Patent ID: 7606626

Claim:
A portable self contained parameter sensing unit for sensing environmental parameters and communicating such to a user, comprising: a housing; an output audio transducer for conveying audio information to the user identifying a current predetermined environmental parameter of a range of predetermined environmental parameters; an integrated circuit chip having: a mixed signal integrated on-chip environmental sensor for sensing the current predetermined environmental parameter in the analog domain, an on-chip analog-to-digital data converter for converting said sensed current predetermined environmental parameter in the analog domain to the digital domain as a digital sensed environmental parameter; an integrated on-chip memory for storing information in the digital domain for storing at least digital representations of the audio information as translation parameters, and program instructions, an on-chip instruction based integrated processing unit for processing in accordance with the stored program instructions the sensed current predetermined environmental parameter in the digital domain in accordance with the translation parameters stored in said integrated on-chip memory for conversion such that the digital value of said sensed environmental parameter is translated into a translated value of the stored digital representations that enables playing of the audio information identifying the current predetermined environmental parameter of the range of predetermined environmental parameters; an on-chip driver for driving said output transducer disposed off-chip to convey the audio information identifying the current predetermined environmental parameter of the range of predetermined environmental parameters responsive to a signal representing said digital value of said translated sensed environmental parameters; a power source for powering said integrated circuit and said output transducer; wherein said audio transducer, said integrated circuit and said power source are contained in said housing; and a power conservation control circuit for powering down a portion of said integrated circuit while maintaining said environmental sensor in a powered state such that it is disposed at substantially the operating temperature of the integrated circuit chip and said control circuit including a timing circuit for periodically powering up said portion to determine if there has been a change in the sensed environmental parameter such that said processing unit can cause output of updated audio information to said output transducer.