Apparatus and Method for Power Management of a System of Indicator Light Devices
First Claim
1. A method of operating a plurality of indicator light devices physically associated with respective physical locations in a facility and networked over a wireless network for indicating a condition of interest or a plurality of conditions of interest at the physical locations in a manner viewable by a user of the facility, comprising:
- identifying a first subset of the physical locations having a first condition of interest, a first subset of the indicator light devices being physically associated with the first subset of physical locations; and
operating the first subset of indicator light devices to provide a visual indication of the first subset of physical locations to the user;
wherein the operating step comprises synchronously flashing the indicator light devices in the first subset of indicator light devices in accordance with synchronization information conveyed over the wireless network to visually indicate the first subset of physical locations to the user.
2 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
Indicator light devices are useful in many applications for indicating properties of physical spaces respectively associated therewith and in physical proximity thereto. The indicator light devices are network-enabled and self-powered, and capable of participating in coordinated power-managed operation to provide a sufficient service life and lower installation and replacement costs. The indicator light devices may be used with or without associated sensors. The various embodiments described herein use various power management techniques singly or in combination to greatly increase the service life of self-power indicator light devices without diminishing their effectiveness in the application. These techniques include operating only the indicator light devices associated with the physical spaces having properties of interest, operating the indicator light devices with synchronized flashing, operating the indicator light devices in accordance with the detection of specific conditions, relevant time operation, in-vicinity activation, and ambient light responsiveness.
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Citations
50 Claims
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1. A method of operating a plurality of indicator light devices physically associated with respective physical locations in a facility and networked over a wireless network for indicating a condition of interest or a plurality of conditions of interest at the physical locations in a manner viewable by a user of the facility, comprising:
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identifying a first subset of the physical locations having a first condition of interest, a first subset of the indicator light devices being physically associated with the first subset of physical locations; and operating the first subset of indicator light devices to provide a visual indication of the first subset of physical locations to the user; wherein the operating step comprises synchronously flashing the indicator light devices in the first subset of indicator light devices in accordance with synchronization information conveyed over the wireless network to visually indicate the first subset of physical locations to the user. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A system comprising:
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a wireless network; a plurality of indicator light devices physically associated with respective physical locations in a facility for indicating a condition of interest or a plurality of conditions of interest at the physical locations in a manner viewable by a user of the facility, the indicator light devices being networked over the network; and a synchronization controller networked to the indicator light devices over the network for providing synchronization information to a first subset of the indicator light devices to synchronously flash the first subset of the indicator light devices, the first subset of the indicator light devices being physically associated with a first subset of the physical locations having the condition or conditions of interest to visually indicate the first subset of physical locations to the user. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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46. An indicator light device for use on a wireless network in a facility along with a plurality of networked indicator light devices physically associated with respective physical locations in a facility for indicating a condition of interest or a plurality of conditions of interest at the physical locations in a manner viewable by a user of the facility, the indicator light device comprising:
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a light source for providing the visual indication; a wireless communications node for connecting to the wireless network; a controller for controlling the light source and the wireless communications node; and a computer-readable medium accessible to the controller, wherein the computer-readable medium comprises controller-executable program instructions for; identifying a first subset of the physical locations having a first condition of interest, a first subset of the indicator light devices being physically associated with the first subset of physical locations; and providing synchronization information to the first subset of the indicator light devices via the wireless communications node to synchronously flash the first subset of the indicator light devices and visually indicate the first subset of physical locations to the user. - View Dependent Claims (47, 48, 49, 50)
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Specification