Remote input devices

1. A method for operating a user agent on a first device, comprising:

discovering, using a first networking protocol, a second device, wherein the second device includes a user input mechanism;

retrieving information regarding the user input mechanism from the second device using the first networking protocol;

determining whether to accept a connection with the second device based on the information regarding the user input mechanism;

in response to determining to accept a connection with the second device, negotiating an out-of-band connection with the second device in a protocol other than the first networking protocol;

receiving one or more input command events from the second device via the out-of-band connection; and

executing the one or more input command events at the user agent to control an aspect of the first device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user agent is a web browser plug-in.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the determining is performed by the web browser plug-in without regard for a web page being displayed by a corresponding web browser.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the determining is performed by the web browser plug-in with reference to a web page being displayed by a corresponding web browser.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving an indication from the second device that the out-of-band connection has been accepted by the second device.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the out-of-band connection is established using a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) socket.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first device is a television.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the second device is a mobile phone.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the second device is a tablet computer.

10. A first device comprising:

a processor;

a first networking protocol interface;

an out-of-band communications interface; and

a user agent designed to:

discover, using a home networking protocol via the first networking protocol interface, a second device, wherein the second device includes a user input mechanism;

retrieve information regarding the user input mechanism from the second device using the first networking protocol;

determine whether to accept a connection with the second device based on the information regarding the user input mechanism, and in response to determining to accept a connection with the second device, sending a command to the out-of band interface to negotiate an out-of-band connection with the second device in a protocol other than the first networking protocol;

receive one or more input command events from the second device via the out-of-band communications interface; and

execute the one or more input command events to control an aspect of the first device.

11. The first device of claim 10 , wherein the aspect being controlled is a mouse cursor.

12. The first device of claim 10 , wherein the aspect being controlled is textual input.

13. The first device of claim 10 , wherein the user agent is a web browser plug-in.

14. An apparatus comprising:

means for discovering, using a first networking protocol, a second device, wherein the second device includes a user input mechanism;

means for retrieving information regarding the user input mechanism from the second device using the first networking protocol;

means for determining whether to accept a connection with the second device based on the information regarding the user input mechanism;

means for, in response to determining to accept a connection with the second device, negotiating an out-of-band connection with the second device in a protocol other than the first networking protocol;

means for receiving one or more input command events from the second device via the out-of-band connection; and

means for executing the one or more input command events at the user agent to control an aspect of the first device.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the second device includes a translation mechanism to translate input commands into a format readable by the first device.

16. A non-transitory program storage device readable by a machine tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method for operating a user agent on a first device, comprising:

discovering, using a first networking protocol, a second device, wherein the second device includes a user input mechanism;

retrieving information regarding the user input mechanism from the second device using the first networking protocol;

determining whether to accept a connection with the second device based on the information regarding the user input mechanism;

in response to determining to accept a connection with the second device, negotiating an out-of-band connection with the second device in a protocol other than the first networking protocol;

receiving one or more input command events from the second device via the out-of-band connection; and

executing the one or more input command events at the user agent to control an aspect of the first device.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second device includes a translation mechanism for translating input received via the user input mechanism of the second device into one or more input command events, wherein each input command event is in a format readable by the first device.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein:

the input received via the user input mechanism of the second device includes audio signals; and

the translation mechanism of the second device translates the audio signals into text commands that are provided to the first device as input command events over the out-of-band connection.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein:

the user input mechanism of the second device includes a microphone; and

the translation mechanism of the second device includes a voice recognition module.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the first networking protocol is Universal Plug and Play (UPnP); and

the out-of-band connection is in a non-UPnP protocol.