Information processing apparatus and method and program for mediating applications

• US 20070235537A1
• Filed: 03/28/2007
• Published: 10/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Yoneda, Yoshihiro, Wakatsuki, Akira
• Granted Patent: US 8,573,485 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/435
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/102 where the programme performs an interfacing function, e.g. device driver G06F13/105 takes precedence; scheduling within device drivers G06F9/52; contention policies within device drivers G06F9/4881

Abstract

An information processing apparatus is capable of being connected to an IC card via a reader/writer. The information processing apparatus includes a middleware and a device driver provided so as to correspond to the reader/writer. The middleware provides a plurality of applications for the IC card with basic functions shared by the applications. The device driver sequentially processes a plurality of commands received from the plurality of applications via the middleware in the order in which the commands are received so as to control the corresponding reader/writer. In this way, the applications concurrently access the reader/writer.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus capable of being connected to an IC card via a reader/writer, comprising:

a middleware for providing a plurality of applications for the IC card with basic functions shared by the applications; and

a device driver provided so as to correspond to the reader/writer, the device driver sequentially processing a plurality of commands received from the plurality of applications via the middleware in the order in which the commands are received so as to control the corresponding reader/writer so that the applications concurrently access the reader/writer.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the device driver switches between a shared mode in which the plurality of applications are allowed to concurrently access the reader/writer and a dedicated mode in which only one of the applications is allowed to access the reader/writer.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the middleware provides the applications with an application programming interface used for each of the applications to select one of the shared mode and the dedicated mode and wherein the device driver switches between the shared mode and the dedicated mode in accordance with the mode selected for each of the applications.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein, when the shared mode is set, the device driver grants an access right to the reader/writer to one of the applications in response to a request received from the one of the applications, and wherein, while the access right is granted to the one of the applications, the device driver executes only commands received from the one of the applications and places commands received from the applications other than the one of the applications in an execution wait mode.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the middleware provides the one of the applications with an application programming interface used for the one of the applications to request the device driver to grant the access right to the one of the applications.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, upon receiving a command from one of the applications while executing a command received from one of the other applications, the device driver places the received command in an execution wait mode from the time when the command is received to the time when a predetermined timeout interval has elapsed, and wherein, when predetermined timeout interval has elapsed, the device driver sends a timeout error message to the one of the applications.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the device driver is capable of setting the timeout interval for each of the applications.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the device driver limits the number of applications concurrently accessible to the reader/writer to a predetermined maximum number of accesses or less.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the device driver includes a communication information storage module for storing information about communication between each of the applications and the reader/writer for each of the applications.

10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the reader/writers are connected to the information processing apparatus, and wherein the middleware selects one of the reader/writers in accordance with a use request received from each of the applications and requests the device driver corresponding to the selected reader/writer to set the selected reader/writer to be usable, and wherein the device driver determines whether the selected reader/writer is accessible from each of the applications in response to the request from the middleware, and wherein, if the selected reader/writer is accessible, the device driver sets the selected reader/writer to be usable with each of the applications.

11. The information processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the middleware holds a list of the one or more reader/writers compatible with each of the applications and sequentially selects one of the reader/writers in the list so as to sequentially request the device driver corresponding to the selected reader/writer to set the reader/writer to be usable with each of the applications.

12. A method of mediating a plurality of applications for an IC card for use in an information processing apparatus capable of being connected to the IC card via a reader/writer, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a plurality of commands by a device driver provided so as to correspond to the reader/writer from a middleware, the middleware providing the plurality of applications with basic functions shared by the applications so that the applications are concurrently accessible to the reader/writer; and

sequentially processing the plurality of received commands by the device driver in the order in which the commands are received so as to control the reader/writer.

13. The method of mediating a plurality of applications according to claim 12, wherein the device driver switches between a shared mode in which the plurality of applications are allowed to concurrently access the reader/writer and a dedicated mode in which only one of the applications is allowed to access the reader/writer.

14. The method of mediating a plurality of applications according to claim 13, wherein the middleware provides the applications with an application programming interface used for each of the applications to select one of the shared mode and the dedicated mode and wherein the device driver switches between the shared mode and the dedicated mode in accordance with the mode selected for each of the applications.

15. The method of mediating a plurality of applications according to claim 13, wherein, when the shared mode is set, the device driver grants an access right to the reader/writer to one of the applications in response to a request received from the one of the applications, and wherein, while the access right is granted to the one of the applications, the device driver executes only commands received from the one of the applications and places commands received from the applications other than the one of the applications in an execution wait mode.

16. The method of mediating a plurality of applications according to claim 15, wherein the middleware provides the one of the applications with an application programming interface used for the one of the applications to request the device driver to grant the access right to the one of the applications.

17. The method of mediating a plurality of applications according to claim 12, wherein, upon receiving a command from one of the applications while executing a command received from one of the other applications, the device driver places the received command in an execution wait mode from the time when the command is received to the time when a predetermined timeout interval has elapsed, and wherein, when predetermined timeout interval has elapsed, the device driver sends a timeout error message to the one of the applications.

18. The method of mediating a plurality of applications according to claim 17, wherein the device driver is capable of setting the timeout interval for each of the applications.

19. The method of mediating a plurality of applications according to claim 12, wherein the device driver limits the number of applications concurrently accessible to the reader/writer to a predetermined maximum number of accesses or less.

20. The method of mediating a plurality of applications according to claim 12, wherein the device driver includes a communication information storage module for storing information about communication between each of the applications and the reader/writer for each of the applications.

21. The method of mediating a plurality of applications according to claim 12, wherein a plurality of the reader/writers are connected to the information processing apparatus, and wherein the middleware selects one of the reader/writers in accordance with a use request received from the application and requests the device driver corresponding to the selected reader/writer to set the selected reader/writer to be usable, and wherein the device driver determines whether the selected reader/writer is accessible from each of the applications in response to the request from the middleware, and wherein, if the selected reader/writer is accessible, the device driver sets the selected reader/writer to be usable.

22. The method of mediating a plurality of applications according to claim 21, wherein the middleware holds a list of the one or more reader/writers compatible with each of the applications and sequentially selects one of the reader/writers in the list so as to sequentially request the device driver corresponding to the selected reader/writer to set the reader/writer to be usable with each of the applications.

23. A program comprising:

program code for causing a computer to function as an information processing apparatus capable of being connected to an IC card via a reader/writer, the information processing apparatus including a middleware for providing a plurality of applications for the IC card with basic functions shared by the applications and a device driver provided so as to correspond to the reader/writer, the device driver sequentially processing a plurality of commands received from the plurality of applications via the middleware in the order in which the commands are received so as to control the corresponding reader/writer so that the applications concurrently access the reader/writer.