General remote using spoken commands

1. A voice-translating remote control comprising:

a microphone operable to receive a nontrivial voice command and output a nontrivial voice signal;

an audio transmitter operably connected to the microphone to transmit an audio input signal to a host system based on the nontrivial voice signal, wherein the host system comprising a nontrivial speech recognition processor;

a signal receiver arranged to receive a command signal transmitted by the host system;

a signal transmitter operably connected to the signal receiver to transmit a control signal to an appliance based on the command signal; and

a user interface for validating the command signal, wherein the user interface configured to display contents of the command signal, wherein the contents of the command signal corresponds to an alpha-numeric representation of the non-trivial voice command.

2. The remote control of claim 1 , wherein the signal transmitter is one selected from the group consisting of an infrared transmitter and a radio frequency transmitter.

3. The remote control of claim 1 , wherein the audio transmitter transmits the audio input signal to the host system via wireless communication, and the host system transmits the command signal to the signal receiver via wireless communication.

4. The remote control of claim 1 , further comprising a memory for storing appliance identity information.

5. The remote control of claim 4 , further comprising a nontrivial speech-recognition processor for extracting appliance identification information from the nontrivial voice signal.

6. The remote control of claim 1 , wherein the user interface is a liquid crystal display (LCD).

7. The voice-translating remote control of claim 1 , wherein the user interface comprises functionality to modify the contents of the command signal.

8. A voice-translating remote control system comprising:

a host system comprising a host receiver, a nontrivial speech-recognition processor, and a host transmitter, wherein the host receiver is operably connected to the nontrivial speech-recognition processor, which is in turn operably connected to the the host transmitter; and

a remote control comprising

a microphone operable to receive a nontrivial voice command and output a nontrivial voice signal,

an audio transmitter operably connected to the microphone to transmit an audio input signal to the host system based on the nontrivial voice signal,

a signal receiver arranged to receive a command signal transmitted by the host system, and

a signal transmitter operably connected to the signal receiver to transmit a control signal to an appliance based on the command signal; and

a user interface for validating the command signal, wherein the user interface configured to display contents of the command signal, wherein the contents of the command signal corresponds to an alpha-numeric representation of the non-trivial voice command.

9. The voice-translating remote control system of claim 8 , wherein the user interface is a liquid crystal display (LCD).

10. The voice-translating remote control system of claim 8 , wherein the audio transmitter transmits the audio input signal to the host system via wireless communication, and the host system transmits the command signal to the signal receiver via wireless communication.

11. The voice-translating remote control system of claim 8 , wherein the signal transmitter is one selected from the group consisting of an infrared transmitter and a radio frequency transmitter.

12. The voice-translating remote control system of claim 8 , wherein the user interface comprises functionality to modify the contents of the command signal.

13. A voice-translating remote control comprising:

a microphone to receive a nontrivial voice command and output a nontrivial voice signal;

a first transmitter means operably connected to the microphone for transmitting an audio input signal to a host system based on the nontrivial voice signal, wherein the host system comprising a nontrivial speech recognition processor;

a receiver means for receiving a command signal transmitted by the host system;

a second transmitter means operably connected to the receiver means for transmitting a control signal to an appliance based on the command signal; and

a user interface for validating the command signal, wherein the user interface is configured to display contents of the command signal wherein the contents of the command signal corresponds to an alpha-numeric representation of the non-trivial voice command.

14. The voice-translating remote control of claim 13 , wherein the user interface comprises functionality to modify the contents of the command signal.

15. A method for controlling an appliance using voice commands comprising:

receiving a nontrivial voice command by a microphone in a remote control and outputting a nontrivial voice signal;

transmitting an audio input signal based on the nontrivial voice signal to a host system comprising a host receiver, a speech-recognition processor, and a host transmitter;

processing the audio input signal by the speech-recognition processor to generate a command signal;

transmitting the command signal to the remote control;

receiving the command signal by the remote control;

wirelessly transmitting a control signal to the appliance based on the command signal; and

validating the command signal received by the remote control using a user interface, wherein the user interface is configured to display contents of the command signal and wherein the contents of the command signal corresponds to an alpha-numeric representation of the non-trivial voice command.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein transmitting the audio input signal to the host system is via wireless communication and transmitting the command signal to the remote control is via wireless communication.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the user interface comprises functionality to modify the contents of the command signal.