Method and apparatus for locating mobile tags
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A system for determining a location of a tag, comprising:
- at least one receiver that receives a signal from the tag;
a controller that communicates with the at least one receiver; and
a memory that stores information regarding previous communication between at least one receiver and a reference tag while the reference tag was in at least two different locations;
wherein the controller determines a location of the tag based on information stored in the memory regarding the previous communication with the reference tag; and
wherein the controller provides a plurality of configuration setting packages that can be selected by a user.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for determining tag location is disclosed. Tag reference data may be stored, e.g., in the form of a lookup table, as a trained neural network, and so on, and used to determine the location of tags. Readings used to determine tag location and/or preliminary tag locations may be filtered to produce reliable tag location indications. Packages of user configurable parameters can be provided and used for the filtering of the preliminary tag locations. Confidence levels may also be generated for determined tag locations and used, for example, to indicate how well an asset location system can distinguish between different tag locations.
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Citations
46 Claims
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1. A system for determining a location of a tag, comprising:
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at least one receiver that receives a signal from the tag;
a controller that communicates with the at least one receiver; and
a memory that stores information regarding previous communication between at least one receiver and a reference tag while the reference tag was in at least two different locations;
wherein the controller determines a location of the tag based on information stored in the memory regarding the previous communication with the reference tag; and
wherein the controller provides a plurality of configuration setting packages that can be selected by a user. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method for locating a tag, comprising:
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receiving a signal from a reference tag;
storing information regarding the signal received from the reference tag, the signal being received from the reference tag while the reference tag is in at least two locations;
determining a location of the tag based on the stored information regarding the signal received from the reference tag; and
providing a plurality of configuration setting packages that can be selected by a user. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
providing zones that can be selected as a particular type of zone by a user, and the method further comprising: using configuration packages that correspond to the selected zones to control how the controller determines tag location for the selected zones.
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34. The method of claim 21, further comprising providing user configurable settings for at least one of sequential filtering of tag tracking data, average filtering of tag tracking data, time filtering of tag tracking data, and a tag location publication delay.
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35. The method of claim 21, further comprising determining a confidence level for the location determined for the tracking tag.
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36. The method of claim 35, wherein the step of determining a confidence level comprises determining confidence levels based on one of prior probability information regarding the tracking tag, and a transitional probability for the tracking tag.
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37. The method of claim 35, further comprising using the confidence level to determine whether to indicate that the tag has moved from one location to another.
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38. The method of claim 35, further comprising using a variable confidence level threshold to determine whether to indicate that the tag has moved from one location to another, the variable threshold being variable depending upon a zone in which the tag is located.
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39. The method of claim 35, further comprising using a variable confidence level threshold to determine whether to indicate that the tag has moved from one location to another, the variable threshold being variable depending upon whether the tag location is to be used for real-time tracking or archival purposes.
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40. The method of claim 35, further comprising using the confidence level to identify zones in which tags are seldom located.
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41. The method of claim 35, further comprising using the confidence level to trigger an alarm based on the tag location.
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42. A method of setting up a system for determining a location of a tag within a facility, comprising the acts of:
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providing a template of at least one tag locating system comprising at least one zone layout including a receiver locations layout and corresponding rules;
selecting a zone layout;
placing receivers at receiver locations defined by the receiver locations layout; and
using the corresponding rules to set up the system. - View Dependent Claims (43)
providing tag location rules that are used to determine a location of a tracking tag based on at least one signal received by a receiver; and
wherein the step of placing receivers at receiver locations comprises establishing a physical size of at least one zone in the zone layout.
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44. A method of determining a location of a tag, comprising:
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providing at least one device to communicate with the tag;
receiving a signal representing communication with the tag;
determining a preliminary location for the tag based on the signal;
filtering the preliminary location for the tag using one of sticky rule filtering, sequential filtering, average filtering, time filtering and a tag location publication delay, before using the preliminary location to determine the tag location;
receiving user input configuration parameters that are used to adjust the filtering of the preliminary location; and
providing packages of user configurable parameters that can be selected and used for filtering preliminary location data from a specific zone. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46)
receiving different sets of user input configuration parameters for different zones.
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46. The method of claim 44, further comprising:
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determining a first location for the tag, the first location intended for use with real-time tracking of the tag; and
determining a second location for the tag, the second location intended for use storage in a tag movement archive.
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Specification