Patent ID: 8608067

Claim:
In a first computing device configured to interface with a network and configured to interface with a local peripheral device using a driver specific to said local peripheral device, a method of enabling a second computing device to access, and control, via said network, at least one function of said local peripheral device, wherein said local peripheral device is not independently accessible to said network, comprising the steps of: Communicating with said local peripheral device, using the driver specific to said local peripheral device, to define a plurality of functions which can be performed with said local peripheral device; Locally storing a list of said plurality of functions; Abstracting each of said plurality of functions into an abstracted representation of the function, wherein said abstracted representation of the function conforms to a standard format, is descriptive of one of said plurality of functions, and enables usage of one of said plurality of functions independent of the driver specific to said local peripheral device; Transmitting said abstracted representations of the functions to said second computing device via a communication protocol; Receiving a first transaction from said second computing device, wherein said first transaction is communicated using at least one of said abstracted representations of the functions; and Communicating said first transaction to said local peripheral device, wherein said first transaction causes the local peripheral device to implement at least one of said plurality of functions.