Methods and systems to improve RFID inventory polling accuracy

• US 7,468,650 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2006
• Issued: 12/23/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Childress, Rhonda L., Watt, Stephen J., Huffman, Joann, Kumhyr, David B., Childs, Bradley, Hyman, Stewart J.
• Primary Examiner(s): MULLEN, THOMAS J
• Application Number:
  US11/428,006
• Publication Number:
  US 20080001748A1
• Time in Patent Office: 907 Days
• Field of Search: 340/5.92, 340/10.1, 340/572.4, 705/28, 235/385
• US Class Current: 340/5.92
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/00 Methods or arrangements for effecting co-operative working between equipments covered by two or more of main groups G06K1/00 - G06K15/00, e.g. automatic card files incorporating conveying and reading operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring

Abstract

A method to improve polling accuracy in RFID systems is disclosed. Embodiments comprise receiving information from one or more tags by a tag reader, comparing the information from the tags to other information, and adding the tag to an inventory if the tag does not exist in the other information. While some embodiments compare the tag information from the tags to baseline inventories for other areas, some embodiments compare it to current inventories for the other areas or compare it to a combination of both inventories. Some embodiments involve polling RFID tags in storage containers.

Claims

1. A method to improve polling accuracy in a radio frequency identification system, the method comprising:

receiving a first set of information of a first RFID tag by a tag reader, wherein the tag reader receives information from one or more tags located in a first area;

comparing the first set of information to information of a current inventory of a second area; and

adding identification information of the first RFID tag to a first inventory if the comparison reveals that at least some of the first set of information is absent from the information of the current inventory of the second area.