Patent ID: 8054211

Claim:
A universal remote control for controlling one or more appliances, the universal remote control, comprising: a display screen; a user input mechanism; a processing unit configured to display information on the display screen and to accept selection data from the user input mechanism; and a wireless communication mechanism configured to provide communications between the processing unit and one or more appliances; wherein the processing unit is configured to receive from a first one of the one or more appliances a specification for a user interface to display on the display screen; wherein the specification for the user interface is specific to the first appliance, is customized for a current state of the first appliance, and is one of a plurality of spe 2 cifications for a user interface that the processing unit can receive from the first appliance; wherein the specification customized for the current state of the first appliance includes one or more display items to display on the display screen and one or more input mechanisms to accept user input; wherein the processing unit is configured to use the specification to implement the user interface so that the universal remote control can operate with the first appliance; and wherein the processing unit is further configured to accept information entered through the user input mechanism for communication to the first appliance.