Patent ID: 7490293

Claim:
A method for providing user interfaces in a first network including first devices interconnected via a communication medium and at least one interface device connecting said first network to at least a second network having interconnected second devices, the user interfaces for controlling the devices that are currently connected to the first network and devices that are currently connected to the second network, comprising the steps of: (a) dynamically obtaining information from said first devices currently connected to the first network upon connection to the first network, said information including graphical and/or textual information; (b) dynamically obtaining information from the interface device about the second devices connected to the second network upon connection to the second network, said information including graphical and/or textual information; (c) dynamically generating a user interface description from the obtained information, the user interface description including: (1) at least one graphical and/or textual reference of said first devices that are currently connected to the first network, and (2) at least one graphical and/or textual reference of said second devices that are currently connected to the second network; and displaying a top level user interface from the user interface description on a device connected to the first network capable of displaying user interfaces; (d) displaying a control user interface on a device connected to the first network capable of displaying user interfaces, for user control of one or more of said first and second devices, by: using a reference in the user interface description for a first device or a second device, to perform the steps of: using said reference to communicate over the first network and/or the second network to access the associated information stored in said corresponding device; generating the control user interface including device data corresponding to said corresponding device using the accessed information stored in said corresponding device; and displaying the control user interface for user control of said corresponding device.