System and method for ubiquitous appliance control

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.

1 . (canceled) 
     
     
         2 . A method for using a relay device to communicate commands to a target device, wherein the relay device has a memory in which is stored a first tag file comprising both a first definition of a controllable device and a first listing of one or more commands to be transmitted to the controllable device corresponding to the first definition, a second tag file different then the first tag file comprising both a second definition of a controllable device and a second listing of one or more commands to be transmitted to the controllable device corresponding to the second definition, a first code data for use in commanding functional operations of a first controllable appliance, and a second code data for use in commanding functional operations of a second controllable appliance, and wherein the method comprises:
 providing to an input device via a first wireless communications link a graphical user interface page for display in a display associated with the input device wherein the graphical user interface page has a first activatable link that is associated with the first tag file and a second activatable link that is associated with the second tag file;
 receiving by the relay device from the input device via a second wireless communications link a communication containing data that functions to indicate that one of the first activatable link and the second activatable link of the graphical user interface page was activated; 
 using by the relay device a one of the first definition of a controllable device and the second definition of a controllable device as stored in the one of the first tag file and the second tag file that is associated with the data that functions to indicate that one of the first activatable link and the second activatable link of the graphical user interface page was activated to select a one of the first code data and the second code data for use in commanding functional operations of the target appliance; and 
 transmitting a command communication from the relay device to the target device via a third communications link, where the command communication comprises one or more commands selected from the selected one of the first code data and the second code data, wherein the command communication uses a protocol defined within the selected one of the first code data and the second code data, and wherein the one or more commands are selected from the selected one of the first code data and the second code data via use of one of the first listing of one or more commands and the second listing of one or more commands as stored in the one of the first tag file and the second tag file that is associated with the data that functions to indicate that one of the first activatable link and the second activatable link of the graphical user interface page was activated. 
   
     
     
         3 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein data that functions to indicate that one of the first activatable link and the second activatable link of the graphical user interface page was activated comprises a file name of the one of the first tag file and the second tag file. 
     
     
         4 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein the first definition of a controllable device is the same as the second definition of the controllable device and the first listing of commands is different than the second listing of commands. 
     
     
         5 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein the communication received by the relay device comprises an HTTP protocol request message which includes a file name of the one of the first tag file and the second tag file. 
     
     
         6 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein the graphical user interface page is provided to the input device by the relay station and the first wireless communications link is the same as the second wireless communications link. 
     
     
         7 . The method as recited in  claim 6 , wherein the first wireless communications link is a radio frequency protocol communications link. 
     
     
         8 . The method as recited in  claim 6 , wherein the first wireless communications link is an infrared protocol communications link. 
     
     
         9 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein the graphical user interface page is provided to the input device by a network server device and the first wireless communications link is different than the second wireless communications link. 
     
     
         10 . The method as recited in  claim 9 , wherein at least one of the first wireless communications link and the second wireless communications link is a radio frequency protocol communications link. 
     
     
         11 . The method as recited in  claim 9 , wherein the second wireless communications link is an infrared communications protocol link. 
     
     
         12 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein the first tag file and the second tag file include instructions that are executable by the relay device. 
     
     
         13 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , comprising using data indicative of capabilities of the input device to configure the graphical user interface page into a form that is appropriate for the capabilities of the input device. 
     
     
         14 . The method as recited in  claim 13 , wherein the data indicative of the capabilities of the input device comprises data indicative of a make and model of the input device. 
     
     
         15 . The method as recited in  claim 13 , wherein the data indicative of the capabilities of the input device comprises data indicative of an identity and revision of software used in connection with the display associated with the input device. 
     
     
         16 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , 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. 
     
     
         17 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein the first tag file and the second tag file are each XML encoded. 
     
     
         18 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein the graphical user interface page comprises a hypertext mark-up language file. 
     
     
         19 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein the graphical user interface page comprises data for displaying television network logos in the display of the input device. 
     
     
         20 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein the third communications link comprises a wireless communications link. 
     
     
         21 . The method as recited in  claim 2 , wherein the third communications link comprises an infrared protocol communications link.