Patent ID: 8249503

Claim:
A communication partner appliance comprising: a receiver to receive a near field communication (NFC) command signal from another communication partner appliance; a detector coupled to the receiver, wherein the detector is configured to detect whether a carrier signal from the other communication partner appliance is present at the receiver and to generate a status signal that represents whether the carrier signal is present at the receiver; and a processor coupled to the receiver and the detector, wherein the processor is configured to: receive the command signal from the receiver; recognize an end of the command signal; receive the status signal from the detector after the end of the command signal; and control a power supply element based on the status signal after the end of the command signal, wherein the power supply element is configured to establish a connection to either a first power supply or a second power supply, wherein the first power supply is dependent on the carrier signal, and the second power supply is independent of the carrier signal.