Infrastructure-Mounted RFID Tags
First Claim
1. An RFID-based inventory management system of a type including an RFID reader, comprising:
- an RFID-readable product tag associated with a piece of merchandise; and
an RFID-readable infrastructure tag associated with a fixed location capable of sending signals to and receiving return signals from RFID readable tags.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Infrastructure-mounted RFID-readable tags or transponders are provided for various applications. Such infrastructure tags may be employed in combination with RFID-readable product tags and an RFID reader for an improved inventory-management system which requires both types of tags to be scanned to constitute a successful product count. Infrastructure tags may also be employed as “read” or “no-read” tags in an RFID read field. The infrastructure tags of the RFID read field are combined with an RFID reader which is dynamically adaptable during initial set-up and use to improve the performance of the read field. When a perturbing object is detected in the read field, one or more performance parameters of the reader are adjusted to overcome any perturbing influence caused by the object.
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Citations
26 Claims
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1. An RFID-based inventory management system of a type including an RFID reader, comprising:
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an RFID-readable product tag associated with a piece of merchandise; and an RFID-readable infrastructure tag associated with a fixed location capable of sending signals to and receiving return signals from RFID readable tags. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An RFID-based method of counting items in an area, comprising:
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providing an item including an RFID-readable product tag; providing an infrastructure tag associated with a fixed location in the area; scanning said product tag using an RFID reader to obtain information about the product tag; and scanning said infrastructure tag with an RFID reader to obtain information about the infrastructure tag. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An RFID-based read field, comprising:
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an RFID reader adapted to emit a signal; an RFID-readable infrastructure tag adapted to emit a return signal or non-signal upon receiving a signal from the RFID reader; and a system controller associated with the RFID reader and programmed to compare any return signal or non-signal received by the RFID reader to an expected return signal or non-signal and adjust at least one of the performance parameters of the RFID reader if the return signal or non-signal is different from the expected return signal or non-signal. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of operating an RFID-based read field, comprising:
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providing an RFID-readable infrastructure tag; providing an RFID reader; emitting a signal from the RFID reader; emitting a return signal or non-signal from the tag if the tag receives said signal from the RFID reader; comparing any return signal or non-signal received by the RFID reader to an expected return signal or non-signal; and adjusting at least one performance parameter of the RFID reader if the return signal or non-signal is different from the expected return signal or non-signal. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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Specification