Granted Patent B2

US 12,236,379 · App. 17/807,238 · Granted Feb 25, 2025

Inventor: Yuuichiroh Hayashi (Kanagawa, JP)

Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.

G06Q10/0633G06F3/12H04N1/00G06F3/0484

Abstract

Claims (44)

1. An information processing apparatus comprising:

circuitry configured to:

transmit input screen information for displaying an input screen for receiving input of a workflow including a plurality of components to a communication terminal communicably connected to the information processing apparatus, the plurality of components including a plurality of types of components selected from optical character recognition, portable document format, voice conversion, server message block, and file transfer protocol, the plurality of components combined according to the workflow desired by a user;

set a type of component to be counted from the plurality of components included in the input workflow whose usage history is to be counted according to an operation on the input screen displayed at the communication terminal based on the input screen information;

in response to an execution of each of the plurality of components included in the workflow, determine whether the each of the plurality of components executed is the type of component to be counted;

in a case where the each of the plurality of components executed is the type of component to be counted, count the usage history of the each of the plurality of components so as to manage a count target for the each of the plurality of components;

perform the counting for each type of the plurality of types of the components based on a different count condition set for the each type; and

calculate a usage fee for requesting the user to make a payment corresponding to the counted usage history.

2. The information processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein

the circuitry is further configured to set the count condition based on an operation on a screen displayed in response to an operation on the input screen.

3. The information processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein

the usage history includes the number of executions of the component, and the circuitry is further configured to count the number of executions of the component.

4. The information processing apparatus of claim 3 , wherein

the circuitry is further configured to transmit the usage history to an information processing system that performs processing using the usage amount transmitted by the information processing apparatus.

5. The information processing apparatus of claim 4 , wherein

the circuitry is further configured to transmit the usage history to the information processing system according to a set time.

6. The information processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein

the usage history includes the usage amount of the component and the circuitry is further configured to count the usage amount of the component.

7. An information processing system comprising:

an information processing apparatus; and

a communication terminal communicably connected to the information processing apparatus,

the information processing apparatus comprising circuitry configured to:

transmit input screen information for displaying an input screen for receiving input of a workflow including a plurality of components to a communication terminal communicably connected to the information processing apparatus, the plurality of components including a plurality of types of components selected from optical character recognition, portable document format, voice conversion, server message block, and file transfer protocol, the plurality of components combined according to the workflow desired by a user;

set a type of component to be counted from the plurality of components included in the input workflow whose usage history is to be counted according to an operation on the input screen displayed at the communication terminal based on the input screen information;

in response to an execution of each of the plurality of components included in the workflow, determine whether the each of the plurality of components executed is the type of component to be counted;

in a case where the each of the plurality of components executed is the type of component to be counted, count the usage history of the each of the plurality of components so as to manage a count target for the each of the plurality of components;

perform the counting for each type of the plurality of types of the components based on a different count condition set for the each type; and

calculate a usage fee for requesting the user to make a payment corresponding to the counted usage history,

the communication terminal comprising:

circuitry configured to:

control to display on a display, an input screen for receiving input of a workflow;

receive a placement operation of one or more components displayed on the input screen; and

transmit operation information for setting the workflow based on the placement operation of the one or more components to the information processing apparatus.

8. The information processing system of claim 7 , wherein

the circuitry of the communication terminal is further configured to receive input of multiple count conditions for the component.

9. The information processing system of claim 7 , wherein

in response to an occurrence of error in the placement operation of the component, the circuitry of the communication terminal is further configured to control to display information indicating that the workflow is not set correctly on the display.

10. An information processing method executed by an information processing apparatus, the method comprising:

transmitting input screen information for displaying an input screen for receiving input of a workflow including a plurality of components to a communication terminal communicably connected to the information processing apparatus, the plurality of components including a plurality of types of components selected from optical character recognition, portable document format, voice conversion, server message block, and file transfer protocol, the plurality of components combined according to the workflow desired by a user;

setting a type of component to be counted from the plurality of components included in the input workflow whose usage history is to be counted according to an operation on the input screen displayed at the communication terminal based on the input screen information;

in response to an execution of each of the plurality of components included in the workflow, determining whether the each of the plurality of components executed is the type of component to be counted;

in a case where the each of the plurality of components executed is the type of component to be counted, counting the usage history of the each of the plurality of components so as to manage a count target for the each of the plurality of components;

performing the counting for each type of the plurality of types of the components based on a different count condition set for the each type; and

calculating a usage fee for requesting the user to make a payment corresponding to the counted usage history.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (16)