SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR UBIQUITOUS APPLIANCE CONTROL

• US 20090327910A1
• Filed: 06/27/2008
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Universal Electronics, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Universal Electronics, Inc.
• Inventors: Black, Jeremy, Hayes, Patrick H.
• Granted Patent: US 9,294,705 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/744
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/282 based on user interaction within the home receiver circuitry for displaying additional information being controlled by a remote control apparatus H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2841 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2849 Audio/video appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72415 for remote control of appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42209 for displaying non-command information, e.g. electronic program guide [EPG], e-mail, messages or a second television channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4222 Remote control device emulator integrated into a non-television apparatus, e.g. a PDA, media center or smart toy remote control device for a television receiver integrated into a mobile phone H04M1/72415
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42221 Transmission circuitry, e.g. infrared [IR] or radio frequency [RF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42225 characterized by types of remote control, e.g. universal remote control
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42226 Reprogrammable remote control devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43637 involving a wireless protocol, e.g. Bluetooth, RF or wireless LAN [IEEE 802.11] arrangements for wireless networking or broadcasting of information in indoor or near-field type systems H04B10/114
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6547 comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup

Abstract

A slave relay station is adapted to serve and/or host pages comprising a simplified graphic user interface (GUI) encoded in a widely recognized format such as, for example, HTML or WML. The GUI embodies activatable links corresponding to control functions for configured appliances. A wireless phone or other device with network access and the capability to process and present such pages, for example via a Web browser, may then be utilized to effect control of such appliances by simply navigating to the network address of the slave relay station, obtaining an appropriate GUI page, and interacting with the links.

Claims

1. A method for using a personal communication device having a display and a slave relay station in communication with the personal communication device via a network to control operations of one or more controllable devices;

comprising;

transmitting from the personal communication device to the slave relay station via the network a first request;

receiving at the personal communication device a graphical user interface page having activatable links corresponding to controllable operations of one or more controllable devices, the graphical user interface page being provided to the personal communication device in response to the first request;

causing the received graphical user interface page to be displayed in the display of the personal communication device;

receiving at the personal communication device a selection of one or more of the activatable links of the displayed, received graphical user interface page;

transmitting from the personal communication device to the slave relay station via the network a second request in response to the selection of one or more of the activatable links of the displayed, received graphical user interface page; and

causing the slave relay station to transmit to the one or more controllable devices one or more commands to thereby control one or more operations of the one or more controllable device, the one or more commands being transmitted by the slave relay station in response to the transmitted second request.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface page is stored in a memory of the slave relay station and provided to the personal communication device via the network in response to the first request.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface page is stored in a memory of a server device in communication with the slave relay station and the personal communication device and is provided to the personal communication device from the server device via the network in response to the first request.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface page is stored in a memory of a server device in communication with the slave relay station and is provided to the personal communication device from the server device in response to the first request.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the server device is in communication with the personal communication device via a further network and the graphical user interface page is provided to the personal communication device via the further network.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface page is stored in a memory of a server device in communication with the slave relay station and is retrieved from the memory of the server device by the slave relay station and provided to the personal communication device from the slave relay station in response to the first request.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, comprising placing the graphical user interface page into a form determined to be appropriate for capabilities of the personal communication device.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the first request comprises data indicative of the capabilities of the personal communication device.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the data indicative of the capabilities of the personal communication device comprises a make and model of the personal communication device.

10. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the data indicative of the capabilities of the personal communication device comprises an identity and revision of software used in connection with the display.

11. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface page is selected from a plurality of preformatted graphical user interface pages as a function of capabilities of the personal communication device.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the first request comprises data indicative of the capabilities of the personal communication device.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the data indicative of the capabilities of the personal communication device comprises a make and model of the personal communication device.

14. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the data indicative of the capabilities of the personal communication device comprises an identity and revision of software used in connection with the display.

15. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the slave relay station is preconfigured with the one or more commands to control the one or more operations of the one or more controllable devices.

16. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the slave relay station retrieves from a remote repository the one or more commands to control the one or more operations of the one or more controllable devices in response to the transmitted second request.

17. The method as recited in claim 1, comprising providing to the slave relay station data indicative of the one or more controllable devices and using the data to cause the slave relay station to configure itself to transmit commands to the one or more controllable devices.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein the slave relay station uses the data to select from a library of commands stored in a memory of the slave relay station those commands appropriate for the one or more controllable devices.

19. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein the slave relay station uses the data to retrieve from a library of commands stored remotely from the slave relay station those commands appropriate for the one or more controllable devices.

20. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein the slave relay station uses the data to retrieve from a library of graphical user interface pages stored remotely from the slave relay station those graphical user interface pages appropriate for the one or more controllable devices to be thereafter provided to the personal communications device in response to corresponding requests.

21. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein the data indicative of the one or more controllable devices is provided to the slave relay station via user interaction with a configuration graphical user interface page displayed in the display of the personal communication device.

22. The method as recited in claim 1, comprising providing to a server device in communication with the slave relay station data indicative of the one or more controllable devices and using the data at the server device to cause the slave relay station to be configured to transmit commands to the one or more controllable devices.

23. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein the slave relay station is configured by using the server device to cause the slave relay station to select from a library of commands stored in a memory of the slave relay station those commands appropriate for the one or more controllable devices.

24. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein the server device uses the data to download to the slave relay station commands appropriate for the one or more controllable devices.

25. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein the server device uses the data to download to the slave relay station graphical user interface pages appropriate for the one or more controllable devices to be thereafter provided to the personal communications device in response to corresponding requests.

26. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface page comprises a markup language page.

27. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein at least a portion of communications between the personal communication device and the slave relay station are secured.

28. A method for using a computer-based editor program to create a graphical user interface page having activatable links corresponding to controllable operations of one or more controllable devices to provide a means for using a personal communication device having a display and a slave relay station in communication with the personal communication device via a network to control operations of the one or more controllable devices;

comprising;

displaying in the editor an image of a graphical user interface page under creation and a plurality of activatable links;

accepting input into the computer to select and place an activitable link from the plurality of activatable links into the graphical user interface page under creation;

accepting input into the computer to select and associate with the activatable link placed into the graphical user interface page being created at least one action to be performed upon activation of the activatable link when displayed in the display of the personal communication device, wherein the action is defined by a tag to be transmitted by the personal communication device to the slave relay device in response to activation of the activatable link when displayed in the display of the personal communication device and one or more actions to be executed by operating software of the slave relay station upon receipt of the transmitted tag;

upon receiving input into the computer that indicates completion of editing of the graphical user interface page, placing data representative of the graphical user interface page and actions associated with activatable links of the graphical user interface page into a file; and

associating the file with a network address whereupon the file is available to be provisioned to the slave relay device to facilitate the control of operations of the one or more controllable devices by means of the personal communication device in communication with slave relay device via the network.

29. The method as recited in claim 28, wherein the graphical user interface page comprises a markup language page and the one or more statements comprise markup language statements.

30. The method as recited in claim 29, wherein the one or more actions to be executed by operating software of the slave relay stations comprise statements that identify a device to be controlled and commands to be transmitted to the identified device.

31. The method as recited in claim 28, wherein the activatable links comprise an image.

32. The method as recited in claim 30, wherein the image is stored on a server device remote from the slave relay device and the file includes a pointer to the image.

33. The method as recited in claim 28, wherein the file comprises data adapted to be modifiable to place the graphical user interface page into a form determined to be appropriate for capabilities of the personal communication device.

34. The method as recited in claim 28, wherein the file comprises data adapted to present the graphical user interface page in a form determined to be appropriate for capabilities of a predetermined type of personal communication device.