Wide area multipurpose tracking system
First Claim
1. A method for controlling a reception region, comprising:
- setting up a receiver base station including an antenna;
attaching a plurality of transmitters to a plurality of objects, each object of the plurality of objects having a transmitter of the plurality of transmitters, each transmitter adapted to transmit a unique identifier;
adjusting sensitivity of the receiver base station by controllably attenuating signals received by the antenna;
if the reception range is less than a desired reception range, decreasing attenuation; and
if the reception range exceeds the desired reception range, increasing attenuation.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method of electronically tracking and locating a very large number of objects such as, but not limited to, personal case files in health care, law, or human services systems is described. Each object to be tracked has an attached miniature radio transmitter called a tag which sends a coded signal to a network of receiver base stations with limited but overlapping reception ranges. Each receiver base station places in its own memory the time at which a record enters its range, remains in range, and the time at which it leaves. The various receiver base stations are interconnected to a host computer. By polling the memories of each receiver base station, the computer is able to determine the current location of any record.
29 Citations
27 Claims
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1. A method for controlling a reception region, comprising:
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setting up a receiver base station including an antenna; attaching a plurality of transmitters to a plurality of objects, each object of the plurality of objects having a transmitter of the plurality of transmitters, each transmitter adapted to transmit a unique identifier; adjusting sensitivity of the receiver base station by controllably attenuating signals received by the antenna; if the reception range is less than a desired reception range, decreasing attenuation; and if the reception range exceeds the desired reception range, increasing attenuation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method for controlling overlap in reception regions, comprising:
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setting up a plurality of receiver base stations, each receiver base station having an antenna with a reception pattern which defines a reception region; attaching a plurality of transmitters to a plurality of objects, each object of the plurality of objects having a transmitter of the plurality of transmitters, each transmitter adapted to transmit a unique identifier; for each receiver of the plurality of receivers, adjusting sensitivity of the receiver by attenuating signals received by the antenna, wherein the reception regions for the plurality of receivers are adjusted to overlap. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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- 19. In a radio frequency tracking system comprising a plurality of transmitters and a plurality of receivers, each receiver of the plurality of receivers having an antenna with a reception pattern which defines a reception region, an apparatus for controlling reception regions, comprising an attenuator, inserted between a receiver of the plurality of receivers and its associated antenna for adjusting the reception region which the antenna receives, wherein the reception region of each of the plurality of receivers is adjustable for controlling overlap of reception regions, each transmitter of the plurality of transmitters is adapted to transmit a unique identifier, and each receiver of the plurality of receivers is adapted to receive the unique identifier from a transmitter in its reception region to identify location of the transmitter in its reception region.
Specification