Patent ID: 8519832

Claim:
A process for controlling a consumer device based upon information relating to characteristics of a power source; said process comprising the steps of: a. receiving a power signal at a power transceiver; b. embedding a signature of a power source into the power signal using a modulator to form a combined signal, wherein embedding the signature of the power source comprises demultiplexing a signal from a signal generator into multiple subsequences, and wherein the modulator adds each subsequence to a distinct frequency-based sub-channel of the power signal; c. transmitting the combined power signal in-band to a consumer device; d. transmitting the signature and additional information out-of-band to a server having records; e. storing the signature and the additional information in the records; f. demodulating the combined signal to determine the signature; g. sending the power from the power source to a power supply coupled to the consumer device; h. generating a query based on the signature; i. sending the query out-of-band from the consumer device to the server to request the server lookup information in the records; and j. responding to the query by sending the additional information to the consumer device.