Patent ID: 7587767

Claim:
A method of operating with a processor having access to a plurality of programs, each program configured to communicate with a respective type of circuitry, the method comprising: receiving units of circuitry from a plurality of business entities, the receiving step including receiving primary passwords for a subset of the units, wherein the method further includes the following step, performed a respective time for each one of a plurality of units subject to the receiving step: determining if access to a unit is blocked by lack of a primary password, wherein the method further includes the following step, performed a respective time for each one of a plurality of units for which the previous step determines that access is blocked: determining whether a value of the unit exceeds a threshold, wherein the method further includes the following steps, performed a respective time for each one of a plurality of units for which the previous step determines that the value of the unit exceeds the threshold: attaching a connector to the unit; using the processor to send a first set of signals into a hardware port of the unit via the connector; subsequently receiving a visual signal from the unit; and depending on the visual signal received from the unit, using the processor to conditionally execute one of the programs, to send a second set of signals into the hardware port of the unit via the connector, thereby unblocking access to the unit.