System and method for configuring the remote control functionality of a portable device

摘要

A system and method used to configure a smart device to command functional operations of a target appliance. The smart device retrieves from a controllable appliance, such as a settop box, data indicative of a codeset identity of the target appliance wherein the codeset identity was determined during a process used to configure a conventional universal remote control to command functional operations of the target appliance and wherein the process used to configure the conventional universal remote control is performed in cooperation with the controllable appliance. A remote control application resident on the smart device then uses the data indicative of the codeset identity retrieved from the controllable appliance to also configure the smart device to command functional operations of the target appliance.

主权项

1. A method for using an intermediate device to facilitate configuring a smart device to command functional operations of a target appliance, comprising:
causing the smart device to transmit to the intermediate device via a High Definition Media Interface (“HDMI”) connection port of the smart device a plurality of Consumer Electronics Control (“CEC”) compatible polling message transmissions wherein each of the plurality of CEC compatible polling messages is directed to a unique one of a corresponding plurality of type-specific CEC logical device addresses to thereby cause the intermediate device to receive via a HDMI connection port of the target appliance data indicative of an identity of the target appliance; receiving from the intermediate device by the smart device via the HDMI connection port of the smart device the data indicative of the identity of the target appliance; and using the data indicative of the identity of the target appliance as received by the smart device to automatically configure a remote control application resident on the smart device whereupon subsequent interactions with corresponding user input elements provided by the remote control application resident on the smart device will cause the smart device to issue commands to the target appliance to control corresponding functional operations of the target appliance.