Object identification system
First Claim
Patent Images
1. For an identification system including a transponder to be identified and an interrogator for determining the identification of the transponder, the improvement wherein the transponder comprises:
- receiving means adapted to receive repetitive spaced pulses communicated to the transponder by said interrogator including means for converting said received pulses into correlative clock pulses;
storage means for storing an identifying code for said transponder, said storage means receiving said clock pulses and being adapted to provide said stored identifying code in response to receipt of said clock pulses; and
delay means and transmitting means for causing pulses representative of said identifying code from said storage means to be transmitted to said interrogator with individual ones of said transmitted pulses being correlative to respective individual ones of said received pulses and being transmitted in predetermined timed relationship with said respective individual ones of said received pulses so that said transmitted pulses are transmitted during the space between said received pulses whereby said received pulses can be temporally distinguished from said transmitted pulses and said transponder can be identified by said interrogator.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A transponder/interrogator system for remotely identifying objects. The interrogator emits infrared pulses to activate and remotely clock the transponder. Upon such activation, the transponder emits in synchronism with the interrogator pulse a unique code in the form of infrared pulses in accordance with a program stored in a recirculating shift register. The interrogator receives the infrared pulses from the transponder and may be associated with various code utilization devices as described herein.
128 Citations
57 Claims
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1. For an identification system including a transponder to be identified and an interrogator for determining the identification of the transponder, the improvement wherein the transponder comprises:
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receiving means adapted to receive repetitive spaced pulses communicated to the transponder by said interrogator including means for converting said received pulses into correlative clock pulses; storage means for storing an identifying code for said transponder, said storage means receiving said clock pulses and being adapted to provide said stored identifying code in response to receipt of said clock pulses; and delay means and transmitting means for causing pulses representative of said identifying code from said storage means to be transmitted to said interrogator with individual ones of said transmitted pulses being correlative to respective individual ones of said received pulses and being transmitted in predetermined timed relationship with said respective individual ones of said received pulses so that said transmitted pulses are transmitted during the space between said received pulses whereby said received pulses can be temporally distinguished from said transmitted pulses and said transponder can be identified by said interrogator. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A vehicle identification system comprising:
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interrogator means including a portion adapted to transmit infrared pulses through the windshield of vehicles and to receive infrared pulses transmitted through the windshield of said vehicle, said portion being positioned in front of said windshield of said vehicles to receive infrared pulses transmitted through the windshield by said transponder means and to transmit infrared pulses through said windshield to said transponder means, said portion further including means restricting the field of transmission of said infrared pulses and the field of receipt of said infrared pulses so that only one vehicle may be located with its windshield within said fields of transmission and receipt; and transponder means located within said vehicle so as to receive infrared pulses from said interrogator which are transmitted through said windshield and to transmit infrared pulses through said windshield to said interrogator, said transponder being adapted to provide an identifying number by means of the transmission of said infrared pulses to said interrogator. - View Dependent Claims (57)
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11. For an identification system including a transponder to be identified and an interrogator for determining the identification of said transponder, the improvement wherein the transponder comprises;
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receiving means adapted to receive pulses communicated to the transponder by said interrogator; a recirculating shift register having an identifying code comprised of a plurality of bits stored therein, said shift register being responsive to received interrogator pulses for recirculating said bits within said shift register so as to maintain the storage of said bits of said identifying code in said shift register while also sequentially providing the bits of said identifying code to an output terminal thereof; and transmitting means for receiving said sequential bits of said identifying code from said output terminal of said recirculating shift register and for transmitting pulses to said interrogator in accordance with said bits of said identifying code whereby said transponder can be identified by said interrogator. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. For an identification system including a transponder emitting relatively low power infrared pulses to be identified and an interrogator emitting relatively high power infrared pulses for determining the identification of said transponder, the improvement wherein the interrogator comprises:
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transmitting means adapted to transmit said relatively high power infrared pulses during predetermined spaced periods to the transponder; receiving means adapted to receive correlative relatively low power infrared pulses communicated to the interrogator by said transponder and having sufficient sensitivity to respond to said relatively low power infrared transponder pulses and thereby being deleteriously affected by receipt of relatively high power infrared pulses, with each transponder infrared pulse being delayed relative to correlative ones of said interrogator infrared pulses so that said correlative transponder infrared pulses are received during periods intermediate said spaced periods; and means for rendering said receiving means of said interrogator at least substantially non-responsive to received infrared pulses during the periods of transmission of said interrogator infrared pulses so that said receiving means is not deleteriously affected by reflections of said relatively high power interrogator infrared pulses. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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21. An object identification system comprising:
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interrogator means including transmitting means adapted to transmit relatively high power infrared pulses during predetermined spaced periods and receiving means adapted to receive correlative relatively lower power infrared pulses communicated to the interrogator and being sufficiently sensitive to respond to said relatively low power infrared transponder pulses and thereby being deleteriously effected by receipt of relatively high power infrared pulses, said receiving means including means rendering said receiving means substantially non-responsive to received infrared pulses during the periods of transmission of said interrogator infrared pulses by said transmitting means and responsive to pulses received a predetermined period of delay after the transmission of each of said interrogator pulses; and transponder means adapted to receive infrared pulses from said interrogator and to transmit correlative relatively low power infrared pulses to said interrogator, said transponder being adapted to delay the transmission of a correlative infrared pulse to said interrogator for said predetermined period of delay, said predetermined period of delay being established so that said transponder infrared pulses are transmitted intermediate the transmission periods of said interrogator infrared pulses. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
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24. An object identification system comprising;
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interrogator means adapted to transmit pulses and to receive pulses; transponder means adapted to receive pulses from said interrogator and to transmit pulses to said interrogator, said transponder being further adapted to provide a code by means of said transmitted pulses to said interrogator; and identifying means associated with said interrogator means being responsive to a selected characteristic of received pulses which is presumed to clearly indicate an actual receipt of a transmission from said transponder means and for generating a flag signal representative thereof for a predetermined period; and processing means for processing said pulses received from said transponder means during the predetermined period of generation of said flag signal including pulses not having said selected characteristic and therefore, in the absence of said flag signal, would not be presumed to clearly indicate an actual receipt of a transmission from said transponder means and thus would not have been processed in the absence of said flag signal. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. For an identification system including a transponder to be identified and an interrogator for determining the identification of the transponder, the improvement wherein the transponder comprises:
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receiving means adapted to receive repetitive spaced pulses communicated to the transponder by said interrogator including means for converting said received pulses into first electrical pulses; storage means for storing an identifying number for said transponder, and storage means receiving said first electrical pulses and providing an electrical signal representative of said stored identifying number in response to said received first electrical pulses; transmitting means for receiving said first electrical pulses and said electrical signal and for transmitting second pulses representative of said identifying code to said interrogator when said first electrical pulses and said electrical signal are simultaneously received by said transmitting means whereby said transponder transmits said identifying number to said interrogator; and delay means for delaying the time at which at least one of said first electrical pulses and said electrical signal are received by said transmitting means relative to the receipt of said received pulses so that respective ones of said second pulses are transmitted during the space between respective ones of said received pulses. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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42. An automobile identifying system utilizing a transponder carried by the vehicle comprising:
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first means responsive to the presence of said automobile for providing a first signal representative thereof independently of said transponder; second means independent of said first means and cooperative with said transponder responsive to the presence of said transponder for providing a second signal representative thereof, said second means including interrogator means adapted to transmit pulses and to receive pulses, said transponder being adapted to receive pulses from said interrogator and to transmit pulses to said interrogator representative of an identifying code whereby said transponder can be identified by said interrogator means; and means responsive to both said first and second signals for identifying said transponder and determining the presence of said automobile whereby two independent determinations are made and whereby a single one of said determinations indicates either the presence of an automobile without a transponder or the presence of a transponder without an automobile. - View Dependent Claims (43)
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44. For an identifying system including a transponder to be identified and an interrogator for determining the identification of the transponder, the improvement wherein the transponder comprises:
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receiving means having a sensitivity to detect received pulses which are separated by a predetermined time period and are of varying intensity over a predetermined range of intensities from said interrogator and to provide correlative electrical pulses having a characteristic representative of the intensity of said received pulses with said predetermined range of intensities; means responsive to said electrical pulses for transferring an electrical pulse when said characteristic of said electrical pulse indicates that the intensity of said electrical pulse exceeds a predetermined intensity within said range of intensities and for blocking said electrical pulse when said characteristic of said pulse indicates that the intensity of said pulse does not exceed said predetermined intensity within said range of intensities; and delay and transmitting means for receiving said transferred electrical pulses for transmitting pulses of a predetermined intensity to said interrogator correlative to certain ones of said electrical pulses of which said characteristic indicates said pulses exceed said predetermined intensity regardless of the degree by which said certain electrical pulse exceeds said predetermined intensity, but delayed relative to said electrical pulses so that individual ones of said transmitted pulses are transmitted in the time period between individual ones of said received pulses whereby said transponder can be identified by said interrogator. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 54)
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50. For an identification system including a transponder to be identified and an interrogator for determining the identification of said transponder, the improvement wherein the transponder comprises:
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transmitting means adapted to transmit pulses to the interrogator in response to correlative electrical pulses; receiving means adapted to receive pulses communicated to the transponder by said interrogator for providing said electrical pulses to said transmitting means; means for rendering said transponder at least substantially non-responsive to received pulses during the transmission of said transponder pulses, said means being responsive to said electrical pulses for inhibiting the generation of a further electrical pulse due to the reflection of said transmitting means pulse to said receiving means. - View Dependent Claims (51, 52)
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53. In a parking facility, a system for controlling utilization thereof by automobiles carrying a transponder comprising:
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an entry permitting means including first means responsive to the presence of said transponder proximate said entry permitting means for providing a first signal representative thereof, said first means including interrogator means adapted to transmit pulses and to receive pulses, said transponder being adapted to receive pulses from said interrogator and to transmit pulses to said interrogator representative of an identifying code whereby said transponder can be identified by said interrogator means, means responsive to said first signal for identifying said transponder so that the allowability of an automobile carrying said transponder can be determined and for providing an entry enabling signal, and means for controlling said entry permitting means to allow entry of an automobile in response to said entry enabling signal; and an exit means including second means responsive to the presence of said automobile proximate said exit means for providing a second signal representative thereof independently of said transponder, third means independent of said second means and cooperative with said transponder and responsive to the presence of said transponder proximate said exit means for providing a third signal representative thereof, said third means including interrogator means adapted to transmit pulses and to receive pulses, said transponder being adapted to receive pulses from said interrogator and to transmit pulses to said interrogator representative of an identifying code whereby said transponder can be identified by said interrogator means, and means responsive to both said second and third signals for identifying said transponder and determining the presence of said automobile proximate said exit means whereby two independent determinations are made, so that entry of an automobile may be allowed least at times only in response to the prior occurrence of both said second and third signals indicating prior exit of an automobile and a transponder whereby passing back of said transponder from automobile to automobile at said entry permitting means is ineffective to permit entry of more than the first such automobile.
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55. In a parking facility, a system for controlling utilization thereof by automobiles carrying a transponder comprising:
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an entry permitting means including first means responsive to the presence of said transponder proximate said entry permitting means for providing a first signal representative thereof, said first means including interrogator means adapted to transmit pulses and to receive pulses, said transponder being adapted to receive pulses from said interrogator and to transmit pulses to said interrogator representative of an identifying code whereby said transponder can be identified by said interrogator means, means responsive to said first signal for identifying said transponder so that the allowability of an automobile carrying said transponder can be determined and for providing an entry enabling signal, and means for controlling said entry permitting means to allow entry of an automobile in response to said entry enabling signal; and an exit means including second means cooperative with said transponder and responsive to the presence of said transponder proximate said exit means for providing a second signal representative thereof, said second means including interrogator means adapted to transmit pulses and to receive pulses, said transponder being adapted to receive pulses from said interrogator and to transmit pulses to said interrogator representative of an identifying code whereby said transponder can be identified by said interrogator means, and means responsive to said second signal for identifying said transponder proximate said exit means so that the entry of an automobile may be allowed at least at times only in response to the prior occurrence of said second signal indicating prior exit of a transponder whereby passing back of said transponder from automobile to automobile at said entry permitting means is ineffective to permit entry of more than the first such automobile. - View Dependent Claims (56)
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Specification