I posted this the other day, but I do use touch panels to control my entire home. They don't time out, they sleep until you touch it and it's instantly on. The brand is Crestron and I have Adagio components branded by Crestron and the rest is Denon and Pioneer and Marantz.
Every room that has a TV, speakers, computer, etc are all controlled off the central stack. I can undock a panel from the wall and walk from room to room with it. The panel also has video feedback, my stock reports, and nice little things like weather and climate control.
It just depends on how far you want to go.
Sadly I've been through three Marantz projectors in the last several years so I can safely say stay away from them.