Wireless tag system, wireless tag access control device, wireless tag access control method, wireless tag access control program and wireless tag

• US 7,212,121 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2004
• Issued: 05/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2004
• 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): Hofsass; Jeffery
• Assistant Examiner(s): Fan; Hongmin
• Application Number:
  US11/010,402
• Publication Number:
  US 20060044113A1
• Time in Patent Office: 868 Days
• Field of Search: 340/572.1, 340/571, 340/568, 340/539
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/0008 General problems related to the reading of electronic memory record carriers, independent of its reading method, e.g. power transfer
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10019 resolving collision on the communication channels between simultaneously or concurrently interrogated record carriers. collision between the communication channels used by wireless communication devices, where the solution is not particularly adapted for RFIDs or the like, H04W74/08

Abstract

A wireless tag system which does not require any anti-collision process or, if an anti-collision process is required, can reduce the number of tags that need to participate in the anti-collision process to make the anti-collision process proceeds fast. The wireless tag system comprises a plurality of wireless slave tags which have respective unique IDs, a plurality of wireless master tags arranged for the slave tags and storing the unique IDs of the slave tags and a wireless tag access control device which accesses the master tags to acquire the unique IDs of the slave tags from the master tags and subsequently accessing the slave tags by using the acquired unique IDs of the slave tags.

Claims

1. A wireless tag system comprising:

a plurality of wireless slave tags which have respective unique IDs;

a plurality of wireless master tags arranged for said slave tags and storing the unique IDs of said slave tags; and

a wireless tag access control device which accesses said master tags to acquire the unique IDs of said slave tags from said master tags and subsequently accesses said slave tags by using the acquired unique IDs of the slave tags.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein dedicated commands are defined respectively for said master tags and said slave tags and said wireless tag access control device selectively accesses either said master tags or said slave tags by using the corresponding one of said dedicated commands.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein group addresses are defined respectively for said master tags and said slave tags and said wireless tag access control device selectively accesses either said master tags or said slave tags by specifying the corresponding one of said group addresses.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein

a plurality of combinations of a master tag and slave tags are provided and at least a super master tag storing the unique IDs of said plurality of master tags is provided for said plurality of master tags;

and

said wireless tag access control device being adapted to access said super master tag in order to acquire the unique IDs of said plurality of master tags and access said master tags by using the acquired unique IDs of the master tags.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said master tag and at least one of said slave tag are combined to operate as a single tag and the unique IDs of the slave tags stored in said master tags include its own unique IDs.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein said master tag is facsimiled in numbers and the facsimiled master tags are identifiable.

7. The system according to 1, wherein said master tags store positional information of the slave tags in correspondence to the unique IDs of the slave tags stored in said master tags.

8. A wireless tag access control device which accesses wireless tags comprising:

a unique ID acquiring section which accesses at least a master tag provided for a plurality of slave tags and acquiring the unique IDs of the slave tags stored in the master tag; and

a slave tag accessing section which accesses the slave tags by using the unique IDs of the slave tags acquired by the unique ID acquiring section.

9. The device according to claim 8, wherein dedicated commands are defined respectively for said master tags and said slave tags so that either said master tags or said slave tags are selectively accessed by using the corresponding one of said dedicated commands.

10. The device according to claim 8, wherein group addresses are defined respectively for said master tags and said slave tags so that either said master tags or said slave tags are selectively accessed by specifying the corresponding one of said group addresses.

11. The device according to claim 8, further comprising:

a positional information acquiring section for acquires positional information of said slave tags corresponding to the acquired unique IDs of the slave tags; and

said device being adapted to access the slave tags according to the unique IDs and the positional information.

12. A wireless tag access control method which accesses a plurality of wireless tags, said method being adapted to provide at least a master tag storing the unique IDs of a plurality of slave tags which have respective unique IDs, said method comprising:

a slave tag UID acquiring step which accesses the master tag and acquires the unique IDs of the plurality of slave tags stored in the master tag; and

a slave tag accessing step which accesses the slave tags by using the acquired unique IDs of the slave tags.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein

dedicated commands are defined respectively for said master tags and said slave tags;

and

either said master tags or said slave tags are selectively accessed by using the corresponding one of said dedicated commands.

14. The method according to claim 12, wherein

group addresses are defined respectively for said master tags and said slave tags;

and

either said master tags or said slave tags are selectively accessed by specifying the corresponding one of said group addresses.

15. The method according to claim 12, wherein

a plurality of combinations of a master tag and slave tags are provided and at least a super master tag storing the unique IDs of said plurality of master tags is provided for said plurality of master tags;

and

said wireless tag access control method being adapted to access said super master tag in order to acquire the unique IDs of said plurality of master tags and access said master tags by using the acquired unique IDs of the master tags.

16. The method according to claim 12, wherein

at least a master tag is facsimiled in numbers from the master tags and slave tags and the facsimiled master tags are identifiable, and

each tag is identified and selectively accessed.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein an identifying section is provided for each tag to indicate the tag to be in use or not in use and, when an unusable state is detected for at least one of the facsimiled master tags, the information stored in the master tag detected as unusable and the information stored in the other facsimiled master tags is written in the facsimiled master tags not in use, and the tags in which the information is written are indicated to be in use by the identifying section so as to make said other master tags and said master tag facsimiled master tags.

18. A wireless tag access control program which causes a computer to execute a wireless tag access control method which accesses a plurality of wireless tags, said program being adapted to provide at least a master tag storing the unique IDs of a plurality of slave tags which have respective unique IDs, said program comprising:

a slave tag UID acquiring step which accesses the master tag and acquiring the unique IDs of the plurality of slave tags stored in the master tag; and

a slave tag accessing step which accesses the slave tags by using the acquired unique IDs of the slave tags.

19. The program according to claim 18, wherein

dedicated commands are defined respectively for said master tags and said slave tags;

and

a computer is caused to selectively access either said master tags or said slave tags by using the corresponding one of said dedicated commands.

20. A wireless tag comprising a wireless antenna and a memory section and adapted to be accessed by a read/write device by means of a wireless signal,

said wireless tag storing unique IDs of wireless tags other than itself in the memory section so that they may be accessed by said read/write device by means of the unique IDs.