Occupancy or vacancy indicating system

An occupancy or vacancy indicating method comprising the steps of:

• initialising an indicating assembly from a remote location to display an activated status on an indicator of the indicating assembly by transmitting a signal from the remote location to the indicating assembly;
• sensing occupancy or vacancy of one or more areas of a space by with a sensor in the one or more areas by activating the sensor after the activated status has been displayed by the indicator;
• controlling the indicator of the initialised indicating assembly to modify the activated status of the indicator in response to the sensor sensing the occupancy or vacancy in the one or more areas;
• and
• displaying an occupancy or vacancy related status corresponding to the occupancy or vacancy sensed by the sensor only after receiving the one or more signals from the remotely located device.

A device for indicating an occupancy or vacancy status of a designated area, the device comprising:

• a microcontroller, a memory accessible by the microcontroller and a data port assembly in communication with the microcontroller for establishing a connection with an access gateway, the memory including executable instructions for operating the microcontroller in an activated mode upon receiving an activation signal from the access gateway;
• a switching device in communication with the microcontroller for switching the status of the activated microcontroller in between at least a first occupancy or vacancy status and a second occupancy or vacancy status only when the microcontroller has been activated by the activation signal;
• and
• one or more indicators in communication with the microcontroller and switching device wherein the one or more indicators indicate an activated status upon activation of the microcontroller and wherein the activated status displayed by the one or more indicators is modified by the switching device to indicate said at least first and/or second status only after the microcontroller has been activated.

A computer server for implementing an occupancy or vacancy indicating system;

• the server comprising:
• a processor;
• a computer readable medium in communication with the processor;
• a data communications port,
• wherein the computer readable medium comprises executable instructions to:
• establish a connection for transmission of data between the data communications port and a remotely located access gateway and communicate with a remotely located microcontroller by transmitting data packets, said microcontroller being in communication with the gateway to become activated upon receiving activation instructions from the computer readable medium;
• check for a response from the gateway only after the microcontroller has been activated upon receiving the activation instructions, the response being in relation to a status recorded by a sensor in communication with the remotely located microcontroller;
• and
• transmit data packets from the data communications port to the microcontroller upon receiving the response.