Patent ID: 6882712

Claim:
A method for setting programmable features of an appliance comprising: providing an interactive site on a global computer network; providing a graphical user interface at the interactive site, said graphical user interface having a virtual appliance that graphically depicts programmable features of a corresponding real appliance, said real appliance including a removable transfer device having an optical sensor; establishing a connection with the interactive site using a computer with a display screen; interactively setting programmable features of the virtual appliance using the graphical user interface at the interactive site; downloading set-up data for the programmable features from the interactive site to the computer; removing the transfer device from the real appliance; positioning the transfer device in proximity to the display screen; modulating the display screen to transfer the set-up data to the transfer device via the optical sensor; returning the transfer device to the real appliance; inserting the transfer device into a docking port in the real appliance; and using the set-up data to set the programmable features of the real appliance.