a database storing the remaining-quantity information and image forming apparatus identification information in association with each other, and storing user identification information and a usage history of the image forming apparatus by the user in association with each other; a calculation unit reading the usage history from the database based on externally-designated user identification information, calculating a predicted usage quantity of the consumable in an image forming apparatus having externally-designated apparatus identification information based on the read usage history, reading the remaining-quantity information from the database based on the externally-designated apparatus identification information, generating required information on the consumable based on the read remaining-quantity information and the calculated predicted usage quantity; and a notification unit notifying the required information generated by the calculation unit.

The server may receive consumable article information including usage information from an external device and determine by using the usage information included in the consumable article information whether a first notification condition is satisfied. In a case where it is determined that the first notification condition is satisfied, the server may send by using a first communication method a first notification for prompting an order of a new consumable article to external. After the first notification has been sent to external, the server may determine whether a second notification condition is satisfied. In a case where it is determined that the second notification condition is satisfied, the server may send by using a second communication method a second notification for prompting the order of the new consumable article to external.

A liquid ejecting apparatus includes a liquid container and a control unit. The liquid container has an upper limit mark. The upper limit mark is arranged so that in a first case where an entire amount of liquid stored in a refilling container is injected into a storage portion when a notification unit notifies of a first state, a liquid level of the liquid in the storage portion is located between an inlet port and the upper limit mark, and in a second case where the entire amount of liquid stored in the refilling container is injected into the storage portion when the notification unit notifies of a second state, the liquid level overlaps with the upper limit mark.

A consumable characteristic identification method is provided. The method comprises the following steps: detecting a consumable package (210); identifying a characteristic about a consumable associated with the consumable package (215); modifying a device setting according to the identified characteristic (220); and appending a log entry associated with the consumable package to a user activity log (225). A consumable characteristic identification apparatus and no-transitory machine-readable storage medium are also provided.

A logic circuitry package for a replaceable print apparatus component comprises an interface to communicate with a print apparatus logic circuit, and at least one logic circuit. The logic circuit may be configured to identify, from a command stream received from the print apparatus, parameters including a class parameter, and/or identify, from the command stream, a read request, and output, via the interface, a count value in response to a read request, the count value based on identified received parameters.

Example methods and systems for printing ink consumption estimation are described. In one example, a computer system may obtain printing content associated with a document that is printable using a printer. Based on the printing content, the computer system may generate an image representation of the document, wherein the image representation includes an array of multiple pixels associated with first color information from a first color space. Color conversion may be performed by converting (a) the first color information from the first color space to (b) second color information from a second color space associated with the printer. The computer system may estimate an amount of printing ink required for printing the document based on the second color information and provide the estimated amount of printing ink to a user via a user interface.

An information processing apparatus is capable of communicating via a universal serial bus (USB) cable with a USB host device configured to transmit a first control transfer command at a start of communication. The information processing apparatus includes one or more controllers configured to function as a unit configured to acquire and hold predetermined data in response to having received the first control transfer command from the USB host device and a unit configured to transmit the held predetermined data to the USB host device on the basis of having received a second control transfer command from the USB host device.

An image forming apparatus on which a replaceable container storing a recording material is mounted includes an image forming unit configured to form an image using the recording material, a determination unit configured to determine whether the container satisfies a predetermined condition, an acquisition unit configured to acquire an amount of the recording material used for image formation in a predetermined period and stored in the container determined as a container that satisfies the predetermined condition, a memory configured to accumulate information indicating the amount of the recording material acquired by the acquisition unit, and a prediction unit configured to predict a number of days about replacement of the container, based on the information indicating the amount of the recording material and accumulated in the memory.

In some examples, a computing device can include a processing resource and a memory resource storing instructions to cause the processing resource to receive a diagnostic image including a print quality characteristic associated with a print cartridge of an imaging device, compare the print quality characteristic to a reference characteristic of a reference image, and determine whether an amount of print material in the print cartridge is less than a threshold amount in response to the comparison.