507 in an exemplary embodiment the battery 534 is a rechargeable battery in other embodiments the system 100 may include a connector not shown for the connection of an external power source such as an automobile power adapter ac power adapter or the like the various components of the monitor 102 are coupled together by a bus system 536 which may include a power bus control bus and status signal bus in addition to a data bus for the sake of clarity however the various buses are illustrated in fig5 as the bus system 536 in operation the sensor 36 senses the presence of the surgeon at the surgical scrub sink 10 and activates the on off mechanism 22 to its on condition the on off mechanism 22 activates the wireless interactive monitor 102 initially the first menu 140 and the second menu 142 appear on the screen 144 of the wireless interactive monitor 102 which may be a screen for a computer monitor or a screen for a television set the surgeon may start the wireless interactive monitor 102 by a voice command using the speech recognition technology 152 the surgeon chooses either the first menu 140 or the second menu 142 by either touching the screen of the wireless interactive monitor 102 at the appropriate first menu 140 or the second menu 142 or using speech recognition technology 152 of the monitor 102 the surgeon speaks his choice for the first menu 140 or the second menu 142 which is received by the voice recognition technology 152 to activate the first menu 140 choice or the second.