Patent ID: 8442766

Claim:
A marking apparatus for use in performing a marking operation to indicate a presence or an absence of at least one underground facility, the marking apparatus comprising: a hand-held housing; at least one processor disposed within the hand-held housing; a holder configured to hold to the hand-held housing at least one marking dispenser containing a marking material; at least one actuator configured to actuate the marking dispenser to dispense a marking material; and at least one input device communicatively coupled to the at least one processor and configured to sense at least one environmental condition of an environment in which the marking apparatus is located and provide an output signal to the at least one processor indicative of the sensed at least one environmental condition, wherein the at least one processor is programmed with processor-executable instructions which, when executed, cause the at least one processor to compare the output signal of the at least one input device to at least one target value and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to disable the at least one actuator in response to the comparison of the output signal of the at least one input device to the at least one target value.