US 9,176,745 B2Granted

Peripheral device used while being connected to information processing apparatus

AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha

InventorsHaruhiko Shirota, Hirokazu Higuchi, Hiroshi Ochiai

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Abstract

A peripheral device is selectively connected to an information processing apparatus including a first operating system and an information processing apparatus including a second operating system whose execution file is incompatible with that of the first operating system. The storage unit of the peripheral device stores a control program to be executed by the information processing apparatus. The control program includes a first control program to be executed on the first operating system and a second control program to be executed on the second operating system. After the peripheral device transmits the control program to the information processing apparatus, the information processing apparatus writes instruction information in the storage unit of the peripheral device in accordance with the control program. The peripheral device operates based on the instruction information.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A peripheral device for executing image forming or image reading, comprising:

a communication unit that communicates with any of a first information processing apparatus including a first operating system (OS) and a second information processing apparatus including a second operating system (OS) whose execution file is incompatible with the of the first operating system;
a storage unit including:
a first storage area configured to store a first control program which is read and executed by the first information processing apparatus including the first operating system when the communication unit is connected to the first information processing apparatus,
a second storage area configured to store a second control program which is read and executed by the second information processing apparatus including the second operating system when the communication unit is connected to the second information processing apparatus;
and
a third storage area configured to store data to be commonly used by the first information processing apparatus including the first operating system when the communication unit is connected to the first information processing apparatus and used by the second information processing apparatus including the second operating system when the communication unit is connected to the second information processing apparatus, wherein the third storage area is formatted by a file system recognizable by the first operating system and the second operating system;
a control unit that controls image forming or image reading of the peripheral device based on instruction information written in said storage unit from the first information processing apparatus executing the first control program and using the data when the first information processing apparatus is connected to the communication unit, and controls image forming or image reading of the peripheral device based on instruction information written in said storage unit from the second information processing apparatus executing the second control program and using the data when the second information processing apparatus is connected to the communication unit.

4 more elements

An image reading apparatus for executing image reading, comprising:

a communication unit that communicates with any of a first information processing apparatus including a first operating system (OS) and a second information processing apparatus including a second operating system (OS)whose execution file is incompatible with that of the first operating system:
a storage unit including:
a first storage area configured to store a first control program which is read and executed by the first information processing apparatus including the first operating system when the communication unit is connected to the first information processing apparatus;
a second storage area configured to store a second control program which is read and executed by the second information processing apparatus including the second operating system when the communication unit is connected to the second information processing apparatus;
and
a third storage area configured to store data to be commonly used by the first information processing apparatus including the first operating system when the communication unit is connected to the first information processing apparatus and used by the second information processing apparatus including the second operating system when the communication unit is connected to the second information processing apparatus, wherein the third storage area is formatted by a file system recognizable by the first operating system and the second operating system;
and
a control unit that reads out a reading control command written in said storage unit from the first information processing apparatus and controls an image reading operation of the image reading apparatus based on the reading control command when the first information processing apparatus executes the first control program and the first information processing apparatus is connected to the communication unit and reads out a reading control command written in said storage unit from the second apparatus and controls an image reading operation of the image reading apparatus based on the reading control command when the second information processing apparatus executes the second control program and the second information processing apparatus is connected to the communication unit.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.