A remote control (RC) has two ultra-wideband tags arranged along the axis of the RC at a known distance “d” from each other. An appliance to be controlled can use a UWB anchor to ping the tags and determine the distance to each tag. The distances are then subtracted and if the difference substantially equals the known distance “d”, this represents an indication that the RC is pointed directly at the appliance, and the appliance accordingly will execute commands from the RC. Otherwise, the appliance ignores the RC commands.