Granted Patent B2

US 8,254,901 · App. 11/640,582 · Granted Aug 28, 2012

Abstract

Claims (30)

1. A method for controlling operation of an appliance from a remote location using a cellular device, the method comprising the steps of:

presenting a list of one or more appliances capable of being controlled by a central hub;

receiving a selection of an appliance to be controlled from the list of one or more appliances;

presenting a list of instructions associated with the selected appliance;

receiving a selection of an instruction from the list of instructions;

using the cellular device to transmit the instruction to the central hub; and

wherein the list of one or more appliances and the list of instructions are retrieved from memory in the cellular device, without connecting to a remote device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cellular device transmits the instruction to the central hub via a cellular communications link.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the cellular device transmits the instruction to the central hub via a text message.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of using the central hub to transmit the instruction to the selected appliance.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the central hub wirelessly transmits the instruction to the selected appliance.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the central hub transmits the instruction to the selected appliance using one of WiFi and Bluetooth.

7. The method of claim 5 , further comprising the step of transmitting a verification from the selected appliance to the central hub indicative of whether the instruction was successfully executed by the selected appliance.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising the step of transmitting a verification from the central hub to the cellular device indicative of whether the instruction was successfully executed by the selected appliance.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the central hub is configured to dial the cellular device.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing software for instructing a processor to:

retrieve a list of one or more appliances capable of being controlled from local memory, without connecting to a remote device;

present the list of one or more appliances retrieved from the local memory;

receive a selection of an appliance to be controlled from the list of one or more appliances;

retrieve a list of instructions associated with the selected appliance from the local memory, without connecting to a remote device;

present the list of instructions retrieved from the local memory;

receive a selection of an instruction from the list of instructions;

dial a telephone number associated with the selected appliance, wherein dialing the telephone number establishes a communication link to a hub associated with the selected appliance; and

transmit the instruction to the hub over the communication link.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein each appliance on the list of one or more appliances is associated with a unique telephone number.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein each appliance on the list of one or more appliances is associated with a unique cellular telephone number.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein each telephone number associated with the list of one or more appliances is stored in the local memory.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the hub wirelessly communicates the instruction to the selected appliance.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the instruction transmitted to the hub over the communication link is a digital command string generated based on the selected instruction.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10 , further comprising an instruction operable to cause a processor to answer a telephone call from the hub indicative of completion of the instruction.

Assignments (8)