Patent ID: 8467734

Claim:
A wall-mounted electrical receptacle assembly for installation into an electrical junction box, comprising: a housing that houses a microcontroller coupled to a wireless transceiver that is electrically coupled to one or more antennas and a power converter that powers the microcontroller and the wireless transceiver; an electrical socket for receiving a power plug through the housing, wherein the power converter derives its power from the line power connection to which the electrical socket is connected; a switch configured to connect the electrical socket to the line power connection or disconnect the electrical socket from the line power connection, the microcontroller being programmed to receive an instruction via at least the wireless transceiver to cause a state of the switch to change between an on state and an off state; and a power line communication (PLC) module coupled to the microcontroller, the microcontroller being programmed to communicate PLC data according to a PLC protocol, the PLC module communicating the PLC data over the power line connection, the microcontroller being further programmed to cause the state of the switch to change between the on state and the off state in accordance with the PLC data received over the power line connection.