Collaboration processing apparatus, collaboration processing system, and program

• US 9,661,040 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 05/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Kobayashi, Kazunori
• Primary Examiner(s): Taylor, Nicholas
• Assistant Examiner(s): PENA-SANTANA, TANIA M
• Application Number:
  US13/833,235
• Publication Number:
  US 20130254297A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,530 Days
• 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 comprising a hardware processor that executes a program so as to implement:

an application that receives set conditions of electronic devices that are connected through a connector to the collaboration processing apparatus, the electronic devices including a scanner,

a capability information providing unit which

receives an acquisition request for acquiring capability information that indicates the set conditions of the electronic devices including the scanner for specifying whether the each of the electronic devices is capable of performing at least a predetermined process of the each of the electronic devices using the set conditions from the application via a previously defined API,

sends the acquisition request to the scanner in response to the acquisition request received via the previously defined API, and receives the capability information of the scanner from the scanner, and

sends the received capability information to the application, the application determining whether the scanner includes a function of performing an optical character recognition (OCR) process based on the received capability information, the application generating an execution request to scan an image data by the scanner and undergo the OCR process for the scanned image data upon determination that the scanner includes the function of performing the OCR process;

an execution controlling unit which

receives the execution request generated by the application based on the capability information from the application via the previously defined API, and

controls the scanner based on the received execution request to perform the predetermined process,

wherein, upon determination that the scanner does not include the function of performing the OCR process, the application generates the execution request to scan the image data by the scanner, and the execution controlling unit causes the scanned image data to be provided to the collaboration processing apparatus, the collaboration processing apparatus performing the OCR process on the provided scanned image data;

a memory controlling unit enabling a memory device included in the collaboration processing apparatus to store the capability information of each of the electronic devices connected to the collaboration processing apparatus; and

a capability information registering unit which receives a registration request to register the capability information of each of the electronic devices to be connected to the collaboration processing apparatus, provides a capability information screen with each of the electronic devices, and registers the capability information, which is input through the capability information screen, in the memory device,

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

2. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 1,

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

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

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

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

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

4. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 1,

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

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

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

one or more processing units which perform the predetermined process,

wherein the execution controlling unit determines whether the 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.

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

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

7. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 6,

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

8. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 6,

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

9. 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 capability information of the scanner, which is connected to the collaboration processing apparatus, via the previously defined API from each of the plurality of applications installed on the collaboration processing apparatus.

10. 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.

11. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 5, 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.

12. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the capability information of the scanner relates to at least one of capabilities including at least one capability among an input, an output, and the predetermined process.

13. 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 API.

14. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 1,

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

15. The collaboration processing apparatus according to claim 1,

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

16. A collaboration processing method executed in a collaboration processing apparatus by a hardware processor, the collaboration processing method comprising:

receiving set conditions of electronic devices that are connected through a connector to the collaboration processing apparatus from an application installed in the collaboration processing apparatus, the electronic devices including a scanner,

receiving, via a capability information providing unit, an acquisition request for acquiring capability information that indicates the set conditions of the electronic devices including the scanner for specifying whether the each of the electronic devices is capable of performing at least a predetermined process of the each of the electronic devices using the set conditions from the application via a previously defined API to cause the capability information providing unit to initiate processes of

sending the acquisition request to the scanner in response to the acquisition request received via the previously defined API,

receiving the capability information of the scanner from the scanner, and

sending the received capability information to the application, the application determining whether the scanner includes a function of performing an optical character recognition (OCR) process based on the received capability information, the application generating an execution request to scan an image data by the scanner and undergo the OCR process for the scanned image data upon determination that the scanner includes the function of performing the OCR process;

receiving, by the execution controlling unit, an execution request generated by the application based on the capability information from the application via the previously defined API;

controlling, by the execution controlling unit, the scanner to perform the predetermined process based on the received execution request, wherein, upon determination that the scanner does not include the function of performing the OCR process, the application generates the execution request to scan the image data by the scanner, and the execution controlling unit causes the scanned image data to be provided to the collaboration processing apparatus, the collaboration processing apparatus performing the OCR process on the provided scanned image data;

enabling, by a memory controlling unit, a memory device included in the collaboration processing apparatus to store the capability information of each of the electronic devices connected to the collaboration processing apparatus; and

receiving, by a capability information registering unit, a registration request to register the capability information of each of the electronic devices to be connected to the collaboration processing apparatus;

providing, by the capability information registering unit, a capability information screen with each of the electronic devices; and

registering, by the capability information registering unit, the capability information, which is input through the capability information screen, in the memory device,

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

17. A network system comprising:

one or 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 set conditions of electronic devices that are connected through a connector to the network system, the electronic devices including a scanner,

receiving, from an application program among the one or more application programs via a previously defined API, an acquisition request for acquiring capability information that specifies whether each of the electronic devices that are connected through a connector to the network system is capable of performing at least a predetermined process of each of the electronic devices using the set conditions from the application via a previously defined API;

sending the acquisition request to the scanner in response to the acquisition request received via the previously defined API,

receiving the capability information of the scanner from the scanner;

sending the received capability information of the scanner to the application program which sent the acquisition request, the application determining whether the scanner includes a function of performing an optical character recognition (OCR) process based on the received capability information, the application generating an execution request to scan an image data by the scanner and undergo the OCR process for the scanned image data upon determination that the scanner includes the function of performing the OCR process;

receiving, from the application program that is provided with the capability information via the previously defined API, the execution request for processing using the scanner, the execution request is generated by the application program based on the provided capability information;

controlling the scanner to perform the predetermined process based on the received execution request, wherein, upon determination that the scanner does not include the function of performing the OCR process, the application generates the execution request to scan the image data by the scanner, and the execution controlling unit causes the scanned image data to be provided to one of the one or more information processing apparatuses, the one of the one or more information processing apparatuses performing the OCR process on the provided scanned image data;

enabling, by a memory controlling unit, a memory device included in the collaboration processing apparatus to store the capability information of each of the electronic devices connected to the collaboration processing apparatus; and

receiving, by a capability information registering unit, a registration request to register the capability information of each of the electronic devices to be connected to the collaboration processing apparatus;

providing, by the capability information registering unit, a capability information screen with each of the electronic devices; and

registering, by the capability information registering unit, the capability information, which is input through the capability information screen, in the memory device,

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