摘要 |
The invention relates generally to remote controls with graphical user interfaces and user input mechanisms that are used to control the state of one or more other devices. The invention includes a meta- state widget provided on a remote control device to indicate a condition of the state of an application widget also on the device. An application widget provides on the remote control a visual icon such as a push button, slider, check box or other kind of icon that commonly appears on a graphical user interface. An application widget may be used to send a command to an associated entity to cause it to change state. In general an associated entity may be a physical device such as a PVR, or a software element such as a program or a component of a program. The conditions that may be indicated on the remote control device by the meta-state widget are: UNCONFIRMED, CONFIRMED, UNKNOWN and IN-ERROR. |