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.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for using a relay device; comprising:
 receiving by the relay device from an input device via a first wireless communications link a communication that functions to indicate that an activatable link in a graphical user interface of the input device was activated;   using by the relay device the communication to select a file from amongst a plurality of files stored in a memory of the relay device;   using by the relay device a first data as stored in the selected file to select a code data from amongst a plurality of code data stored in the memory of the relay device;   using by the relay device a second data as stored in the selected file to select one or more commands from amongst a plurality of commands of the selected code data; and   using a protocol associated with the selected code data to transmit the selected one or more commands from the relay device to a controllable device via a second communications link.   
     
     
         2 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the communication that functions to indicate that the activatable link was activated comprises a file name of the file. 
     
     
         3 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the communication that functions to indicate that the activatable link was activated comprises an HTTP protocol request message which includes a file name of the file. 
     
     
         4 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the graphical user interface page having the activatable link is provided to the input device by the relay device via the first wireless communications link. 
     
     
         5 . The method as recited in  claim 4 , wherein the first wireless communications link is a radio frequency protocol communications link. 
     
     
         6 . The method as recited in  claim 4 , wherein the first wireless communications link is an infrared protocol communications link. 
     
     
         7 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the graphical user interface page having the activatable link is provided to the input device by a network server device. 
     
     
         8 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the file further comprises instructions that are executable by the relay device. 
     
     
         9 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the file is XML encoded. 
     
     
         10 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the second communications link comprises a wireless communications link. 
     
     
         11 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the second communications link comprises an infrared protocol communications link. 
     
     
         12 . A non-transitory, computer readable media having instructions stored thereon, wherein the instructions, when executed by a relay device, cause the relay device to perform steps comprising:
 receiving by the relay device from an input device via a first wireless communications link a communication that functions to indicate that an activatable link in a graphical user interface of the input device was activated;   using by the relay device the communication to select a file from amongst a plurality of files stored in a memory of the relay device;   using by the relay device a first data as stored in the selected file to select a code data from amongst a plurality of code data stored in the memory of the relay device;   using by the relay device a second data as stored in the selected file to select one or more commands from amongst a plurality of commands of the selected code data; and   using a protocol associated with the selected code data to transmit the selected one or more commands from the relay device to a controllable device via a second communications link.   
     
     
         13 . The non-transitory, computer readable media as recited in  claim 12 , wherein the communication that functions to indicate that the activatable link was activated comprises a file name of the file. 
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory, computer readable media as recited in  claim 12 , wherein the communication that functions to indicate that the activatable link was activated comprises an HTTP protocol request message which includes a file name of the file. 
     
     
         15 . The non-transitory, computer readable media as recited in  claim 12 , wherein the graphical user interface page having the activatable link is provided to the input device by the relay device via the first wireless communications link. 
     
     
         16 . The non-transitory, computer readable media as recited in  claim 15 , wherein the first wireless communications link is a radio frequency protocol communications link. 
     
     
         17 . The non-transitory, computer readable media method as recited in  claim 15 , wherein the first wireless communications link is an infrared protocol communications link. 
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory, computer readable media as recited in  claim 12 , wherein the graphical user interface page having the activatable link is provided to the input device by a network server device. 
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory, computer readable media as recited in  claim 12 , wherein the second communications link comprises a wireless communications link. 
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory, computer readable media as recited in  claim 12 , wherein the second communications link comprises an infrared protocol communications link.