System and method for ubiquitous appliance control

• US 9,294,705 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2008
• Issued: 03/22/2016
• 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.
• Primary Examiner(s): KEATON, SHERROD L
• Application Number:
  US12/147,770
• Publication Number:
  US 20090327910A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,825 Days
• Field of Search: 715/744, 715/762, 715/765, 715/743
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 slave relay station in communication with a personal communication device via a network to control operations of one or more controllable devices;

comprising;

receiving from the personal communication device at the slave relay station via the network a first request whereupon the slave relay station responds to the first request by causing a graphical user interface page having an activatable link to be provided to the personal communication device, wherein the activatable link is associated with a tag file stored on the slave relay station and wherein the tag file contains data which functions to identify a controllable device and a listing of one or more functions of the controllable device which are to be controlled in response to activation of the activatable link; and

receiving from the personal communication device at the slave relay station via the network a second request wherein the second request is transmitted by the personal communication device to the slave relay station in response to a selection of the activatable link of the graphical user interface page, wherein the second request comprises an identification of the tag file that is associated with the activatable link stored on the slave relay station, and wherein the slave relay station responds to the second request by using the data which functions to identify the controllable device contained in the tag file associated with the activatable link stored on the slave relay station to configure itself to use an appliance control protocol that is recognizable by the controllable device and by using the listing of one or more functions of the controllable device to be controlled contained in the tag file associated with the activatable link stored on the slave relay station to transmit one or more command values directly to the controllable device using the appliance control protocol.

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 code data for use by the slave relay station in transmitting the one or more command values directly to the controllable device using the appliance control protocol.

16. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the slave relay station retrieves from a remote repository code data for use by the slave relay station in transmitting the one or more command values directly to the controllable device using the appliance control protocol in response to receiving the second request.

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

18. 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.

19. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the activatable link comprises an image.

20. The method as recited in claim 19, wherein the image is stored on a server device remote from the slave relay device and a file having resources for use by the personal communication device in generating the graphical user interface page includes a pointer to the image.

21. The method as recited in claim 20, 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.

22. The method as recited in claim 20, 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.

23. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the activatable link is associated with the tag file during a graphical user interface page editing session.

24. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein a file having resources for use by the personal communication device in generating the graphical user interface page and the tag file is associated 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 controllable device by means of the personal communication device in communication with slave relay device via the network.