Microsoft submits scanner protocol to IEEE

Microsoft has contributed its Web services protocol specification for consumer scanning peripherals to the Printer Working Group (PWG) of the IEEE industry standards body..

The firm claimed that Microsoft Scan Service Definition Version 1.0 (WS-Scan) will make it easier for partner companies to make products interoperable across multiple platforms.

Microsoft said that this will deliver new functionality and manageability improvements to customers.

WS-Scan provides a common framework for describing and sharing information between Windows Vista and consumer scanning peripherals.

Microsoft has built on the initial efforts of Xerox, and collaborated with several companies in the printing ecosystem, to develop the WS-Scan protocol specification as part of its efforts to work with partners to develop Windows-based solutions.

As a result of submitting the specification to the PWG, these solutions will now be available to any platform that companies need to meet their customers' interoperability requirements.

"This collaboration is a response to customer and industry interest in having the WS-Scan Service Schema mapped directly to the PWG Scan semantic model," said Jack Mayo, group programme manager of the Windows Experience team at Microsoft.

"The ability to make interoperable solutions will also greatly reduce the development burden on PWG partner companies."