RFID SYSTEM WITH SEGMENTED RFID DATA OWNERSHIP

• US 20140075572A1
• Filed: 08/29/2013
• Published: 03/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zest Labs, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intelleflex Corporation
• Inventors: Mehring, Peter Arnold, LeMaster, Zeljka
• Granted Patent: US 9,514,323 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0717 the sensor being capable of sensing environmental conditions such as temperature history or pressure
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10366 the interrogation device being adapted for miscellaneous applications

Abstract

A method according to one embodiment includes receiving data from a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag; receiving waypoint information relating to the RFID tag; setting ownerships of discrete portions of the data based at least in part on the waypoint information; allowing an owner of one of the discrete portions of the data to view the discrete portion of the data owned by the owner, or derivative thereof; and not allowing the owner to view discrete portions of the data that are not owned by the owner.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving data from a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag;

receiving waypoint information relating to the RFID tag;

setting ownerships of discrete portions of the data based at least in part on the waypoint information;

allowing an owner of one of the discrete portions of the data to view the discrete portion of the data owned by the owner, or derivative thereof; and

not allowing the owner to view discrete portions of the data that are not owned by the owner.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data is time-stamped sensor data collected by the RFID tag.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the sensor data is stored in a memory of the RFID tag.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the sensor data includes temperature.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the sensor data is selected from a group consisting of humidity, shock and vibration forces, Ph, sunlight, ultraviolet light, chemicals, radioactivity, pathogens, presence of bacteria, presence of viruses, presence of prions, and carbon dioxide level.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the waypoint information is based on a location of the RFID tag.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the waypoint information is based on a manual interaction with the RFID tag.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the waypoint information is based on a change in custody of the RFID tag.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein an ownership is defined temporally from a change in custody to the owner to a subsequent change in custody from the owner.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the waypoint information is based on time.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the waypoint information is based on an access to the RFID tag by an RFID reader.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the waypoint information is based on writing data to the RFID tag.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein at least some of the waypoint information is based on a change in sensor data collected by the RFID tag,

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising allowing a user to manually alter at least some of the ownerships of the discrete portions of the data.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the owner is allowed to view a summary of the discrete portion of the data pertaining to the owner.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising allowing a second owner of another discrete portion of the data to view the discrete portion of the data owned by the owner, or derivative thereof, as well as the another discrete portion or derivative thereof.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an association of the RFID tag and a product to which the RFID tag is coupled.

18. A computer program product, comprising:

executable computer code embodied on a computer readable storage medium, the computer code including;

computer code for receiving data from a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag;

computer code for receiving waypoint information relating to the RFID tag;

computer code for setting ownerships of discrete portions of the data based at least in part on the waypoint information;

computer code for allowing an owner of one of the discrete portions of the data to view the discrete portion of the data owned by the owner, or derivative thereof; and

computer code for not allowing the owner to view discrete portions of the data that are not owned by the owner.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the data is sensor data collected by the RFID tag.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein at least some of the waypoint information is based on a location of the RFID tag.

21. A method for evaluating performance of a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, the method comprising:

receiving data from an RFID tag;

receiving waypoint information relating to the RFID tag;

segmenting the data into discrete portions using the waypoint information;

detecting similarities and/or anomalies in the data across the discrete portions of the data; and

outputting the detected similarities and/or anomalies, or derivative thereof.