Patent ID: 7203486

Claim:
A wireless system for dynamically configuring a multimodal user interface at a portable terminal to communicate with a local appliance, comprising: an appliance node operably linked to the local appliance and configured to transmit interface control format data of the local appliance for reception by the portable terminal when in the vicinity of the appliance node, the portable terminal transmitting an interface request therefrom in response to the reception of the interface control format data; a server node configured to receive the interface request from the portable terminal for identifying a user interface or user preference based information for delivery to the portable terminal for use in interacting with the local appliance, the server node transmitting the identified user interface or information for generating the user interface to the portable terminal; and the portable terminal presenting the user interface or generating the user interface based on user preference based information to a user via a display of the portable terminal, wherein the portable terminal is further configured to allow the user to interact with the local appliance in accordance with the identified user interface.