System and method for provision of appliance control functionality to a smart device

Abstract

A system for use in issuing commands to a plurality of appliances each of a specific one of a plurality of different appliance types includes a smart device adapted to transmit command communications and a plurality of low-energy consuming controllers each adapted to transmit a command to a one of the plurality of appliances of a specific one of the plurality of different appliance types in response to receipt of a command communication originating from the smart device.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method performed by a smart device, comprising:
 in response to an activation of a one of the plurality of input elements, using a functional operation linked to the activated one of the plurality of input elements to determine a type of appliance that is to perform the functional operation, using the determined type of appliance to identify a one of a plurality of bridge devices with which the smart device is paired, and transmitting by the smart device for reception by the identified one of the plurality of bridge devices an instruction to have a target appliance corresponding to the appliance of the determined type perform the functional operation.   
     
     
         2 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the smart device and the plurality of bridge devices communicate via a low-energy RF communications channel. 
     
     
         3 . The method as recited in  claim 1 , further comprising causing a command code set for use in controlling functional operations of target appliance to be provisioned to the identified one of the plurality of bridge devices. 
     
     
         4 . The method as recited in  claim 3 , wherein the command code set is transmitted by the smart device to the identified one of the plurality of bridge devices. 
     
     
         5 . The method as recited in  claim 3 , wherein a pointer to the command code set is transmitted by the smart device to the identified one of the plurality of bridge devices. 
     
     
         6 . A smart device, comprising:
 a processing device;   a memory storing instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed by the smart device cause the smart device to respond to an activation of a one of the plurality of input elements by using a functional operation linked to the activated one of the plurality of input elements to determine a type of appliance that is to perform the functional operation, using the determined type of appliance to identify a one of a plurality of bridge devices with which the smart device is paired, and transmitting by the smart device for reception by the identified one of the plurality of bridge devices an instruction to have a target appliance corresponding to the appliance of the determined type perform the functional operation.   
     
     
         7 . The smart device as recited in  claim 6 , wherein the smart device and the plurality of bridge devices communicate via a low-energy RF communications channel. 
     
     
         8 . The smart device as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the smart device to cause a command code set for use in controlling functional operations of target appliance to be provisioned to the identified one of the plurality of bridge devices. 
     
     
         9 . The smart device as recited in  claim 8 , wherein the command code set is transmitted by the smart device to the identified one of the plurality of bridge devices. 
     
     
         10 . The smart device as recited in  claim 8 , wherein a pointer to the command code set is transmitted by the smart device to the identified one of the plurality of bridge devices.