Patent Document ID: 8508786
Application ID: 12464326
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of billing for scanning service costs of an output device, the output device adapted to scan documents comprising at least one page, the method comprising: using a computing device operably coupled with the output device to examine content of each page in the documents, the examining comprising: (i) electronically detecting at least one object in the page; (ii) electronically determining a type of the at least one detected object within the page; (iii) electronically determining an approximate page file size of the page and an approximate object file size of the detected object within the page; and (iv) electronically determining an approximate area of coverage of a detected object within the page; using the computing device to calculate a usage profile of each type of detected object; electronically storing the usage profile of each type of detected object in a memory associated with the computing device; and using the computing device to approximate a cost of scanning the page using the at least one detected object, the determined approximate page file size of the page and object file size of the object, the determined approximate area of coverage of the at least one detected object, and a weight value, the weight value being associated with the type of the at least one detected object, wherein the approximate cost of scanning for each page scanned by the output device is determined by the computing device based on an accounting of the page and object file sizes, how pixels of the object are distributed in the page and the detected object and pixel density of the object.