RFID antenna re-location and/or RFID location

• US 10,706,242 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2016
• Issued: 07/07/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Wu, Michael, Sanjay, Addicam V., Gutwein, Daniel, Tran Van, Hoang, Algotar, Kalpana
• Primary Examiner(s): Jiang, Yong Hang
• Application Number:
  US15/199,400
• Publication Number:
  US 20180004986A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,468 Days
• Field of Search: 340 101, 340 103, 340 1031, 340 1032, 340 1033, 340 1034, 340 104, 340 1042
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10356 using a plurality of antennas, e.g. configurations including means to resolve interference between the plurality of antennas

Abstract

In various embodiments, an RFID Antenna/Tag Location Configuration device (RLC) may facilitate placement of one or more RFID antennas in a physical space. The RLC may collect RFID data from tags determine which of the RFID antennas need to be relocated. The RLC may determine, based on collected RFID data, whether each antenna is a dominant antenna and/or has a substantial read rate. If an antenna is not dominant and/or does not exhibit a substantial read-rate, the RLC ma indicate that the antenna should be relocated. The RLC may also be configured to filter collected RFID data prior to using the data for determination of antennas. The RLC may also determine, using the RFID antennas, a physical location of RFID tags in the physical space using detected signal strength for RFID tags. Additional embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

one or more computer processors;

the one or more computer processors are to operate an RFID data collector to collect RFID data read from RFID tags located in a physical space by a plurality of RFID antennas located in the space, the RFID tags being located on one or more physical objects in the space;

the one or more computer processors are to operate an RFID antenna placement module (AP) to;

determine a dominant antenna breakdown value for each RFID antenna of the plurality of RFID antennas based on;

a number of RFID antenna read operations performed by each RFID antenna on at least one physical object of the one or more physical objects, and

a total number of RFID antenna read operations performed by all RFID antennas on the at least one physical object, and

determine, based on the dominant antenna breakdown value of each RFID antenna, whether one or more RFID antennas of the plurality of RFID antennas are to be relocated in the space.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more computer processors are to operate a filtering module to filter the RFID data prior to determination whether one or more of the plurality of RFID antennas are to be relocated.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the filtering module is to filter out RFID data for RFID tags for which no ground truth information is known.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, to determine the antenna breakdown value for each RFID antenna, the filtering AP is to divide the number of RFID antenna read operations performed by each RFID by the total number of read operations performed by all of the RFID antennas on the at least one physical object.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus further comprises ground truth storage coupled to the AP, the ground truth storage to store known locations for one or more RFID tags in the space.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the AP is to determine, a dominate RFID antenna of the plurality of RFID antennas for each physical object of the one or more physical objects based on the dominant antenna breakdown value of each RFID antenna.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the AP is to determine a read rate of each RFID antenna for a specified period of time, the read rate of each RFID antenna being based on a number of all RFID tag reads for every RFID antenna and every physical object and a number of unique RFID tags read for each physical object of the one or more physical objects.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the AP is further to determine the one or more RFID antennas to include, for of each physical objects, each RFID antenna that is not a dominant RFID antenna and which does not have a read rate in excess of a read threshold.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the RFID data collector is to determine a first set of RFID antennas of the plurality of RFID antennas arc to be relocated; and

the AP is to repeat collection and determination of whether a second set of RFID antennas of the plurality of the RFID antennas are to be relocated after the first set of the RFID antennas are relocated.

10. A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag location apparatus, comprising:

one or more computer processors;

the one or more computer processors are to operate an RFID data collector to cause one or more RFID antennas to request and receive RFID response signals from RFID tags located in a physical space, the RFID tags being located on one or more physical objects in the physical space;

the one or more computer processors operate an RFID antenna placement module (AP) to;

determine a dominant antenna breakdown value for each RFID antenna of a plurality of RFID antennas based on a number of RFID antenna read operations performed by each RFID antenna on at least one physical object of the one or more physical objects, and a total number of RFID antenna read operations performed by all RFID antennas on the at least one physical object, and

determine, based on the dominant antenna breakdown value of each RFID antenna, whether one or more RFID antennas of the plurality of RFID antennas are to be relocated in the space; and

the one or more computer processors are to operate an RFID tag location determination module (TLD) to determine a location of each RFID tag of the RFID tags in the physical space, based on signal strength of the RFID response signals received by the one or more RFID antennas and location information of the one or more RFID antennas.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the RFID data collector is to collect signal strength information through collection of radio frequency signal strength indicator (RSSI) data for one or more readings performed of the RFID tag by each of the one or more RFID antennas located in the space.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the TLD is to determine direct distances from each of the one or more antennas to the RFID tag based at least in part on the collected RSSI data.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the TLD is to determine projected distances from each of the one or more antennas to the RFID tag based at least in part on the determined direct distances.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the TLD is to determine one or more potential RFID tag coordinates based on the determined projected distances.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the TLD is to determine coordinates of the RFID tag as a mean of multiple potential RFID tag coordinates out of one or more potential RFID tag coordinates.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the TLD is to select a triplet of potential RFID tag coordinates and to determine a mean of the selected triplet.

24. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein execution of the instructions is to cause the computer system to determine the one or more RFID antennas to include, for each physical object of the one or more physical objects, each RFID antenna that is not a dominant RFID antenna and does not have a read rate in excess of a read threshold.

17. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

collecting, by a computer system, RFID data read from a plurality of RFID tags located in a physical space, the RFID data being based on signals received from the plurality of RFID tags by a plurality of RFID antennas located in the physical space, the plurality of tags being located on one or more physical objects;

determining, by the computer system, a dominant antenna breakdown value for each RFID antenna of the plurality of RFID antennas based on (i) a number of RFID antenna read operations performed by each RFID antenna on at least one physical object of the one or more physical objects and (ii) a total number of RFID antenna read operations performed by all RFID antennas on the at least one physical object; and

determining, by the computer system, based on the determined dominant antenna breakdown value for each RFID antenna, whether one or more of the plurality of RFID antennas are to be relocated in the physical space.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising filtering, by the computer system, the RFID data prior to determination whether one or more of the plurality of RFID antennas are to be relocated.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein determining one or more of the plurality of RFID antennas are to be relocated comprises determining whether the RFID antenna is to be relocated, for an RFID antenna which is not a dominant RFID antenna for one or more physical objects including one or more RFID tags and which does not have a read rate in excess of a read threshold for one or more other physical objects including one or more RFID tags.

20. One or more computer-readable media comprising instructions written thereon, wherein execution of the instructions by a computer system is to cause the computer system to:

collect RFID data read from RFID tags located in a physical space by a plurality of RFID antennas located in the space;

determine a dominant antenna breakdown value for each RFID antenna of the plurality of RFID antennas based on a number of RFID antenna read operations performed by each RFID antenna on at least one physical object of the one or more physical objects and a total number of RFID antenna read operations performed by all RFID antennas on the at least one physical object; and

determine, based on the dominant antenna breakdown value of each RFID antenna, whether one or more of the plurality of RFID antennas are to be relocated in the space.

21. The computer-readable media of claim 20, wherein the instructions are further to cause the computer system to filter the RFID data prior to determination whether one or more of the plurality of RFID antennas are to be relocated.

22. The computer-readable media of claim 21, wherein, to filter, execution of the instructions is to cause the computer system to filter out RFID data read for an RFID tag by an RFID antenna which is not dominant for that RFID tag.

23. The computer-readable media of claim 20, wherein execution of the instructions is to cause the computer system to determine a dominate RFID antenna of the plurality of RFID antennas for each physical object of the one or more physical objects based on the dominant antenna breakdown value of each RFID antenna.

25. The computer-readable media of claim 20, wherein execution of the instructions is to cause the computer system to:

determine a first set of RFIDantennas of the plurality of RFID antennas to be relocated; and

repeat collection and determination of whether one or more of the plurality of the RFID antennas are to be relocated after the first set of the RFID antennas are relocated.