Patent ID: 8154381

Claim:
A method for providing proactive appliance control in a system comprised of a master device, a plurality of devices in communication with the master device including a display device, and a controlling device configurable to transmit commands to one or more of the plurality of devices, the method comprising: monitoring at the master device the plurality of devices to determine if at least one of the plurality of devices has transitioned from a first state to a desired second state; and when the master devices determines that the at least one of the plurality of devices has not transitioned from the first state into the desired second state: causing the master device to transmit to the controlling device a message having data indicative of the at least one of the plurality of devices; using the data indicative of the at least one of the plurality of devices to automatically change a configuration of the controlling device whereupon the controlling device will be configured to transmit commands directly to the at least one of the plurality of devices in response to activations of one or more input elements of the controlling device; and causing the master device to display on the display device an instruction to activate a specific one of the one or more input elements of the configured controlling device to thereby cause the controlling device to transition the at least one of the plurality of devices from the first state into the desired second state.