CLOUD SERVICES PLATFORM
Embodiments of the disclosed technology comprise a cloud-hosted central service platform that interfaces and enables access to both central and distributed resources and peripherals for connected mobile applications. For example, this platform allows service providers and application developers to create a large number of new classes of applications, leveraging web access to devices, sensors, and/or actuators of any kind. This platform can be applied to virtually any vertical segment. Any of the disclosed features or aspects of the disclosed embodiments can be used in various combinations and subcombinations with one another or with other methods, apparatus, and systems.
1 . (canceled)
2 . (canceled)
3 . A method, comprising:
by computing hardware in a mobile device,
receiving an identification of a printer on which a user desires to print a document, the receiving comprising performing a scanning operation of a machine-readable code associated with the printer or performing a near-field communication (NFC) scanning operation on a NFC tag associated with the printer;
receiving an identification of the document that the user desires to print;
wirelessly transmitting to a central server the identification of the printer along with either the identification of the document or data for the document.
4 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
receiving a user selection of printing parameters affecting how the document will be printed; and
transmitting the printing parameters to the central server.
5 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
receiving a user selection indicating that the user desires to receive coupons for local services when printing the document; and
transmitting the user selection indicating that the user desires to receive coupons to the central server.
6 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the receiving the identification of the document comprises receiving an indication of a document stored on a cloud storage provider.
7 . One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform the method of claim 3 .
8 . A method, comprising:
by computing hardware in a central server,
receiving from a mobile device an identification of a selected printer on which a user of the mobile device desires to print a document, the identification having been obtained by the user performing a scanning operation of a machine-readable code associated with the selected printer or performing a near-field communication (NFC) scanning operation on a NFC tag associated with the selected printer;
receiving data for the document; and
transmitting document printing data to an edge node remote from the central server and associated with the selected printer, the document printing data causing the document to be printed at the selected printer.
9 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
receiving a user selection of printing parameters affecting how the document will be printed; and
generating the document printing data based at least in part on the printing parameters.
10 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
receiving a user selection indicating that the user desires to receive coupons for local services when printing the document;
retrieving coupon data associated with the location of the selected printer; and
supplementing the document printing data with the coupon data so that one or more coupons are printed at the selected printer along with the document.
11 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the method further comprises receiving from the mobile device an identification of the document, wherein the identification indicates that document is stored on a cloud storage provider; and wherein the receiving data for the document comprises retrieving the document from the cloud storage provider.
12 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the edge node is separate from the printer and is configured to communicate with the printer using printer drivers designed for the printer.
13 . One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform the method of claim 8 .