Patent ID: 8573485

Claim:
An information processing apparatus capable of being connected to an information processing device via a reader/writer, comprising: a processor; and a non-transitory memory, the memory storing instructions executable by the processor and providing: a middleware for providing a plurality of applications for the information processing device with basic functions shared by the applications, and a device driver for sequentially processing a plurality of commands received from the plurality of applications via the middleware in the order in which the commands are received by the device driver so as to control the corresponding reader/writer so that the applications concurrently access the reader/writer, wherein the device driver switches between a shared mode in which the plurality of applications are allowed to concurrently access the reader/writer and a dedicated mode in which only one of the applications is allowed to access the reader/writer, and wherein, upon receiving a command from one of the applications while executing a command received from one of the other applications the device driver: places the received command in an execution wait mode from the time when the command is received to the time when a predetermined timeout interval has elapsed, and sends a timeout error message to the one of the applications when the predetermined timeout interval has elapsed.