System and method for provision of appliance control functionality to a smart device
AssigneeUniversal Electronics Inc.
InventorsBrandt Thompson, Patrick H. Hayes
Life of this patent
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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.
Claims10
A non-transitory, computer-readable media having stored thereon instruction wherein the instructions, when executed by a processing device of a smart device, cause the smart device to perform steps comprising:
- in response to the smart device being paired with each of a plurality of bridge devices, wherein each of the bridge devices is dedicated to controlling functional operations of a one of a plurality of appliances and each of the plurality of appliances is of a different type, using information received from each of the plurality of bridge devices to cause a plurality of input elements to be automatically added to a graphical user interface associated with the smart device;
- and
- in response to an activation of a one of the plurality of input elements, determining a type of appliance that is to perform a functional operation that is associated with the activated input element, identifying a one of the bridge devices with which the smart device is paired that is dedicated to controlling functional operations of the appliance of the determined type, and transmitting by the smart device for reception by the identified one of the plurality of bridge devices an instruction to have the appliance of the determined type perform the functional operation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.