LOW-FREQUENCY RECEIVING FOR RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICAITON

• US 20160203347A1
• Filed: 01/07/2016
• Published: 07/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Imsar LLC
• Original Assignee: Imsar LLC
• Inventors: Bartholomew, David Baird, German, Gus Ryan, Smith, Ryan Lee, Chamberlain, Caleb Hunter
• Granted Patent: US 9,785,806 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/0723 the record carrier comprising an arrangement for non-contact communication, e.g. wireless communication circuits on transponder cards, non-contact smart cards or RFIDs
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10158 methods and means used by the interrogation device for reliably powering the wireless record carriers using an electromagnetic interrogation field
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10207 parameter settings related to power consumption of the interrogator
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/18 Status alarms G08B21/02 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/77 for interrogation

Abstract

A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag includes a power source, a transmitter to transmit a unique identifier, and a receiver operatively coupled to the transmitter and to receive low-frequency signals from an active RFID transceiver located in the vicinity. The transmitter is activated by the power source responsive to the receiver receiving a wake up command at a predetermined low frequency from the active RFID transceiver. An RFID transceiver includes an antenna, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions and a transmitter to transmit low-frequency signals to RFID tags through the antenna. A processing device of the RFID transceiver can execute the instructions to insert a station identifier (ID) into the low-frequency signals that direct the RFID tags to retransmit the station ID, wherein the station ID identifies an approximate location of the RFID tags.

Claims

1. A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag comprising:

a power source;

a transmitter to transmit a unique identifier;

a receiver operatively coupled to the transmitter and to receive low-frequency signals from an active RFID transceiver located within a vicinity of the receiver; and

wherein the transmitter is activated by the power source responsive to the receiver receiving a wake up command at a predetermined low frequency from the active RFID transceiver.

2. The RFID tag of claim 1, wherein the predetermined low frequency is 150 KHz or less, and the wake up command is a low duty-cycle command of less than a 50% duty cycle.

3. The RFID tag of claim 1, further comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions; and

a processor to execute the instructions to cause the transmitter to respond, when commanded by the active RFID transceiver, by transmitting a response signal including requested data.

4. The RFID tag of claim 1, further comprising a processor operatively coupled to the transmitter, the processor to execute pre-stored instructions responsive to the receiver receiving the wake up command.

5. The RFID tag of claim 1, wherein the receiver is to receive a station identifier (ID) from the active RFID transceiver in the low-frequency signals, and responsive to the station ID, the transmitter is to retransmit the station ID in a data packet, to indicate proximity to the active RFID transceiver.

6. The RFID tag of claim 1, further comprising a processor to:

once awake, detect data in a high-frequency signal received from the active RFID transceiver; and

determine an action to take based on a command within the data.

7. The RFID tag of claim 6, wherein the action is to direct the transmitter to transmit at a specific transmission rate for a predetermined period of time.

8. The RFID tag of claim 6, wherein the action is to direct the transmitter to transmit the unique identifier more frequently or less frequently.

9. The RFID tag of claim 6, wherein the action is to:

direct the transmitter to disable all transmissions to conserve the power source; and

direct the receiver to remain active to detect further commands from the active RFID transceiver.

10. The RFID tag of claim 1, wherein the active RFID transceiver is a first active RFID transceiver, further comprising a processor to:

once awake, detect data in a high-frequency signal received from a second active RFID transceiver located at least a mile away; and

determine an action to take based on a command within the data.

11. A radio frequency identification (RFID) transceiver comprising:

an antenna;

non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions;

a transmitter to transmit low-frequency signals to RFID tags through the antenna; and

a processing device operatively coupled to the transmitter and to execute the instructions to insert a station identifier (ID) into the low-frequency signals that direct the RFID tags to retransmit the station ID, wherein the station ID identifies an approximate location of the RFID tags.

12. The RFID transceiver of claim 11, wherein the processing device is further to save to computer storage a unique RFID identifier from each RFID tag in addition to timestamp and data content of RFID tag transmissions.

13. The RFID transceiver of claim 12, wherein the data content includes signal strength of the RFID tag transmissions.

14. The RFID transceiver of claim 12, wherein the processing device is further to display the unique RFID identifiers and signal strength of the RFID tag transmissions on a display device.

15. The RFID transceiver of claim 11, wherein the processing device is further to execute the instructions to insert commands into high-frequency signals transmitted by the transmitter, wherein the commands are to direct the RFID tags to one of:

transmit more frequently;

transmit less frequently;

or transmit at a specific rate for an identified period of time.

16. The RFID transceiver of claim 11, wherein the processing device is further to generate commands over high-frequency signals for receipt only by RFID tags with certain identifiers or only by RFID tags within a certain radius of the antenna.

17. A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag comprising:

a power source;

a transmitter to transmit a unique identifier and to respond to commands after being activated;

a receiver operatively coupled to the transmitter and to receive a high-frequency signal from an active RFID transceiver;

a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions; and

a processor to execute the instructions to cause one of the transmitter or the receiver to respond to commands received within the high-frequency signal.

18. The RFID tag of claim 17, further comprising a sensor to gather environmental data, and wherein the processor is further to direct the transmitter to transmit the environmental data from the sensor to the active RFID transceiver.

19. The RFID tag of claim 17, further comprising a location sensor to gather location-based information, and wherein the processor is further to direct the transmitter to transmit the location-based information from the sensor to the active RFID transceiver.

20. The RFID tag of claim 17, wherein the processor is further to:

detect data within the high-frequency signal received from the active RFID transceiver; and

determine an action to take in view of a command within the data.

21. The RFID tag of claim 20, wherein the processor is further to execute the action by directing the transmitter to transmit at a specific transmission rate for a predetermined period of time.

22. The RFID tag of claim 20, wherein the processor is further to execute the action by directing the transmitter to transmit the unique identifier more frequently or less frequently.

23. The RFID tag of claim 20, wherein the processor is further to execute the action by:

directing the transmitter to disable all transmissions to conserve the power source; and

directing the receiver to remain active to detect further commands from the active RFID transceiver.