Activity Inference And Reactive Feedback

• US 20090138303A1
• Filed: 02/22/2008
• Published: 05/28/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vikram Seshadri
• Original Assignee: Vikram Seshadri
• Inventors: Seshadri, Vikram
• Granted Patent: US 8,121,909 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

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a method of processing physical information collected from a plurality of sensors and deducing object attributes and actions over a facility. RFID tags are applied to determine position coordinates. A plurality of sensors related to activities or objects are applied for capturing a plurality of physical variables representing the activities or object attributes. Position coordinates and the plurality of physical variables are correlated to infer or deduce the activities that have occurred. Predetermined rules are applied to recommend one or more actions based on the deduced activities.

Claims

1. A method of processing physical information and deducing an action, comprising the steps of:

employing active and passive radio frequency identification tags to determine position coordinates of activities and objects;

applying a plurality of sensors applied to said activities and objects for capturing a plurality of physical variables;

correlating and deducing from said position coordinates and said plurality of physical variables activities that have occurred; and

applying predetermined rules to recommend one or more actions based on said deduced activities.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said position coordinates are based on a plurality of identification zones located in a facility.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said identification zones may comprise a plurality of coverage ranges of said passive radio frequency identification tags.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said plurality of physical variables may be identification of an object, location of said identified object, quantity of said objects at a particular location, presence or lack of movement at said location, orientation of the objects, time at which said activity occurred, number of activities at a particular identification zone, environmental conditions of each of the identification zones.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said deduced activity comprises loading and unloading of said object within said location, relocation of the objects, authorized movements of personnel, and unauthorized movements and location of said movements.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said recommended actions comprise access control, recording time of said activity, updating object inventory, determining discrepancies in physical object inventory, alarming said discrepancy, and alarming unauthorized movements within an identification zone.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein determination of said quantity of objects at a particular location comprises the steps of determining load at each location, and identifying changes in said load and thereby deducing one of said activity.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein determination of said location of an object comprise the step of scanning passive radio frequency identification tags or barcodes associated with said object, wherein said step of scanning is performed using a mobile radio frequency identification or barcode reader, thereby deducing one of said activity.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein determination of said presence or lack of movement of said object comprises the step of identifying said movement using a motion sensor.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said movement is an authorized movement if a trigger of said motion sensor has a corresponding read from an active radio frequency identification tag.

11. A system for processing physical information and deducing an action, over a facility comprising:

a radio frequency identification system to determine the position coordinates of objects and physical activities;

a plurality of sensor modules for capturing physical variables applied to said objects and physical activities;

a sensor information processor for correlating and inferring from said position coordinates and said physical variables to deduce the activities that have occurred; and

said sensor information processor for applying predetermined rules to recommend one or more actions based on said deduced activities.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said sensor modules comprise electronic weighing machines, active radio frequency identification system, passive radio frequency identification system, barcodes, motion detection equipments, optical sensors, video cameras, radiation monitors, etc.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein each of said sensor modules may provide a partial representation of said physical variables.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein information derived from said sensor modules may be collated electronically to provide a complete representation of an actual physical activity.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein said load cells determines the quantity or amount of the object at a location.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein said passive radio frequency identification system and barcode scan uniquely identify each of said objects.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein said active radio frequency identification system determines the location of said objects.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein said motion detection equipment determines the presence or lack of any movement or activity of said object at said position coordinates.

19. A computer program product comprising computer executable instructions embodied in a computer-readable medium, said computer program product comprising:

a first computer parsable program code for applying active and passive radio frequency identification tagging to determine position coordinates;

a second computer parsable program code for applying a plurality of sensors applied to activities or objects for capturing a plurality of physical variables;

a third computer parsable program code for correlating and inferring from said position coordinates and said plurality of physical variables to deduce the activities that have occurred; and

a fourth computer parsable program code for applying predetermined rules to recommend one or more actions based on said deduced activities.