Method and apparatus for controlling a plurality of controllable devices

An apparatus for controlling a plurality of controllable devices, said apparatus comprising:

• touch pad means having an array of manually touchable areas for providing signals indicative of manual touches to the areas, said array of manually touchable areas being arranged such that various swiping and non-swiping manual touch patterns to said array can be accomplished, the touch patterns including touch patterns in the form of alphanumeric characters, the touch patterns including touch patterns that correspond to controllable aspects of the devices;
• receiver means for receiving the signals provided by said touch pad means;
• interpreter means for interpreting information contained within the received signals to identify touch patterns to said touch pad means, said interpreter means including means for identifying swiping touch patterns in the form of first letters of names of the devices, said interpreter means includes means for discriminating between the identified touch patterns in the form of the first letters;
• and
• signal means for providing control signals to control the controllable aspects of the devices in response to the identified touch patterns, said signal means including means for providing signals directed to the device whose name first letter has most recently been identified.