RFID tag with accelerometer

• US 20070182578A1
• Filed: 03/07/2007
• Published: 08/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Smith, Joshua
• Granted Patent: US 7,956,725 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/669
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06 characterised by the kind of the digital marking, e.g. shape, nature, code
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0723 the record carrier comprising an arrangement for non-contact communication, e.g. wireless communication circuits on transponder cards, non-contact smart cards or RFIDs
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07345 by activating or deactivating at least a part of the circuit on the record carrier, e.g. ON/OFF switches

Abstract

One or more accelerometers may be coupled to a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, so that the response of the RFID tag indicates the acceleration being sensed by the accelerometer(s). In some embodiments the accelerometers may be powered from the RF energy harvested by the RFID tag from a received RF signal. The sensed acceleration indicated in the response may be used to determine a motion and/or an orientation of an object coupled to the accelerometers.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag to transmit a response to a signal from an RFID reader, and

a first accelerometer coupled to the RFID tag;

wherein the response is to include a multi-bit value indicating an amount of acceleration sensed by the accelerometer.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the RFID tag is configured to include an identification number and the value in the response.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein operating power for the first accelerometer is to be provided by the RFID tag.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the operating power for the first accelerometer is to be provided from energy harvested by the RFID tag from a radio frequency signal received through an antenna of the RFID tag.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

an object coupled to the first accelerometer;

a second accelerometer coupled to the object in an orientation perpendicular to the first accelerometer,

wherein the first and second accelerometers are both to provide their sensed acceleration values to the RFID tag for transmission from the RFID tag.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, further comprising:

a third accelerometer coupled to the object in an orientation perpendicular to the first and second accelerometers;

wherein the third accelerometer is to provide its sensed acceleration value to the RFID tag for transmission from the RFID tag.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising at least one signal line coupled between the first accelerometer and the RFID tag to indicate a polarity of the indicated amount of acceleration.

8. An article comprising

a tangible machine-readable medium that contains instructions, which when executed by one or more processors result in performing operations comprising:

transmitting a wireless poll to a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag; and

receiving a wireless response from the RFID tag, the response including a value representing acceleration measured by an accelerometer coupled to the RFID tag.

9. The article of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise determining motion of the RFID tag based at least in part on the value.

10. The article of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise determining orientation of an object coupled to the at least one accelerometer based at least in part on the value.

11. The article of claim 8, wherein:

the response comprises values representing acceleration measured by three accelerometers oriented perpendicular to each other; and

wherein the operations further comprise determining an orientation of an object coupled to the at least three accelerometers, based at least in part on the values.

12. The article of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise controlling a visual display based on the orientation.

13. The article of claim 11, wherein operations further comprise interacting with a computer based on the orientation of the object.