Patent ID: 8022643

Claim:
An illuminator network control system comprising: a controller generating and outputting serial control signals on a control signal wire, each serial control signal including a plurality of data segments; and a plurality of address-less illuminators connected in series through the control signal wire, each illuminator including a respective control unit connected to the control signal wire and controlling illumination of the respective illuminator in response to a respective data segment of the serial control signal, wherein the serial control signal is sequentially input to the plurality of the illuminators connected in series through the control signal wire, from the illuminator closest to the controller to the illuminator most remote from the controller, each control unit selects from the serial control signal, if present in the control signal, the data segment corresponding to the respective illuminator, extracts the corresponding data segment from the serial control signal, if present in the serial control signal, and transmits any remaining data segments of the serial control signal to any remaining illuminators of the plurality of illuminators, and the data segments correspond to the respective illuminators based on physical positions of the respective illuminators along the control signal wire, wherein each of the illuminators is individually controlled without assigning respective addresses to any of the illuminators or the control units, or including addresses in the serial control signal.