METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DEVICE INTERACTION BY PROTOCOL

There is provided a method of passing information between two or more information handling devices, such as a printer, a personal computer or a scanner. There exists a means for communication of information such as network with network connection means between the information handling devices. Each passage of information consists of one or more interactions from an interaction set, none of the interactions of the interaction set being dependent on the function to be carried out on the information by any of the information handling devices. This is particularly advantageous where each passage of information relates to sharing of a surface between a first device and one or more second devices, wherein the surface is a representation of an internal state of the first device. Preferably, each surface comprises data and a set of formats in which the data can be provided by the first device, and further comprises a property set, the property set defining to which interactions of the set of interactions the first device is adapted to respond.