Wearable RFID Devices With Manually Activated RFID Tags

• US 20150379791A1
• Filed: 06/25/2014
• Published: 12/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Russell, Ryan Scott, Lauka, Wesley Scott
• Granted Patent: US 9,811,955 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0716 at least one of the integrated circuit chips comprising a sensor or an interface to a sensor
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07762 the adhering arrangement making the record carrier wearable, e.g. having the form of a ring, watch, glove or bracelet record carriers for insertion in the human body for medical purposes A61B90/00; record carriers adapted for attachment to animals A01K11/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10396 the interrogation device being wearable, e.g. as a glove, bracelet, or ring wearable aerials in general H01Q1/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/04 Manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 90/00 Systems or methods specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes, not involving significant data processing
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/22 in combination with an identity check of the pass holder
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/30 Computing systems specially adapted for manufacturing

Abstract

A wearable RFID device may include one or more manually activated RFID tags configured to transmit unique RFID signals in response to a manual activation thereof. Such wearable RFID devices may be worn about any aspect of a user'"'"'s body, such as a hand, a wrist or an arm of the user, who may contact the manually activated RFID tag and transmit an RFID signal that is consistent with a particular action or instruction associated with a task. The action or the instruction may be executed based on the RFID signal, or upon receiving a confluence or sequence of RFID signals. Additionally, a wearable RFID device may be recognized by one or more discrete systems and configured to operate such systems accordingly.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

an RFID reader;

a wearable RFID device operated by a user, wherein the wearable RFID device comprises at least one manually activated RFID tag;

a computing device in communication with at least the RFID reader,

wherein the computing device is configured to implement one or more services, and

wherein the one or more services are configured to;

identify the user;

receive, at the RFID reader, a first RFID signal from the manually activated RFID tag, wherein the first RFID signal is transmitted upon contact with the manually activated RFID tag by the user at a first time;

store, after receiving the first RFID signal from the manually activated RFID tag, information regarding at least one of the user or a task associated with the user in at least one data store;

generate an instruction for performing the task associated with the user based at least in part on the information; and

transmit the instruction for performing the task to at least one networked component.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the one or more services are further configured to:

receive, at the RFID reader, a second RFID signal from at least one non-manually activated RFID tag associated with the user,

wherein the user is identified based at least in part on the second RFID signal.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the task comprises at least one of:

recording information regarding an item in at least one registry;

confirming a state of the item;

authenticating the user;

activating a setting associated with at least one of the item, the task or the user;

or

deactivating the setting associated with the at least one of the item, the task or the user.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the wearable RFID device is provided on at least one of:

a glove-like apparatus;

a bracelet-like apparatus;

or

an article of clothing to be worn about at least a portion of an arm, a leg or a head of the user.

5. A method comprising:

receiving, at an RFID reader, a first RFID signal transmitted from a wearable RFID device comprising at least one manually activated RFID tag;

identifying at least one of a user of the wearable RFID device or an object in a vicinity of the wearable RFID device;

storing information regarding the first RFID signal and at least one of the user or the object by at least one computing device; and

identifying at least one task associated with the at least one of the user of the wearable RFID device or the object in the vicinity of the wearable RFID device based at least in part on the information.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the at least one task comprises a placement of the object in a storage facility by the user, and

wherein the information comprises an acknowledgement of the placement of the object in the storage facility by the user.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the first RFID signal is transmitted from the wearable RFID device following contact with at least a portion of the wearable RFID device by the user.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

providing at least one instruction for performing the at least one task to a networked component associated with the task.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

identifying a plurality of networked components in communication with the at least one computing device, wherein each of the networked components is associated with at least one of a plurality of tasks; and

selecting at least one of the plurality of networked components based at least in part on the first RFID signal,

wherein the at least one instruction for performing the at least one task is provided to the selected one of the plurality of networked components.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein identifying the at least one of the user of the wearable RFID device or the object in the vicinity of the wearable RFID device comprises:

receiving, at the RFID reader, a second RFID signal transmitted from a first RFID device comprising at least one RFID tag; and

associating the second RFID signal with the at least one of the user of the wearable RFID device or the object in the vicinity of the wearable RFID device.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

authenticating the user based at least in part on the first RFID signal or the second RFID signal,

wherein the information regarding the first RFID signal and at least one of the user or the object comprises an authentication of the user.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining a location of the object based at least in part on the first RFID signal or the second RFID signal,

wherein the information regarding the first RFID signal and at least one of the user or the object comprises the location of the object.

13. The method of claim 5, wherein the wearable RFID device is configured to be worn about at least one of a hand, a wrist, an arm, a leg, a waist or a head of the user.

14. The method of claim 5, wherein the wearable RFID device comprises a plurality of manually activated RFID tags, and

wherein each of the plurality of manually activated RFID tags is configured to transmit at least one unique RFID signal following contact with at least a portion of the wearable RFID device by the user.

15. The method of claim 5, wherein at least one of the manually activated RFID tags comprises a touch-sensing button, and

wherein the wearable RFID device is configured to transmit the at least one unique RFID signal upon contact with the touch-sensing button by the user.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the touch-sensing button is located on a portion of the wearable RFID device corresponding to a dorsal side of a hand of the user.

17. A wearable apparatus comprising at least one manually activated RFID tag,

wherein the at least one manually activated RFID tag is configured to transmit an RFID signal to an RFID reader upon contact by a user of the wearable apparatus, and

wherein the RFID signal comprises information associated with at least one instruction for performing at least one task associated with at least one of the user of the wearable apparatus or an object in a vicinity of the wearable apparatus.

18. The wearable apparatus of claim 17, further comprising at least a portion of a glove configured to be worn about a hand of the user, and

wherein the at least one manually activated RFID tag is provided on a dorsal portion of the glove.

19. The wearable apparatus of claim 17, further comprising at least a portion of a bracelet configured to be worn about a wrist of the user, and

wherein the at least one manually activated RFID tag is provided on a posterior portion of the bracelet.

20. The wearable apparatus of claim 17,

wherein the wearable apparatus comprises at least two manually activated RFID tags, and

wherein each of the manually activated RFID tags is configured to transmit a unique RFID signal upon contact by the user of the wearable apparatus.