Patent ID: 6209037
Filing Date: 2001-03-27
Classification: G05B

Abstract:
A method of allowing an application program to communicate with any one of a group of supported hardware devices, where each of the supported hardware devices contains a unique communication protocol, the method comprising the steps of:defining a set of standard communication services to be supported, where the standard communication services each correspond to a communication function that is implemented by at least some of the hardware devices in the group of supported hardware devices;defining an information target for each of the hardware devices in the group of hardware devices, where each information target comprises a plurality of actual information cells that represent the unique communication protocol of the hardware device associated therewith;defining a communication map for each information target containing mapping information cells that relate each of the standard communication services in the set of standard communication services to the actual information cells of the information targets;invoking at least one of the standard communication services in the application program.