System for and method of enhanced reading and tracking of radio frequency identification tags
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A radio frequency (RF) identification (RFID) tag reading system for enhanced reading and tracking of RFID tags associated with items in a venue, comprising:
- a portal RFID reader for reading the RFID tags that pass through a portal in the venue;
a controller operatively connected to the portal RFID reader, and operative for identifying the tags that passed through the portal and were read by the portal RFID reader as tags having a higher priority as compared to other RFID tags in the venue that did not pass through the portal and were not read by the portal RFID reader and have a lower priority; and
an overhead RFID reader spaced away from the portal RFID reader and operatively connected to the controller, for receiving the identities of the high-priority tags, read by the portal RFID reader, from the controller, and for preferentially reading the high-priority tags over the low-priority tags in the venue, the overhead reader and the controller being together operative for locating and tracking only the high-priority RFID tags in the venue.
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Abstract
Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags that pass through a portal in a venue are read by a portal RFID reader, and identified as being tags having a higher priority as compared to other RFID tags in the venue that have a lower priority. The identities of the high-priority tags are transmitted to an overhead RFID reader, which preferentially reads the high-priority tags over the low-priority tags in the venue. Only the high-priority RFID tags are located and tracked in the venue.
18 Citations
15 Claims
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1. A radio frequency (RF) identification (RFID) tag reading system for enhanced reading and tracking of RFID tags associated with items in a venue, comprising:
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a portal RFID reader for reading the RFID tags that pass through a portal in the venue; a controller operatively connected to the portal RFID reader, and operative for identifying the tags that passed through the portal and were read by the portal RFID reader as tags having a higher priority as compared to other RFID tags in the venue that did not pass through the portal and were not read by the portal RFID reader and have a lower priority; and an overhead RFID reader spaced away from the portal RFID reader and operatively connected to the controller, for receiving the identities of the high-priority tags, read by the portal RFID reader, from the controller, and for preferentially reading the high-priority tags over the low-priority tags in the venue, the overhead reader and the controller being together operative for locating and tracking only the high-priority RFID tags in the venue. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A radio frequency (RF) identification (RFID) tag reading system for enhanced reading and tracking of RFID tags that are associated with items in a venue and that are encoded with Electronic Product Code (EPC) identifiers in which Universal Product Code (UPC) identifiers are mapped, comprising:
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a portal RFID reader for reading the RFID tags that pass through a portal in the venue; a controller operatively connected to the portal RFID reader, and operative for identifying the tags that passed through the portal and were read by the portal RFID reader as tags having a higher priority as compared to other RFID tags in the venue that did not pass through the portal and were not read by the portal RFID reader and have a lower priority, by extracting the UPC identifiers from the EPC identifiers, and by generating a list of the UPC identifiers; and an overhead RFID reader spaced away from the portal RFID reader and operatively connected to the controller, for receiving the identities of the high-priority tags, read by the portal RFID reader, from the list of the UPC identifiers generated by the controller, and for preferentially reading the high-priority tags over the low-priority tags in the venue by reading the high-priority tags for a longer reading time as compared to a reading time spent in reading the low-priority tags, the overhead reader and the controller being together operative for locating and tracking only the high-priority RFID tags in the venue.
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10. A method of enhanced reading and tracking of radio frequency (RF) identification (RFID) tags associated with items in a venue, the method comprising:
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reading the RFID tags that pass through a portal in the venue with a portal RFID reader; identifying the tags that passed through the portal and were read by the portal RFID reader as tags having a higher priority as compared to other RFID tags in the venue that did not pass through the portal and were not read by the portal RFID reader and have a lower priority; transmitting the identities of the high-priority tags, read by the portal RFID reader, to an overhead RFID reader; preferentially reading the high-priority tags over the low-priority tags in the venue by operation of the overhead reader; and locating and tracking only the high-priority RFID tags in the venue. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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Specification