NON-CONTACT IC MEDIUM COMMUNICATION DEVICE

• US 20100245047A1
• Filed: 12/03/2008
• Published: 09/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Omron Corporation
• Original Assignee: Omron Corporation
• Inventors: Nogami, Hidekatsu
• Granted Patent: US 8,456,281 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/10.100
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/14 Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction aerial arrangements for changing or varying the orientation or the shape of the directional pattern H01Q3/00; combinations of different interacting aerial units for giving a desired directional characteristic H01Q21/29; aerials or aerial systems providing at least two radiation patterns H01Q25/00

Abstract

The present invention provides a non-contact IC medium communication device (1) capable of detecting a non-contact IC medium (25) in a desired area with a simple configuration, by obtaining, from each of separate read areas, identification information of the non-contact IC medium that exists within the read area and a signal level of a reception signal received from the non-contact IC medium, the identification information and the signal level being associated with each other, performing difference operation or division with respect to respective signal levels of reception signals from the separate read areas, for each of the identification information, to obtain a composite signal level, and extracting the identification information whose composite signal level falls within a predetermined threshold range. The present invention further provides a method thereof, a program thereof, and a computer-readable storage medium storing the program.

Claims

1. A non-contact IC medium communication device comprising:

receiving means for obtaining, from each of separate read areas, identification information of a non-contact IC medium that exists within the read area and a signal level of a reception signal received from the non-contact IC medium, the identification information and the signal level being associated with each other;

operating means for performing difference operation or division with respect to respective signal levels of reception signals from the separate read areas, for each of the identification information, to obtain a composite signal level; and

extracting means for extracting the identification information whose composite signal level falls within a predetermined threshold range.

2. The non-contact IC medium communication device as set forth in claim 1, wherein the read areas are provided at least on both sides of a target area for reading.

3. The non-contact IC medium communication device as set forth in claim 2, wherein

the read area is further provided in a center area which has the target area at a center thereof, and

the operating means performs difference operation or division with respect to the signal level of the reception signal in one of the read areas on the both sides of the target area and the signal level of the reception signal in the center area to obtain a first composite signal level,

performs difference operation or division with respect to the signal level of the reception signal in the other of the read areas on the both sides of the target area and the signal level of the reception signal in the center area to obtain a second composite signal level, and

performs difference operation or division with respect to the first and second composite signal levels to obtain a composite signal level.

4. A method of non-contact IC medium communication, comprising the steps of:

obtaining, from each of separate read areas, identification information of a non-contact IC medium that exists within the read area and a signal level of a reception signal received from the non-contact IC medium, the identification information and the signal level being associated with each other;

performing difference operation or division with respect to respective signal levels of reception signals from the separate read areas, for each of the identification information, to obtain a composite signal level; and

extracting the identification information whose composite signal level falls within a predetermined threshold range.

5. (canceled)

6. A computer-readable storage medium storing a non-contact IC medium communication program for causing a computer to perform:

a receiving process of obtaining, from each of separate read areas, identification information of a non-contact IC medium that exists within the read area and a signal level of a reception signal received from the non-contact IC medium, the identification information and the signal level being associated with each other;

an operating process of performing difference operation or division with respect to respective signal levels of reception signals from the separate read areas, for each of the identification information, to obtain a composite signal level; and

an extracting process of extracting the identification information whose composite signal level falls within a predetermined threshold range.