Patent ID: 8760291

Claim:
An apparatus for notifying personnel associated with a facility of the status of such facility including whether a notice condition presently exists at such facility, the apparatus comprising: a primary power source, a user interface located in or adjacent a facility, the user interface including a microprocessor, a user input device in communication with the microprocessor, and a first transceiver in communication with the microprocessor; and a plurality of remote communication tokens, each token including a remote power source, an actuator, a microcontroller in communication with the actuator, a second transceiver in communication with the microcontroller wherein each of the second transceivers are configured for sending signals to and receiving signals from the first transceiver, and a display in each of the remote communications tokens for displaying information based on signals received from the first transceiver, wherein human interaction is required from a first person to input a confirmation code to the user interface indicating whether the facility is safe to enter for subsequent arriving persons or whether a notice condition exists at such facility, wherein, if the notice condition exists and the confirmation code has been entered indicating such notice condition, a subsequently arriving person using a particular communication token, upon properly engaging the actuator of such particular communication token, will receive a warning message on the subsequently arriving person's particular communication token display while the subsequently arriving person is still safely outside the facility, such warning message indicating the subsequently arriving person should remain outside of the facility.