Non-contact IC tag system

• US 7,145,458 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2004
• Issued: 12/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Frontech Limited (Fujitsu Limited), Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Frontech Limited (Fujitsu Limited), Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Hashimoto, Shigeru, Haeno, Tadashi
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, TAI T
• Application Number:
  US11/009,463
• Publication Number:
  US 20060006242A1
• Time in Patent Office: 722 Days
• Field of Search: 340/572.1, 340/572.4, 340/10.1, 340/5.92, 340/505, 235/385, 235/492, 235/375
• US Class Current: 340/572.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/0029 the arrangement being specially adapted for wireless interrogation of grouped or bundled articles tagged with wireless record carriers
• 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

Abstract

A non-contact IC tag system includes a plurality of non-contact IC tags, each of which includes identification information and a memory for storing a predetermined amount of data; and a reader/writer that sends an operation command via radio to each of the non-contact IC tags. The non-contact IC tags include a plurality of slave IC tags and a master IC tag. The master IC tag holds memory configuration information that is used when building a memory space with a memory area of the memory of each of the slave IC tags and a memory area of the memory of the master IC tag.

Claims

1. A non-contact IC tag system comprising:

a plurality of non-contact IC tags, each of which includes identification information and a memory for storing a predetermined amount of data; and

a reader/writer that sends an operation command via radio to each of the non-contact IC tags, wherein

the non-contact IC tags include a plurality of slave IC tags and a master IC tag, and

the master IC tag holds memory configuration information that is used when building a memory space with a memory area of the memory of each of the slave IC tags and a memory area of the memory of the master IC tag wherein the reader/writer includes

a memory control unit that stores identical data redundantly in at least two of the non-contact IC tags; and

a readout control unit that, when data cannot be read out from a predetermined non-contact IC tag in which the data is stored by the memory control unit, controls to read out the data from other non-contact IC tag in which the data is stored redundantly.

2. The non-contact IC tag system according to claim 1, wherein

each of the non-contact IC tags includes an IC chip on which a rewritable nonvolatile memory is mounted,

the master IC tag includes a memory area for the memory configuration information and a data memory area on the nonvolatile memory, and

each of the slave IC tags includes a data memory area on the nonvolatile memory.

3. The non-contact IC tag system according to claim 1, wherein the memory configuration information includes identification information, a memory starting address, and a memory byte count of each of the slave IC tags.

4. The non-contact IC tag system according to claim 1, wherein the reader/writer includes a master-IC-tag selecting unit that selects the master IC tag from among the non-contact IC tags.

5. The non-contact IC tag system according to claim 4, wherein the master IC tag selecting unit selects the master IC tag by specifying a specific address memory using a group select command defined in type B specifications of ISO18000.

6. The non-contact IC tag system according to claim 1, wherein

the memory control unit stores the identical data in the master IC tag and at least one of the slave IC tags redundantly, and

when the data cannot be read out from the master IC tag, the readout control unit controls to read out the data from the slave IC tag in which the data is stored redundantly.

7. A non-contact IC tag system comprising:

a plurality of non-contact IC tags, each of which includes identification information and a memory for storing a predetermined amount of data; and

a reader/writer that sends an operation command via radio to each of the non-contact IC tags, wherein

the non-contact IC tags include a plurality of slave IC tags and a master IC tag,

the master IC tag holds memory configuration information of a slave IC tag linked to a memory area of the master IC tag, and

each of the slave IC tags holds memory configuration information of a slave IC tag linked to a memory area of the corresponding slave IC tag wherein the reader/writer includes

a memory control unit that stores identical data redundantly in at least two of the non-contact IC tags; and

a readout control unit that, when data cannot be read out from a predetermined non-contact IC tag in which the data is stored by the memory control unit, controls to read out the data from other non-contact IC tag in which the data is stored redundantly.

8. The non-contact IC tag system according to claim 7, wherein each of the non-contact IC tags includes an IC chip on which a rewritable nonvolatile memory is mounted, with a memory area for the memory configuration information and a data memory area on the nonvolatile memory.

9. The non-contact IC tag system according to claim 7, wherein the memory configuration information includes identification information, a memory starting address, and a memory byte count of the slave IC tag linked.

10. The non-contact IC tag system according to claim 7, wherein the reader/writer includes a master-IC-tag selecting unit that selects the master IC tag from among the non-contact IC tags.

11. The non-contact IC tag system according to claim 10, wherein the master IC tag selecting unit selects the master IC tag by specifying a specific address memory using a group select command defined in type B specifications of ISO18000.

12. The non-contact IC tag system according to claim 7, wherein

the memory control unit stores the identical data in the master IC tag and at least one of the slave IC tags redundantly, and

when the data cannot be read out from the master IC tag, the readout control unit controls to read out the data from the slave IC tag in which the data is stored redundantly.

13. A non-contact IC tag system comprising:

a plurality of non-contact IC tags, each of which includes identification information and a memory for storing a predetermined amount of data;

a reader/writer that sends an operation command via radio to each of the non-contact IC tags; and

a host apparatus connected to the reader/writer, wherein

either of the reader/writer and the host apparatus includes

a memory-configuration-information storing unit that stores memory configuration information for integrating memory areas of the memories of the non-contact IC tags to build a memory space; and

a memory managing unit that manages the non-contact IC tags as one non-contact IC tag based on the memory configuration information stored in the memory-configuration-information storing unit.

14. The non-contact IC tag system according to claim 13, wherein the memory-configuration-information storing unit stores identification information, a memory starting address, and a memory byte count of each of the non-contact IC tags as the memory configuration information.