Apparatus and method for managing articles

• US 20040164844A1
• Filed: 02/24/2004
• Published: 08/26/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Sako, Tsukasa, Maeda, Satomi, Masuzawa, Noriko
• Granted Patent: US 6,992,587 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/5.8
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/0008 General problems related to the reading of electronic memory record carriers, independent of its reading method, e.g. power transfer
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/24 Reminder alarms, e.g. anti-loss alarms

Abstract

To easily and correctly manage a plurality of articles, a capture device 12 captures articles to which radio tags having different IDs are attached, and the tag IDs of the radio tags of the articles are received using a tag ID reception card 10. A captured image is associated with a received tag ID and entered. A plurality of articles are managed in a group using captured images and received tag IDs.

Claims

1. A managing apparatus for managing articles, comprising:

an image input device, arranged to capture an image of an article to which a radio tag is attached;

a receiver, arranged to receive an ID of a radio tag attached to an article in a range of vision of said image input device;

a managing section, arranged to associate an image captured by said image input device with the ID of the radio tag received by said receiver, and manage the image and the ID as a managed image and a managed ID; and

an editor, arranged to add attribute information to at least the managed image and the managed ID using the managed image, and edit the attribute information.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a selector, arranged to select one piece of the attribute information; and

a notifying section, arranged to allow said receiver to receive an ID of a radio tag, and notifies a user of a result of comparison between the received ID and the managed ID to which the selected attribute information is added.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

said notifying section gives a notification by displaying an image associated with a detection failure ID with the managed ID not contained in the received ID defined as the detection failure ID.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a display, arranged to display the managed image and an user interface; and

a synthesizer, arranged to generate a synthesized image obtained by combining a plurality of images selected from an image displayed on said display in a synthesizing method specified by the user interface, wherein

said managing section manages the synthesized images, the configuration images, and the managed IDs corresponding to the configuration images as a group respectively.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein

said managing section releases group management for synthesized images selected from the image displayed on said display when the release of the group management is specified through the user interface.

6. A computer program storing a computer readable medium comprising a computer program code, for a method of managing articles, the method comprising the steps of:

capturing an image of an article to which a radio tag is attached;

receiving an ID of a radio tag attached to an article of the predetermined range of vision;

managing the captured image associated with the received ID of the radio tag;

editing the attribute information added to an article using an image associated with an ID of a radio tag by said managing section;

selecting one piece of the attribute information; and

allowing said receiver to receive an ID of a radio tag, and notifying a user of a result of comparison between the received ID and the managed ID to which the selected attribute information is added.

7. A managing apparatus for managing articles, comprising:

a receiver, arranged to receive an ID of a radio tag attached to an article;

a database, arranged to store an ID of a radio tag and an image of an article associated with each other; and

a managing section, arranged to refer to an ID of a radio tag received in one receiving operation, and the database, and generate an article list of entered information about an article associated with the received ID.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

when instructed to edit the article list, said managing section retrieves an article list containing an ID of a radio tag received by said receiver, and edits the article list based on a retrieval result.

9. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

said managing section retrieves an article list containing an ID of a radio tag received by said receiver when release of an article is specified from the article list, and deletes the received ID and a corresponding article information from the specified article list in the retrieved article lists.

10. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

said managing section retrieves an article list containing an ID of a radio tag received by said receiver when release of an article is specified from the article list, and deletes all IDs and article information from the specified article list in the retrieved article lists.

11. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

said managing section retrieves an article list including an ID of a radio tag received by said receiver when integration of the article list is specified, and integrates a specified article list in the retrieved article lists.

12. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

said managing section compares an ID of a radio tag received in one receiving operation by said receiver with an ID entered in the article list when a comparison is specified, and reports a comparison result.

13. A managing apparatus for managing articles, comprising:

a receiver, arranged to receive an ID of radio tag attached to an article at predetermined time intervals, and store a received ID in memory;

an input section, arranged to input article information and a schedule;

a register, arranged to store in article data storage unit article data associating an ID of a radio tag received by said receiver with article data associated with article information input from said input section;

a scheduler, arranged to associate a schedule input from said input section with article information and store the schedule and the information in a schedule storage unit, and activate article data in said article data storage unit corresponding to an article associated with the schedule in an active period of a schedule stored in the schedule storage unit; and

a comparator, arranged to check the ID of a radio tag of the article data in the article data storage unit with the received ID stored in the memory and output the check result.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein

class information about an article can be input by said input section, and said scheduler activates article data of the article data storage unit for class information associated with the schedule in the activated period when the schedule is associated with the class information.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein

when a piece of article data activated by the class information is matching data, said comparator assumes that another piece of article data activated by the class information is also matching data.

16. A managing method of managing articles, comprising the steps of:

receiving an ID of a radio tag attached to an article at a predetermined time intervals, and storing a received ID in memory;

inputting article information and a schedule;

storing in an article data storage unit article data containing a received ID of a radio tag and associated input article information;

storing in a schedule storage unit with an input schedule associated with article information;

activating article data of said article data storage unit for an article associated with the schedule in an active period of a schedule stored in said schedule storage unit; and

comparing an ID of a radio tag of active article data of said data storage unit with a received ID stored in the memory, and outputting a comparison result.

17. A computer program product storing a computer readable medium comprising a computer program code, for a method of managing articles, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving an ID of a radio tag attached to an article at a predetermined time intervals, and storing a received ID in memory;

inputting article information and a schedule;

storing in an article data storage unit article data containing a received ID of a radio tag and associated input article information;

storing in a schedule storage unit with an input schedule associated with article information;

activating article data of said article data storage unit for an article associated with the schedule in an active period of a schedule stored in said schedule storage unit; and

comparing an ID of a radio tag of active article data of said data storage unit with a received ID stored in the memory, and outputting a comparison result.