Method to passively monitor and learn of real world usage of devices, components, and parts. (04-Nov-2009)
There are many industrial benchmarks for devices and components in the commercial and industrial world. One of the benchmarks is a number provided to customers as a selling point for many computer devices and components. However, many of these values are determined by field reports or replacements or an estimation of a theoretical value. And often, these gathered data points are only for expensive, field-serviced devices. Many commercial components are "not worth the cost" of servicing their replacement. Proposed here is a method for tracking components to learn of their true use and lifespan.
Method to passively monitor and learn of real world usage of devices , components, and parts.
The proposal involves having small programmable devices, such as RFIDs or very cheap memory "stickers" which can be written to for storing usage. An example is the common inkjet cartridges. The seller of the inkjet cartridge is trying to prevent users from injecting new ink into emptied inkjet cartridges or letting third party refillers fill empty cartridges. Thus, when a consumer buys a replacement cartridge, the seller provides a pre-paid postage envelope for the user to mail in their used cartridge for the company to "recycle".
Many of the inkjet cartridges these days have small electronic ribbons built into them to help communicate with the printer they are used in. Thus, there is already an existing data bus built into these cartridges.
What is proposed is having a small read-write memory chip or RFID built along with the current "electronics" on the inkjet cartridge. This memory device would then get written to by the printer documenting the true usage of the printer. The statistics could include:
1) how often the user uses the printer
2) when the user uses the printer
3) how often are their print failures
4) how fast does the printer actually print, compared to the theoretical numbers published by the manufacturer
5) how many weeks/months fall between cartridge replacements and so forth
This real world data gathering is then acc...
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