SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR APPLIANCE CONTROL VIA A PERSONAL COMMUNICATION OR ENTERTAINMENT DEVICE

摘要

A system for use in controlling operating functions of a controllable device includes a hand-held device and an intermediate device in communication with the hand-held device and the controllable device. The hand-held device is adapted to receive a gesture based input and to transmit a signal having data representative of the gesture based input. The intermediate device has programming for translating the data representative of the gesture based input in a signal received from the hand-held device into a command signal to be communicated to the controllable device wherein the command signal has a format appropriate for controlling an operating function of the controllable device that is associated with the gesture based input.

主权项

1. A method for using an intermediate device to control operating functions of a target controllable device, comprising:
in response to the intermediate device receiving a signal from a hand-held device adapted to receive a gesture based input, the signal having data representative of the gesture based input, data representative of a device type for the target controllable appliance, and data representative of a command code data set identifier, causing the intermediate device to use the data representative of the device type for the target controllable appliance and the data representative of the command code data set identifier in the signal received from the hand-held device to select a command code data set from a library of command code data sets stored in a memory of the intermediate device, use the data representative of the gesture based input in the signal received from the hand-held device to identify at least one command code in the selected command code data set, and use the identified at least one command code in the identified command code data set to create a command signal to be communicated to the target controllable device wherein the command signal has a format appropriate for controlling an operating function of the target controllable device that is associated with the gesture based input; and causing the intermediate device to transmit to the target controllable device the created command signal.