Apparatus and method pertaining to the use of wireless signals to control an appliance
First Claim
1. An apparatus comprising:
- a housing;
a first appliance disposed at least in part within the housing;
a wireless receiver disposed at least in part within the housing;
a control circuit disposed at least in part within the housing and being operably coupled to the first appliance and to the wireless receiver,the control circuit being configured to provide to the first appliance, without requiring a learning state during which the control circuit is rendered open to changes with respect to usual operating behaviors, any of a plurality of different control instructions as a function of signals received via the wireless receiver,wherein the signals comprise wirelessly-transmitted control instructions from a transmitter for a second appliance,wherein the signals are for a different class of appliance than the first appliance,wherein the control circuit is configured to decoding certain wirelessly-transmitted control instructions for the second appliance into corresponding control instructions for the first appliance by correlating the certain wirelessly-transmitted control signals for the second appliance.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An appliance wirelessly receives any of a plurality of different signals that comprise control instructions from a transmitter for a second appliance other than the appliance and of a different class of appliance. The appliance then provides, in the absence of learning, any of a plurality of different control instructions to be used by the appliance as a function of that received signal. By one approach those wirelessly-received control instructions relate to controllable functions for the second appliance. Pursuant to these teachings, the receiving appliance effectively converts a received control instruction that relates to one kind of functionality for a given kind of appliance into a control instruction that relates to a different kind of functionality and that is usable by a different kind of appliance.
15 Citations
45 Claims
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1. An apparatus comprising:
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a housing; a first appliance disposed at least in part within the housing; a wireless receiver disposed at least in part within the housing; a control circuit disposed at least in part within the housing and being operably coupled to the first appliance and to the wireless receiver, the control circuit being configured to provide to the first appliance, without requiring a learning state during which the control circuit is rendered open to changes with respect to usual operating behaviors, any of a plurality of different control instructions as a function of signals received via the wireless receiver, wherein the signals comprise wirelessly-transmitted control instructions from a transmitter for a second appliance, wherein the signals are for a different class of appliance than the first appliance, wherein the control circuit is configured to decoding certain wirelessly-transmitted control instructions for the second appliance into corresponding control instructions for the first appliance by correlating the certain wirelessly-transmitted control signals for the second appliance. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A method comprising:
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at a first appliance; wirelessly receiving any of a plurality of different signals that comprise control instructions from a transmitter for a second appliance other than the first appliance and where the plurality of different signals relate to functionality of a different class of appliance than the first appliance to provide a received signal; providing, without requiring a learning state during which the control circuit is rendered open to changes with respect to usual operating behaviors, any of a plurality of different control instructions to be used by the first appliance as a function of the received signal; wherein the providing any of the plurality of different control instructions comprises providing any of the plurality of different control instructions to be used by the first appliance as a function of the received signal by decoding certain wirelessly-transmitted control instructions for a second appliance into corresponding control instructions for the first appliance by correlating the certain wirelessly-transmitted control signals for the second appliance. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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Specification