Furniture and building structures comprising sensors for determining the position of one or more objects
First Claim
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1. A system for determining the location of objects comprising:
- one or more structures having one or more sensors;
one or more objects having one or more sensor tags; and
one or more controllers coupled to the sensors for receiving signals from the sensors when the objects are proximate the sensors such that the controllers are able to determine the location of the objects, wherein the controllers are configured to only check if the objects are proximate a selected subset of the sensors for a plurality of consecutive checking cycles such that all the sensors of the selected subset are checked multiple times without checking any of the sensors not in the subset, wherein the subset is based on user input.
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Abstract
A system, device and method for determining the position of objects comprising one or more furniture items and/or building structures having one or more sensors and a controller coupled to the sensors. The sensors detect when one or more objects having at least one sensor tag are positioned proximate one of the sensors and transmit a signal to the controller including an identifier of the object and the sensor that detected the objects. As a result, the controller is able to track the position of the objects in relation to the furniture and/or building structures preventing the items from being lost and increasing efficiency when looking for misplaced objects.
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Citations
57 Claims
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1. A system for determining the location of objects comprising:
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one or more structures having one or more sensors; one or more objects having one or more sensor tags; and one or more controllers coupled to the sensors for receiving signals from the sensors when the objects are proximate the sensors such that the controllers are able to determine the location of the objects, wherein the controllers are configured to only check if the objects are proximate a selected subset of the sensors for a plurality of consecutive checking cycles such that all the sensors of the selected subset are checked multiple times without checking any of the sensors not in the subset, wherein the subset is based on user input. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A structure for determining the position of objects comprising:
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a body; one or more sensors coupled with the body such that the sensors are able to sense the objects via the sensor tags when the objects are proximate one or more of the sensors; and one or more controllers coupled with the sensors for receiving signals from the sensors when the objects are proximate the sensors such that the controllers are able to determine the location of the objects, wherein the controllers are configured to only check if the objects are proximate a selected subset of the sensors for a plurality of consecutive checking cycles such that all the sensors of the selected subset are checked multiple times without checking any of the sensors not in the subset, wherein the subset is selected based on user input. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A method of determining the position of objects comprising:
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placing one or more objects having one or more sensor tags on one or more structures, wherein the one or more structures comprise one or more sensors; checking only a selected subset of the sensors for a plurality of consecutive checking cycles such that all the sensors of the selected subset are checked multiple times without checking any of the sensors not in the subset, wherein each checking cycle of the checking cycles is performed by reading data stored on the sensor tags with the subset of the sensors when the objects are moved proximate to at least one of the subset of the sensors, wherein the subset is selected based on user input; and transmitting the data stored on the sensory tags to one or more controllers coupled to the sensors such that the controllers are able to determine the location of the objects. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57)
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Specification