Method and system to access software pertinent to an electronic
Contents
1. 5 The method of claim 1 wherein the step of obtaining comprises the steps of a issuing a request to the peripheral device for a device descriptor b receiving the device descriptor from the peripheral device and c parsing the device descriptor to determine said at least one identifier 6 The method of claim 1 wherein the step of obtaining comprises the steps of a issuing a request to the peripheral device for a string descriptor comprising said at least one identifier b receiving the string descriptor from the peripheral device and c parsing the string descriptor to determine said at least one identifier 7 The method of claim 1 whereby the step of obtaining comprises the steps of a issuing a Class request to the peripheral device for at least one identifier and b receiving said at least one identifier 8 The method of claim 1 whereby the step of reading comprises the steps of a issuing a Vendor Specific Device request to the periph eral device for said at least one identifier and b receiving said at least one identifier from the periph eral device 9 The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining a network address comprises accessing a database that includes a plurality of network addresses using said at least one identifier to find the network address in the database 10 The method of claim 9 wherein the database is stored on the host device 11 The method of cla2. 164 166 DEVICE URI DLL ACTIVATE BROWSER WITH URI RETURN Patent Application Publication Jun 27 2002 Sheet 7 of 8 US 2002 0083228 A1 USER RUNS DEVICE MANAGER 170 USER REQUESTS DEVICE PROPERTIES 172 DEVICE MGR BEGIN DISPLAY OF DEVICE PROPERTY SHEET 174 176 DATABASE DEVICE MGR NO CREATE URI PROPERTY PAGE CREATE SYSTEM AND VENDOR PROPERTY PAGES 178 180 FIG 7 CONTINUE Jun 27 2002 Sheet 8 of 8 US 2002 0083228 A1 Patent Application Publication S31ndONW 8 OIA UNO nvuooua SMVd9Odd nars4 l adoN HK _gsz 6200 AYOWSW WSLSAS ZZ 3HYMW HI4 566 SNINOLLISOd gez 21990015 3OVJH3 LNI OVdH LNI 491430 VIVQ WvHoOHd v6EL 3331 53 sna 1vu3Hdluad Se WOW S TnQOW 06 VHSDOHd H3HLO NOHd SAVdSOHd 7730 um NOILVOITddv 79710 SEC SNS T E 62 c d Goo JOunOS K NYM HO NV1SS3TS BIA so HINI ozz TVNOILIQy IN uge LSZ eGz DNISS OOdd 6 US 2002 0083228 A1 METHOD AND SYSTEM TO ACCESS SOFTWARE PERTINENT TO AN ELECTRONIC PERIPHERAL DEVICE AT AN ADDRESS BASED ON A PERIPHERAL DEVICE IDENTIFIER FIELD OF THE INVENTION 0001 The present invention generally relates to a method and system for accessing software and other materials pertaining to a peripheral device over a net
3. 35 performs a decision step 66 to deter mine whether a corresponding network address is stored in the database Further details of steps followed for making this determination are described below with regard to FIG 3 Alternatively the network address is generated from the IDs For example the identifier fields of the device descrip tor can be mapped to an Internet Protocol IP address Specifically the device class is used for the first quad of the IP network address the device subclass is used for the second quad the product ID is used for the third quad and the product ID is used for the fourth quad of the IP network address Another approach is to generate an alphanumeric web address from the vendor ID name and the product ID model e g www lt vendorIDname gt com lt modelIDname gt support 0040 Ifa network address is not stored in the database or cannot be generated properly using the device descriptor fields then the device driver and or other software must be manually loaded at a step 68 as shown in FIG 2 Manual loading typically involves inserting a storage medium such as a CD ROM on which the device driver and or software are stored into a corresponding drive or manually down loading the device driver and or other software via the Jun 27 2002 Internet or following another procedure that requires user intervention or action Manual loading may also be required if network communication is not available or
4. PNP MGR ENUMERATE DEVICE 116 PNP MGR CHECK DEVICE REGISTRY 118 PNP MGR 120 DEVICE TES INSTALLED PNP MGR LOAD OLD DEVICE DRIVER PNP MGR LOAD NEW DEVICE DRIVER 124 122 DEVICE URI DLL ACTIVATE BROWSER WITH URI 126 Patent Application Publication Jun 27 2002 Sheet 5 of 8 US 2002 0083228 A1 PNP MGR SAVE DEVICE DATA IN REGISTRY PNP MGR EXECUTE NEW DEVICE DLL NEW DEVICE DLL LOAD DEVICE DATA FROM REGISTRY NEW DEVICE DLL DATABASE HAS DEVICE 130 132 134 136 DISPLAY URI TO USER YES 140 NEW DEVICE DLL ACTIVATE NO BROWSER WITH URI NEW DEVICE DLL WIES Mme COMPLETE DEVICE INSTALLATION ACTIVATES YES PNP MGR LOAD DEVICE DRIVER RETURN 146 FIG 5 Patent Application Publication Jun 27 2002 Sheet 6 of 8 US 2002 0083228 A1 PNP MGR i DEVICE URI 1 IN DATABASE 150 YES 152 PNP MGR i DON T 5 ASK FLAG FALSE 154 PNP MGR EXECUTE DEVICE URI DLL YES DEVICE URI DLL PROMPT USER 156 158 DEVICE URI DLL DON T ASK SELECTED 160 DEVICE URI DLL DEVICE URI DLL SET DON T ASK SET DON T ASK TRUE FALSE DEVICE URI DLL USER WANTS URI ACTIVE
5. continues with the automatic loading that occurs over the network at step 70 0045 If however no local database exists on the host personal computer or other host device or if the local database does not include a network address indexed by the IDs obtained from the peripheral device then the operating system accesses a remote database at a step 100 The remote database may be accessed at a predefined Microsoft Corpo ration WINDOWS Update Web site or at a different address indicating some other remote device with which communication is provided over the network A decision step 102 determines whether a network address indexed by the IDs obtained from the peripheral device is stored in the remote database This step may be accomplished by a request from operating system 35 directly to the remote database or by a different remote database access procedure as appropriate for the remote database For example the remote database can be queried via an active server page ASP or other server process Those skilled in the art will recognize that a network address could alternatively be generated at the remote device based upon the IDs obtained from the peripheral device If a network address is found in the remote database or remotely generated then the net work address is transferred to the host personal computer or other host device and stored in memory 22 at step 94 If however no remote database exists or if the remote data b
6. conventional per sonal computer 20 provided with a processing unit 21 a system memory 22 and a system bus 23 The system bus couples various system components including the system memory to processing unit 21 and may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller a peripheral bus and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures The system memory includes read only memory ROM 24 and random access memory RAM 25 A basic input output system BIOS 26 contain ing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within the personal computer 20 such as during start up is stored in ROM 24 The personal computer 20 further includes a hard disk drive 27 for reading from and writing to a hard disk not shown a magnetic disk drive 28 for reading from or writing to a removable magnetic disk 29 and an optical disk drive 30 for reading from or writing to a removable optical disk 31 such as a CD ROM or other US 2002 0083228 A1 optical media Hard disk drive 27 magnetic disk drive 28 and optical disk drive 30 are connected to system bus 23 by a hard disk drive interface 32 a magnetic disk drive inter face 33 and an optical disk drive interface 34 respectively The drives and their associated computer readable media provide nonvolatile storage of computer readable machine instructions data structures program modules and other data for personal computer 20 Althou
7. pref erably contains data fields relating to the peripheral device including a vendor ID and a product ID 0037 Once these IDs are parsed from device descriptor fields the network address can be determined from a data base or alternatively can be generated based upon the IDs In one embodiment operating system 35 first determines at a decision step 64 whether a device driver and or other software is already available on host personal computer 20 The operating system will typically check for the device driver among the system files in a predefined directory 0038 Ifthe device driver and or other software is already available on host personal computer 20 then operating system 35 simply loads the device driver and or other software into memory 22 shown in FIG 1 Optionally operating system 35 can perform a more detailed check by comparing IDs obtained from the device descriptor fields to the existing device driver and or other software to see if the version numbers match or if the available version number is later than the version number referenced in the device descriptor fields If the version numbers match or the avail able version is a more recent one then operating system 35 loads the device driver and or software into memory 22 0039 If the version numbers do not match or if the available version is older or if the device driver and or other software is not even available on personal computer 20 then operating system
8. to initially install a peripheral Jun 27 2002 device thus detracts from a quality user experience because the initial installation of the peripheral device is not truly a plug and play operation 0004 Typically when a new peripheral device is con nected to a computer the computer operating system detects the presence of the new peripheral and then requests the user to insert the CD ROM or other medium supplied with the peripheral device Users are accustomed to this delay incurred before using a new product but would clearly prefer to avoid it Similarly manufacturers of peripheral devices would prefer not to include CD ROMs or floppy disks with their products because of the costs involved Producing and distributing CD ROMs or other memory media shipped with a peripheral device represents a consid erable expense to peripheral vendors for at least two reasons One reason is the obvious cost of materials and packaging associated with providing tangible medium such as CD ROMs In addition scheduling production of CD ROMs or floppy disks can delay shipment of the peripheral devices or reduce the amount of software development time available If changes to the device driver or other software that will be shipped with a new peripheral device are required late in the development cycle of the product then CD ROM produc tion may be delayed until after hardware production of the peripheral is already complete Besides delaying deli
9. 1 wherein the step of enabling communication comprises the step of automatically down loading and installing firmware into the peripheral device 19 The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of creating a link to the network address that a user can subsequently select to later communicate with the remote device 20 The method of claim 1 wherein the step of commu nicating comprises the step of automatically executing a browser function on the host device to automatically access the remote device at the network address with the browser function 21 The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of enabling a user to selectively execute a browser function on the host device to automatically access the remote device at the network address 22 The method of claim 21 further comprising the step of enabling a user to suppress further requests to execute a browser function on the host device and to suppress auto matically accessing the network address 23 The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of periodically updating the database to add and change net work addresses pertaining to peripheral devices each net work address being accessed based upon at least one iden tifier obtained from a peripheral device 24 A machine readable medium having machine execut able instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to implement steps a through c of claim 1 25 A system for automatically acc
10. O3GdlA SNISS OOdd he WOH HOLINOIN Patent Application Publication Jun 27 2002 Sheet 2 of 8 US 2002 0083228 A1 60 STORE NETWORK 61 Se START ADDRESS IN BEES ae DATABASE ENUMERATE DEVICE 64 CORRECT SOFTWARE INSTALLED YES INFO FLAG TRUE NO NO 66 82 DATABASE HAS NETWORK ADDRESS DATABASE HAS NETWORK ADDRESS ACCESS NETWORK ACCESS NETWORK ADDRESS ADDRESS NO d a PROCESS ERROR SOFTWARE YES OBTAIN SOFTWARE VIA NETWORK ADDRESS 74 INSTALL SOFTWARE FIG 2 ACCESS OTHER INFO VIA NETWORK ADDRESS LOAD SOFTWARE INTO MEMORY Patent Application Publication Jun 27 2002 Sheet 3 of 8 US 2002 0083228 A1 START CHECK LOCAL DATABASE FOR NETWORK ADDRESS 90 LOCAL DATABASE Ae HAS NETWORK ACCESS WINDOWS YES UPDATE SITE 100 REMOTE DATABASE HAS NETWORK ADDRESS READ YES NETWORK ADDRESS NO SET STEP 66 RESULT TO NO SET STEP 66 RESULT TO VES 104 CONTINUE TO MANUAL LOAD STEP 68 CONTINUE TO AUTO ACCESS STEP 70 FIG 3 Patent Application Publication Jun 27 2002 Sheet 4 of 8 US 2002 0083228 A1 110 112 PC POWERED USER UP WITH HOT DEVICE CONNECTS ATTACHED DEVICE BUS DRIVER NOTIFY PNP MGR OF NEW DEVICE 114
11. US 20020083228A1 a2 Patent Application Publication ao Pub No US 2002 0083228 A1 as United States Chiloyan et al 43 Pub Date Jun 27 2002 54 METHOD AND SYSTEM TO ACCESS SOFTWARE PERTINENT TO AN ELECTRONIC PERIPHERAL DEVICE AT AN ADDRESS BASED ON A PERIPHERAL DEVICE IDENTIFIER 76 Inventors John H Chiloyan Redmond WA US Edward C Giaimo Bellevue WA US Correspondence Address MICROSOFT CORPORATION LAW OFFICES OF RONALD M ANDERSON 600 108TH AVENUE N E SUITE 507 BELLEVUE WA 98004 US 21 Appl No 09 746 637 22 Filed Dec 21 2000 Publication Classification SRC e e 0061 0 52 USC 710 9 709 226 57 ABSTRACT A method and system for using a peripheral device identifier obtained from a peripheral device to determine a network address from a database or generate the network address based on the identifier Information related to the peripheral device is obtained from a remote device at the network address The method includes automatically transferring at least one identifier from the peripheral device to a host device when the peripheral device is connected to the host device The step of transferring is preferably done during or after enumeration of the peripheral device such as occurs when a USB device is connected to a computer The identifier is used as an index to automatically determine a network address from a database on the host device or a remote device or to automatical
12. ace such as a video adapter 48 and is usable to display Web pages and or other information In addition to the monitor personal computers are often coupled to other peripheral output devices not shown such as speakers through a sound card or other audio interface not shown Such I O devices are generally referred to as peripheral devices For purposes of discussion in regard to the present invention general peripheral device 56 is coupled to personal computer 20 via I O device interface 46 The term I O device interface is intended to encompass each interface specifically used for a serial port a parallel port a game port a keyboard port and or a USB port Through I O device interface 46 information is com municated between peripheral device 56 and processing unit 21 via system bus 23 Peripheral device 56 includes firm ware memory 5 for storing information Firmware memory 58 may be erasable programmable read only memory EPROM flash memory magnetic storage or other memory Firmware memory 58 stores a vendor ID a product ID and or other information related to the peripheral device 56 0031 Personal computer 20 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more additional sources such as a remote computer 49 In regard to the present invention the URI or address stored in the firmware memory of the peripheral device may specify a location that is accessed through remote computer 49 Remote
13. ance at a service station or at other times after a vehicle has been placed into service 0061 As generally indicated above each peripheral device connected to peripheral bus 252 is a peripheral node 256 and includes firmware memory 258 for holding infor mation Firmware memory 258 may be EPROM flash memory magnetic storage or other types of memory Firm ware memory 258 stores a vendor ID a product ID and or other information related to peripheral node 256 0062 As before the URI or address stored in the firm ware memory of the peripheral node can specify a location where additional source 249 can be accessed Additional source 249 may be another PVA an external server which might be generally equivalent to personal computer 20 a router a network personal computer a peer peripheral device a satellite or another common network node 0063 Like personal computer 20 PVA 220 operates in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more devices via a network interface 253 and a network 251 Network 251 may be a wireless network for mobile com munication or a wired network for communication at the manufacturing site a service station a fleet station or a residence Whether wireless or wired network 251 may be a wide area network WAN a local area network LAN or some other type of communication network Such network ing environments are commonly used for digital cellular telephones global position
14. are into the peripheral device provide help information or provide other services and information 0053 FIG 7 illustrates another embodiment that uses the URI obtained from the database This embodiment enables operating system 35 to display the URI in a form such as a hyper text link or shortcut on a properties page that the user can click to subsequently access the remote device identified by the URI At a step 170 the user runs the Device Manager program available for example through the control panel of the WINDOWS operating system The Device Manager displays a list of all hardware devices connected to the host personal computer including peripheral devices The user clicks on an icon representing the desired peripheral device at a step 172 and selects an option to view the properties of that peripheral device At a step 174 the device manager begins to display the device property sheet that has tabs to various pages of properties pertaining to the selected device At a decision step 176 the device manager looks in the database for a URI that is based on at least one ID obtained from the peripheral device If a URI exists in the database corresponding to the peripheral device then the device manager creates a URI property page that displays the device URI in a string or other format that enables the user to subsequently click on the URI to activate a connection to the remote device indicated by the URI This property page and the l
15. ase does not include a network address indexed by the IDs obtained from the peripheral device then the result of the overall determination of step 66 is set to NO at a step 104 With that result the installation process will continue with the conventional manual loading of device drivers and other software from a CD ROM or floppy disk at step 68 0046 Another detailed embodiment is illustrated in FIG 4 This embodiment is based upon an inclusion of the present invention into the operating system As noted above steps 110 or 112 respectively occur when a user hot connects a USB device to the USB port of a host device or the host device is powered up with the peripheral USB device already connected At a step 114 a Bus Driver program detects the new peripheral device and notifies a Plug and Play Manager program that the number of devices attached to the bus has changed At a step 116 the Plug and Play Manager enumerates the device by sending I O request packets IRPs to query the device for its IDs which are provided in a device descriptor along with other device Jun 27 2002 parameters The detailed enumeration tasks are carried out by the Bus Driver program in partnership with the Plug and Play Manager program 0047 The Bus Driver program is typically a peripheral component interconnect PCI or personal computer memory card international association PCMCIA parent bus driver module This enumeration process is simi
16. based on the peripheral device identifier is carried out Alternatively this check can be done after the host device has already determined the network address In this case the operating system decision deter mines whether to launch a task to access the network address or to retrieve and install a device driver and or other information and or perform any other task related to access ing the network address 0013 The step of determining a network address prefer ably includes the step of searching a database based on the identifier The database may reside on the host device or at the remote device Alternatively the identifier can be used to generate a network address that includes the identifier or is otherwise based on the identifier 0014 The step of enabling communication between the host device and remote device preferably includes the step of automatically retrieving data machine instructions a document or other machine readable material pertaining to the peripheral device from the remote device at the network address Preferably the method further includes the step of executing a setup program stored on the remote device that pertains to the peripheral device The setup program can automatically install a device driver program for the periph eral device on the host device automatically execute an application program pertaining to the peripheral device and or provide a link to the network address that a user can subseque
17. cations thereto those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that many additional modifications can be made thereto within the scope of the claims that follow Accord ingly it is not intended that the scope of the present invention in any way be limited by the above description but instead be determined entirely by reference to the claims that follow The invention in which an exclusive right is claimed 15 defined by the following 1 A method of accessing information related to a periph eral device connected to a host device comprising the steps of a obtaining from the peripheral device at least one identifier identifying the peripheral device b determining a network address based on said at least one identifier and c enabling communication between the host device and a remote device at the network address said commu nication pertaining to the peripheral device 2 The method of claim 1 wherein the step of obtaining occurs automatically when the host device detects a change in a number of peripheral devices connected to the host device 3 The method of claim 1 wherein the step of obtaining occurs automatically when a user manually provides an indication to the host device that the peripheral device is connected to the host device 4 The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining comprises the steps of employing said at least one identifier as at least a portion of the network address Jun 27 2002
18. cess In a vehicle there is a substantial expense in connecting each peripheral device to a PVA because of the need for routing individual wires for each peripheral device To overcome this problem US 2002 0083228 A1 a peripheral bus can be used that enables many peripheral devices to communicate with the PVA and with each other over a single set of wires 0055 Such peripheral buses are similar to other commu nication networks but are typically limited by wire length data rate error handling capability or other conditions Thus FIG 8 illustrates an example for use in an automobile that utilizes a peripheral bus Those skilled in the art will recognize that the exemplary embodiment shown in this Figure is also applicable to special purpose computing devices in other applications and fields such as industrial programmable logic controllers building management com puters flight control computers and other computing or processor devices that interact with peripheral devices 0056 PVA 220 is provided with a processing unit 221 a system memory 222 a system bus 223 a storage device interface 232 a bus interface 246 and a network interface 253 Other components such as a video adapter a printer interface or the like may be optionally included in PVA 220 but are not shown in order to simplify the illustration The system bus couples various system components includ ing the system memory to processing unit 221 and may b
19. computer 49 may be another personal computer a server which is typically generally configured much like personal computer 20 a router a network personal com puter a peer device another peripheral device a satellite or Jun 27 2002 some other common network node and typically includes many or all of the elements described above in connection with personal computer 20 although only an external memory storage device 50 has been illustrated in FIG 1 The logical connections depicted in FIG 1 include a local area network LAN 51 and a wide area network WAN 52 Such networking environments are common in offices enterprise wide computer networks intranets and the Inter net 0032 When used in a LAN networking environment personal computer 20 is connected to LAN 51 through a network interface or adapter 53 When used in a WAN networking environment personal computer 20 typically includes a modem 54 or other means for establishing communications over WAN 52 such as the Internet Modem 54 which may be internal or external is connected to system bus 23 or coupled to the bus via I O device interface 46 i e through a serial port In a networked environment program modules depicted relative to personal computer 20 or por tions thereof may be stored in the remote memory storage device It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the
20. computers may be used such as wireless communication and wide band network links 0033 Exemplary Implementation of the Present Inven tion 0034 The following describes exemplary implementa tions of preferred embodiments utilizing plug and play tech nology such as USB standards for communication between a personal computer 20 shown in FIG 1 acting as a host device and a peripheral device such as an input output or other device Those skilled in the art will recognize that the details may be modified slightly for non plug and play technologies and other forms of communication with periph eral devices such as RS 232C serial IEEE 1284 parallel IrDA infrared IEEE 1394 and other standards However USB will be used consistently in the following examples to simplify the discussion 0035 FIG 2 illustrates the logic of an embodiment that installs a device driver application software or other mate rial Installing a device driver will be the primary example At a step 60 a network address is stored in a database Preferably this network address identifies a location where the device driver and or other material can be accessed However in another embodiment the network address iden tifies a central location where a different address can be obtained which identifies a location from which the device driver and or other material is downloaded Those skilled in the art will recognize that address redirection and or branch i
21. d to occur Such a manual process can be difficult for novice users can delay the initial installation of a peripheral on a computer and likely detracts from user satisfaction Furthermore a fre quent problem with peripheral devices being reinstalled on a host computing device is that the user will have misplaced the CD ROMs or floppy disks that were originally provided with the peripheral devices Unless device drivers can be obtained from another source it may not be possible to reinstall a peripheral device 0006 A novel alternative addressing these problems is for the peripheral manufacturer to provide a network address in a memory of the peripheral device for a site from which US 2002 0083228 A1 a device driver and or other information pertinent to the peripheral device can be obtained This alternative is dis closed in commonly assigned U S patent application entitled Method and System to Access Software Pertinent to an Electronic Peripheral Device Based on an Address Stored in a Peripheral Device Ser No filed on 2000 In this alternative the operating system reads the address from the peripheral device when the peripheral device is first connected to a host computing device or when the host computing device is energized with the peripheral device connected to the host computing device for the first time The operating system then auto matically downloads the driver and or other material from a web server or rem
22. e any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller a peripheral bus and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures 0057 The system memory includes ROM 224 and RAM 225 BIOS 226 containing the basic routines used to transfer information between components within PVA 220 is stored in ROM 224 PVA 220 further interfaces with a storage device 227 for reading from and or writing to a permanent or removable media Storage device 227 is con nected to system bus 223 by storage device interface 232 The storage device and its associated machine readable media store machine instructions data structures program modules and other data for PVA 220 It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that numerous types of machine readable media can be used to store data that is accessible by processor such as floppy disks magnetic cassettes flash memory cards digital video disks Bernoulli cartridges RAMs ROMs and the like A number of program modules may be stored on the machine readable media including an operating system 235 with a browser function one or more application programs 236 other program modules 237 and program data 238 0058 PVA 220 communicates with peripheral devices via bus interface 246 and peripheral bus 252 Peripheral bus 252 may be an IEEE 1394 bus an ISO 11898 bus e g a BOSCH Controller Area Network or other type of bus Those skilled in the art w
23. ed on the IDs then the network address is accessed at a step 84 to obtain the other information noted at step 76 Again the device driver or other previously installed software is loaded into memory 22 at step 78 0044 With respect to FIG 3 a preferred embodiment is illustrated for determining whether a network address related to a particular peripheral device is stored in a database During enumeration step 62 in FIG 2 operating US 2002 0083228 A1 system 35 requests from the peripheral device a device descriptor that includes vendor and product IDs At a step 90 operating system 35 then checks a local database for a network address based on the identifiers The database may be a part of the operating system files previously installed on the host personal computer and will then likely be updated from time to time during periodic online updates of the operating system The vendor ID and or product ID will serve as indexes into the database to reference a network address related to the peripheral device If at a decision step 92 operating system 35 determines that the local database includes a network address based on the IDs obtained from the peripheral device then operating system 35 reads the network address into memory 22 of the host personal computer or other host device at a step 94 In this case the result of the determination of step 66 is set to YES at a step 96 With this result the overall installation process
24. essing information related to a peripheral device comprising a a peripheral device in which is stored at least one identifier b a remote device adapted to communicate over a network and c a host device comprising i a memory in which are stored machine instructions ii a network interface adapted to communicate with the remote device over the network and iii a processor said processor executing the machine instructions stored in the memory to carry out a plurality of functions including 1 communicating with the peripheral device to obtain at least one identifier identifying the periph eral device 2 determining a network address based on said at least one identifier and 3 enabling a communication between the host device and the remote device at the network address said communication pertaining to the peripheral device 26 The system of claim 25 wherein said machine instruc tions further cause the processor to a issue a request to the peripheral device for a device descriptor b receive the device descriptor from the peripheral device and Jun 27 2002 c parse the device descriptor to determine said at least one identifier 27 The system of claim 25 wherein said machine instruc tions further cause the processor to a issue a request to the peripheral device for a string descriptor comprising said at least one identifier b receive the string descriptor from the perip
25. f a URI indexed by the IDs obtained from the peripheral device is included in the database then optionally the New Device DLL displays the URI to the user at a step 138 Further optionally the New Device DLL enables the user to choose whether to activate access of the remote device indicated by the URI or US 2002 0083228 A1 simply proceed with the manual installation If the user activates access of the remote device identified by the URI at a decision step 140 or if the access of the remote device at the URI is automatically activated then the New Device DLL activates a browser function at a step 142 with the URI included as the network address The browser function accesses the remote site indicated by the URI and the New Device DLL obtains the device driver other software and or information pertinent to the peripheral device 0050 Those skilled in the art will recognize that the URI could be for an active server page or other server side function that redirects to another URI obtains the device driver directly or performs another related function Also as described above the URI can identify a file transfer protocol or other communication function used to obtain the device driver Step 142 therefore can either transfer the device driver file and or other material to host personal computer 20 or simply act as the location of an INF and other installation files used by the New Device DLL to install the peripheral device as i
26. g and Play Manager determines whether the newly con nected peripheral device has been previously installed If not the Plug and Play Manager executes an operation at a step 122 to load a new device driver Conversely if the peripheral device has been previously installed the Plug and Play Manager loads the old device driver at a step 124 As discussed above the Plug and Play Manager can still use the IDs obtained from the peripheral device to determine a URI and execute a Device URI dynamic link library DLL at a step 126 to activate a browser or other function that will connect to a remote site using the URI 0049 FIG 5 illustrates details of the process for loading a new device driver as indicated at step 122 in FIG 4 In this process the Plug and Play Manager first saves the device ID data including the peripheral device string infor mation in the registry as shown at a step 130 At a step 132 the Plug and Play Manager executes a New Device DLL At astep 134 this New Device DLL loads the peripheral device IDs and other parameters from the registry At a decision step 136 the New Device DLL verifies whether a URI indexed by the peripheral device IDs exists in a local database on the host personal computer or other host device If a URI from which the device driver can be obtained for the peripheral device is unavailable in the database then installation must be completed manually by the user using a conventional approach I
27. gh the exemplary environment described herein employs a hard disk remov able magnetic disk 29 and removable optical disk 31 it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other types of computer readable media which can store data that is acces sible by a computer such as magnetic cassettes flash memory cards digital video disks Bernoulli cartridges random access memories RAMs read only memories ROMs and the like may also be used in the exemplary operating environment 0030 A number of program modules may be stored on the hard disk magnetic disk 29 optical disk 31 ROM 24 or RAM 25 including an operating system 35 with a browser function one or more application programs 36 other pro gram modules 37 and program data 38 A user may enter commands and information into personal computer 20 through input devices such as a keyboard 40 and a pointing device 42 Other input devices not shown may include a microphone joystick game pad satellite dish scanner digital camera or the like These and other input devices are often connected to processing unit 21 through an input output I O device interface 46 that is coupled to the system bus Output devices such as a printer not shown may also be connected to processing unit 21 through an I O device interface 46 that is coupled to the system bus Similarly a monitor 47 or other type of display device is also connected to system bus 23 via an appropriate interf
28. heral device and c parse the string descriptor to determine said at least one identifier 28 The system of claim 25 wherein said machine instruc tions further cause the processor to a issue a Class request to the peripheral device for at least one identifier and b receive said at least one identifier 29 The system of claim 25 wherein said machine instruc tions further cause the processor to a issue a Vendor Specific Device request to the periph eral device for said at least one identifier and b receive said at least one identifier from the peripheral device 30 The system of claim 25 wherein said machine instruc tions further cause the processor to determine a network address by accessing a database that includes a plurality of network addresses using said at least one identifier to find the network address in the database 31 The system of claim 30 wherein said database is stored by the host device 32 The system of claim 30 wherein said database is stored by a device that is accessible by the host device 33 The system of claim 25 wherein said machine instruc tions further cause the processor to generate a network address based on said at least one identifier 34 The system of claim 25 wherein said machine instruc tions further cause the processor to automatically retrieve at least one of data machine instructions and a document pertaining to the peripheral device from the remote device usi
29. if it is inactive However if a network address is stored in the database then operating system 35 performs a step 70 to access the network address 0041 After accessing the network address via the net work connection e g a web page on a web server as specified by the network address accessed over a connection to the Internet operating system 35 performs a step 72 to initiate download of the device driver and or other software from a remote device at the network address Again if network communication is not available or not active then the attempt to initiate download will fail and manual intervention is required to load the device driver and or other software Preferably however network communication is available active and downloading of the software and any other materials is accomplished by a file transfer request via hypertext transfer protocol HTTP file transfer protocol FTP wireless application protocol WAP or other com munication technique 0042 Once received the device driver and or other soft ware is installed on the host personal computer at a step 74 Installation may be completely automatic or may be accom plished by a wizard program When a driver or other material is first downloaded it is preferred that a step 76 be performed to access other information relevant to the periph eral device at the site specified by the network address For example a vendor offer for additional equipment supplies o
30. ill recognize that numerous other peripheral buses exist in other fields in which the present invention can be employed such as in the industrial manu facturing field which may use an EN 50170 bus e g a Profibus bus an ISA SP50 bus e g a Fieldbus Foundation bus for smart peripherals or in the aerospace field which uses an ARINC bus for hne replaceable units In some applications it may also be possible to simply extend system bus 223 0059 Note that in a conventional prior art operating system it is common to designate a specific directory to search for a device driver usable with a newly attached peripheral device In contrast the present invention requires that the operating system search the database for the location Jun 27 2002 of the device driver and the location or address of the device driver is found in the database using the ID of the peripheral device 0060 Connected to peripheral bus 252 in the example shown are a digital cell phone 233 and a global positioning system 234 Other peripheral devices connected to periph eral bus 252 may include typical peripheral devices that are currently incorporated into automobiles such as compact disk players digital video disk players etc Additional source 249 could provide direct access to device drivers or other material when they are connected to peripheral bus 252 The new connection of a peripheral device can occur during initial production during mainten
31. im 9 wherein the database is stored on a device that is accessible by the host device 12 The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determin ing a network address comprises the step of generating a network address based on said at least one identifier 13 The method of claim 1 wherein the step of enabling communication comprises the step of automatically retriev ing at least one of data machine instructions and a docu ment pertaining to the peripheral device from the remote device using the network address 14 The method of claim 1 wherein the step of enabling communication comprises the step of automatically down loading a setup program that is stored on the remote device and pertains to the peripheral device 15 The method of claim 14 wherein the step of enabling communication further comprises the step of automatically executing the setup program that was downloaded to the host device to install software on the host device pertaining to the peripheral device 16 The method of claim 1 wherein the step of enabling communication comprises the step of automatically install ing a device driver for the peripheral device on the host device 17 The method of claim 1 wherein the step of enabling communication comprises the step of automatically down US 2002 0083228 A1 loading an application program that is stored on the remote device and pertains to use of the peripheral device by the host device 18 The method of claim
32. ing systems emergency roadside assistance systems shipping fleet communications and the Internet Network 251 enables the PVA 220 to communicate with remote sources such as additional source 249 It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exem plary and other means of establishing a communication link may be used such as a conventional modem 0064 Accessing information related to peripheral node 256 from additional source 249 is accomplished in much the same manner as described above for the USB embodiment However enumeration and other communication with peripheral node 256 is done through intervening peripheral bus 252 which simply adds a shared layer of communica tion between processor 221 and peripheral node 256 0065 When a new peripheral node is connected to peripheral bus 252 operating system 235 enumerates the new node generally as described above in connection with the USB embodiment However when a new peripheral node is connected to peripheral bus 252 bus interface 246 must first establish a peripheral bus address for the new peripheral node In the USB embodiment an address is known for the USB port to which the new device is US 2002 0083228 A1 connected By contrast only the peripheral bus is connected to a port on the PVA Thus an intervening bus address for each peripheral node must be established before the new node can be enumerated As mentioned this step is accom plished in accord
33. ink that it includes to the URI enable a user to access the remote device at any later time Preferably a step 178 performs this operation by executing an Internet browser function and accessing the location specified by the URI After the preceding step is completed or if a URI is not found in the database the device manager performs a step 180 in which a conventional system and or vendor property pages are created for the peripheral device 0054 With reference to FIG 8 an alternative exemplary system for implementing the present invention includes a special purpose computing device in the form of a personal vehicle assistant PVA 220 A PVA is similar in some respects to a personal data assistant PDA however a PVA is optimized for use in a vehicle such as an automobile Microprocessors play an increasingly important role in the operation of modern vehicles and are used to control the operation of the vehicle its lighting systems entertainment systems and more recently are used for providing emer gency assistance and navigation functions Drivers have become dependent upon such sophisticated features in their vehicles to make driving time safer more productive and more enjoyable The designs for vehicles currently being marketed and for those under development incorporate electronic features such as display screens speakers and a remote microphone coupled to a cellular telephone drives for digital navigation maps and Web ac
34. ipheral device to a host device A network address is then automatically determined by the host device based on the identifier enabling communication pertaining to the peripheral device to occur between the host device and a remote device or other additional source at the network address For example the host device may download a device driver for the peripheral device from the remote device The method thus also preferably includes at least one of the steps of retrieving software and or other material from the remote device at the network address automatically executing a program installing a device driver installing an application program displaying a Web page registering a product downloading documentation downloading and installing firmware into the peripheral device presenting help information or accessing other material related to the peripheral device all from the remote device accessed using the network address Those skilled in the art will recognize that any number of items can be obtained and or performed once the network address is determined from the peripheral device identifier 0009 The host device may detect when a peripheral device is newly connected to the host device by detecting a change in the number of peripheral devices connected or by Jun 27 2002 other automatic means Alternatively the user may manually notify the host device of the connection 0010 The step of transferring the identifier from
35. lar to that described earlier in that the Plug and Play Manager gathers information from the peripheral device such as the vendor ID and product ID Alternatively the ID information is obtained via a class driver or vendor specific device VSD request Also the strings of ID information can alternatively be obtained directly from a known memory location in the peripheral device or from a location in the memory of the peripheral device that is indicated by a pointer obtained from the peripheral device Encoding within the strings obtained from the peripheral device can distinguish the various types of information For example a forward slash symbol can be used to indicate a specific type of information or a command to treat the following charac ters as a specific type of information Specifically a slash T T could indicate that the following characters are a title or text to display A slash I I could indicate instructions to the operating system A slash S S could indicate another string identifier As before the characters following one of these commands could be the actual string for example enclosed in quotation marks or a pointer to a memory location where the string characters are stored 0048 Having obtained the peripheral device IDs and any other parameters from the peripheral device the Plug and Play Manager examines a registry of previously installed peripheral devices at a step 118 At a decision step 120 the Plu
36. ly generate a network address Then communication occurs between the host device and a remote device or other source of the informa tion indicated by the network address For example the host device may download a device driver for the peripheral device from the remote device or from another peripheral device connected to the host device indicated by the network address STORE NETWORK ADDRESS IN DATABASE 64 CORRECT SOFTWARE INSTALLED NO 66 DATABASE HAS NETWORK ADDRESS l X CONNECT DEVICE TO PORT DON T ACCESS OTHER INFO FLAG TRUE NO 82 DATABASE HAS NETWORK ADDRESS OBTAIN SOFTWARE VIA NETWORK ADDRESS 72 ACCESS NETWORK ADDRESS T INSTALL SOFTWARE ACCESS OTHER INFO VIA NETWORK ADDRESS 78 LOAD SOFTWARE INTO MEMORY Jun 27 2002 Sheet 1 of 8 US 2002 0083228 A1 Patent Application Publication I DIA S TndOMW VHDOHd AHOWZIN t QHVOSA2M 3uvwwula 95 Or YSHLO 39IA3d VHd HdIH d SAVdOOHd WALSAS SA VHOOHd ge NOILVOl IddV Vivd VSOHdd 5211001 AVBDOdd YSHLO 2022 7 7117 WALSAS ONILVHZdO 3OV3Ha LNI S3OV3H3 LNI 3OVJHALNI ovdd LNI 3Aldd 60 AId 0 SAIC 30130 OA WS OILANOVN sia auvH 9 ec St L OVdH LNI AYOMLAN d Tr1dWOO SLOWS ES Gz 92 Haldvav LINN
37. ng can be extended further to create a series of successive links to a final terminal location where the device driver and or other material is located and can be obtained In one preferred embodiment the terminal network address is stored in a database on host personal computer 20 However as indicated above another embodiment of the present invention stores the terminal network address in a database on an additional source such as remote computer 49 shown in FIG 1 0036 Ata step 61 a user connects a peripheral device to a USB I O device interface 46 shown in FIG 1 Alterna tively step 61 may represent power being applied to host US 2002 0083228 A1 personal computer 20 with a peripheral device already connected In yet another alternative step 61 may not refer to a direct physical connection but instead to a remote or virtual connection such as would occur by bringing a peripheral device that communicates over a wireless con nection within infrared radio frequency RF or other appropriate communication distance of host personal com puter 20 depending upon the nature of the wireless com munication implemented between the host computer and the peripheral device Returning to a preferred USB embodi ment operating system 35 shown in FIG 1 detects and enumerates the new device at a step 62 During the enu meration process operating system 35 queries the peripheral device for a device descriptor The device descriptor
38. ng the network address 35 The system of claim 25 wherein said machine instruc tions further cause the processor to automatically download a setup program that is stored on the remote device and pertains to the peripheral device 36 The system of claim 35 wherein said machine instruc tions further cause the processor to automatically execute the setup program that was downloaded to the host device to install software on the host device pertaining to the peripheral device 37 The system of claim 25 wherein said machine instruc tions further cause the processor to automatically install a device driver for the peripheral device on the host device 38 The system of claim 25 wherein said machine instruc tions further cause the processor to automatically download an application program that is stored on the remote device and pertains to use of the peripheral device by the host device 39 The method of claim 25 wherein said machine instructions further cause the processor to automatically download and install firmware into the peripheral device 40 The system of claim 25 wherein said machine instruc tions further cause the processor to create a link to the US 2002 0083228 A1 network address that a user can subsequently select to later communicate with the remote device 41 The system of claim 25 wherein said machine instruc tions further cause the processor to automatically execute a browser function on the host device to a
39. nt for determining whether a network address corresponding to a particular peripheral device is stored in a database 0022 FIG 4 is a flow diagram illustrating the logic of an embodiment that accesses a network address from a data base using an identifier for the peripheral device 0023 FIG 5 is a flow diagram illustrating the logic of an embodiment that downloads a new device driver for a peripheral device from a Uniform Resource Indicator URI obtained from a database 0024 FIG 6 is a flow diagram illustrating the logic of an embodiment that activates a browser function and navigates Jun 27 2002 to a URI obtained from a database to obtain information pertaining to a peripheral device 0025 FIG 7 is a flow diagram illustrating the logic employed for creating a peripheral device property page that includes a URI for display and activation by a user to subsequently access the remote site indicated by the network address and 0026 FIG 8 is a schematic block diagram of an exem plary personal vehicle assistant PVA system suitable for implementing the present invention DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 0027 Exemplary Operating Environment 0028 FIG 1 and the following discussion are intended to provide a brief general description of a suitable computing environment in which the present invention may be imple mented both in regard to a server that stores and provides Web pages and a client that
40. ntly select to again connect to the remote site 0015 The method preferably further includes the step of automatically executing a browser function on the host device and automatically accessing the network address Alternatively the method includes the step of requesting permission of a user to execute a browser function on the host device in order to automatically access the network US 2002 0083228 A1 address This step optionally includes the step of enabling a user to suppress further requests to execute a browser function on the host device and or to automatically access the network address 0016 Another aspect of the present invention is directed to a system for automatically accessing information related to a peripheral device The system includes the peripheral device storing at least one identifier One embodiment of the system also comprises a host device such as a personal computer that includes a memory a network interface a processor and an interface used for connecting with the peripheral devices The host device connects in communi cation with a remote device over the network interface or via a peripheral interface Preferably the remote device is a server but alternatively it can comprise a non volatile storage in which a database of network addresses is stored The database of network addresses is employed to identify a network address for the remote device based on an identifier obtained from the peripheral de
41. ote device accessed using the Internet address However this approach requires that the peripheral device store an address Since peripheral devices currently do not store such a network address existing or legacy peripheral devices could not utilize this novel alternative 0007 It would thus be desirable to provide another method applicable to existing peripheral devices for auto matically providing a network address for a site from which materials pertaining to a peripheral device that is connected to a host computing device can be obtained Currently there is no provision for accomplishing this function The method should also avoid the need for substantial user manual interaction to load device drivers and install related software when connecting a peripheral device to a host computing device Clearly a system and method providing automated access over a network to the required drivers and other related software for both new and older peripheral devices will avoid the problems noted above SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 0008 The present invention is directed to a method and system for using at least one peripheral device identifier obtained from a peripheral device to determine a network address stored in a database or generated by an algorithm A remote device at the network address is accessed to obtain information related to the peripheral device The method includes the step of transferring at least one identifier from the per
42. ple many computers and peripheral devices support the USB standard and have USB interfaces which provide for hot connection or disconnection Specifically when a newly connected USB device is enumerated by the operating system a vendor identification ID a product ID and other information are obtained from the peripheral device in device descriptor fields Assuming that a USB compliant peripheral device was previously installed on the computer i e listed in a device registry and provided with an appropriate device driver the computer can immediately begin using the peripheral device 0003 Currently when a peripheral device is connected to computer or other host device for the very first time it is at times necessary to run a setup program to install any client application software used in connection with the peripheral device and to provide a driver for the peripheral device Typically a peripheral device driver and related application software are provided on a CD ROM or floppy disk that is packaged with the peripheral device Drivers for peripheral devices are not always provided with the operating system particularly for peripheral devices sold after the operating system was released for sale When a driver is not included with the operating system a user must manually load or otherwise manually provide the driver application software and or other material for the peripheral device The interac tion required by the user
43. r services can thus be displayed to a user Finally the device driver or other material is loaded into memory 22 at a step 78 and the peripheral device is ready for use 0043 If at decision step 66 the correct device driver or other software is already installed on the host personal computer then a further series of steps might be undertaken to access the network address for other purposes For example the peripheral device vendor may desire that an advertising web page be displayed or that other services be offered to the user on the hope of generating further sales However it is also contemplated that the user will be given the option to suppress such additional displays or offers of products or services Thus a decision step 80 checks whether a flag has been set by the user to prevent any further attempts to access information at the network address If so the method goes directly to step 78 to load the driver software or other software If however the flag is false i e not set by the user then the method proceeds to a decision step 82 to connect to the network address or alternatively to generate the network address If no network address is found in the database and it cannot be generated from the peripheral device ID information then operating system 35 optionally processes an error at a step 86 and continues to step 78 to load the software into memory If a network address is found in a database or has been generated bas
44. requests the Web pages and displays them to a user Although not required the present invention will be described in the general context of com puter executable instructions such as program modules that are executed by a personal computer Generally program modules include routines programs objects components data structures etc that perform particular tasks or imple ment particular abstract data types Moreover those skilled in the art will appreciate that this invention may be practiced with other computer system configurations particularly in regard to a client device for displaying a Web page includ ing hand held devices pocket personal computing devices digital cell phones adapted to connect to a network micro processor based or programmable consumer electronic devices game consoles TV set top boxes multiprocessor systems network personal computers minicomputers mainframe computers industrial control equipment auto motive equipment aerospace equipment and the like The invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote process ing devices that are linked through a communications net work In a distributed computing environment program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices 0029 With reference to FIG 1 an exemplary system for implementing the present invention includes a general pur pose computing device in the form of a
45. s done when a user manually identifies a location for a device driver or INF file At a step 144 the New Device DLL completes installation of the peripheral device with the downloaded device driver or previously installed device driver Once the best device driver is selected and installed on host personal computer 20 the Plug and Play Manager loads the device driver into memory 22 at a step 146 and enables active use of the peripheral device 0051 With reference to FIG 6 the present invention can also be used to download and install an application program obtained from the remote device identified by the URI display a web page accessed at the URL download and install firmware into the peripheral device or otherwise provide additional information or services available at the URI To do so the Plug and Play Manager verifies that the URI exists in the database at a decision step 150 If it does not then this process does not continue but instead returns to execution of a previous action If a database that includes a URI indexed by the IDs obtained from the peripheral device does exist a decision step 152 determines whether a flag has been set to refrain from prompting the user to activate the URI at subsequent times following an initial installation of the peripheral device This is useful for example if the user prefers not to have an advertisement accessed at the URI displayed If a don t ask again flag was previously selected b
46. the peripheral device is preferably accomplished during an enumeration process performed by the operating system when a peripheral device is connected to a computer During the enumeration process the operating system queries a newly connected peripheral device to determine parameters of the peripheral device such as those in a USB device descriptor The device descriptor includes information such as a vendor identifier and a product identifier The step of transferring the identifier from the peripheral device may also be performed after enumeration using functions that request and receive the device descriptor 0011 If the desired peripheral device identifier is an identifier other than those in the device descriptor other functions may be used to request and receive the identifier or an index thereto For example a string descriptor may encode an identifier or a pointer to a location in a memory of the peripheral device at which the identifier is stored Alternatively a class request may be issued to the peripheral device for the identifier As another alternative a vendor specific command or different command may be issued to obtain the identifier from the peripheral device 0012 The method also preferably includes the step of checking to determine whether the peripheral device was previously registered on the host device If not the step of looking for a network address in a database or the step of generating a network address
47. utomatically access the remote device at the network address with the browser function 42 The system of claim 25 wherein said machine instruc tions further cause the processor to enable a user to selec tively execute a browser function on the host device to automatically access the remote device at the network address to display a web page indicated by the network address Jun 27 2002 43 The system of claim 25 wherein said machine instruc tions further cause the processor to enable a user to suppress further requests to execute a browser function on the host device and to suppress automatically accessing the network address 44 The system of claim 25 wherein said machine instruc tions further cause the processor to periodically update a database that includes a plurality of network addresses to add and change network addresses pertaining to peripheral devices each network address being indexed using at least one identifier obtained from a peripheral device
48. very of the peripheral devices storing the completed peripheral devices in inventory while the CD ROMs or floppy disks are being produced adds cost and delays revenue generation Alternatively to ensure CD ROM and or floppy disk pro duction meets the expected peripheral hardware production and shipping schedules software development may be cut short and development of additional features that might make the overall peripheral product more competitive and attractive in the marketplace may not occur Vendors may even have to distribute updated software on another CD ROM or by other means to correct bugs in the software or improve the functionality of software materials previously shipped with peripheral devices sold 0005 Updated device drivers and other materials are often available via the Internet and many computers have either full time connections or at least a dialup connection to the Internet Thus a peripheral vendor doesn t necessarily have to supply a CD ROM or floppy disks with a peripheral device if a vendor instead requires users to obtain the materials by a download over the Internet However con necting to the Internet and or downloading drivers and other materials is also a manual process that must be carried out by the user and will normally require the user to enter an appropriate address for a manufacturer web site and then search through various web pages until the appropriate web page is found to enable the downloa
49. vice enabling information pertinent to the peripheral device such as a device driver to be obtained by the host device from the remote device Alternatively the remote device may be another peripheral device such as an external storage device The remote device can comprise another peripheral device which may be useful for industrial automotive and other closed systems In any case the host device accesses the remote device using the network address to obtain data machine instructions a document and or other material pertaining to the peripheral device 0017 Another aspect of the present invention is directed to a machine readable medium on which are stored machine executable instructions that when executed by a processor generally cause the processor to perform the steps of the method described above BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES 0018 The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of this invention will become more readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein 0019 FIG 1 is a schematic block diagram of an exem plary personal computer PC system suitable for imple menting the present invention 0020 FIG 2 is a flow diagram illustrating the logic of a preferred embodiment of the invention 0021 FIG 3 is a flow diagram illustrating the logic of an embodime
50. with the well known standards applicable to the particular peripheral bus employed 0066 For example when a new node is connected to an IEEE 1394 peripheral bus the bus resets itself completely and all the peripheral nodes communicate among themselves to determine a new bus address for each peripheral node connected to the bus The bus addresses are digits from zero to n 1 where n is the number of peripheral nodes Then PVA 220 enumerates each peripheral node on the peripheral bus including peripheral node 256 Each peripheral node contains a bus information block similar to a device descrip tor in USB The third and fourth quadlets of the bus information block include a globally unique device ID Alternatively as with USB a textual descriptor with an identifier can be stored in a unit directory outside the bus information block at another location in firmware memory 258 This textual descriptor can be obtained during or after enumeration 0067 Once the peripheral node has been enumerated or the device identifier otherwise obtained from peripheral node 256 the remaining steps of the method for obtaining a URI from a database or generating a URI and then access ing the URI and information pertaining to the peripheral node are substantially the same as explained above in connection with the USB embodiment 0068 Although the present invention has been described in connection with the preferred form of practicing it and modifi
51. work and more specifically to accessing such software and other pertinent materials using a network address that is stored in a database or generated the network address being associated with an identifier for the peripheral device BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 0002 Most personal computers and many other types of computing devices such as game consoles TV set top boxes industrial control equipment and automotive equipment are designed to connect to different peripheral devices that expand the functionality of the computing device Peripheral devices and computing devices typically employ communi cation standards that enable the host device to recognize the presence and identity of a connected peripheral device These communication standards facilitate plug and play which enables a computing device to automatically recog nize a peripheral device and assign all of the resources that it requires without manual intervention While older legacy personal computer peripheral devices and earlier versions of computer operating systems did not implement the conve nience of plug and play most peripheral devices currently sold for use with personal computers are plug and play compatible In addition newer personal computers and newer operating systems now being sold and many newer designs of peripheral devices provide for hot connection or disconnection of a Universal Serial Bus USB peripheral device while the computer is energized For exam
52. y the user then the user will not be prompted to activate the browser with the URI Alterna tively the process can automatically activate a browser function with the URI loaded as the network address However the user will preferably be given the option to activate the browser function with the URI If the don t ask again flag is false meaning that the user has not yet selected the option then the Plug and Play Manager executes a Device URI DLL at a step 154 0052 At a step 156 the Device URI DLL informs the user that the database contains a URI and prompts the user to indicate whether the user wishes to activate the URI In this prompt the user also has the option of setting the don t ask again flag i e by selecting a check box or radio button A decision step 158 determines whether the user selected this option If so then the Device URI DLL sets the don t ask again flag to true at a step 160 If unchecked the Device URI DLL sets the don t ask again flag to false at Jun 27 2002 a step 162 At a decision step 164 the Device URI DLL further determines whether the user elected to activate the URI If not then the process is complete However if so the Device URI DLL performs a step 166 to activate the browser function and navigate to the network address speci fied by the URI As discussed earlier the URI may display an advertisement download and or initiate an application program download and install firmw
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