Abstract: The subject invention relates to systems and methods for automatic recovery from errors in a computing environment. A system is provided to facilitate failure recovery in the computing system. The system includes at least one driver component that enumerates at least one layer of a driver stack. A module associated with the driver component requests re-enumeration of the driver stack upon detection of an error in the computing system. When an error is detected by a driver or operating system component, a protocol can be established whereby a new copy of the driver's stack or system resources is re-enumerated in parallel to existing resources that may be in an unknown or error state. The new copy of the stack may allow the driver to become operational in lieu of the previous stack which can be reclaimed for other system uses over time.

Abstract: A service discovery stream is represented as an N-ary tree that provides the capability to change, add, or remove an element with only one modification to the entire tree. The number of elements in a stream are counted and each element and the element's children are converted into a node of the N-ary tree. Each node in the tree can have any number of siblings, which are linked to each other using a doubly linked list.

Abstract: A method and apparatus to decrease the amount of time it takes to obtain friendly names of Bluetooth devices is presented. A name server caches friendly names for devices that it has acquired from other devices or from other name servers. The name server is any device that caches friendly names of Bluetooth devices and that makes the friendly names available to other devices. A requesting device determines if a name server has responded to an inquiry command. If a name server has responded, the device gets the friendly names the name server has cached and requests the friendly names of devices that responded that have not been cached by the name server. Identification of a name server is accomplished by embedding a marker in the friendly name field after the null character to indicate that the device is a name server.

Abstract: A method and system for asserting power control over one or more hardware devices connected via a bus. The invention includes a method and system for signaling and waiting to suspend a first device connected to a second device. The invention also includes a method and system for suspending a tree of devices with one or more of the devices hierarchically organized as parent devices and child devices in the tree. A controller at a root of the tree receives an idle request from one or more of the child devices and suspends all devices in the tree after receiving an idle request from each of the child devices. The invention also includes an input/output control (IOCTL) data structure for communicating the idle request.

Abstract: A technique to simplify L2CAP channel creation/configuration for a node is presented. The method enables a node to determine how involved it is in the L2CAP channel connection creation and management process. There are three levels of participation that the node may specify. The three levels are no involvement at all, minimal involvement, and total involvement. In no involvement, the channel is dropped if a remote node does not accept all node specified parameters. In minimal involvement, the channel is dropped if a remote node does not accept all node specified parameters and the node is notified when the connection has been disconnected by a remote disconnect or HCI link loss. In the total involvement level, the node is fully involved in the channel creation/configuration. The node provides a function pointer that is called to confirm or reject parameters. If a parameter is unacceptable, the connection is disconnected.

Abstract: A computer peripheral has a processor, non-volatile memory, and a plurality of controls. The non-volatile memory holds control mappings corresponding to a plurality of application program genres. The control mappings indicate actions to be performed in application programs of particular genres in response to actuation of particular controls. The control mappings indicate controls by unique string indexes that are also used in HID control descriptors associated with the computer peripheral.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer program product provide applications and application developers with generic access from user mode to the L2CAP layer of Bluetooth by exposing the L2CAP layer to user mode via a socket interface. In particular, a kernel mode primary component and user mode helper component cooperate to expose a Winsock interface to user mode components, and to manage various Bluetooth-specific functions and operations, allowing a user mode user application to access Bluetooth functionality without providing Bluetooth-specific commands or actions, and without being required to use RFCOMM.

Abstract: A method for rebalancing bandwidth allocations to peripheral and other devices, particularly for isochronous communications, connected to a computer system via a bus in order to accommodate bandwidth requirements of a newly added device or newly launched application is described. The method is particularly useful in the context of buses such as the Universal Serial Bus (USB) and the IEEE 1394 bus (FireWire) which allow a plurality of devices to be connected to a computer system and even be powered by the bus. The method utilizes a Policy to identify preferred configurations and, furthermore, extends the USB and other standards to specify devices that can dynamically respond to commands to change their bandwidth to another setting.

Abstract: A manager component for managing input from legacy and non-legacy devices in a similar manner is disclosed. An inventive manager component receives input from both non-legacy input drivers for non-legacy input devices, and legacy input drivers for legacy input devices. The manager component provides the input to application programs that desirably have previously registered to receive input from one or more types of input devices. The application programs receive this input without directly communicating with the drivers.

Abstract: The present invention relates to systems and methods that facilitate wireless device communications and configuration. A detection component identifies N devices that are coupled together via a biological medium, N being an integer, wherein the medium includes direct or indirect touching to a device or devices. After biological contact, a configuration component initiates a configuration between a subset of the devices. Although configurations and/or other communications can be conducted through a medium such as the human body, the present invention can employ an initial touch to identify respective devices whereby other electronic configuration sequences commence without further device contact. Other aspects include chain touching between users and/or devices to facilitate contact between the devices.

Abstract: A system and method of Bluetooth compliant architecture and communication uses a miniport driver structure to efficiently implement the Bluetooth protocol layers, while allowing simple communication with underlying hardware.

Abstract: A technique to simplify L2CAP channel creation/configuration for a node is presented. The method enables a node to determine how involved it is in the L2CAP channel connection creation and management process. There are three levels of participation that the node may specify. The three levels are no involvement at all, minimal involvement, and total involvement. In no involvement, the channel is dropped if a remote node does not accept all node specified parameters. In minimal involvement, the channel is dropped if a remote node does not accept all node specified parameters and the node is notified when the connection has been disconnected by a remote disconnect or HCI link loss. In the total involvement level, the node is fully involved in the channel creation/configuration. The node provides a function pointer that is called to confirm or reject parameters. If a parameter is unacceptable, the connection is disconnected.

Abstract: A method and apparatus to decrease the amount of time it takes to obtain friendly names of Bluetooth devices is presented. A name server caches friendly names for devices that it has acquired from other devices or from other name servers. The name server is any device that caches friendly names of Bluetooth devices and that makes the friendly names available to other devices. A requesting device determines if a name server has responded to an inquiry command. If a name server has responded, the device gets the friendly names the name server has cached and requests the friendly names of devices that responded that have not been cached by the name server. Identification of a name server is accomplished by embedding a marker in the friendly name field after the null character to indicate that the device is a name server.

Abstract: A manager component for managing input from legacy and non-legacy devices in a similar manner is disclosed. An inventive manager component receives input from both non-legacy input drivers for non-legacy input devices, and legacy input drivers for legacy input devices. The manager component provides the input to application programs that desirably have previously registered to receive input from one or more types of input devices. The application programs receive this input without directly communicating with the drivers.