User interface management for controlled devices

• US 20020105543A1
• Filed: 02/07/2001
• Published: 08/08/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Liu, Ling, Li, Qiaoyun, Dong, Sheng
• Application Number:
  US09/779,046
• Publication Number:
  US 20020105543A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/744
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2814 Exchanging control software or macros for controlling appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving configuration of the network and network elements H04L41/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways

Abstract

In one embodiment, the present invention determines an identification corresponding to a device and a user interface corresponding to the identification of the device is remotely loaded from a remote source. In another embodiment, a user interface corresponding to the identification of the device is locally loaded from a local source. In yet another embodiment, a basic user interface corresponding to the identification of the device is loaded if a user interface corresponding to the identification of the device is not found by searching remotely or locally.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining an identification corresponding to a device; and

remotely loading a user interface from a remote source wherein the user interface corresponds to the identification of the device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification is selected from the group consisting of global unique identification (GUID) and unit information (UINFO).

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

remotely searching for a user interface corresponding to the identification.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote source includes the World Wide Web.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

remotely loading a user interface corresponding to the identification if a user interface corresponding to the identification is not found by searching locally.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein locally searching includes searching the storage medium of a controller.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

loading a basic user interface if a user interface corresponding to the identification is not found by searching remotely.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the basic user interface can be modified through an user input.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface is loaded on a controller.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface controls the device operation.

11. A method comprising:

determining an identification corresponding to a device;

loading a particular user interface wherein the particular user interface corresponds to the identification of the device; and

loading a basic user interface if the particular user interface is not found.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the identification is selected from the group consisting of global unique identification (GUID) and unit information (UINFO).

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

locally searching for a particular user interface; and

remotely searching for a particular user interface if a particular user interface is not found by searching locally.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein locally searching includes searching a storage medium of a controller.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein remotely searching includes searching the World Wide Web.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the basic user interface can be modified through user input.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the user interface is loaded on a controller.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the user interface controls the device operation.

20. The device controller of claim 19, further comprising:

the device controller is configured to search for a user interface corresponding to the identification at the locations selected from the group consisting of a storage medium coupled to the processor and a remote network.

21. The device controller of claim 20, further comprising:

the device controller is configured to search the remote network if a user interface corresponding to the identification is not found by searching the storage medium coupled to the processor.

22. The device controller of claim 19, wherein the first communication medium is an IEEE 1394 protocol compliant.

23. The device controller of claim 20, wherein searching the remote network includes searching across the first communication medium.

24. The device controller of claim 23, wherein the first communication medium is the World Wide Web.

25. The device controller of claim 20, wherein the storage medium is selected from the group consisting of memory and storage devices.

26. The device controller of claim 19, wherein the identification is selected from the group consisting of global unique identification (GUID) and unit information (UINFO).

27. The device controller of claim 19, further comprising a library of customizing tools for a user to modify the basic user interface prior to the loading on the device controller.

28. The device controller of claim 19, further comprising the device controller controls the device operation through the user interface.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 29, wherein the identification is selected from the group consisting of global unique identification (GUID) or unit information (UINFO).

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 29, further comprising:

remotely searching for a user interface corresponding to the identification.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 29, wherein the remote source includes the World Wide Web.

33. The computer-readable medium of claim 29, further comprising:

remotely loading a user interface corresponding to the identification if a user interface corresponding to the identification is not found by searching locally.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 33, wherein locally searching includes searching the storage medium of a controller.

35. The computer readable medium of claim 31, further comprising:

loading a basic user interface if a user interface corresponding to the identification is not found by searching remotely.

36. The computer readable medium of claim 35, wherein the basic user interface can be modified through an user input.

37. The computer readable medium of claim 29, wherein the user interface is loaded on a controller.

38. The computer readable medium of claim 29, wherein the user interface controls the device operation.

19. A device controller comprising:

a processor; and

the device controller configured to detect the coupling of a device to a first communication medium, to load a user interface that corresponds to an identification received from the device on the device controller, and to load a basic user interface on the device controller if a user interface that corresponds to the identification is not found.

29. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a set of instructions to translate instructions, the set instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

determining an identification corresponding to a device; and

remotely loading a user interface from a remote source wherein the user interface corresponds to the identification of device.