Importance

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Abstract

A communication system for use in an area having a human environment delimited from below by a floor and from above by an overhead environment substantially clear of human presence. The communication system includes a first information source operative to independently generate first information; a plurality of second information sources, each operative to independently generate second information; a plurality of controllers, each coupled to the first information source and arranged in the overhead environment, for producing a substantially downwardly directed communication beam at a prescribed carrier frequency, imparting the first information to the beam, receiving a reradiated version of the beam and detecting therefrom the second information, the controllers being arranged such that the beams substantially contiguously irradiate a region of said human environment; and a plurality of communicators, each coupled to one of the second information sources and arranged in the human environment. Each communicator includes means for receiving one of the beams, detecting the first information from the one beam and supplying the first information to an information user. Each communicator further includes means for reradiating the one beam in the direction of the controller that produced it and means for imparting the second information to the reradiated version of the beam. According to the invention each of said communicators further include a first means for generating a carrier signal at substantially the same frequency as the prescribed carrier frequency; a second means, coupled to the first means, for modulating the carrier signal with the second information signal to produce a modulated carrier signal; a third means for transmitting the modulated carrier signal substantially omni-directionally within the human environment; and a fourth means for controlling the operation of at least one of the first, second and third means. Each of said communicators is thereby operative to receive the modulated carrier signal and to reproduce the second informational signal.

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First Claim