Controlling communication between a point of sale terminal and a printer without changing an application on the point of sale terminal

• US 9,047,209 B2
• Filed: 07/09/2014
• Issued: 06/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/18/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: Takamoto, Akio
• Primary Examiner(s): Rust, Eric A
• Application Number:
  US14/327,043
• Publication Number:
  US 20150022853A1
• Time in Patent Office: 328 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.15
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1206 resulting in increased flexibility in input data format or job format or job type
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1209 resulting in adapted or bridged legacy communication protocols, e.g. emulation, protocol extension
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1211 Improving printing performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1236 Connection management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1247 by conversion to printer ready format
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1293 Printer information exchange with computer

Abstract

Communication performance can be appropriately and easily improved without changing an application on the host side when controlling communication between electronic devices. A computer that operates according to an operating system on an OS kernel layer, has an application on an application layer that outputs a first unit of command data causing a connected electronic device to perform an operation, and has a communication port on a physical layer that sends data output from the application to the electronic device: receives data output from the application on the OS kernel layer before the data is received by the communication port; accumulates the received data and generates a second unit of data that is larger than the first unit; and outputs the generated second unit of data to the communication port.

Claims

1. A communication control method that executes a communication control process in a computer that operates according to an operating system on an OS kernel layer, has an application on an application layer that outputs a first unit of command data causing a connected electronic device to perform an operation, and has a communication port on a physical layer that sends data output from the application to the electronic device, the communication control method comprising:

receiving data output from the application on the OS kernel layer before the data is received by the communication port;

accumulating the received data and generating a second unit of data that is larger than the first unit;

outputting the generated second unit of data to the communication port;

sending a signal to stop data output to the application after the data generating step; and

sending a signal to resume data output to the application after the data output in the output step is sent to the electronic device.

2. The communication control method described in claim 1, wherein:

the first unit is one byte; and

the second unit is one command.

3. The communication control method described in claim 1, wherein:

when the command is a command instructing rendering an image, the second unit is sized based on the data storage capacity of the electronic device.

4. The communication control method described in claim 1, further comprising:

sending a signal to stop data output to the application, and outputting data not yet output in the output step to the communication port, if a busy signal is output from the electronic device during data output from the application.

5. The communication control method described in claim 1, wherein:

the computer and the electronic device communicate using the USB protocol.

6. The communication control method described in claim 1, wherein:

the electronic device is a printer.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program causing a computer to execute the steps of the communication control method described in claim 1.

7. A data processing device that operates according to an operating system on an OS kernel layer, has an application on an application layer that outputs a first unit of command data causing a connected electronic device to perform an operation, and has a communication port on a physical layer that sends data output from the application to the electronic device, the data processing device comprising:

a receiver that receives data output from the application on the OS kernel layer before the data is received by the communication port;

a data generator that accumulates the received data and generates a second unit of data that is larger than the first unit; and

an output component that outputs the generated second unit of data to the communication port;

wherein

the generator sends a signal to stop data output to the application after generating the second unit of data and sends a signal to resume data output to the application after the data output by the output component is sent to the electronic device.

8. The data processing device described in claim 7, wherein:

the first unit is one byte; and

the second unit is one command.

9. The data processing device described in claim 7, wherein:

when the command is a command instructing rendering an image, the second unit is sized based on the data storage capacity of the electronic device.

10. The data processing device described in claim 7, wherein:

the generator sends a signal to stop data output to the application, and outputs data not yet output by the output component to the communication port, if a busy signal is output from the electronic device during data output from the application.