Interrogator and interrogation system employing the same
First Claim
1. A sponge, comprising:
- first and second layers of absorbent material that form an interior space;
a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag affixed to said absorbent material within said interior space;
a liquiphobic designator affixed to at least one of said first and second layers of said absorbent material; and
a radiopaque object affixed to at least one of said first and second layers of said absorbent material.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An interrogator, methods of discerning the presence of an object, and interrogation systems employing the same. In one embodiment, the interrogation systems include multiple interrogators that communicate with a base command unit to track a location of an object. In another embodiment wherein the object is an RFID object (e.g., an object with an RFID tag), the interrogators employ signal processing techniques such as precharging the RFID object, and correlating a reference code with a reply code from the RFID object using selected techniques to increase a sensitivity of the interrogator, especially for adverse environments. In other embodiments, the interrogation systems include variations of metal instruments and sponges employed therewith. In yet another embodiment, the interrogation system includes metal interrogators capable of discerning the presence of a metal object, especially in a presence of another metal object.
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. A sponge, comprising:
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first and second layers of absorbent material that form an interior space; a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag affixed to said absorbent material within said interior space; a liquiphobic designator affixed to at least one of said first and second layers of said absorbent material; and a radiopaque object affixed to at least one of said first and second layers of said absorbent material. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A sponge, comprising:
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at least one layer of material; a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag affixed to said material; and a liquiphobic designator that provides an indication beyond said RFID tag that said sponge includes said RFID tag. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. An interrogation system, comprising:
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a sponge, including; at least one layer of material, a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag affixed to said material, a radiopaque object affixed to said material, a metal tag affixed to said material, and a designator that provides an indication beyond said RFID tag that said sponge includes said RFID tag; a sensing subsystem configured to provide a signal having at least one of a metal signature representing a presence of said metal tag and an RFID signature representing a presence of said RFID tag; and a control and processing subsystem configured to process said signal to discern a presence of at least one of said metal tag and said RFID tag. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30)
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Specification