Patent ID: 7600218

Claim:
An association control apparatus which controls an association of operations of a first appliance and a second appliance that are connected to each other via a network, the operations being categorized in advance, the apparatus comprising: an association template management unit operable to store in advance a plurality of association templates each of which is a file in which an outline of the association of the operations is described and which includes a plurality of service descriptions in each of which an operation of a plurality of appliances that perform an association operation is described in an abstract form, and each of the plurality of service descriptions includes (1) a first service description that includes information specifying the first appliance that performs the association operation and information specifying the association operation performed by the first appliance, and (2) a second service description that includes information specifying the second appliance that performs the association operation and information specifying the association operation performed by the second appliance; an input unit/output unit that receives instructions from and outputs information to a user; and a control unit operatively connected with said input unit that controls operations of the association control apparatus, said control unit includes a memory storing one or more computer-readable programs that when executed by said control unit cause the association control apparatus to function as: a template specification unit operable to specify, based on the instruction received from the user, one of the plurality of association templates stored in advance by said association template management unit; an operation information search unit operable to search, based on description details in the specified association template, information relating to an operation of the first appliance and information relating to an operation of the second appliance; an operation description unit operable to substantiate the plurality of service descriptions by describing specific operation details in the specified association template using the searched information; and an association execution unit operable to control the operation of the second appliance based on the association template in which the specific operation details are described, wherein the operation information search unit is operable to search the appliances connected via the network for the first appliance and the second appliance, each of which performs an operation indicated by corresponding one of the plurality of service descriptions included in the association template, and the operation description unit is operable to substantiate the plurality of service descriptions by replacing the plurality of abstract service descriptions included in the association template with specific descriptions corresponding to one of the first appliances and the second appliance which have been searched by the operation information search unit.