Host device coupled to a usb peripheral and method of operating the same

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention relate to methods and apparatus for operating a host device (e.g. a ‘plug-and-play’ host device) coupled to a peripheral device (e.g. a mobile phone). In some embodiments, the host device may analyzed peripheral device-descriptive data (e.g. including but not limited to USB endpoint data) and determine information about the peripheral device in accordance with the results of the analysis. Operations that may be carried out by the host device in accordance with results of the analysis include but are not limited to protocol selection, retrieval of cell phone data, and determining software or hardware resource(s) of the peripheral device. In some embodiments, it is possible to actively suppress natural OS behavior whereby a device driver(s) specified by the peripheral device (e.g. in a hardware identifier) is loaded by the host device. For example, it is possible to load a surrogate driver instead. In one example, the hardware identifier is intercepted and not forwarded to a plug-and-play manager executing on the host device.

1 . (canceled) 
     
     
         2 . A method of determining device property(ies) of a peripheral device by a host device that is coupled to the peripheral device via a USB port, the method comprising:
 a. receiving USB endpoint descriptor data by the host device from the peripheral device that is coupled to the host device via a USB port;   b. analyzing the received USB endpoint descriptor data by the host device; and   c. in a manner determined by the results of the analysis of the USB endpoint descriptor data, determining at least one of:
 A. a memory capacity of the peripheral device; 
 B. a cellular network type(s) supported by the peripheral device; 
 C. a presence or absence of an onboard keyboard on the peripheral device; 
 D. an SMS repository capacity and/or an cellphone address book capacity of the peripheral device; and 
 E. a SMS and/or cellular phone log and/or cell phone address book and/or cellular phone hardware identifier retrieval scheme. 
   
     
     
         3 - 19 . (canceled) 
     
     
         20 . A method of operating a host device on which operating system (OS) software is executing, the method comprising:
 contingent upon the host device being in a first mode, responding to a coupling between a peripheral device and a host device so that the peripheral device passes hardware identifier information to the host device directly or indirectly specifying device driver(s) by preventing the hardware identifier information from reaching an executing plug-and-play-manager of the OS executing on the host side,   wherein the method is carried out on a host device that provides mutually-exclusive first and second modes, and wherein the method is carried out contingently on the host device being in the first mode and not in the second mode.   
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20  further comprising:
 responding into a user log-in event or user attempted-log-in event by transitioning the host device mode from one of the first and second modes to the other of the first and second modes. 
 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 20  further comprising:
 In accordance with content of user input received from a user into the host device, transitioning the host device mode from one of the first and second modes to the other of the first and second modes. 
 
     
     
         23 . (canceled) 
     
     
         24 . A method of operating a host device on which operating system (OS) is executing, the host device configured to receive input via a plurality of USB ports divided into first and second non-empty complementary disjoint subsets, the method comprising:
 in response to a coupling, via one of the USB ports, between a peripheral device and a host device so that the peripheral device passes to the host device, via the one of the USB ports, hardware identifier information that directly or indirectly specifying device driver(s);
 if the coupling is via a USB port that is a member of the first subset, preventing the device-driver-specifying hardware identifier information from reaching an executing plug-and-play-manager of the OS executing on the host side, thereby preventing the loading of the device driver(s) specified by the hardware identifier; and 
 otherwise, refraining from the preventing so that the OS executing on the host device or component(s) thereof forwards the hardware identifier to the plug-and-play-manager of the OS. 
   
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 24  wherein at least one of the USB ports are built-in ports of the host device. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 24  wherein at least one of the USB ports is an auxiliary external port. 
     
     
         27 - 67 . (canceled)