DEVICE CONTROL SYSTEM, SERVICE-PROVIDING METHOD FOR A DEVICE CONTROL SYSTEM, AND A PROGRAM FOR THE SAME

• US 20100100810A1
• Filed: 10/20/2009
• Published: 04/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: Nakamura, Hideo, Ono, Shoji, Furuhata, Tadashi
• Granted Patent: US 9,021,350 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/236
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/88 Mark-up to mark-up conversion conversion for visualization in web browsing G06F16/9577
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/154 Tree transformation for tree-structured or markup documents, e.g. XSLT, XSL-FO or stylesheets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561

Abstract

A device control system does not require changing the application in conjunction with changes in process content or changes in the type or specifications of a device. A style sheet database 81 stores a plurality of style sheets describing information conversion rules for XML documents. A communication interface 84 acquires output data from an application 41, and acquires an XML document 1 containing information specifying the target device to which the output data is output and an output style sheet. Based on the output style sheet, an XML document converter 85 converts the XML document 1 acquired from the communication interface 84 to an XML document 2 including device control information for the target device. A device-specific XML document input/output unit 86 outputs the XML document 2 acquired from the XML document converter 85 to the device control service 73, 75 corresponding to the target device.

Claims

1. A device control system that acquires information from an application and centrally controls a plurality of devices, comprising:

a style sheet database that stores a plurality of style sheets describing information conversion rules for a markup document;

a communication interface that acquires output data from the application and a first document, which is a markup document containing information specifying a target device to which information is output and an output style sheet; and

a markup document conversion unit that converts the first document acquired from the communication interface to a second document, which is a markup document including device control information for the target device, based on the output style sheet.

2. The device control system described in claim 1, further comprising:

a device-specific markup document input/output unit that outputs the second document acquired from the markup document conversion unit to a device control service corresponding to the target device.

3. The device control system described in claim 2, wherein:

device control services for target devices include services that exist separately from the target device and services that exist in the target device.

4. The device control system described in claim 2 or 3, wherein:

the first document further includes information specifying an input style sheet for inputting the result of distribution to the target device to the application;

the device-specific markup document input/output unit inputs a third document, which is a markup document including the distribution result to each target device, to the markup document conversion unit;

the markup document conversion unit converts the third document to a fourth document, which is a markup document for the application, based on the input style sheet; and

the communication interface inputs the fourth document to the application.

5. The device control system described in claim 4, wherein:

the communication interface can acquire the output data from a plurality of applications; and

the style sheet database stores plural types of input style sheets corresponding to the plural applications.

6. The device control system described in any of claims 1 to 5, wherein:

the style sheet database stores a plurality of output style sheets for converting the first document to the second documents in different description languages; and

the plural devices include plural types of devices that can interpret different description languages.

7. A service-providing method for a device control system that manages a style sheet database in which a plurality of style sheets describing markup document conversion rules are stored, acquires information from an application, and centrally controls a plurality of devices, the service-providing method comprising as steps that are executed by the device control system steps of:

acquiring output data from the application and a first document, which is a markup document containing an output style sheet and information specifying a target device to which the output data is output;

extracting the output style sheet from the style sheet database, and based on said output style sheet converting the first document to a second document, which is a markup document containing device control information for the target device; and

outputting the second document to the target device.

8. A program that causes a computer to execute the steps of the service-providing method for a device control system described in claim 7.