Systems and methods for support of various processing capabilities

• US 7,607,141 B2
• Filed: 09/07/2004
• Issued: 10/20/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Foehr, Oliver H., Emerson, Daniel F., McLuckie, Craig I.
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong; Lechi
• Application Number:
  US10/935,681
• Publication Number:
  US 20050246724A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,869 Days
• Field of Search: 719/310, 719/321, 719/332, 715/210
• US Class Current: 719/322
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for support of various computing device and target entity capabilities. In an implementation, a method includes determining one or more processing capabilities of a computing device to process data for rendering by a rendering device. A selection is made, based on the determining, of one or more filters to provide data configured for rendering by the rendering device and that provides at least one processing capability that is not included in the one or more processing capabilities of the computing device.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

determining on the computer one or more processing capabilities of a computing device to process data for rendering by a rendering device, wherein the one or more processing capabilities of the computing device are determined by a configuration file associated with the rendering printer device, wherein the data is included in a package of the configuration file having a plurality of levels, wherein;

at least one said level specifies a job for being rendered on the rendering device;

at least one said level specifies one or more documents associated with the job;

at least one said level specifies one or more versions associated with the one or more documents; and

at least one said level specifies one or more pages associated with the one or more versions;

selecting, based on the determining, a plurality of filters on the computing device, wherein the plurality of filters;

provide the data configured for rendering by the rendering device; and

provide at least one processing capability that is not included in the one or more processing capabilities of the computing device;

combining the plurality of filters to become a filter pipeline to form a device driver that is executable on the computing device and corresponds to the rendering device;

processing the data utilizing the device driver to create intermediate data to be rendered on the rendering device;

transmitting the intermediate data from the computing device to the rendering device; and

examining by a filter selection module at the rendering device the intermediate data, wherein the filter selection module determines what processing should be performed and selects one or more filters on the rendering device based upon the determination to further process the intermediate device,

selecting a first collection of said filters and second selection of said filters based on one or more processing capabilities of the rendering device such that data processed by the first collection of said filters and the second collection of filters are suitable for being rendered by the rendering device, wherein the second collection of said filters includes at least one said filter that is not included in the first collection of said filters.

2. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the selected one or more filters are combinable to form an interpreter module that is executable on the rendering device and corresponds to the computing device.

3. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the determining and the selecting are performed on the computing device.

4. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the determining and the selecting are performed on the rendering device.

5. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the rendering device is a printer.

6. The method as described in claim 1, wherein the processing capabilities include read-only operations.

7. The method as described in claim 1, further comprising:

determining one or more processing capabilities of a second computing device to process data for rendering by the rendering device, wherein the processing capabilities of the second computing device are provided by one or more filters; and

selecting at least one other filter for execution on the rendering device that is not included on the second computing device.

8. The method as described in claim 7, wherein the at least one other filter is not included in the selected one or more other filters.

9. One or more computer readable storage media comprising computer executable instructions that, when executed on a computer, direct the computer to perform the method as described in claim 1.

10. A computing device comprising:

a processor; and

memory configured to maintain;

a plurality of filters, each of which being executable on the processor to provide a corresponding processing capability; and

a processing module that is executable on the processor to;

determine one or more processing capabilities of the computer device to process data for rendering by the rendering device, wherein the one or more processing capabilities of the computer device are determined by a configuration file associated the rendering printer device, wherein data is included in a package of the configuration file having a plurality of levels, wherein;

at least one said level specifies a job for being rendered on the rendering device;

at least one said level specifies one or more documents associated with the job;

at least one said level specifies one or more versions associated with the one or more documents; and

at least one said level specifies one or more pages associated with the one or more versions;

provide at least one processing capability that is not included in the one or more processing capabilities of the computing device;

select a plurality of filters based on the determination on the computer device; and

arrange the selected plurality of filters to become a filter pipeline to form a device driver that is executable on the processor for processing the data to create intermediate data such that processed data output by the device driver is suitable for further processing by the rendering device, wherein the processing module includes a filter selection module that is executable on the processor to;

select a first collection of said filters based on one or more processing capabilities of the rendering device such that data processed by the first collection of said filters is suitable for being rendered by the rendering device; and

select a second collection of said filters based on one or more processing capabilities of another rendering device such that data processed by the second collection of said filters is suitable for being rendered by the other rendering device, wherein the second collection of said filters includes at least one said filter that is not included in the first collection of said filters,

wherein the a filter selection module at the rendering device examines transmitted intermediate data and determines what processing should be performed and selects one or more filters on the rendering device based upon the determination to further process the transmitted intermediate device.

11. The computing device as described in claim 10, wherein the rendering device is a printer.

12. The computing device as described in claim 10, wherein the processing capabilities of the rendering device are provided by a plurality of filters arranged as an interpreter module that is executable on the rendering device.

13. The computing device as described in claim 10, wherein the processing module determines the one or more processing capabilities of the rendering device by examining the rendering device.

14. The computing device as described in claim 10, wherein the processing module receives an announcement from the rendering device which describes the one or more processing capabilities of the rendering device.

15. The computing device as described in claim 10, wherein:

each said filter is combinable, one with another, to create one or more collections; and

each said collection supports one of a plurality of differing said processing capabilities of a respective one of a plurality of rendering devices.

16. A computing device comprising:

a processor; and

memory configured to maintain;

a plurality of filters, each of which being executable on the processor to provide a corresponding capability to process data for being rendered, wherein the one or more processing capabilities of the computer device are determined by a configuration file associated the rendering printer device, wherein the data is included in a package of the configuration file having a hierarchical structure of a plurality of levels, wherein;

at least one said level specifies a job for being rendered;

at least one said level specifies one or more documents associated with the job;

at least one said level specifies one or more versions associated with the one or more documents; and

at least one said level specifies one or more pages associated with the one or more versions; and

a filter selection module that is executable on the processor to select a plurality of filters based on the determination on the computer device and arrange the plurality of filter to become a filter pipeline to form one or more device drivers, wherein;

each said device driver corresponds to one or more processing capabilities of a respective one of a plurality of rendering devices and processes the data to create a intermediate data to be rendered on the rendering devices;

wherein at least one processing capability that is not included in the one or more processing capabilities of the computing device;

each said rendering device has differing said processing capabilities, one to another; and

the filter selection module;

selects a first collection of said filters based on one or more said processing capabilities of a first said rendering device such that data processed by the first collection of said filters is suitable for being rendered by the first said rendering device; and

selects a second collection of said filters based on one or more said processing capabilities of a second said rendering device such that data processed by the second collection of said filters is suitable for being rendered by the second said rendering device, wherein the second collection of said filters includes at least one said filter that is not included in the first collection of said filters,

wherein a filter selection module at the rendering device examines transmitted intermediate data and determines what processing should be performed and selects one or more filters on the rendering device based upon the determination to further process the transmitted intermediate device.

17. A computing device as described in claim 16, wherein at least one said rendering device is a printer.

18. A computing device as described in claim 16, wherein at least one said rendering device is a display device.