Article tracking system and method
First Claim
1. An article tracking system comprising:
- a. a beacon associated with an article for emitting a plurality of short-range radio signals, each short-range radio signal including a beacon identifier and a beacon transmission power;
b. a plurality of relaying devices having known locations each for detecting the short-range radio signals, calculating a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) for each detected short-range radio signal, converting each detected short-range radio signal to a relay signal, and transmitting each of the relay signals, the relay signals including a unique relaying device identifier and RSSI information;
c. timestamping means for attaching a time stamp to each relay signal; and
d. a tracking device for continually receiving the relay signals from each relaying device, comparing a characteristic of the received relay signals from each relaying device to determine to which of the plurality of relaying devices the beacon is closest, and storing the time stamp, beacon identifier and unique relaying device identifier of the determined closest relaying device,wherein the characteristic of the received relaying signals from each relaying device includes a calculated RSSI, and wherein the tracking device determines to which of the plurality of relaying devices a beacon is closest based on a comparison of an average calculated RSSI for a plurality of relay signals associated with each relaying device.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for tracking an article is described. The article may be baggage passing through an airport terminal or another venue. The system comprises a beacon associated with a baggage article, a plurality of relaying bridges, and a tracking service. Short-range radio signals including a beacon identifier and a beacon transmission power are emitted by the beacon associated with a baggage article and detected by a plurality of relaying bridges. The relaying bridges calculate a received signal strength indicator (RSSI), convert the short-range radio signal to a relay signal and transmit the relay signal including a unique relaying bridge identifier and RSSI information via a network. The tracking service receives data from the relay signal, attaches a time stamp to the received data, stores the time-stamped data, and determines from the stored data the time when the article arrives at a point of interest.
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Citations
36 Claims
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1. An article tracking system comprising:
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a. a beacon associated with an article for emitting a plurality of short-range radio signals, each short-range radio signal including a beacon identifier and a beacon transmission power; b. a plurality of relaying devices having known locations each for detecting the short-range radio signals, calculating a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) for each detected short-range radio signal, converting each detected short-range radio signal to a relay signal, and transmitting each of the relay signals, the relay signals including a unique relaying device identifier and RSSI information; c. timestamping means for attaching a time stamp to each relay signal; and d. a tracking device for continually receiving the relay signals from each relaying device, comparing a characteristic of the received relay signals from each relaying device to determine to which of the plurality of relaying devices the beacon is closest, and storing the time stamp, beacon identifier and unique relaying device identifier of the determined closest relaying device, wherein the characteristic of the received relaying signals from each relaying device includes a calculated RSSI, and wherein the tracking device determines to which of the plurality of relaying devices a beacon is closest based on a comparison of an average calculated RSSI for a plurality of relay signals associated with each relaying device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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8. An article tracking system comprising:
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a. a beacon associated with an article for emitting a plurality of short-range radio signals, each short-range radio signal including a beacon identifier and a beacon transmission power; b. a plurality of relaying devices having known locations each for detecting the short-range radio signals, calculating received signal strength indicator (RSSI) for each detected short-range radio signal, converting each detected short-range radio signal toa a relay signal, and transmitting each of the relay signals, the relay signals including a unique relaying device identifier and RSSI information; c. timestamping means for attaching a time stamp to each relay signal, and d. a tracking device for continually receiving the relay signals from each relaying device, comparing a characteristic of the received relay signals from each relaying device to determine to which of the plurality of relaying devices the beacon is closest, and storing the time stamp, beacon identifier and unique relaying device identifier of the determined closest relaying device;
wherein the characteristic of the received relaying signals from each relaying device includes a calculated RSSI and a beacon transmission power; and
wherein the tracking device determines to which of the plurality of relaying devices the beacon is closest based on an average ratio of calculated RSSI to beacon transmission power for a plurality of relay signals associated with each relaying device.
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9. An article tracking system comprising:
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a. a beacon associated with an article for emitting a plurality of short-range radio signals, each short-range radio signal including a beacon identifier and a beacon transmission power; b. a plurality of relaying devices having known locations each for detecting the short-range radio signals, calculating a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) for each detected short-range radio signal, converting each detected short-range radio signal to a relay signal, and transmitting each of the relay signals, the relay signals including a unique relaying device identifier and RSSI information; c. timestamping means for attaching a time stamp to each relay signal, and d. a tracking device for continually receiving the relay signals from each relaying device, comparing a characteristic of the received relay signals from each relaying device to determine to which of the plurality of relaying devices the beacon is closest, and storing the time stamp, beacon identifier and unique relaying device identifier of the determined closest relaying device, wherein the characteristic of the received relay signals from each relaying device includes a calculated average distance between the beacon and each relaying device, and wherein the calculated average distance between the beacon and each of the relaying devices is based on the calculated RSSI and an inverse square law for a plurality of relay signals associated with each relaying device. - View Dependent Claims (11)
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10. An article tracking system comprising:
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a. a beacon associated with an article for emitting a plurality of short-range radio signals, each short-range radio signal including a beacon identifier and a beacon transmission power; b. a plurality of relaying devices having known locations each for detecting the short-range radio signals, calculating a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) for each detected short-range radio signal, converting each detected short-range radio signal to a relay signal, and transmitting each of the relay signals, the relay signals including unique relaying device identifier and RSSI information; c. timestamping means for attaching a time stamp to each relay signal; and d. a tracking device for continually receiving the relay signals from each relaying device, comparing a characteristic of the received relay signals from each relaying device to determine to which of the plurality of relaying devices the beacon is closest, and storing the time stamp, beacon identifier and unique relaying device identifier of the determined closest relaying device, wherein the calculated average distance between the beacon and each of the relaying devices is based on a known power function of the average ratio of calculated RSSI to beacon transmission power of the relay signals for a plurality of relay signals associated with each relaying device.
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12. An article tracking system comprising:
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a. a beacon associated with an article for emitting a plurality of short-range radio signals, each short-range radio signal including a beacon identifier and a beacon transmission power; b. a plurality of relaying devices having known locations each for detecting the short-range radio signals, calculating a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) for each detected short-range radio signal, converting each detected short-range radio signal to a relay signal, and transmitting each of the relay signals, the relay signals including a unique relaying device identifier and RSSI information; c. timestamping means for attaching a time stamp to each relay signal; and d. a tracking device for continually receiving the relay signals from each relaying device, comparing a characteristic of the received relay signals from each relaying device to determine to which of the plurality of relaying devices the beacon is closest, and storing the time stamp, beacon identifier and unique relaying device identifier of the determined closest relaying device, wherein the tracking device sends a message including the stored time, beacon identifier and unique relaying device identifier to an external data processing system, and wherein the tracking device sends a message including passenger related information received from an external database to an external data processing system. - View Dependent Claims (14)
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20. An article tracking method comprising the steps of:
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a. associating a beacon with an article, the beacon emitting a plurality of short-range radio signals, each short-range radio signal including a beacon identifier and a beacon transmission power; b. detecting the short-range radio signals at a plurality of relaying devices, calculating a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) for each detected short-range radio signal, converting each short-range radio signal to a relay signal at a plurality of relaying devices having known locations, and transmitting each of the relay signals including a unique relaying device identifier and RSSI information; c. attaching a time stamp to each relay signal; d. receiving a plurality of relay signals from the relay devices at a tracking device, comparing a characteristic of the received relay signals from each relaying device to determine to which of the plurality of relaying devices the beacon is closest, and storing the time stamp, beacon identifier and unique relaying device identifier of the determined closest relaying device; and e. repeating step d thereby to determine multiple locations of the article over time, wherein comparing a characteristic of the received relay signals from each relaying device is based on a calculated RSSI, and wherein determining to which of the plurality of relaying devices a beacon is closest is based on a comparison of an average calculated RSSI for a plurality of relay signals associated with each relaying device. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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24. An article tracking method comprising the steps of:
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a. associating a beacon with an article, the beacon emitting a plurality of short-range radio signals, each short-range radio signal including a beacon identifier and a beacon transmission power; b. detecting the short-range radio signals at a plurality of relaying devices, calculating a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) for each detected short-range radio signal, converting each short-range radio signal to a relay signal at a plurality of relaying devices having known locations, and transmitting each of the relay signals including a unique relaying device identifier and RSSI information; c. attaching a time stamp to each relay signal; d. receiving a plurality of relay signals from the relay devices at a tracking device, comparing a characteristic of the received relay signals from each relaying device to determine to which of the plurality of relaying devices the beacon is closest, and storing the time stamp, beacon identifier and unique relaying device identifier of the determined closest relaying device; and e. repeating step d thereby to determine multiple locations of the article over time, wherein comparing a characteristic of the received relaying signals from each relaying device is based on a calculated RSSI and a beacon transmission power, and wherein determining to which of the plurality of relaying devices a beacon is closest is based on a comparison of an average ration of calculated RSSI to beacon transmission power for a plurality of relay signals associated with each relaying device.
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25. An article tracking method comprising the steps of:
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a. associating a beacon with an article, the beacon emitting a plurality of short-range radio signals, each short-range radio signal including a beacon identifier and a beacon transmission power; b. detecting the short-range radio signals at a plurality of relaying devices, calculating a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) for each detected short-range radio signal, converting each short-range radio signal to a relay signal at a plurality of relaying devices having known locations, and transmitting each of the relay signals including a unique relaying device identifier and RSSI information; c. attaching a time stamp to each relay signal; d. receiving a plurality of relay signals from the relay devices at a tracking device, comparing a characteristic of the received relay signals from each relaying device to determine to which of the plurality of relaying devices the beacon is closest, and storing the time stamp, beacon identifier and unique relaying device identifier of the determined closest relaying device; and e. repeating step d thereby to determine multiple locations of the article over time, wherein comparing a characteristic of the received relaying signals from each relaying device is based on a calculated average distance between the beacon and each relaying device, and wherein calculating the average distance between the beacon and each of the relaying devices is based on the calculated RSSI and an inverse square law for a plurality of relay signals associated with each relaying device. - View Dependent Claims (27)
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26. An article tracking method comprising the steps of:
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a. associating a beacon with an article, the beacon emitting a plurality of short-range radio signals, each short-range radio signal including a beacon identifier and a beacon transmission power; b. detecting the short-range radio signals at a plurality of relaying devices, calculating a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) for each detected short-range radio signal, converting each short-range radio signal to a relay signal at a plurality of relaying devices having known locations, and transmitting each of the relay signals including a unique relaying device identifier and RSSI information; c. attaching a time stamp to each relay signal; d. receiving a plurality of relay signals from the relay devices at a tracking device;
comparing a characteristic of the received relay signals from each relaying device to determine to which of the plurality of relaying devices the beacon is closest, and storing the time stamp, beacon identifier and unique relaying device identifier of the determined closest relaying device; ande. repeating step d thereby to determine multiple locations of the article over time, wherein comparing a characteristic of the received relaying signals from each relaying device is based on a calculated average distance between the beacon and each relaying device, and, wherein calculating the average distance between the beacon and each of the relaying devices is based on a known power function of the average ratio of calculated RSSI to beacon transmission power of the relay signals for a plurality of relay signals associated with each relaying device.
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Specification