| 摘要 |
<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a consumable article whose use condition is automatically grasped, so that its state can be discriminated, and to provide a system, a method and a program for grasping the use condition of the consumable article. <P>SOLUTION: The system for grasping the use condition of the consumable article is equipped with: a printing control means 41 controlling the drive of the mechanism part 33 of the consumable article 30 consisting of the mechanism part 33 constituting the main body of the consumable article, and a refill part 35 housed in the mechanism part and consumed as the consumable article is used and refilled; a toner amount monitoring means 42 monitoring the consumed state of the refill part of the consumable article with such control of drive; and an information recoding means 43 recording the fact that the amount in the refill part 35 becomes equal to or under a preset reference amount and information showing a date when the consumed state is detected into a storage device 36 integrated with the consumable article 30 when the refill part is consumed and the amount in the refill part becomes equal to or under the preset reference amount. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI |
