Multi-function device ID with unique identifier

• US 8,365,201 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2007
• Issued: 01/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Holan, Doron J., Aull, Randall E., Ganapathy, Narayanan, Cavalaris, James G., Greeff, Esaias E., Brubacher, Douglas K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sough, S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yun, Carina
• Application Number:
  US12/002,060
• Publication Number:
  US 20090158301A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,873 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 719/321
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3051 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers

Abstract

A computer system that recognizes multi-function devices and associates functions with multi-function devices. Each multi-function device may be represented by a multi-function object, allowing tools, applications or other components within the computer to take actions relating to the entire device or relating to a function based on the association of that function with other functions in the same device. These actions include displaying information about devices, instead of or in addition to information about functions. Actions also include selecting functions based on proximity within a device. Functions may be associated with a multi-function device using a unique device identifier provided by the device or generated for the function based on a connection hierarchy between functions and the computer. Devices may be configured to provide the same identifier regardless of the transport over which the device is accessed.

Claims

1. In a computer system comprising a computer and a device operable to perform at least one function, a method comprising:

obtaining an identifier for the device, the device comprising a peripheral connected via a bus or local wireless connection with the computer, the device comprising component peripherals, wherein the device and the component peripherals are each addressable by the computer via the bus or wireless connection as individual devices;

identifying, based on the identifier, that the device is a single physical multi-function device performing a plurality of functions corresponding to the peripheral components, respectively, wherein each function of the plurality of functions is identified by a same identifier; and

using the identifier to select information relating to the single physical multi-function device to display, in a graphical user interface that is used to manage devices of the computer system, an icon representing the multi-function device, wherein the graphical user interface displays icons to represent both single-function devices and multi-function devices, wherein the graphical user interface responds to user input directed to the icon of the multi-function device by displaying representations of each of the peripheral components, wherein the icon of the multi-function device can be interacted with by a user to perform management tasks on the device that automatically trigger corresponding management tasks being performed for the peripheral components.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifier comprises a unique device identifier.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the identifier comprises, when the identifier from the device is not available, determining whether the function is removable from the device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein obtaining the identifier further comprises, when it is determined that the function is removable, generating the identifier.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein, when it is determined that the function is not removable, the identifier comprises an identifier associated with a node that is a parent node of the function in a hierarchy of nodes associated via a bus communication.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein obtaining the identifier further comprises, when it is determined that the function is not removable and the hierarchy of nodes associated via a bus communication is not available, generating the identifier.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the device is associated with the computer via a plurality of communication media, and wherein obtaining the identifier comprises obtaining the identifier from a first function driver of the device associated with a first communication medium and obtaining the identifier from a second function driver of the device associated with a second communication medium.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising generating a plurality of composite device objects for the plurality of function, wherein each composite device object represents a function from the plurality of functions.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising merging the plurality of composite device objects to generate a single object representing the device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the identifier for the device comprises receiving the identifier via a bus driver, the bus driver providing the identifier in connection with each of the plurality of functions.

11. The method of claim 2, wherein obtaining the identifier for the device comprises obtaining the identifier from a non-volatile computer-readable media of the device.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying the selected information relating to the device as a single entity.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the single entity comprises an icon corresponding to the device.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein using the identifier to display to the user information relating to the device comprises visually identifying the plurality of functions as being performed by the device.

15. A method of operating a computer system comprising a computer and a device operable to perform a plurality of functions, the method comprising:

obtaining a first identifier for a device performing a first function of the plurality of functions;

obtaining a second identifier for a device performing a second function of the plurality of functions;

in response to a selection of the first function, using the second function in conjunction with the first function based on the second identifier identifying a single multi-function device as the first identifier, wherein the computer system has a bus or wireless interface, wherein the multi-function device and the first and second functions thereof are addressable via the bus or wireless interface; and

displaying, in a graphical user interface that is used to manage devices of the computer system, an icon representing the multi-function device, wherein the graphical user interface displays icons to represent both single-function devices and multi-function devices, wherein the graphical user interface responds to user input directed to the icon of the multi-function device by displaying representations of each of the peripheral components, wherein the icon of the multi-function device can be interacted with by a user to perform management tasks on the multi-function device and can interact with the representations to perform management tasks on the first and second functions.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein using the second function in conjunction with the first function comprises performing at least one function selected from the group consisting of installing, uninstalling, updating, rolling back and repairing software associated with the first or second functions.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the first function comprises a camera, and using the second function comprises receiving sound through a microphone in the same device as the camera.

18. A computer-readable storage medium encoded with computer-executable instructions for performing a method in a computer system comprising a computer and a device operable to perform a plurality of functions, wherein the computer-readable storage medium is not a signal, the computer-executable instructions, when executed by at least one processor, performing a method comprising:

obtaining an identifier for the device;

identifying, based on the identifier, that the device is a single multi-function device performing a plurality of functions, wherein the multi-function device and the functions thereof connect with the computer system via a bus thereof and are independently addressable via the bus; and

displaying, in a graphical user interface that is used to manage devices of the computer system, an icon representing the multi-function device, wherein the graphical user interface displays icons to represent both single-function devices and multi-function devices, wherein the graphical user interface responds to user input directed to the icon of the multi-function device by displaying representations of each of the functions, wherein the icon of the multi-function device can be interacted with by a user to perform management tasks on the multi-function device and the representations can be interacted with to perform management tasks on the functions.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein obtaining the identifier for each function from the plurality of functions comprises receiving the identifier via an entity capable of discovering the device.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the entity capable of discovering the device comprises a bus driver.