Method, Computer, and System for an Operating System Independent Device Driver

• US 20070182978A1
• Filed: 02/05/2007
• Published: 08/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: Nakamura, Hideo, Yokosawa, Hirotada, Namikoshi, Takayoshi
• Granted Patent: US 8,416,433 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.130
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1206 resulting in increased flexibility in input data format or job format or job type
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1246 by handling markup languages, e.g. XSL, XML, HTML
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1285 Remote printer device, e.g. being remote from client or server
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/149 Adaptation of the text data for streaming purposes, e.g. Efficient XML Interchange [EXI] format
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/1813 Page description language recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 5/00 Receipt-giving machines cash registers giving receipts G07G1/00

Abstract

A method for driving a device that enables using a device without using a conventional device driver that is dependent on the operating system of the computer. The method has a binary data conversion step which receives a mark-up language document written in a mark-up language and converts the mark-up language document to binary data composed of commands and data that can be processed by the device. The method also includes a binary data output step in which the converted binary data is output to the device.

Claims

1. A device driver processing method executed by a computer comprising a mark-up language parsing unit for interpreting a mark-up language document written in a mark-up language, and a port control unit for controlling a communication port used for communication with a device, wherein:

the mark-up language parsing unit executes a binary data conversion step for receiving the mark-up language document and converting the mark-up language document to binary data including process commands and data that can be processed by the device; and

the port control unit executes a binary data output step for outputting the converted binary data to the device.

2. The device driver processing method described in claim 1, wherein:

the computer further comprises a storage unit for storing at least one set of information selected from a group including output format information relating to the format of documents output to the device, model-dependent information that is specific to each device model and defines rules for converting the mark-up language document to the processing commands and data that can be processed by the device, and port information relating to the communication port;

the binary data conversion step includes

a first conversion step for converting the mark-up language document based on the output format information to a converted mark-up language document that conforms to the output format information, and

a second conversion step for converting the converted mark-up language document to the binary data based on the model-dependent information; and

the binary data output step outputs the binary data to the device based on the port information.

3. The device driver processing method described in claim 2, wherein the output format information, model-dependent information, and port information are stored in separate storage units.

4. The device driver processing method described in claim 1, wherein:

the port control unit further executes an event data acquisition step for getting event data that is output based on events that occurred with the device; and

the mark-up language parsing unit further executes an event data conversion step for converting the acquired event data to the mark-up language document and outputting the mark-up language document.

5. The device driver processing method described in claim 2, wherein the mark-up language document is written in eXtensible Markup Language (XML), and the output format information and model-dependent information are written in eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL).

6. The device driver processing method described in claim 1, wherein the device is a printer.

7. A computer comprising:

a mark-up language parsing unit for interpreting a mark-up language document written in a mark-up language; and

a port control unit for controlling a communication port used for communication with a device;

wherein the mark-up language parsing unit has a conversion unit for converting a mark-up language document to binary data including process commands and data that can be processed by the device when the mark-up language document is input; and

the port control unit has an output unit for outputting the converted binary data to the device.

8. A system comprising the computer described in claim 7 connected to a server over a network, wherein:

the server has

a model selection unit for generating model-dependent data that is information specific to each model of device based on device information sent by the computer,

a port configuration unit for generating port information containing communication parameters for the communication port connecting the device to the computer, and

a storage unit for storing model-dependent data for each device; and

the computer has a storage unit for storing the model-dependent data and port information sent from the server.

9. The system described in claim 8, wherein the device information is entered using an input device connected to the server.

10. The system described in claim 8, wherein the computer is connected to the device, and the computer gets and sends the device information from the device to the server.

11. A method of communicating with a device comprising:

receiving an input mark-up language document, the input mark-up language document including data and tags, the tags indicating a category of which the data is a member;

converting the input mark-up language document to binary data, the binary data including process commands that can be processed by the device;

controlling communication with the device; and

outputting the binary data to the device via a communication port.

12. The method described in claim 11, wherein converting the input mark-up language document to binary data further comprising:

converting the input language document to an output language document that contains information describing the format of the data based on a stylesheet, the stylesheet containing information about the format of the data based on the category of which the data is a member; and

converting the output language document to the binary data.

13. The method described in claim 12, wherein the input and output mark-up language documents are written in extensible Markup Language (XML), and the stylesheet is written in eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL).

14. The method described in claim 11, wherein converting the mark-up language document to binary data is done in accordance with rules specific to the model of the device.

15. The method described in claim 14, wherein the rules specific to the model of the device are written in extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL).

16. The method described in claim 11, wherein controlling communication with the device further comprises:

receiving event data based on events that occurred with the device; and

outputting event mark-up language document containing the event data and tags which are indicative of categories of which the event data is a member.

17. The method described in claim 11, wherein the device is a printer.

18. A computing device for performing the method described in claim 11 comprising:

a processing unit; and

the communication port.

19. A system comprising:

the computing device described in claim 18; and

a server connected to the computer over a network, wherein;

the server generates model-dependent data that is information specific to the model of the device based on information sent by the computing device, the model dependent data is transmitted from the server to the computing device and used by the computing device when converting the input mark-up language document to binary data; and

the server generates port information containing communication parameters for the communication port.

20. A computer readable medium containing instructions for performing the method described in claim 11.