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.

1 . A slave relay station in communication with a personal communication device via a network, the slave relay station having a processing device and a non-transitory computer readable media on which are stored instructions which, when executed by the processing device, cause the slave relay station to perform steps for controlling a controllable device, comprising:
 causing a graphical user interface page to be provided to the personal communication device, the graphical user interface page having an activatable link that is associated with a tag file, the tag file comprising both a definition of the controllable device and a listing of one or more commands to be transmitted to the controllable device;   receiving from the personal communication device via the network a request, the request containing data that functions to indicate that the activatable link of the graphical user interface page was selected; and   in response to receiving the request, using a communication protocol corresponding to the definition of the controllable device contained in the tag file associated with the activatable link to transmit to the controllable device the one or more commands contained in the tag file associated with the activatable link.   
     
     
         2 . The slave relay station as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the data that functions to indicate that the activatable link of the graphical user interface was selected comprises data that functions to identify the tag file associated with the activatable link. 
     
     
         3 . The slave relay station as recited in  claim 2 , wherein the data that functions to identify the tag file associated with the activatable link comprises a file name of the tag file. 
     
     
         4 . The slave relay station as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the request comprises an HTTP protocol request which includes a file name of the tag file. 
     
     
         5 . The slave relay station as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the graphical user interface page is stored in a memory of the slave relay station. 
     
     
         6 . The slave relay station as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the graphical user interface page is stored in a memory of a server device in communication with the slave relay station and the personal communication device. 
     
     
         7 . The slave relay station as recited in  claim 7 , wherein the server device is in communication with the personal communication device via a further network and the graphical user interface page is caused to be provided to the personal communication device via the further network. 
     
     
         8 . The slave relay station as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the instructions cause the graphical user interface page to be placed into a form determined to be appropriate for capabilities of the personal communication device. 
     
     
         9 . The slave relay station as recited in  claim 8 , wherein the instructions use data indicative of the capabilities of the personal communication device to place the graphical user interface page into a form determined to be appropriate for capabilities of the personal communication device. 
     
     
         10 . The slave relay station as recited in  claim 9 , wherein the data indicative of the capabilities of the personal communication device comprises data indicative of a make and model of the personal communication device. 
     
     
         11 . The slave relay station as recited in  claim 9 , wherein the data indicative of the capabilities of the personal communication device comprises data indicative of an identity and revision of software used in connection with the display. 
     
     
         12 . The slave relay station as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the graphical user interface page caused to be provided to the personal communications device is selected from a plurality of preformatted graphical user interface pages as a function of capabilities of the personal communication device. 
     
     
         13 . The slave relay station as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the slave relay station is preconfigured with communication protocol information for a plurality of controllable devices. 
     
     
         14 . The slave relay station as recited in  claim 1 , wherein instructions cause a retrieval from a remote repository of communication protocol information appropriate for the controllable device. 
     
     
         15 . The slave relay station as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the tag file is XML encoded.