Patent Document ID: 20100290094
Application ID: 12464326
Patent Status: 0

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 file size of 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 file size of the page, 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.