Patent ID: 7783676

Claim:
A method for configuring a universal controlling device to enable the universal controlling device to communicate commands to one or more target appliances, comprising: receiving data indicative of visible three-dimensional physical characteristics of an object of interest at a recognition system having an associated database in which is stored visible three-dimensional physical characteristic data for a plurality of reference objects each of which is cross-referenced to configuration information; using at the recognition system the received data indicative of visible three-dimensional physical characteristics of the object of interest and the visible three-dimensional physical characteristic data for the plurality of reference objects stored within the database to discern one or more reference objects as being a match for the object of interest; and using at least a subset of the configuration information that has been cross-referenced to the one or more reference objects discerned by the recognition system as being a match for the object of interest to configure the universal controlling device to enable the universal controlling device to communicate commands to the one or more target appliances; wherein the data indicative of the visible three-dimensional physical characteristics of the object of interest comprises a height, width, and length associated with a least a portion of the object of interest.