Peripheral device detection with short-range communication

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions that cause one or more processors of a computing device to:

• receive, from a short-range communication tag using short-range wireless communication, first data indicating a unique identifier of the short-range communication tag, wherein the computing device is proximate to the short-range communication tag within a range of Near Field Communication;
• responsive to receiving a user input that defines a first configuration operation for at least one application of the computing device, generate an association between the first configuration operation and the unique identifier of the short-range communication tag;
• after generating the association, receive, using short-range wireless communication within the range of Near Field Communication, second data;
• responsive to receiving the second data, determining whether the computing device recognizes the unique identifier of the short-range communication tag in the second data, and:
• if the computing device recognizes the unique identifier of the short-range communication tag in the second data, perform the first configuration operation, which changes a current operating state of the at least one application executing on the computing device to a different operating state;
• and
• if the computing device does not recognize the unique identifier of the short-range communication tag in the second data:
• send a lookup request that includes the second data received via the short-range wireless communication to a network resource external to the computing device, wherein the lookup request comprises a request to the network resource for third data specifying a second configuration operation for the computing device based on the second data received via the short-range wireless communication, and
• receive the third data specifying the second configuration operation for the computing device based on the second data received via the short-range wireless communication.

A computing device comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• at least one module operable by the at least one processor to:
• receive, from a short-range communication tag using short-range wireless communication, first data indicating a unique identifier of the short-range communication tag, wherein the computing device is proximate to the short-range communication tag within a range of Near Field Communication;
• responsive to receiving a user input that defines a first configuration operation for at least one application of the computing device, generate an association between the first configuration operation and the unique identifier of the short-range communication tag;
• after generating the association, receive, using short-range wireless communication within the range of Near Field Communication, second data;
• responsive to receiving the second data, determine whether the at least one module recognizes the unique identifier of the short-range communication tag in the second data, and:
• if the computing device recognizes the unique identifier of the short-range communication tag in the second data, perform the first configuration operation, which changes a current operating state of the at least one application executing on the computing device to a different operating state;
• and
• if the computing device does not recognize the unique identifier of the short-range communication tag in the second data:
• send a lookup request that includes the second data received via the short-range wireless communication to a network resource external to the computing device, wherein the lookup request comprises a request to the network resource for third data specifying a second configuration operation for the computing device based on the second data received via the short-range wireless communication, and
• receive the third data specifying the second configuration operation for the computing device based on the second data received via the short-range wireless communication.