MOBILE READPOINT SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR READING ELECTRONIC TAGS

• US 20080024306A1
• Filed: 07/24/2007
• Published: 01/31/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sensormatic Electronics LLC (Johnson Controls International plc)
• Original Assignee: Sensormatic Electronics Corporation (Johnson Controls International plc)
• Inventors: SIMONE, Robert, BOMBER, Karen Bellum, ELLERS, Edward P., TODD, Herbert Melvin, HANNES, Roy C., RAYMOND, Dale W., PEREZ, Sergio M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,733,230 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/572.7
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10336 the antenna being of the near field type, inductive coil
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10881 constructional details of hand-held scanners

Abstract

A self-contained, integrated mobile readpoint unit capable of reading at least one electronic tag that includes a housing, a power source located proximate the housing, at least one reader located proximate the housing that is capable of reading from and writing to the at least one tag and receives power from the power source, and a repositionable antenna structure that includes at least one readpoint antenna capable of communicating a signal to and from the electronic tag.

Claims

1. A self-contained, integrated mobile readpoint unit capable of reading at least one electronic tag, the integrated mobile readpoint unit comprising:

a housing;

a power source located proximate the housing;

at least one reader located proximate the housing, the reader being capable of reading from and writing to the at least one electronic tag, and receiving power from the power source;

a repositionable antenna structure, the repositionable antenna structure including at least one readpoint antenna capable of communicating a signal to and from the electronic tag.

2. The mobile readpoint unit of claim 1, wherein the tag is an RFID tag and the reader is an RFID reader.

3. The mobile readpoint unit of claim 1, wherein the housing is a cart.

4. The mobile readpoint unit of claim 1, wherein the repositionable antenna structure includes an antenna tower.

5. The mobile readpoint unit of claim 4 wherein the antenna tower is extendable to proportionally deploy the at least one readpoint antenna.

6. The mobile readpoint unit of claim 5, wherein the housing includes a rotatable platform, the antenna tower mounted to the rotatable platform.

7. The mobile readpoint unit of claim 1, wherein the housing includes at least one central wheel, the central wheel positioned approximately at the midpoint of a base portion of the housing and coupled to an electric motor, the central wheel propelling the mobile readpoint unit.

8. The mobile readpoint unit of claim 1, further comprising a media subsystem that includes at least one camera mounted to the antenna tower.

9. A method for locating and managing tagged objects in a read zone using a mobile readpoint unit, the method comprising:

establishing a repositionable read zone using at least one readpoint antenna coupled to an antenna tower; and

querying an electronic tag using the at least one readpoint antenna, the electronic tag coupled to the object and having tag information.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the tag information includes at least a RFID identifier uniquely identifying the object.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising correlating the location of the detected object to a communicating the tag information to a computing device, the computing device in communication with the at least one readpoint antenna.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising executing an application on the computing device that instructs the mobile readpoint unit to automatically perform an inventory search.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising extending the antenna tower to deploy the at least one readpoint antenna.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising rotating the antenna tower to adjust the repositionable read zone.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising transmitting a video signal to a remote operator.

16. A system for locating and managing tagged objects in a read zone using a mobile readpoint unit, the system comprising:

an integrated mobile readpoint unit comprising;

a housing;

a power source located proximate the housing;

at least one reader located proximate the housing, the reader being capable of reading from and writing to the at least one electronic tag, and receiving power from the power source;

a repositionable antenna structure, the repositionable antenna structure including at least one readpoint antenna capable of communicating a signal to and from the electronic tag; and

a processor, the processor operating to;

establish a repositionable read zone using the at least one readpoint antenna coupled to an antenna tower; and

query an electronic tag using the at least one readpoint antenna, the electronic tag coupled to the object and having tag information.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the tag information includes at least a RFID identifier uniquely identifying the object.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor further operates to correlate a position of a detected tag with an inventory facility location.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor further operates to generate an alert to an operator to indicate an inventory event.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor further operates to communicate proper placement of the object using the tag information.