Patent ID: 7167083

Claim:
A method of indicating a state of an apparatus, said method comprising the steps of: monitoring, at said apparatus, changes to at least one state condition among a set of state conditions; providing a plurality of remote devices, said plurality of remote devices including at least one in-range remote device; transmitting a state condition to said plurality of remote devices, wherein said step of transmitting occurs after a change in said state condition independent of whether said change in state condition resulted as a function of said plurality of remote devices; storing the at least one state condition of said apparatus at said plurality of remote devices; at said plurality of remote devices, indicating the at least one state condition of said apparatus regardless of whether said remote device is in-range with respect to said apparatus or out of range with respect to said apparatus; and transmitting the at least one state condition to said at least one in-range remote device from at least one other of said remote devices.