The TWAIN Working Group is building an open standard to let any application drive print and scan over the cloud, without a device driver. It is called the TWAIN Direct Reference Platform.
The trigger is a change the group does not control. Operating system makers are retiring the installable drivers that print and scan have long depended on.
The specification is being defined now. The group is inviting device vendors, software vendors and managed service providers to help shape it.
Applications that print or scan today require separate drivers, integration SDKs or APIs, and testing for every brand of scanner and multifunction device. The standard replaces that with a single connection point.
An application built to the specification connects once. It then reaches every conformant printer and scanner in a customer's environment, whatever the brand or operating system.
The specification is written so that one running platform can serve many applications and many device brands simultaneously. That leaves the operating model to the market rather than fixing it in the standard.
An enterprise can operate its own platform across the equipment it owns. A service provider or software vendor can run one for its customers and build products on top of it.
Whoever operates the platform decides who connects to it and on what terms. The working group's stated position is that its job is the standard, and products get built on top.
To demonstrate that the specification works, the group has built a reference implementation. It runs print, pull scan and push scan from end to end over a live cloud on real hardware. The client driving it sits on a separate network.
That last detail matters for the push scan case. A device initiating a scan to a destination across a network boundary is the workflow that driver-based capture handles least well.
An open, driverless standard spanning every operating system gives the industry a durable way to connect, according to the group.
Who shapes the standard
Joseph Odore is leading the reference implementation for the working group. He is Chairman Emeritus and Executive Director of the TWAIN Interoperability Platform.
"Print and scan have always meant a separate driver or integration for every device, brand, and operating system," Odore said.
"The specification defines one connection point instead. A developer writes to it once and reaches the whole environment, and whoever operates the platform runs it on their own terms."
Erin Dempsey, Managing Director of the TWAIN Working Group, said the specification is still being settled by its members.
"The standard is open, and it is taking shape now," Dempsey said. "Members decide how it works, and they are the ones who turn it into products and services."
The TWAIN Working Group is a nonprofit industry organisation maintaining open, vendor-neutral standards for document imaging and capture. It was founded in 1992.
The original TWAIN standard is embedded in hundreds of millions of devices and applications, connecting scanners, multifunction devices and the software that drives them.
TWAIN Direct extended that work to the network, enabling driverless scanning over IP. The Reference Platform carries the same approach to the cloud.
Group members include device manufacturers, independent software vendors, managed service providers, systems integrators and end user organisations. Companies interested in joining or seeing a demonstration can contact the group at info@twain.org.
Further information is published at www.twain.org.