Object identifying method and apparatus
First Claim
1. A method of assisting in identifying an article, said method comprising the steps of:
- presenting to a wearable tag reader a tag associated with an article;
communicating information held in said tag to the tag reader; and
generating an output signal that is dependent on the information communicated from the tag to the tag reader, wherein said output signal facilities identification of the article with which the tag is associated by virtue of said association being user definable and established prior to said step of communicating.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A finger worn device (10) includes a tag reader for reading tags (12a, 12b) attached to similar shaped items (11a, 11b) respectively, an example of such items being jars containing different foodstuffs. When the device (10) is presented to one of the tags (12a, 12b) the device (10) reads data from the tag generates an output signal such as a tactile or audio output. The output signal is dependent on the tag being read. The user of the device has knowledge of a pre-defined association between a particular tag and a particular output signal that the device will produce on reading that tag. Furthermore the user has knowledge of which tag is provided on which item. Therefore, the user is able to establish which item is being presented to the device (10) by noting the output signal produced. The device is intended to assist a person who is blind or has poor eyesight with the task of identifying articles which are similarly shaped. The tags may be programmed with data describing the article, such as a text string, thereby permitting the data to be processed by a text-to-speech converter on the device (10) to produce synthesised speech describing the article.
28 Citations
12 Claims
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1. A method of assisting in identifying an article, said method comprising the steps of:
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presenting to a wearable tag reader a tag associated with an article;
communicating information held in said tag to the tag reader; and
generating an output signal that is dependent on the information communicated from the tag to the tag reader, wherein said output signal facilities identification of the article with which the tag is associated by virtue of said association being user definable and established prior to said step of communicating. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. Apparatus for assisting in identifying an article, said apparatus comprising:
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a wearable tag reader for reading information held in a tag associated with an article, the reading being performed when the wearable tag reader is presented to the tag, and an output signal generating means coupled to said tag reader for generating an output signal dependent on the information communicated during reading from a tag presented to the reader, wherein said output signal facilitates identification of the article with which the tag is associated by virtue of said association being user definable and established prior to the tag reading.
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12. A method, article provided with a tag or apparatus as described herein, with reference to or as illustrated in any one or more of the accompanying drawings.
Specification