Patent ID: 7637867

Claim:
A method for configuring one or more effectors situated within a satellite unit that resides in a subject's body, wherein the satellite unit includes a number of effectors that interact with the subject's body, and satellite circuitry that is coupled to a bus, and the bus includes first and second conduction paths with at least a portion of the second conduction path comprising the subject's body when the satellite unit is located within the subject's body, the method comprising: receiving signals over the bus; and based on the signals received over the bus, deriving a relatively stable DC voltage for supplying the circuitry, recovering clock and digital data, interpreting bit sequences in the digital data to extract configuration information, and using the bit sequences to store configuration information for the one or more desired effectors; and receiving a sleep command over the bus that causes a certain part of the satellite circuitry to turn off while the effectors remain in a configured state.