Patent ID: 7161466

Claim:
A method for remotely activating an appliance, the appliance responding to an activation signal conforming to one of a plurality of radio frequency activation schemes, the method comprising: positioning a sensor proximate to the appliance, whereby the sensor can determine whether or not the appliance is activated; automatically transmitting a sequence of different activation signals, each activation signal in the sequence conforming to one of the plurality of radio frequency activation schemes; receiving at least one signal from the sensor indicating appliance activation; determining which of the plurality of radio frequency activation schemes resulted in transmiffing an activation signal in the sequence of activation signals that activated the appliance based on the at least one received sensor signal; and associating data representing the determined activation scheme with a programmable remote control transmitter activation input; wherein at least a portion of the sequence of activation signals has an order established by popularity of radio frequency activation schemes, whereby an average time until receiving the at least one sensor signal is decreased.