63fb46d6_bster_US___Patent_applications__Description
[Patent application number] 20140140614 [Published] 05-22-2014 [Description] 
COLOR PIXEL COUNTING FOR TIERED BILLING IN OUTPUT JOBS - A processor-implemented method for processing image data of a document using an apparatus or medium. The processor determines a billable color pixel count in an image by determining a first count of color pixels in the image data in device independent space (e.g., fuzzy and true color counts using a neutral page determination) and a second count of color pixels in device dependent space (e.g., binary CMYK based count). The first and second counts are transformed and a minimum of the transformation is used as the billable count. Based on the disclosed implementation, billing accuracy for outputting color documents is improved and flexibility in tier-based billing is preserved.
Xing Li, Webster US - Patent applications