The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 31, 2012
Filed:
Oct. 30, 2009
Steven M. Pope, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Steven M. Pope, Los Gatos, CA (US);
IXYS CH GmbH, , CH;
Abstract
A system involves a plurality of RF-enabled occupancy detectors. Each occupancy detector communicates with and controls an associated plurality of RF-enabled fluorescent lamp starter units. A network master has an RF transceiver used to communicate with the occupancy detectors using a first protocol, thereby retrieving status information from the starter units. The network master also has a second RF transceiver for communicating directly with a cellular telephone using a second protocol. A user can use the cellular telephone to control and interact with the lighting system through the network master, and/or to retrieve status information from the network master. The network master automatically generates and sends email alerts to the user by sending the alerts to an email server. The email server forwards the emails to the cellular telephone via a cellular telephone network. Alerts may, for example, indicate a low battery voltage condition or that a lamp needs replacement.