PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15940226
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-03
Publication Date: 2018-10
Patent Classification: ["399", "258000"]

Abstract:
An image forming apparatus, including: a photoconductor; a developing device; a developer storage; a supplier configured to supply developer; an optical sensor; and a controller configured to execute: a developing process of developing an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor; a usage-amount obtaining process of obtaining a usage amount of the developer; a supplying process of supplying the developer to the developing device every time when the obtained usage amount becomes equal to or greater than a first threshold; and a detecting process of detecting, by the optical sensor, an amount of the developer in the developing device every time when the obtained usage amount becomes equal to or greater than a second threshold larger than the first threshold, and wherein the controller is configured to execute the detecting process in a period different from a period in which the developing process is being executed.

Claim (Index 1):
An image forming apparatus, comprising:\n a photoconductor; a developing device including a developing roller configured to form a developer image on the photoconductor; a developer storage storing developer; a supplier configured to supply the developer from the developer storage to the developing device; an optical sensor including a light emitting portion configured to emit light into the developing device and a light receiving portion configured to receive the light emitted from the light emitting portion and passed through the developing device; and a controller configured to execute:\n a developing process of developing, by the developing device, an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor; \n a usage-amount obtaining process of obtaining, by the image forming apparatus, a usage amount of the developer; \n a supplying process of supplying, by the supplier, the developer to the developing device every time when the obtained usage amount of the developer becomes equal to or greater than a first threshold; and \n a detecting process of detecting, by the optical sensor, an amount of the developer contained in the developing device every time when the obtained usage amount of the developer becomes equal to or greater than a second threshold larger than the first threshold, and \n wherein the controller is configured to execute the detecting process in a period different from a period in which the developing process is being executed.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 2.0
- Percentile: 90.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.66667
- Patent Class: 399.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['15940213', '11431967', '12550273', '15939513', '11521559']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8087826607608393
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5308504622051318
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7809894409052685
- Mean Citation Score: 257.411098
- Max Citation Score: 389.77567
- Similarity Product: 361.91607096744536

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test