Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Benjamin Scott McGregor

Samuel David Adams

Kumar Rajeev

Niket Ashok Sanghvi

Doron J Holan

Peter W Wieland

Viraf Rusi Gandhi

John Michael Sheehan

Alain L Michaud

James George Cavalaris

Peter J Torr

George Evangelos Roussos

Kushal Suresh Narkhede

Yifan Wang

Dylan D'Silva

Paul Sliwowicz

Nabil Fates

Andrew Gordon Cunningham

Dylan David Miller

Matthew Gonzalez

Alain Michaud

Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media are provided for publishing, discovering, connecting with and activating services in a peer-to-peer environment. Services available in association with a first computing device are determined and encoded with instructions for accessing and understanding such services via their respective activation protocols. The encoded services are published via a publication protocol such that they are discoverable by at least a second computing device, irrespective of whether such services may be activated via the publication protocol. The second computing device discovers the available services via the publication protocol and accesses and understands the instructions associated with a desired service. Upon receipt of a request from the second computing device, via the activation protocol, to activate the requested service, the requested service is activated by the first computing device.

Controlling service discovery and activation among peers

Methods and devices for identifying available applications for use with hardware of a computer device may include generating an application request with at least one device identification and a hardware identification to determine available applications. The methods and devices may include transmitting the application request to a remote application store. The methods and devices may include receiving, from the remote application store, an available application list with one or more applications having application relationship metadata that identifies compatible usage with the at least one hardware identification. The methods and devices may include presenting the available application list on a display of the computer device.

Associating hardware to store applications

Various systems and methods for capability access management are disclosed herein. In one example, a system includes a memory and a processor to send a signed custom capability description (SCCD) received from a first vendor to the memory for storage. The system may send an application received from a second vendor to the memory for storage. The system attempts to match the application to an authorization listing of the SCCD, where the application can be modified to allow access to a previously inaccessible custom capability in response to the application matching the authorization listing of the SCCD.

Capability access management

Methods and devices for device service discovery may include receiving a query for a device service including one or more protocol-specific services connected to or discoverable by a computer device. The methods and devices may include mapping the query to one or more protocol-specific adapters selected based on the protocol-specific services. In addition, the methods and devices may include identifying at least one device endpoint representing at least one device that supports the device service and generating a list of device endpoints and corresponding service properties for each device that supports the device service.

Abstracted device service discovery

Examples described herein provide advanced pairing between an application and a selected device within an application-driven user experience. An application is enabled to pair devices within the application context and customize the user experience without relying on an experience or user interface provided by an operating system. This application-driven pairing is abstracted from protocols, allowing the application to provide custom pairing user experiences for any protocol.

Brokered advanced pairing

Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media are provided for brokering access to peripheral devices and/or device models associated with a computing system. An access broker evaluates requests for access to peripheral devices/models on behalf of a plurality of applications. The access broker evaluates requests for access to peripheral devices including scanners, point-of-sale devices, and devices using ubiquitous device protocols (e.g., USB, HID, Bluetooth, and Bluetooth LE) utilizing application declarations and user consents based upon device model identifiers and/or device-specific identifiers associated with the various devices. Applications may be notified of consent changes at runtime and/or application firmware updates for peripheral devices may be conducted upon receipt of user consent, for instance, to ensure adequate battery power before performing a peripheral device firmware update.

Brokering application access for peripheral devices

Growing community of inventors

Redmond, WA, United States of America

Benjamin Scott McGregor