Patent ID: 8542114

Claim:
A cap-lamp and communications support system, comprising: a hard plastic miner's helmet shell ( 1502 ) with a brim, on which are directly mounted a light emitting diode (LED) lamp ( 1504 ) and a rechargeable battery ( 1506 ); a software definable radio transceiver ( 1508 ) mounted to the hard plastic miner's helmet shell and powered by the rechargeable battery, and configured for text messaging, voice communication, and passive radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking with RFID tags installed at regular intervals in a mine; an air-core vertical magnetic dipole (VMD) antenna ( 1510 ) mounted to said brim and connected to the radio transceiver and configured to wirelessly couple digital voice and/or digital packet communication radio signals into a mine communications network ( 1516 ) and any surface operation centers; and a passive RFID disk transponder ( 1512 ) for providing electronic, wireless identification of a miner previously registered and associated with the particular cap-lamp.