Patent ID: 7257821

Claim:
A communication system including an in-home network and a remote device: the in-home network including a plurality of in-home devices operative to communicate using predetermined in-home protocols including an in-home application protocol; at least one of the in-home devices, being referred to as intermediate device, also being operative to communicate with the remote device using predetermined remote protocols including a remote application protocol which differs from the in-home application protocol; the remote device being operative to load a portable application program for controlling at least one of the in-home devices by calling an Application Program Interface (API) of the in-home application protocol; and load an API emulator operative to provide a callable interface for functions of the in-home application protocol, and to supply this API functionality by communicating with a module in the intermediate device using the remote protocols; the intermediate device including: an API operative to provide interface functionality for the functions of the in-home application protocol by controlling the intermediate device an/or communicating with other in-home device(s) according to application messages of the in-home application protocol; and the module for communicating between the API emulator in the remote device and the API in the intermediate device, establishing a substantially transparent communication path between the portable application program in the remote device and the API in the intermediate device.