Patent ID: 8607280

Claim:
A machine-implemented method for sharing capabilities of an interconnected system of discrete consumer electronic devices, comprising: the interconnected system organized into two or more zones, each of the zones including a respective control element and one or more of the consumer electronic devices, wherein the control element can lock or unlock all capabilities of the consumer electronic devices in the interconnected system, wherein locked capabilities prevent assignment of capabilities to other tasks during the lock; receiving, in a first zone in the interconnected system, a machine-readable description of a task reserving audio/video content; planning how to perform the task using the interconnected system by a first control element associated with the first zone, the first control element assigning responsibility for initiating the performance of the task to one of the consumer electronic devices in accordance with the machine-readable description, wherein the assigning comprises the first control element determining whether the task can be performed within the first zone, in response to the first zone being unable to perform the task, borrowing a unlocked capability from a second zone to perform the task; upon assignment of the task, reserving by the first control element a capability for performance of the task and publishing a reservation related to the task and the capability that is to perform the task to other control elements in the interconnected system in response to the reserving; and in response to contact with the selected control element being lost: i) integrating all the tasks assigned to the lost contact control element into a task list of another control element and polling the control element in each zone to determine which control element of which zone has lost the connection with the lost contact control element.