Electronic vehicle product and personnel monitoring

• US 7,034,683 B2
• Filed: 12/05/2001
• Issued: 04/25/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2000
• Status: Expired

• Current Assignee: Loran Technologies, Inc. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Loran Technologies, Inc. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Ghazarian, Ohanes
• Primary Examiner(s): La, Anh V.
• Application Number:
  US10/013,278
• Publication Number:
  US 20020089434A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,602 Days
• Field of Search: 340/573.1, 340/568.1, 340/568.7, 340/572.1, 340/522, 340/988, 340/989, 340/10.1, 340/5.31, 340/5.61, 340/5.92, 340/505, 700213-217, 700/226, 700/228, 700/229, 700/225, 700/22, 700/28, 235/385
• US Class Current: 340/568.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 2009/0092 for cargo, freight or shipping containers and applications therefore in general
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/27 with central registration
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/06 by tampering with fastening
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/202 Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching

Abstract

A system providing vehicle, pallet, and personnel tracking within buildings, vehicles such as trucks/trailers, buses, trains and aircraft at a site or in a global network system. RFID transponder Gate readers are used in building doorways, in vehicles such as tracks/trailers gates or bus doors to read pallets, packages and personnel equipped with RFID transponder and tamper proof RFID RF transceiver tags. The RFID-RF transceivers may contain a GPS/GSM modem for locating of pallets or personnel with RF or GPS location system. Site Buildings and vehicles are equipped with compute interface unit, to communicate at time intervals with RFID-RF tag transceiver units installed on pallets or personnel wristwatch, to indicate the presence of pallets or personnel at a site or in a vehicle. Tamperproof RF, GPS/GSM or satellite modems installed on vehicle are used to communicate with site station or to a monitoring station computer network (Server) with the collected data from said vehicle gate reader, for tracking and finding the location of a particular vehicle, and its cargo content or personnel information related to particular vehicle, at a remote or open site.

Claims

1. A system for securing and tracking cargo contents delivered by a plurality of vehicles to and from a plurality of site stations, comprising:

a) a plurality of RFID tags each being attached to one of the objects and pre-storing an identification information thereof;

b) a plurality of site stations each comprising;

b1) a site computer pre-storing identification information of the RFID tags and content information of the objects to be removed from or loaded in the site station; and

b2) a site RFID tag reader operative to read the identification information pre-stored in the RFID tags upon exiting or entering the site station, and to send the identification and content information to the site computer; and

c) a plurality of vehicles each comprising;

c1) a vehicle RFID tag reader operative to read the identification information pre-stored in the RFID tags upon exiting or entering the vehicle; and

c2) a vehicle RFID transceiver CPU pre-storing identification information of the vehicle, the vehicle RFID transceiver CPU being operative to receive the identification information read by the vehicle RFID tag reader and transmit a signal carrying the identification information read by the vehicle RFID tag reader and the identification information of the vehicle to the site computer.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the RFID tags further comprises:

a processor encoded with the identification information and pre-storing the content information of the object that the RFID tag is attached thereto;

a built-in antenna interrogating with the site RFID tag reader and the vehicle RFID tag reader upon entering or exiting the site station and the vehicle, respectively, so as to received a magnetic field therefrom;

a capacitor to be charged by the magnetic field; and

a low-power RF transceiver operative to transmit a signal carrying the identification information and content information pre-stored in the RFID tag while being activated by discharge of the capacitor.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the site computer is operative to compare the identification and content information carried by the signal with the identification and content information pre-stored therein.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the site computer is operative to communicate with the RFID tag at a predetermined time interval when the identification and content information carried by the signal matches the identification and content information pre-stored therein.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the site computer is operative to generate an alarm signal when the identification and content information carried by the signal mismatches the identification and content information pre-stored therein.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein each of the RFID tags further comprises a high- power transmitter connected to the low-power RF transceiver.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the high-power transmitted is activated when the low-power RF transceiver receives a signal from the site computer indicating an unauthorized removal of the object and the RFID tag attached thereto.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein each of the RFID tags further comprises a built-in GPS receiver and a wireless modem powered on with the high-power transmitter for receiving location information from orbiting satellite and transmit the location information to the site computer or the vehicle RF transceiver CPU.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the RFID tags further comprises a pressure sensing tamper switch.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the pressure sensing tamper switch is protected by a metal O-ring.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the RFID tags includes a tamperproof strap or shrinking wrap for mounting the RFID tag to the object.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the tamperproof strap or shrinking wrap are made of conductive material.

13. The system of claim 11, further comprising an optical emitter and an optical collector attached to two opposing ends of the tamperproof strap or shrinking wrap.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the RFID tag is operative to transmit a tamper signal when communication between the optical collector and the optical emitter is interrupted.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein each site station further comprises a RFID gate reader antenna to energize the RFID tags passing therethrough.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein each site station further comprises an RF site antenna in communication with the site computer and the vehicle RF transceiver CPU of at least one of the vehicles.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein each site station further comprises a site antenna for in communication with the site computer.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein each site station includes a plurality of partitions, and each partition includes an RFID tag reader to interrogate the RFID tags attached to the objects entering or exiting the partition.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein each vehicle further comprises a vehicle gate reader antenna to energize the RFID tag entering or exiting the vehicle.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein each vehicle further comprises a vehicle GPS CPU to compare pre-store destination information with current location information of the vehicle.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein each vehicle further comprises a gate-locking mechanism automatically locking a gate of the vehicle when the pre-stored destination information mismatches the current location information.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein each vehicle further comprises a gate-locking mechanism automatically unlocking a gate of the vehicle when the pre-stored destination information matches the current location information.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein the objects include a plurality of cargo units.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the objects includes at least one personnel.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the RFID tag further pre-stores content information and destination information of the objects to which the RFID tag is attached.

26. A system for securing and tracking objects transported by a vehicle between a plurality of site stations, comprising:

a) a plurality of RFID tags each being attached to one of the objects and pre-storing an identification information thereof;

b) a plurality of site stations, at least one of the site stations comprising;

b1) a site computer pre-storing identification information of the RFID tags and content information of the objects to be removed from or loaded in the site station; and

b2) a site RFID tag reader operative to read the identification information pre-stored in the RFID tags upon exiting or entering the site station, and to send the identification and content information to the site computer; and

c) the vehicle comprising;

c1) a vehicle RFID tag reader operative to read the identification information pre-stored in the RFID tags upon exiting or entering the vehicle; and

c2) a vehicle RFID transceiver CPU pre-storing identification information of the vehicle, the vehicle RFID transceiver CPU being operative to receive the identification information read by the vehicle RFID tag reader and transmit a signal carrying the identification information read by the vehicle RFID tag reader and the identification information of the vehicle to the site computer.