COLLABORATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, COLLABORATION PROCESSING SYSTEM, AND PROGRAM

• US 20130254297A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 09/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: KOBAYASHI, Kazunori
• Granted Patent: US 9,661,040 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5044 considering hardware capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15

Abstract

A collaboration processing apparatus that is connected to plural electronic apparatuses, receives a request from an application installed in the collaboration processing apparatus, and controls the electronic devices based on the received request to perform a collaboration process by causing the application and the electronic devices to collaborate, includes a capability information providing unit which receives an acquisition request for information related to capability of the electronic device via a previously defined interface and provides the information related to the capability of the electronic devices in response to the received acquisition request; and an execution controlling unit which receives the execution request based on the information of the capability from the application, to which the information related to the capability is provided by the capability information providing unit, via the previously defined interface, and controls the electronic devices based on the received execution request.

Claims

1. A collaboration processing apparatus that is connected to a plurality of electronic apparatuses, receives a request from an application installed in the collaboration processing apparatus, and controls the electronic devices based on the received request to perform a collaboration process by causing the application and the electronic devices to collaborate, the collaboration processing apparatus comprising:

a capability information providing unit which receives an acquisition request for information related to capability of the electronic device via a previously defined interface and provides the information related to the capability of the electronic devices in response to the received acquisition request; and

an execution controlling unit which receives the execution request based on the information of the capability from the application, to which the information related to the capability is provided by the capability information providing unit, via the previously defined interface, and controls the electronic devices based on the received execution request.

2. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the capability information providing unit acquires the information related to the capability of the electronic devices in response to the acquisition request and provides the application requesting the information related to the capability of the acquired electronic apparatuses with the information related to the capability of the acquired electronic devices.

3. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

a memory controlling unit causing a memory device to store the information related to the capability of the electronic device for each of the electronic devices connected to the collaboration processing apparatus,

wherein the capability information providing unit provides the application requesting the information related to the capability of the acquired electronic apparatuses with the information related to the capability of the acquired electronic devices when the information related to the capability of the electronic devices is not acquired in response to the acquisition request.

4. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

a memory controlling unit causing a memory device to store the information related to the capability of the electronic device acquired by the capability information providing unit;

the capability information providing unit determines whether the information related to the capability of the electronic device in response to the acquisition request is acquired from the electronic device or the memory device, and

when it is determined that the information related to the capability of the electronic device is received from the electronic device, the capability information providing unit acquires the information related to the capability of the electronic device from the electronic device and provides the information related to the capability of the electronic device with the application requesting the information.

5. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the capability information providing unit receives the acquisition request via a first interface included in the previously defined interface, and

the execution controlling unit receives the execution request via a second interface included in the previously defined interface.

6. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

one or more processing units which perform a predetermined process related to a collaboration process,

wherein the execution controlling unit determines whether a predetermined process related to the execution request is performed by the collaboration processing apparatus, and

when the predetermined process is determined to be performed by the collaboration processing apparatus, the predetermined process related to the execution request is caused to be executed by using the one or more processing units included in the collaboration processing apparatus.

7. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

one or more processing units which receive a processing request causing a predetermined process related to a collaboration process to be executed via the previously defined interface and executes a process based on the received processing request.

8. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 7,

wherein at least one of the processing units provides the application requesting the information with a result of execution based on the execution request of the process based on the executed processing request.

9. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 7,

wherein the processing unit receives the processing request via a third interface included in the previously defined interface.

10. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein a plurality of applications are installed into the collaboration processing apparatus, and

the capability information providing unit can receive an acquisition request for the information related to the capability of the electronic device, which is connected to the collaboration processing apparatus, via the previously defined interface from each of the plurality of applications installed on the collaboration processing apparatus.

11. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an application administrating unit which causes the plurality of applications to be added, deleted, or changed.

12. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising:

a service administrating unit causing the one or more processing units to be added, deleted, or changed for each of the processing units.

13. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the information related to the capability of the electronic device relates to at least one of capabilities including at least one capability among an input, an output, and a process.

14. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the application to be installed is developed using a software development kit (SDK) by which the application is developed using the previously defined interface.

15. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the collaboration processing apparatus is formed by a plurality of apparatuses.

16. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 1, further including:

a capability information registering unit which receives a registration request for the information related to the capability of the electronic devices to be connected to the collaboration processing apparatus.

17. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 16,

wherein the capability information registering unit receives the registration request for the information related to the capability of the electronic device from the electronic devices connected to the collaboration processing apparatus.

18. A collaboration processing method in a collaboration processing apparatus that is connected to a plurality of electronic apparatuses, receives a request from an application installed in the collaboration processing apparatus, and controls the electronic devices based on the received request to perform a collaboration process by causing the application and the electronic devices to collaborate, the collaboration processing method comprising:

receiving, by a capability information providing unit, an acquisition request for information related to capability of the electronic device via a previously defined interface and provides the information related to the capability of the electronic devices in response to the received acquisition request; and

receiving, by an execution controlling unit, the execution request based on the information of the capability from the application, to which the information related to the capability is provided by the capability information providing unit, via the previously defined interface, and controlling the electronic devices based on the received execution request.

19. A network system configured to connect to one or more electronic devices comprising:

one ore more information processing apparatuses,

wherein the one or more information processing apparatuses include;

one or more processors; and

a memory storing one or more programs and one or more application programs which are executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for;

receiving, from an application program among the one or more application programs via a predetermined interface, a request for obtaining information related to capability of at least one electronic device among the one or more electronic devices;

providing, to the application program which sent the request for obtaining, information related to the capability of at least one electronic device which is requested by the request for obtaining;

receiving, from the application program which is provided the information related to the capability via the predetermined interface, an execution request for processing using the at least one electronic device, the execution request is generated by the application program based on the provided information related to capability; and

controlling the at least one electronic device based on the received execution request.