Patent ID: 6954657

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a microphone; a codifier coupled to the microphone; a central processing unit coupled to the codifier to control the codifier to convert an analog signal sensed by the microphone into a digital signal; at least one alert generator coupled to the central processing unit for generation of the at least one alert signal; a memory coupled to the central processing unit for storage of an at least one predetermined value; a programmable storage device readable by the central processing unit, the programmable storage device tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the central processing unit, wherein the program of instructions and the at least one predetermined value define an alert sequence definition; the central processing unit responsive to the digital signal and the alert sequence definition to select an alert signal by generating at least one control signal for the at least one alert generator; a transceiver coupled to the central processing unit to communicate with an external device; a decoder coupled to the central processing unit; a speaker mounted in a housing, the speaker coupled to the decoder; the central processing unit responsive to a transmitted signal of the external device received by the transceiver wherein the central processing unit generates a control signal for the speaker to generate a first analog signal and the central processing unit generates a control signal for the codifier to convert a reflected first analog signal sensed by the microphone into a first digital signal, wherein, when the apparatus is placed in a container, the first analog signal is reflected back toward the apparatus and the codifier will convert the reflected first analog signal into the first digital signal at a predetermined delayed interval; and the central processing unit responsive to the first digital signal to determine the strength of the reflected first analog signal wherein the strength is compared with at least one predetermined threshold stored in memory to determine an optimum alert signal.