Patent ID: 8127030

Claim:
A method of controlling networking of resources that can be shared via a network by a plurality of devices on the network, the method comprising: obtaining shared resource information from a plurality of devices having shared resources wherein the shared resources comprise a plurality of sharable elementary function modules (SEFM's) included in the devices; configuring a topology of shared resources needed for performing an operation, which corresponds to an object, based on the obtained shared resource information, by choosing a group of SEFMs that can process the object by referencing information regarding functions of the SEFMs; and performing the operation by controlling interworking of the shared resources according to the configured topology; and wherein the performing comprises: allowing a device which has received from a request for performing the operation corresponding to the object to control the interworking of the shared resources as a master; and allowing a device which communicates with the device corresponding to the master through the network to perform the operation corresponding to the object as a slave; and controlling the interworking of the shared resources by sequentially driving an SEFM that serves as a source module, an SEFM that serves as a processor module, and an SEFM that serves as a sink module, in which the SEFM that serves as the source module, the SEFM that serves as the processor module, and the SEFM that serves as the sink module are shared resources obtained from the group of SEFMs of the devices.