KR20030087145A - Method and System for Issuing a Simple Order for Printer Toner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method and a system for a simple order service of the printer supplies are provided to offer the simple order service presenting only the price information related to the printer supplies needed for a user, and to realize purchase just after the simple order service. CONSTITUTION: A user computer includes a display tool displaying a message notifying a using state of the printer supplies on a monitor and the message asking a purchase opinion when the using state is confirmed by the user, and a transmitting tool connecting a user computer to a supplies management server(108) through the Internet when the user confirms the purchase opinion, and transmitting the product information of the printer supplies to the supplies management server. The supplies management server includes a web server(304) communicating with the user computer, a product information database(310) storing the information for the sale price of each product, and a database management server(306) searching the price information of the printer supplies from the product information database, and offering the information ordering the printer supplies to the user computer through the web server.

Description

Method and System for Issuing a Simple Order for Printer Toner

The present invention relates to a simple ordering service method and system for printer consumables, and more particularly, to a simple ordering service method and system for providing consumable price information related to a printer consumable required by a user and enabling immediate purchase. It is about.

A printer, such as a printing apparatus such as an inkjet printer, uses, as printer consumables, an ink cartridge containing ink and a print head which executes printing on printing paper and the like. Ink cartridges and print heads are typically manufactured and sold in one piece. The print head realizes printing by spraying and adhering ink supplied from the ink cartridge onto printing paper. If a predetermined amount of ink is contained in the ink cartridge and all the contained ink is exhausted, the ink cartridge must be replaced with a new one. Such a printing apparatus detects the remaining amount of ink in the ink cartridge based on the amount of ink ejected from the print head, and displays the situation directly on a display window installed on the printer when the remaining amount of ink reaches a preset amount or displays the printer. It is displayed on the display of the supporting computer. As such, the function of detecting and displaying the remaining ink level is usually performed by a printer driver managing the printer.

The printer driver performs the function of specifying the print quality, the type of printing paper, the size of the printing paper, the printing direction, the duplex and single-sided printing, and the color of the printing ink. In addition, the printer driver detects the remaining amount of ink contained in the ink cartridge, as described above. The method for detecting the remaining ink level is usually made by a method for calculating the ink consumption consumed when printing. More specifically, the image data is binarized to represent the presence or absence of dots, and the weight of the ink droplets ejected to form the dots is multiplied by the number of ejections of the ink droplets. The remaining amount of ink remaining in the current ink cartridge can be obtained by subtracting the ink consumption thus obtained from the remaining ink amount before starting the printing operation.

When a message is received from the printer driver indicating that the ink level is insufficient in the ink cartridge, the user generally proceeds with the following ink cartridge purchasing procedure. That is, the user searches and finds a phone number of a printer manufacturer or a printer consumable handling company through the phone book. When you find a phone number for a printer manufacturer or a printer consumable dealer, you'll call the phone number and ask about the selling price of ink cartridges available for your printer. At this time, if the inquiry of the printer consumables can be delivered, you can apply for a delivery order.

However, as described above, the user has a problem in that a search for a printer manufacturer or a printer consumable handling company is inconvenient to search through a phone book and a lot of time is required for searching.

On the other hand, there may be a method for confirming the selling price of printer consumables such as ink cartridges through the Internet. In this case, the user connects to a homepage of a printer manufacturer, a printer consumable dealer or a shopping mall using his computer. When connected to the printer manufacturer's homepage, the printer manufacturer's homepage includes information on all types of ink cartridges used in various printers as well as printers of various models manufactured by the printer manufacturer. Therefore, the user can browse the various web pages provided by the printer manufacturer's home page, find the web page of the ink cartridge available for his printer, and then check the selling price of the ink cartridge provided in the web page.

However, while the printer manufacturer's homepage is desirable in that it provides information on various products to all users of the printer manufacturer, it is difficult for a particular user to find an ink cartridge that can be used in his printer, as well as the ink. The problem is that it takes a long time to find a cartridge.

On the other hand, when connecting to the homepage of a printer consumable dealer or a shopping mall, the homepage includes information on ink cartridges used in various printers as well as various printers manufactured by other printer manufacturers.

However, this method is also difficult to find the necessary information and time-consuming, as well as the method for finding the ink cartridge required on the printer manufacturer's homepage described above, and sometimes the product required by the user is missing. .

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a simple service that provides only the price information related to the printer consumables required by the user, and to provide a simple order service method and system for printer consumables that can be purchased immediately. .

1 is a block diagram of a printer consumables simple order system according to the present invention;

2 is a detailed block diagram of the user computer shown in FIG. 1;

3 is a detailed block diagram of the consumable management server shown in FIG. 1;

4 is a flowchart for explaining a printer consumable custom order method according to the present invention;

5A, 5B, and 5C are diagrams illustrating a pop-up window for explaining the printer consumable customization ordering method of FIG. 4, respectively.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

102: printer 104: user computer

108: consumable management server 204: auxiliary storage device

210: monitor 214: network interface

216: CPU 304: Web Server

306: Database Server 308: Member Information Database

310: Product Information Database 312: Service Information Database

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object, a simple order service method of the consumables of the printer in a system consisting of a user computer, a printer connected to the user computer and a consumable management server connected to the Internet In a system consisting of a user computer, a printer connected to the user computer, and a consumable management server connected to the Internet, the simple ordering service method of the printer consumables includes (a) when the printer consumables should be replaced at the user computer. Providing the user with a message inquiring whether to replace the printer consumable; (b) connecting the user computer to the consumable management server through the Internet when the intention of the replacement is confirmed by the user in the user computer; (c) providing product information on the printer consumables from the user computer to the consumable management server; (d) providing, to the user computer, sales information of a corresponding printer consumable in accordance with product information on the printer consumable provided from the user computer at the consumable management server; And (e) checking, by the user, the sales information at the user computer and providing order information for the printer consumables to the consumable management server.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, in the printer consumables simple order system consisting of a user computer, a printer connected to the user computer and a consumable management server connected to the Internet, the user computer, the user computer, the consumption state of the printer consumables Check and display a message on the monitor informing the consumption state of the printer consumable when the consumption state reaches a preset state, and purchase the printer consumable when the consumption state of the printer consumable is confirmed by a user. Means for displaying a message for inquiring on the monitor on the monitor; And means for connecting the user computer to the consumable management server via the Internet when the user confirms the purchase intention and transmits product information of the printer consumable to the consumable management server;

The consumable management server may include a web server communicating with the user computer connected through the Internet; A product information database storing information on sales prices of products of various printer consumables; And search the product information database for price information of printer consumables corresponding to product information about the printer consumables transmitted through the web server, and place an order for the printer consumables together with information on sales prices of the found printer consumables. And a database management server providing the received information to the user computer through the web server.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail as follows.

Figure 1 shows a block diagram of a printer consumables simple ordering system according to the present invention.

The printer consumable quick order system shown in FIG. 1 includes a printer 102, a user computer 104, and a consumable management server 108 connected to the user computer 104 via the Internet 106.

The printer 102 is an output device used for being connected to the user computer 104 and outputting various types of information generated in the user computer 104 as printed matter. In addition to inkjet printers, other types of printers or plotters, such as laser printers, may be used. And the like.

The user computer 104 includes an operating system (OS), and an application program such as a printer driver and a web browser is loaded in the operating system. Under the operating system, the printer driver is executed so that the user computer 104 and the printer 102 operate as one printing device. The user computer 104 notifies the user by displaying a message from the printer driver indicating that the ink contained in the ink cartridge of the printer 102 has been consumed.

In addition, under the operating system, the web browser is executed so that the user computer 104 is connected to the consumable management server 108 using the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP). The user computer 104 may read a web document in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) format provided by the consumable management server 108.

The consumable management server 108 communicates with a computer via the Internet 106 and displays and purchases sales information, such as a selling price, about a printer consumable, such as an ink cartridge, in use by connecting to the computer.

FIG. 2 shows a detailed block diagram of the user computer 104 shown in FIG.

User computer 104 includes input device 202, auxiliary storage 204, input / output interface 206, display controller 208, monitor 210, memory 212, network interface 214, and CPU 216. ).

The input device 202 is a device for inputting various information or commands to the CPU 216 and includes a keyboard and a mouse. The auxiliary storage device 204 includes a hard disk drive, a floppy disk drive, and the like, wherein the hard disk drive includes an operating system that loads a program of a printer drive and a web browser, and a member to which the consumable management server 108 subscribes as a member. The information is stored.

The input / output interface 206 interfaces signals input and output between the CPU 216 and the printer 102, the input device 202, and the auxiliary memory device 204.

The display controller 208 controls to display on the monitor 210 various information processed under the control of the CPU 216.

The memory 212 includes a ROM that stores an execution program of the CPU 216 or a RAM that temporarily stores a program or data executed by the CPU 216.

The network interface 214 includes a LAN module or modem and performs a function of physically and signally connecting the user computer 104 to the consumable management server 108 through the Internet 106.

The CPU 216 generally functions to control the user computer 104.

FIG. 3 shows a detailed block diagram of the consumable management server 108 shown in FIG.

Consumables management server 108 shown in FIG. 3 includes a consumables database 302, a web server 304, and a database server 306.

The consumables database 302 is implemented as a recording medium such as a hard disk used to store various data, and includes a member information database 308, a product information database 310, and a service information database 312.

The member information database 308 stores information such as an ID, a password, an address, an e-mail, and a payment account of a user who has registered as a member in a site operated by the consumable management server 108.

The product information database 310 stores information about product names of various printer consumables, sales prices for each product, and graphics of printer consumables.

The service information database 312 stores information about the purchase history of the printer consumables of the member and mileage information.

The web server 304 receives the member information and the product information about the printer consumables from the user computer 104 connected via the Internet 106, and provides the received member information and the product information of the printer consumables to the database server 306. do. In addition, the web server 304 records information on the selling price of the printer consumables from the database server 306 in a web document, and the user via the Internet 106 stores a web document in which information on the selling price of the printer consumables is recorded. Forward to computer 104.

The database server 306 manages the member information database 308, the product information database 310, and the service information database 312. The database server 306 performs user's member authentication with reference to the member information database 308 according to the member information of the user computer 104 transmitted through the web server 304. When the member authentication is completed, the database server 304 retrieves the printer consumables from the product information database 310 corresponding to the product information on the printer consumables delivered from the user computer 104, and displays the sales price of the corresponding printer consumables. Information about the web server 304. When an order for a printer consumable is made from the user computer 104, the order information is updated and stored in the service information database 312 under the control of the database server 306.

The operation of the printer consumable simple order service system of the present invention having the above-described configuration will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 4A and 4B.

FIG. 4A is a flowchart describing an operation performed in the user computer 104, and FIG. 4B is a flowchart illustrating an operation performed in the consumable management server 306.

First, in FIG. 4A, when the printer 102 is driven by turning on the power of the printer 102 (step S402), the printer driver operates under the operating system mounted on the user computer 104 (step S404). The replacement time of the printer consumables installed in 102 is checked (step S406).

For example, when the printer consumable is an ink cartridge used in an inkjet printer, the replacement time of the ink cartridge can be known by checking the remaining amount of ink in the ink cartridge by the printer driver.

If the replacement time of the printer consumables is checked by the printer driver of the user computer 104 (step S408), the popup window indicating that the replacement time of the printer consumables has come to the monitor 210 is illustrated in FIG. 5A. Is displayed on (step S410). In the pop-up window of FIG. 5A, the phrase “it is time to replace the printer package” and the phrase “to replace the printer consumables” are displayed.

In the next step (S412), if the user does not want to replace the printer consumables in the pop-up window of Figure 5a, clicking the "No" button at the bottom of the pop-up window to indicate that there is no intention to replace the printer consumables (S414) Proceed to).

In step S414, as illustrated in FIG. 5B, a user does not purchase a printer consumable right now, but informs the telephone number of a printer manufacturer, a printer consumable dealer or a shopping mall for a user who may purchase a printer consumable in the future. A pop-up window indicating the 080 service phone number is displayed on the monitor 210. For example, the pop-up window of FIG. 5B includes a message indicating "inquiry telephone number: 080-123-4567" along with the phrase "please contact below to purchase printer consumables." Subsequently, the user may remember the 080 service telephone number, and when called, the user may be provided with the telephone numbers of printer manufacturers, printer consumable dealers and shopping malls where ink cartridges can be purchased.

On the other hand, in step S412, when the user clicks the "Yes" button disposed at the bottom of the pop-up window to replace the printer consumables in the pop-up window of Figure 5a, proceeding to the next step (S416) to indicate the intention to replace the printer consumables do.

In step S416, a web browser in the user computer 104 is driven to connect the user computer 104 with the consumable management server 108.

When the user computer 104 comes online with the consumable management server 108, the user computer 104 transmits the information regarding the printer consumables, for example, the product name of the printer consumables, to the consumable management server 108 (step S418). ).

Next, an operation performed by the consumable management server 108 will be described with reference to FIG. 4B.

In the consumable management server 108, the sales information of the printer consumables corresponding to the product information of the printer consumables transmitted from the user computer 104 by the database server 306, for example, the sales price information, is stored in the product information database 310. It is retrieved (step S420).

When the retrieval of the sales information corresponding to the product information of the printer consumable is completed, the consumable management server 108 displays a graphic of a product of a printer consumable, for example, an ink cartridge, and the product of which the user wants to replace, as illustrated in FIG. 5C. The order entry window for receiving the order for the product is transmitted to the user computer 104 (step S422).

After that, in step S424, the consumable management server 108 determines whether the user has ordered or canceled the printer consumables. That is, if the user inputs the desired quantity in the order input window of FIG. 5C, and confirms that the user presses the "OK" button disposed at the bottom of the order input window of FIG. 5C, the process proceeds to step S426, and otherwise, "Cancel". Button is confirmed, the process is terminated by the user not ordering the printer consumables.

In step S426, when it is confirmed that the user presses the "OK" button from the user computer 104, the consumable management server 108 sends the user's member information together with the order information entered by the user in the order entry window of FIG. 5C. It receives from the computer 104.

Then, the database server 306 of the consumable management server 108 retrieves the member information received from the user computer 104 from the member information database 308 to perform member authentication for the user (step S428),

When member authentication for the user is completed, the database server 306 of the consumable management server 108 checks the purchase history from the order information sent from the user computer 104, and the user of the authenticated user in step S428 described above. The purchase history of the user previously stored in the service database 312 is updated by referring to the member information. At this time, as the purchase history is updated, information of the mileage is also updated (step S430).

While most online sales methods inquire and input personal information such as a user's address or social security number, and a billing account number, the present invention provides a member database (a member database) for a user who is a member of the consumable management server 108 as a member. Reference to the user's identity information and payment account number, etc. previously stored in 308, but does not require re-entry of such matters, it can provide a convenience to the user.

The consumable management server 108 then sends an e-mail to the user computer 104 confirming the purchase order history of the user (E-mail) (step S432).

In the subsequent process, the operator of the consumable management server 108 will deliver the ink cartridge ordered by the user with reference to the user's address stored in the member information database 308.

Although the above-described embodiment of the present invention has described an ink cartridge as a printer consumable, the same principle may also be applicable to other printer consumables such as ink toner.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

According to the present invention, a message informing the user of the intention to purchase the printer consumables together with a message indicating when to replace the printer consumables, and when the user confirms, the purchase procedure proceeds immediately so that the user handles the printer consumables. You can dramatically reduce the time wasted searching for a phone number or accessing their homepage and searching for the product.

In addition, according to the present invention, the user is provided with only the price information related to the printer consumables that he needs, and can be immediately purchased, thereby solving the hassle of purchasing the printer consumables.

Claims (9)

In the simple ordering service method of the printer consumables in a system consisting of a user computer, a printer connected to the user computer and a consumable management server connected to the Internet, (a) providing the user with a message inquiring whether to replace the printer consumable when it is time to replace the printer consumable in the user computer; (b) connecting the user computer to the consumable management server through the Internet when the intention of the replacement is confirmed by the user in the user computer; (c) providing product information on the printer consumables from the user computer to the consumable management server; (d) providing, to the user computer, sales information of a corresponding printer consumable in accordance with product information on the printer consumable provided from the user computer at the consumable management server; And (e) the user checking the sales information on the user computer and providing order information for the printer consumables to the consumable management server. Printer consumables simple order service method comprising a. The method of claim 1, The product information of the printer consumables includes a product name of the printer consumables easy order service method. The method of claim 1, The sales information of the printer consumable includes a product name of the printer consumable, a selling price, and a graphic of the printer consumable. The method of claim 1, The method, And when the purchase intention is confirmed by the user in the user computer, providing a message informing the contact number of the selling place of the printer consumable. The method of claim 1, The method, When the user computer is connected to the consumable management server in step (c), further comprising performing member authentication of the user, And the consumable management server delivers the ordered printer consumables by referring to the user's identity information used when the user authenticates the user. In the printer consumables simple order service system consisting of a user computer, a printer connected to the user computer and a consumable management server connected to the Internet, The user computer, When the consumption state of the printer consumable reaches the preset state by checking the consumption state of the printer consumable, a message indicating a consumption state of the printer consumable is displayed on the monitor, and the consumption state of the printer consumable is confirmed by the user. Means for displaying on the monitor a message for inquiring about the purchase of the printer consumables; And Means for connecting the user computer to the consumable management server via the Internet when the user confirms the purchase intention and transmits product information of the printer consumable to the consumable management server; The consumable management server, A web server in communication with the user computer connected via the internet; A product information database storing information on sales prices of products of various printer consumables; And Search the product information database for price information of printer consumables corresponding to product information about the printer consumables transmitted through the web server, and receive an order of the printer consumables together with information on sales price of the found printer consumables. And a database management server for providing information to the user computer through the web server. The method of claim 6, The product information of the printer consumables includes a product name of the printer consumables easy order service system. The method of claim 6, The sales information of the printer consumable includes a sales price of the printer consumable, a product name, and a graphic of the printer consumable. The method of claim 6, The consumable management server, And a member information database for storing personal information and payment information of a user registered as a member at a site operated by the consumable management server. The consumable management server is a printer consumables simple order service system for the payment and delivery of the printer consumables ordered by the user with reference to the information stored in the member information database.