ELECTRONIC TAG TIME-SHARING CONTROL SYSTEM AND METHOD THEREOF

• US 20120326846A1
• Filed: 09/22/2011
• Published: 12/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ceramicro Technology Corp.
• Original Assignee: Ceramicro Technology Corp.
• Inventors: TSENG, LINCOLN, WU, JOHNSON, LIU, DANIEL
• Granted Patent: US 8,723,650 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/10.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/0022 arrangements or provisious for transferring data to distant stations, e.g. from a sensing device "transfer between computer elements G06F13/00 "; data-transmission H04L
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07707 the visual interface being a display, e.g. LCD or electronic ink
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10039 interrogator driven, i.e. synchronous

Abstract

The present invention discloses an electronic tag time sharing control system and a method thereof, and the system comprises a server, at least one coordinator and a plurality of wireless electronic tags. The server transmits a time-sharing control signal. The coordinator and the server form a wireless connection for receiving and transmitting the time-sharing control signal. The wireless electronic tags and the coordinators form a wireless connection. After each wireless electronic tag receives the time-sharing control signal, different sleep cycle and wakeup timing are generated to update display information sequentially. A portion of the wireless electronic tag is situated at a sleep status and a portion of the wireless electronic tag is situated at a standby status to receive the update display information, so as to achieve the effects of saving bandwidth, reducing packet collisions and extending the service life of the wireless electronic tag.

Claims

1. An electronic tag time-sharing control method, comprising the steps of:

providing a plurality of wireless electronic tags;

executing a time-sharing control procedure by a server within a default display information update cycle to transmit a plurality of time-sharing control signals to the wireless electronic tags respectively for setting a default wakeup timing of each wireless electronic tag and a corresponding sleep cycle thereof;

resuming each wireless electronic tag from a sleep status to a standby status according to the set default wakeup timing, and transmitting an acknowledge signal to the server;

determining whether the transmission time of each acknowledge signal is matched with the default wakeup timing of each wireless electronic tag;

transmitting a display message to each wireless electronic tag by the server to update the display information of each wireless electronic tag, when the transmission time of each acknowledge signal is matched with the default wakeup timing of each wireless electronic tag;

returning the acknowledge signal including an update confirmation message after the display information of each wireless electronic tag is updated; and

transmitting a time-sharing control signal to each wireless electronic tag again to enter each wireless electronic tag into the sleep cycle again after the server receives the acknowledge signal including the update confirmation message, and setting each wireless electronic tag to a default wakeup timing of the next wakeup time.

2. The electronic tag time-sharing control method of claim 1, wherein each electronic tag has different sleep cycle and wakeup timing.

3. The electronic tag time-sharing control method of claim 1, wherein the server device delays the display information update time of the wireless electronic tag and rearranges the updated priority order of the wireless electronic tag display information to the last position, when the server determines that the transmission time of each acknowledge signal is not matched with the default wakeup timing.

4. The electronic tag time-sharing control method of claim 1, wherein the time-sharing control procedure further comprises an assigned weight parameter, and the time-sharing control procedure determines the priority order of updating the display information of each wireless electronic tag according to a value of the assigned weight parameter.

5. The electronic tag time-sharing control method of claim 1, wherein the server generates an abnormal monitoring message of a wireless electronic tag when the wakeup time of the wireless electronic tag exceeds the default display information update cycle.

6. The electronic tag time-sharing control method of claim 1, wherein the default wakeup time falls within the next default display information update cycle after each wireless electronic tag enters into a sleep cycle again.

7. An electronic tag time-sharing control system, comprising:

a server, for executing a time-sharing control procedure, and transmitting a time-sharing control signal;

at least one coordinator, connected to the server to form a wireless connection, and provided for receiving and transmitting the time-sharing control signal; and

a plurality of wireless electronic tags, connected to the coordinators respectively to form a wireless connection, and each wireless electronic tag being provided for storing an identification code (ID), and the time-sharing control signal being corresponsive to the identification code;

wherein after each wireless electronic tag receives the time-sharing control signal, each wireless electronic tag is compared with the time-sharing control signal according to the identification code, so that a portion of the wireless electronic tags is situated at a sleep status, and a portion of the wireless electronic tags is situated at a standby status to determine a corresponding sleep cycle.

8. The electronic tag time-sharing control system of claim 7, further comprising a plurality of routers, and the routers and the coordinator forming a wireless connection, and the wireless electronic tags and the corresponding routers being connected respectively to form a wireless connection.

9. The electronic tag time-sharing control system of claim 8, wherein the coordinators, the routers and the wireless electronic tags are matched with a Zigbee wireless communication protocol.

10. The electronic tag time-sharing control system of claim 7, wherein when the wireless electronic tag is situated at the standby status, an acknowledge signal is issued within a default acknowledge time period, and the server receives the acknowledge signal to determine whether each wireless electronic tag is situated at the standby status or the sleep status.

11. The electronic tag time-sharing control system of claim 7, wherein the wireless electronic tag has a display screen, and the server transmits a display message, and when the wireless electronic tag is situated at the standby status, the wireless electronic tag receives the display message and displays the display message on the display screen.

12. The electronic tag time-sharing control system of claim 7, wherein when the coordinator comes with a plural quantity, adjacent coordinators select different channels respectively.

13. The electronic tag time-sharing control system of claim 7, wherein each wireless electronic tag further includes a solar power module composed of a solar panel and an electrical storage device.