Patent ID: 8543099

Claim:
An audience response system comprising: a base unit; a plurality of handheld devices that are like in kind and perform a same function, each handheld device including: a handheld device transceiver, a user interface, a unique address that distinguishes the handheld device from others of the plurality of handheld devices, and handheld device logic configured to: receive a user selection from the user interface, and instruct the handheld device transceiver to transmit a wireless selection signal encoding the unique address and the user selection, without receiving a wireless signal from the base unit to initiate transmission, wherein the base unit includes: a base unit transceiver configured to receive the wireless selection signal, and base unit logic configured to: place the base unit in a non-transmission mode and retain the base unit in the non-transmission mode until the wireless selection signal is received by the base unit transceiver, decode the wireless selection signal into the unique address and the user selection, generate a wireless acknowledgment signal, and instruct the base unit transceiver to transmit the wireless acknowledgment signal.