Patent ID: 7756944

Claim:
An information providing apparatus, comprising: an electronic memory; a central processing unit to implement a dispatcher unit to acquire a plurality of authentication information from at least two of a plurality of authentication providing units in response to a request from a predetermined application to which access is sought, the dispatcher unit storing the plurality of authentication information in the electronic memory and merging the plurality of authentication information into a merged authentication information, the plurality of authentication information including a common authentication information, shared by the plurality of applications, from a first authentication providing unit, and an application-specific authentication information, corresponding to the predetermined application, from a second authentication providing unit, and a union merge unit to combine authentication information provided by at least two other authentication providing units of the plurality of authentication providing units before providing the authentication information to the dispatcher unit, the union merge unit determining a calling order of the at least two other authentication providing units based on a merge structure information; and an interface unit to provide the merged authentication information to the predetermined application via a communication medium, wherein the request from the predetermined application corresponds to a user authentication request, and the dispatcher unit sends another request to the first authentication providing unit to authenticate the user and acquires from the first authentication unit a verification information including information pertaining to the user and information verifying that the user has been authenticated, the union merge unit integrating the verification information from the first authentication providing unit and the application-specific authentication information from the second authentication providing unit as integrated verification information.