Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Michael P Fenelon

Frank Gorgenyi

Justin Allen Hutchings

Guillermo Eduardo Guillen

Herman Richard Forrest, Iii

Feng Yue

J Adrian Lannin

Kristofer Noel Iverson

Jesse D McGatha

Hristo H Ivanov

Yulin Jin

Erik O Peterson

Amanda Giang-Tien Nguyen

Ivan Pavicevic

Embodiments relate to an operating system configured to enable arbitrary applications to output 3D models to be physically formed by arbitrary 3D manufacturing devices. The operating system manages the 3D manufacturing devices, including installation of related software, device drivers, device properties, and so forth. The operating system also provides a path through which the arbitrary applications pass arbitrary print jobs (or documents) of 3D models, in a standard format, to the 3D manufacturing devices. The operating system handles queuing and spooling on behalf of the applications and the 3D manufacturing devices. Drivers of the 3D manufacturing devices may translate the 3D models outputted by the applications (in the standard format) to instructions or device language content that is specific to the respective 3D manufacturing devices.

3D manufacturing platform

Platform neutral device protocol techniques are described in which functionality to customize device interactions through communication busses is made accessible through platform independent script-based infrastructure. Functionality provided by an operating system to manipulate standard protocols of a communication bus used to interact with a connected device is exposed as script-based objects. Script-based protocol definition files associated with connected device may be employed to customize device protocols for the communications using the functionality exposed through the script-based objects. A computing device may acquire a protocol definition file for a particular device in various ways and host the protocol definition file via a suitable run-time platform. Requests for interaction with the particular device may then be handled using the custom protocols defined by the hosted protocol definition file.

Platform neutral device protocols

Bidirectional (bidi) extension techniques for USB and/or other similar busses/connections are described in which an interface is provided to enable bidirectional communication with connected devices. The interface may be implemented as an operating system component to handle bidi communication for devices from multiple different independent hardware vendors (IHVs). Device drivers for different devices can be configured to include extension files in accordance with an established schema for bidi communication. The extension files describe supported bidi attributes, capabilities of the device, and how to make calls into the device. The interface operates to detect the extension files and set-up a corresponding device for bidi communication. Applications then interact through the interface to access, retrieve, and set configuration and status data for connected devices. The use of extension files enable creation of architecture independent devices drivers that can be used across different platforms with substantially no changes.

Bidi extension for connected devices

Some embodiments of the invention provide techniques whereby a printer driver may be modified and supplemented over time. For example, a framework may be provided which enables a printer driver's functionality to be supplemented over time to include new and/or enhanced features, such as features relating to the manner in which the capabilities of a printer are configured, print settings are manipulated, information is presented to users, print-related system events are handled, etc. In some embodiments, one or more components (which may be included in a print subsystem provided by an operating system of a computing device, in a printer driver, and/or some other system element) may be configured to automatically seek and acquire configuration data from any of various sources, including the printer device, one or more online sources, and/or other sources.

Adaptable printer driver

In accordance with one or more aspects, a user selects one or more capabilities of a repository service and one or more capabilities of a scanner. A scan object including both acquisition parameters based on the selected one or more capabilities of the scanner and post-scan instructions based on the selected one or more capabilities of the repository service is generated and stored for subsequent access by the scanner. At the scanner, multiple scan objects available to a user of the scanner are identified. One or more electronic documents are created by scanning one or more documents using the acquisition parameters in the selected scan object. Both the post-scan instructions in the selected scan object and the one or more electronic documents are sent to a service identified in the scan object, where the post-scan instructions are processed.

Object-based network scanning

Various embodiments enable binary data to be included in its original form, along with XML control information, within the protocol used to transfer the data. In the illustrated and described embodiments, a data model is employed in which the binary data comprises part of a multi-part message that is divided with part delimiters.

Methods and systems for transferring binary data

Systems use a standard schema to describe the capabilities of a peripheral device, such as a printer device, in a structured and easily discoverable way. The schema can allow different peripheral device implementations to describe their capabilities in a consistent way to those entities that might query for the capabilities. The schema syntax can allow for direct querying of individual values, as well as for querying whole sections of the schema so that an accurate and complete understanding of the device can be gleaned.

Systems for schema-facilitated device capability discovery

Methods and systems use a standard schema to describe the capabilities of a peripheral device, such as a printer device, in a structured and easily discoverable way. The schema can allow different peripheral device implementations to describe their capabilities in a consistent way to those entities that might query for the capabilities. The schema syntax can allow for direct querying of individual values, as well as for querying whole sections of the schema so that an accurate and complete understanding of the device can be gleaned.

A system and method for automatic configuration upon installation of a network printer are disclosed. The techniques of the invention avoid the burden of manual configuration by users and system administrators. The network printer is associated with printer description files, a driver, a spooler, and a port monitor. The system comprises bi-directional application program interfaces associated with the spooler for allowing the driver to generate a bi-directional request and receive a bi-directional response. The system additionally includes a syntax within the printer description files for representing and associating the bi-directional request and the bi-directional response with a print feature. The system also includes extension files stored in the driver for relating bi-directional values and printer values and a notification infrastructure controlled by the port monitor for providing a bi-directional notification of configuration changes to the driver and selected applications.

System and method for automatic configuration

A standard schema is used to describe the capabilities of a peripheral device, such as a printer device, in a structured and easily discoverable way. The schema can allow different peripheral device implementations to describe their capabilities in a consistent way to those entities that might query for the capabilities. The schema syntax can allow for direct querying of individual values, as well as for querying whole sections of the schema so that an accurate and complete understanding of the device can be gleaned.

Growing community of inventors

Bothell, WA, United States of America

Michael P Fenelon