Exception reduction and event reordering in an item tracking system

• US 20060149605A1
• Filed: 12/30/2004
• Published: 07/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Weng, Jie, Mo, Brian S., Lin, Tao, Swan, Richard J., Gurram, Rama
• Granted Patent: US 7,331,527 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

A current state of an item being tracked by an item-tracking system may be determined using prior state information about the item. To ensure proper temporal order of the state information, software events triggered by physical events associated with the item are received from a reader at an event interpretation system. A database or queue within the event interpretation system holds the software events for a delay time determined by a maximum transmission delay time of the software events. A sorter within the event interpretation system orders the software events relative to one another so as to correspond to an order of the physical events. An association model of the event interpretation system may determine state information related to the item for storage in a state information database. Accordingly, system exceptions in the item tracking system may be reduced, and an accuracy and reliability of the system may be improved.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a delay determination system operable to associate a delay time with a first software event received and a second software event, where the first software event and the second software event provide information about a first physical event and a second physical event, respectively, associated with an item;

a sorter operable to temporally order the first software event and the second software event, after waiting the delay time, so that the first software event and the second software event are ordered so as to correspond to an order of occurrence of the first physical event and the second physical event; and

an association model operable to determine a state of the item, based on the order of occurrence.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the delay time is determined based on a maximum delay time between generation and reception of the first and second software events.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the delay time is determined based on a minimum delay time between generation and reception of the first and second software events.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the first software event and the second software event are received from a first reader and a second reader that are operable to read a tag associated with the item, in association with the first physical event and the second physical event, respectively.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the delay time is determined based on a minimum time needed to physically move the item from the first reader to the second reader.

6. The system of claim 4 wherein the first reader and the second reader include Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) readers.

7. The system of claim 1 comprising a queue in which the first software event and the second software event are held after ordering by the sorter, for passing therefrom to the association model.

8. The system of claim 1 comprising a memory operable to hold the first software event and the second software event until the delay time has passed for each software event, and further operable to pass the first software event and the second software event to the sorter once the delay time has passed for each software event.

9. The system of claim 1 comprising a state database for storing the state of the item as determined by the association model.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the first physical event and the second physical event include movement of the item from a first location to a second location.

11. A method comprising:

receiving a first software event corresponding to a first physical event;

associating a delay time with the first software event;

receiving a second software event corresponding to a second physical event;

associating the delay time with the second software event;

holding the first software event and the second software event for the delay time; and

ordering the first software event and the second software event relative to one another so as to correspond to an order of occurrence of the first physical event and the second physical event.

12. The method of claim 11 comprising determining state information regarding an item affected by the first physical event and the second physical event, based on the ordering of the first software event and the second software event.

13. The method of claim 11 comprising determining the delay time based on one of a maximum transmission time of the first software event and the second software event delay, and a minimum transmission time of the first software event and the second software event delay.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the first physical event and the second physical event relate to movement of an item being tracked by an item-tracking system.

15. The method of claim 14 comprising determining the delay time based on a minimum time necessary to complete the movement of the item.

16. An apparatus comprising a storage medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions including:

a first code segment for receiving a plurality of software events, the software events corresponding to a plurality of physical events;

a second code segment for assigning a delay time to each of the software events, the delay time being based on a maximum delay time associated with transmission of any one of the software events; and

a third code segment for ordering the software events relative to one another, based on the delay time.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 comprising:

a fourth code segment for receiving the ordered software events and for determining an order of occurrence of the physical events based on the ordered software events; and

a fifth code segment for determining state information of an item affected by the physical events, based on the order of occurrence.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the third code segment comprises:

a fourth code segment for ordering a first subset of the software events relative to one another;

a fifth code segment for ordering a second subset of the software events relative to one another; and

a sixth code segment for ordering the first subset relative to the second subset.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the first subset is associated with a first geographical location, and the second subset is associated with a second geographical location that is remote from the first geographical location.

20. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the second code segment includes a fourth code segment for reducing the delay time based on a minimal transmission delay that is common to all of the software events.