RFID DEVICE GROUPS

• US 20080288625A1
• Filed: 05/23/2008
• Published: 11/20/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Agarwal, Abhishek, Sriram, Balasubramanian, Venkatesh, Ramachandran, Kumar, Anush, Sundaram, Jayaram Kalyana, Gopalan, Krishnan, Jain, Bhuvanesh
• Granted Patent: US 8,452,860 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• 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: G06K 7/10366 the interrogation device being adapted for miscellaneous applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates configuring at least one radio frequency identification (RFID) device. An RFID network can include at least one device associated with a device group, wherein the device group corresponds to a characteristic. An organizational manager can uniformly configure the at least one device based at least in part upon membership of the device group.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates configuring at least one radio frequency identification (RFID) device, comprising:

an RFID network that includes at least one device associated with a device group that corresponds to a characteristic; and

an organizational manager that uniformly configures at least one device based at least in part upon membership of the device group.

2. The system of claim 1, the characteristic is at least one of the following:

a location;

a function;

a security;

a process device relationship, wherein the grouping is based at least in part upon which process receive events from such devices;

a make of the device;

a model of the device;

a model of the device;

a type of the device; and

a device frequency.

3. The system of claim 1, the device group is a representative collection of devices, wherein the device is one of the following:

an RFID reader;

an RFID writer;

an RFID printer;

a reader;

a writer;

an RFID transmitter;

an antenna;

a sensor;

a real-time device;

an RFID receiver;

a real-time sensor;

a device extensible to a web service; and

a real-time event generation system.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a transfer component that enables a change in device group membership for the device.

5. The system of claim 4, the transfer component enables a change in device group membership for the device group.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a bind component that binds a process to the device based at least in part upon the membership of the device group.

7. The system of claim 6, the bind component links a device group and associated devices to the process.

8. The system of claim 6, the process utilizes a rule-based system in association with an application related to the RFID network such that at least one of a filter and an alert is a rule.

9. The system of claim 8, the rule is at least one of the following:

contained within a rule set that adheres to an event, a condition, and an action; and

represented utilizing an extensible markup language (XML).

10. The system of claim 9, the condition has at least one of a set of predicates and a logical connective to form a logical expression that evaluates to one of a true and a false.

11. The system of claim 6, the process is a high-level object that forms together at least one entity to create a meaningful unit of execution that relates to at least one of the following:

an outbound process;

a manufacturing process;

a shipping process;

a receiving process;

a tracking process;

a data representation process;

a data manipulation process;

a security process; and

a process utilizing one of an RFID device service, a device collection, a tag read, an event, an event queue, a tag write, a device configuration, and a number count.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a security component that provides a security privilege related to the device based at least in part upon membership to the device group.

13. The system of claim 12, the security component utilizes a plurality of distinct security levels that correlates to a plurality of device groups.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising a presentation component that provides at least one user interface to facilitate interaction between a user and the organizational manager.

15. They system of claim 14, the at least one user interface utilizes a hierarchical tree to represent the device group and the device within the RFID network.

16. The system of claim 1, the RFID network comprises a collection of devices that form a sub-system which includes:

an RFID reader that receives an RFID signal; and

an RFID tag that transmits to at least one device.

17. A computer-implemented method that facilitates managing a device within an RFID network, comprising:

receiving data related to at least one device within the RFID network;

creating a device group containing at least one device within the RFID network; and

implementing uniform management based at least in part upon a device membership to the device group.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

deploying a plurality of devices within the network; and

partitioning the plurality of devices into the device groups based upon one of the following;

a location;

a function;

a security;

a process device relationship, wherein the grouping is based at least in part upon which process receive events from such devices;

a make of the device;

a model of the device;

a model of the device;

a type of the device; and

a device frequency.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising utilizing a user interface to facilitate device group management.

20. A computer-implemented system that facilitates configuring at least one radio frequency identification (RFID) device, comprising:

means for deploying an RFID network that includes at least one device associated with a device group that corresponds to a characteristic; and

means for uniformly configures the at least one device based at least in part upon membership of the device group.