Sony Ericsson have come up with the idea of turning a mobile phone into a universal remote control. According to a patent dug up by UnwiredView, the company envisages a touchscreen remote control that can display different remote control user interfaces, while the phone itself contains the necessary electronics to control a home device such as your TV or Hi-Fi. More details of the Sony Ericsson remote control phone after the jump. The concept itself isn't new. Casio released a watch with TV remote control functionality years ago (the wittily-titled CMD40B-1V), while UPnP-equipped mobile phones, such as the Nokia N80, are able to control other UPnP gadgets in a way that makes them all but remote controls. Indeed, when announcing the N80, Nokia went as far as saying that: "With simple to use yet advanced UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) technology, the pioneering Nokia N80 can be used to tap into the digital home network, acting almost as a remote control, enabling secure and convenient access to compatible PCs, audio equipment and TVs." However, the key words here are "acting almost as a remote control..." In other words, not quite a remote control - yet! Now Sony Ericsson, with its new patent, seems to have come up with obvious-in-hindsight idea of making your mobile phone an actual remote control, capable of switching TV channels, calling up and controlling a TV programme guide, operating your DVD or VCR - in other words, everything you'd want a remote control to control. Sony Ericsson's idea is even more ingenious, though, as they anticipate the remote contorl user interface being implemented as a 'skin', which can be downloaded onto the phone either from the device itself or from a web-ste. According to the patent: "...downloading the virtual remote control may comprise receiving the virtual remote control from the device to be controlled, through a local communication link between the mobile terminal and the device. That link may be infrared, or may be another type of short-range interface, including Bluetooth, WiFi, or the like. In other embodiments, the mobile terminal may download the virtual remote control from a wireless communication network that stores, or otherwise has access to, virtual remote control information. In such embodiments, the mobile terminal uses its cellular communication interface to obtain virtual remote controls from a database or server accessible through the cellular network. In other embodiments, the mobile terminal provides a local communication interface that is configured to communicate with a computer, and receives the virtual remote control through a computer based downloading process. This approach allows the user to access a web page or the like from which virtual remote controls may be downloaded and transferred to the mobile terminal." In other words, the user interface you see on the phone can be changed according to the device you want to use simply by downloading a new interface either from the web, the phone network, or the device itself. This idea is stunning in its simplicity, and must surely go in the "why has no-one thought of this before?!" category...just like all good inventions I guess. Actually, the bigger question must surely be "why has Sony Ericsson not released this feature yet?" as this patent was filed on August 26th 2005. Of all the amazing features crammed into mobile phones over the past few years, surely this one is a killer app, and of much more immediate use than mobile TV? But then, the cynic in me thinks that mobile TV can be charged as a service, whereas controlling gadgets around the house must surely be a free service. Whatever, it can only be a matter of time before our mobile phones become the universal remote control for everything in life - they're already used to pay for goods in stores and buy bus tickets. It can't be too long before we use them to control our TVs as well. I just wish Sony Ericsson would hurry up and turn this patent into reality. [Source: UnwiredView, US Patent Office]