Patent ID: 7783278

Claim:
A method of installing a personal emergency response system that includes a communicator operative in response to activation of a wireless transmitter to initiate a telephone call to a call center, said method comprising the steps of: detecting a first power switch having on and off positions being switched to the on position; in response to the detection of said first switch being switched to said on position, in a first determining step, determining whether said communicator has previously successfully completed an installation sequence; in the event said first determining step indicates that said communicator has not previously successfully completed said installation sequence, performing said installation sequence prior to entering a monitoring mode in which said communicator is operative in response to detection of a transmission from said wireless transmitter to initiate a call to said call center, said performing step including the step of prompting a user to perform a plurality of actions and detecting when as least some of said plurality of actions have been successfully performed; in the event said first determining step indicates that said communicator has previously successfully completed said installation sequence, bypassing said installation sequence and entering said monitoring mode; and performing a range test sequence, said range test sequence including the steps of: commencing a range test timer; prompting the user to activate said wireless transmitter to generate a wireless signal; detecting whether said wireless signal has been received at said communicator; in the event said wireless signal has been received: determining whether a range test timer has decremented such that a time remaining is less than a predetermined value; in the event said range test timer has decremented such that the time remaining in said range test timer is less than the predetermined value, setting said range test timer to said predetermined value; and in the event said range test timer expires, prompting said user to activate said wireless transmitter to initiate a call from said communicator to said call center.