The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 11, 1998
Filed:
Dec. 11, 1996
Applicant:
Inventor:
E Earle Thompson, Dallas, TX (US);
Assignees:
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
AGFA-Gevaert N.V., Mortsel-Belgie, BE;
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G03G / ; G03G / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
399 29 ; 399 63 ;
Abstract
A toner dispenser with on-board intelligence. The toner dispenser includes a reservoir of toner material and memory that stores the characteristics and amount of that toner material contained within. A coil resides inside the reservoir to allow the system into which the dispenser is inserted to vibrate the coil. This accomplishes both a churning of the toner, and the back-EMF of the coil can be measured to calculate the amount of toner remaining. The toner dispenser has communications capability that allows it to send the information contained therein to a system processor of the system into which it is inserted.