US 8,028,300 B2Granted

Extensible device driver

AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha

InventorsDevon James Kemp, Christopher John Carcerano

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Abstract

A device driver module for supporting the use of an external device by a computing device which executes an operating system, the device driver module including an initialization portion which is called by the operating system, whereupon the initialization portion detects the presence of a driver plug-in module, obtains information from the detected driver plug-in module, and passes the information from the detected driver plug-in module to the operating system, and also including an operation portion which accesses and executes a functional portion of the detected plug-in module, receives from the operating system an event notification corresponding to the external device and, in the case that the detected driver plug-in module accepts the event notification, passes the event notification to the detected driver plug-in module.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method for registering a driver plug-in program for use by a device driver program of a device driver which supports the use of an external device by a computing device, the method comprising the steps of:

identifying at least one available driver plug-in program located on an external source;
selecting at least one identified available driver plug-in program for installation on the computing device;
and
installing each selected driver plug-in program on the computing device by storing each selected driver plug-in program in a memory on the computing device, and entering an identifier corresponding to each selected driver plug-in program into a system registry of an operating system which is executing on the computing device,
wherein with respect to an existing program which has a same name as the selected driver plug-in program, when such an existing program is stored in the computing device, the existing program is renamed and the installation of the selected driver plug-in program is performed so that the device driver program uses the selected driver plug-in program, and
wherein an interface module of the device driver program searches the installed driver plug-in program from the system registry and an additional function of the selected driver plug-in program is supported by access to the selected driver plug-in program by the interface module.

3 more elements

An apparatus which registers a driver plug-in program for use by a device driver program of a device driver which supports the use of an external device by a computing device, the apparatus comprising:

an identifying unit constructed to identify at least one available driver plug-in program located on an external source;
a selecting unit constructed to select at least one identified available driver plug-in program for installation on the computing device;
and
an installing unit constructed to install each selected driver plug-in program on the computing device by storing each selected driver plug-in program in a memory on the computing device, and entering an identifier corresponding to each selected driver plug-in program into a system registry of an operating system which is executing on the computing device,
wherein with respect to an existing program which has a same name as the selected driver plug-in program, when such an existing program is stored in the computing device, the existing program is renamed and the installation of the selected driver plug-in program is performed so that the device driver program uses the selected driver plug-in program, and
wherein an interface module of the device driver program searches the installed driver plug-in program from the system registry and an additional function of the selected driver plug-in program is supported by access to the selected driver plug-in program by the interface module.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 11/898,669Filed 14 Sep 2007 · division
Priority: 23 Apr 2002
Published: US 2008/0010646 A110 Jan 2008
Granted: 27 Sep 2011
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification2 codes

G06F 9/4411
Bootstrapping: configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers
G06F
Computing and data processing

Family

Application10/131,012Parent of this division · filed 23 Apr 2002
US 7,284,246 B2Parent of this division · filed 16 Oct 2007
US 2008/0010646 A1Pre-grant publication · published 10 Jan 2008
US 2003/0200427 A1Published application
US 8,028,300 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.