Patent Document ID: 8051016
Application ID: 11873113
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of billing for printing service costs, comprising the steps of: examining, by a processor, content of a page comprising: detecting, by the processor, at least one object in the page; and determining, by the processor, an approximate area of coverage of a detected object within the at least one object in the page; and applying, by the processor, a cost function to approximate a cost of printing the page using the detected object and the determined approximate area of coverage of the detected object, wherein said cost function can determine the cost of printing using a determined cost for printing the page and wherein the determined cost is selected from a plurality of determined costs, wherein the cost function is selected from the group consisting of: a cost function which includes a weighted average function, wherein the weighted average function includes a multiplication of the determined area of coverage of the detected object and a weight, a cost function which determines the approximate cost of printing the page based on at least the determined area of coverage of the detected at least one object is less than a predetermined threshold, a cost function which determines the approximate cost of printing the page based on the determined area of coverage of the detected at least one object is at least a predetermined threshold, a cost function which determines the approximate cost of printing the page based on at least a weighted average being less than a predetermined threshold, and a cost function which determines the approximate cost of printing the page based on a color contone object not being detected in the page, wherein the approximate cost of printing the page is one of a plurality of determined costs, each of the plurality of determined costs is based on one or more of at least: (i) different characteristics of images, text, and symbols of the printed page, (ii) a relationship between the determined area of coverage and one or more first predetermined threshold values, and (iii) a relationship between the weighted average and one or more second predetermined values, wherein the cost function determines that the approximate cost of printing the page is a first determined cost when the printed page is a purely monochrome page; and the determined area of coverage of the detected at least one object is less than a first predetermined threshold; wherein the cost function determines that the approximate cost of printing the page is a second determined cost when the printed page is a purely monochrome page; and the determined area of coverage of the detected at least one object is at least a first predetermined threshold; wherein the cost function determines that the approximate cost of printing the page is a third determined cost when the printed page is not a purely monochrome page; a determined area of coverage of a detected at least one color object is less than a second predetermined threshold; a color graphic object is not detected in the page; a color low frequency halftone object is not detected in the page; a color high frequency halftone object is not detected in the page; a color solid fill object is not detected in the page; and a color contone object is not detected in the page; and wherein the cost function determines that the approximate cost of printing the page is a fourth determined cost when the printed page is not a purely monochrome page; a determined area of coverage of a detected at least one color object is less than a third predetermined threshold; and the weighted average is less than the predetermined threshold.