Patent ID: 8249457

Claim:
A method for bidirectional IR data transfer between a medical treatment table and an operator control device which are subscribers in the IR data transfer and each comprise an IR transmitter and an IR receiver, wherein the data to be transferred by a subscriber are split into data blocks which are transmitted in succession, with a respective break being observed between the transmission of the individual data blocks, wherein data from another subscriber are transmitted within the breaks, wherein the transmission of a data block is preceded by a check to determine whether IR signals are present and is held until a predetermined waiting time has elapsed after the disappearance of the IR signal if IR signals are present, wherein the subscribers receive their transmitted signal themselves, check their transmitted signal, and retransmit the associated data if the signal has been disturbed, wherein the predetermined waiting time is selected at random, and wherein the predetermined waiting time for the operator control device is shorter than the predetermined waiting time for the medical treatment table.