SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR APPLIANCE CONTROL VIA A NETWORK

• US 20120086563A1
• Filed: 12/16/2011
• Published: 04/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Universal Electronics, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Universal Electronics, Inc.
• Inventors: Arling, Paul D., Kohanek, Jeffrey, Sheridan, Norman G.
• Granted Patent: US 9,088,663 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/12.52
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/00 Arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless electrical link
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 19/28 using pulse code
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/20 Binding and programming of remote control devices
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/30 User interface
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/70 Device selection
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/92 Universal remote control
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/93 Remote control using other portable devices, e.g. mobile phone, PDA, laptop
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 23/04 using light waves, e.g. infrared
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72415 for remote control of appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/22 including a touch pad, a touch sensor or a touch detector digitizers for touch screens G06F3/041

Abstract

A first remote control application is configured to cause a smart device to transmit at least one command for controlling at least one functional operation of a controllable appliance in response to a user interface element of the smart device being activated while a second remote control application of a bridge device is configured to cause the bridge device to transmit at least one command for controlling at least one functional operation of the controllable appliance in response to receiving at the bridge device the at least one command transmitted from the smart device. The at least one command is transmitted from the smart device using a first transmission protocol and the at least one command is transmitted from the bridge device using a transmission protocol recognized by the controllable appliance.

Claims

1. A system for controlling functional operations of one or more controllable appliances, comprising:

a smart device having a first remote control application, the first remote control application being configured to cause the smart device to transmit at least one command for controlling at least one functional operation of one or more controllable appliances in response to at least one of a plurality of user interface elements of the smart device being selected wherein the at least one command transmitted from the smart device is transmitted using a first transmission protocol; and

a bridge device having a second remote control application, the second remote control application being configured to cause the bridge device to transmit at least one command for controlling at least one functional operation of one or more controllable appliances in response to at least one of a plurality of user interface elements of the bridge device being selected and to cause the bridge device to transmit at least one command for controlling at least one functional operation of one or more controllable appliance in response to receiving at the bridge device the at least one command transmitted from the smart device, wherein the at least one command transmitted from the bridge device is transmitted using a transmission protocol recognized by the one or more controllable appliances;

wherein the bridge device communicates to the smart device data indicative of a configuration of the second remote control application and wherein the data indicative of the configuration of the second remote control application is used to configure the first remote control application.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the data indicative of the configuration of the second remote control application comprises data indicative of a unique identifier provided to the bridge device.

3. The system as recited in claim 2, wherein the data indicative of a unique identifier provided to the bridge device comprises data indicative of a MAC address provided to the bridge device.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the data indicative of the configuration of the second remote control application comprises data indicative of one or more command code data sets currently selected for use by the second remote control application of the bridge device.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the data indicative of the configuration of the second remote control application is used to configure a GUI page of the smart device and wherein the GUI page comprises at least the plurality of user interface elements of the smart device.

6. The system as recited in claim 5, wherein GUI page is configured to include user interface elements that match functional operations supported by the one or more controllable appliances

7. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the smart device is caused to retrieve from the bridge device the data indicative of the configuration of the second remote control application.

8. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the second remote control application is caused to be configured by using appliance identification data retrieved from the one or more controllable appliances.

9. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the first remote control application utilizes generic function indicators and appliance type indicators recognizable by the second remote control application when transmitting commands for controlling the at least one functional operation of one or more controllable appliances using the first transmission protocol.

10. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the first remote control application is caused to be configured in response to the smart device being paired with the bridge device.

11. A system for controlling functional operations of one or more controllable appliances, comprising:

a smart device having a first remote control application, the first remote control application being configured to cause the smart device to transmit at least one command for controlling at least one functional operation of one or more controllable appliances in response to at least one of a plurality of user interface elements of the smart device being selected wherein the at least one command transmitted from the smart device is transmitted using a first transmission protocol; and

a bridge device having a second remote control application, the second remote control application being configured to cause the bridge device to transmit at least one command for controlling at least one functional operation of one or more controllable appliances in response to at least one of a plurality of user interface elements of the bridge device being selected and to cause the bridge device to transmit at least one command for controlling at least one functional operation of one or more controllable appliance in response to receiving at the bridge device the at least one command transmitted from the smart device, wherein the at least one command transmitted from the bridge device is transmitted using a transmission protocol recognized by the one or more controllable appliances;

wherein data indicative of a location of the smart device is used to configure the first remote control application whereby the configuration of the first remote control application will correspond to a configuration of the second remote control application.

12. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein the data indicative of the location of the smart device is generated via use of a GPS device resident on the smart device.

13. A non-transitory computer readable media having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by a processor, perform steps for configuring a controlling device, the steps comprising:

using appliance identify data received by the controlling device to configure a first remote control application resident on the controlling device whereupon the first remote control application causes the controlling device to transmit at least one command to control at least one functional operation of the appliance in response to at least one of a plurality of user interface elements of the controlling device being selected and wherein the at least one command transmitted from the controlling device is transmitted using a first transmission protocol that is recognized by the controllable appliance;

communicating to a smart device using a second transmission protocol data indicative of the configuration of the first remote control application resulting from use of the appliance identity data to thereby cause a second remote control application resident on the smart device to be configured whereupon the second remote control application causes the smart device to transmit at least one command to control at least one functional operation of the controllable appliance in response to at least one of a plurality of user interface elements of the smart device being selected and wherein the at least one command transmitted from the smart device is transmitted using the second transmission protocol; and

causing the controlling device to transmit at least one command for controlling at least one functional operation of the controllable appliance in response to receiving at the controlling device the at least one command transmitted from the smart device, wherein the at least one command transmitted from the bridge device is transmitted using the first transmission protocol.

14. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, wherein the controlling device receives the appliance identify data from the controllable appliance.

15. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, wherein the controlling device receives the appliance identity data from a Web server.

16. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, wherein the second remote control application utilizes generic function indicators and appliance type indicators recognizable by the first remote control application when transmitting commands for controlling the at least one functional operation of the controllable appliance using the first transmission protocol.

17. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, wherein the data indicative of the configuration of the first remote control application comprises data indicative of one or more command code data sets currently selected for use by the first remote control application of the controlling device.

18. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, wherein the data indicative of the configuration of the first remote control application comprises the appliance identity data received by the controlling device.

19. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, wherein the first transmission protocol recognized by the controllable appliance comprises an IR transmission protocol.

20. The computer-readable media as recited in claim 19, wherein the second transmission protocol comprises a RF transmission protocol.