System and method for enhanced command input

1. A method for using a portable electronic device, having an input device for receiving a gesture based input from a user, to control a navigation operation of an appliance, comprising:

receiving via the input device of the portable electronic device the gesture based input; and

causing the portable electronic device to transmit a navigation step command to thereby control the navigation operation of the appliance;

wherein the navigation step command transmitted by the portable electronic device comprises a direction command that is transmitted from the portable electronic device, wherein the transmission of the direction command is repeated a variable number of times at a variable rate, and wherein the variable number of times and the variable rate are determined using one or more movement characteristics associated with the gesture based input and one or more parameters stored in a memory of the portable electronic device.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , comprising establishing the parameters at the portable electronic device using user input received into the portable electronic device.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , comprising establishing the parameters at a device to remote from the portable electronic device and uploading the parameters from the device remote from the portable electronic device to the portable electronic device for storage in the memory of the portable electronic device.

4. The method as recited in claim 3 , wherein the parameters are established at the device remote from the portable device via use of the portable electronic device to control navigation operations of the device remote from the portable electronic device.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein parameters are uploaded from the appliance to the portable electronic device for storage in the memory of the portable electronic device.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein parameters stored in the memory of the portable electronic device are caused to be dynamically changed via communications received from the appliance.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the input device comprises a touch sensitive surface.

8. The method as recited in claim 7 , wherein the touch sensitive surface comprises a two-axis, capacitive touch sensor.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 , comprising causing the portable electronic device to transmit to the appliance a discrete command in response to the gesture based input including a sensed tapping gesture upon the input device.

10. The method as recited in claim 9 , wherein parameters stored in the memory of the portable electronic device further function to define one or more regions of the input device for receiving the tapping gesture.

11. The method as recited in claim 1 , comprising providing user feedback via the portable electronic device representative of the gesture based input.

12. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein parameters stored in the memory of the portable electronic device comprise a baseline traverse time below which acceleration is not triggered.

13. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein parameters stored in the memory of the portable electronic device comprise a deceleration coefficient.

14. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein parameters stored in the memory of the portable electronic device comprise a deceleration measurement window.

15. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein movement characteristics associated with the gesture based input comprise an acceleration characteristic associated with the gesture based input.

16. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein movement characteristics associated with the gesture based input comprise a duration characteristic associated with the gesture based input.

17. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein movement characteristics associated with the gesture based input comprise a location characteristic associated with the gesture based input.

18. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the portable electronic device includes a library of parameters and input is received into the portable electronic device to select parameters from the library of parameters to use in the step of causing the portable electronic device to transmit a navigation step command to thereby control the navigation operation of the appliance.

19. The method as recited in claim 18 , wherein the input received into the portable electronic device to select parameters from the library of parameters comprises input received via a biometric input sensor of the portable electronic device.

20. The method as recited in claim 18 , wherein the input received into the portable electronic device to select parameters from the library of parameters comprises a transmission received from the appliance.

21. The method as recited in claim 20 , wherein the parameters selected from the library of parameters correspond to an appliance activity.

22. A method for using a portable electronic device, having an input device for receiving a gesture based input from a user, to control a navigation operation of an appliance, comprising:

receiving via the input device of the portable electronic device the gesture based input; and

causing the portable electronic device to transmit a navigation step command to thereby control the navigation operation of the appliance;

wherein the navigation step command transmitted by the portable electronic device comprises a sequence of variable direction delta values, wherein each of variable direction delta values in the sequence is transmitted by the portable electronic device at a fixed interval, and wherein each of variable direction delta values is determined using one or more movement characteristics associated with the gesture based input and one or more parameters stored in a memory of the portable electronic device.

23. The method as recited in claim 22 , comprising establishing the parameters at the portable electronic device using user input received into the portable electronic device.

24. The method as recited in claim 22 , comprising establishing the parameters at a device to remote from the portable electronic device and uploading the parameters from the device remote from the portable electronic device to the portable electronic device for storage in the memory of the portable electronic device.

25. The method as recited in claim 24 , wherein the parameters are established at the device remote from the portable device via use of the portable electronic device to control navigation operations of the device remote from the portable electronic device.

26. The method as recited in claim 22 , wherein parameters are uploaded from the appliance to the portable electronic device for storage in the memory of the portable electronic device.

27. The method as recited in claim 22 , wherein parameters stored in the memory of the portable electronic device are caused to be dynamically changed via communications received from the appliance.

28. The method as recited in claim 22 , wherein the input device comprises a touch sensitive surface.

29. The method as recited in claim 28 , wherein the touch sensitive surface comprises a two-axis, capacitive touch sensor.

30. The method as recited in claim 22 , comprising causing the portable electronic device to transmit to the appliance a discrete command in response to the gesture based input including a sensed tapping gesture upon the input device.

31. The method as recited in claim 30 , wherein parameters stored in the memory of the portable electronic device further function to define one or more regions of the input device for receiving the tapping gesture.

32. The method as recited in claim 22 , comprising providing user feedback via the portable electronic device representative of the gesture based input.

33. The method as recited in claim 22 , wherein the user feedback comprises a series of audible sounds representative of the gesture based input.

34. The method as recited in claim 22 , wherein parameters stored in the memory of the portable electronic device comprise a baseline traverse time below which acceleration is not triggered.

35. The method as recited in claim 22 , wherein parameters stored in the memory of the portable electronic device comprise a deceleration coefficient.

36. The method as recited in claim 22 , wherein parameters stored in the memory of the portable electronic device comprise a deceleration measurement window.

37. The method as recited in claim 22 , wherein movement characteristics associated with the gesture based input comprise an acceleration characteristic associated with the gesture based input.

38. The method as recited in claim 22 , wherein movement characteristics associated with the gesture based input comprise a duration characteristic associated with the gesture based input.

39. The method as recited in claim 22 , wherein movement characteristics associated with the gesture based input comprise a location characteristic associated with the gesture based input.

40. The method as recited in claim 22 , wherein the portable electronic device includes a library of parameters and input is received into the portable electronic device to select parameters from the library of parameters to use in the step of causing the portable electronic device to transmit a navigation step command to thereby control the navigation operation of the appliance.

41. The method as recited in claim 40 , wherein the input received into the portable electronic device to select parameters from the library of parameters comprises input received via a biometric input sensor of the portable electronic device.

42. The method as recited in claim 40 , wherein the input received into the portable electronic device to select parameters from the library of parameters comprises a transmission received from the appliance.

43. The method as recited in claim 42 , wherein the parameters selected from the library of parameters correspond to an appliance activity.