RFID receive-only system
First Claim
1. An apparatus, comprisinga receive-only radio device to receive concurrent wireless signals from multiple radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and to receive a first wireless signal directed to a first RFID tag, the first wireless signal transmitted by a primary RFID reader, the radio device comprising:
- a digital signal processor to convert the received wireless signals into digitized data representing contents of the wireless signals, wherein the digital signal processor is configured to process the first wireless signal and determine a type of response to expect from the first RFID tag based on the first wireless signal;
a counting module to count a number of times a particular RFID tag has responded in a read cycle; and
a communications interface to transmit digitized data received in a response from the particular RFID tag to the primary RFID reader only once in the read cycle when multiple responses are received from the particular RFID tag during the read cycle.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A receive-only supplemental radio frequency identification (RFID) reader may receive response signals from RFID tags, digitize and interpret those signals, and transfer the resulting data to a primary RFID reader. By relieving the primary RFID reader of some or all of the tasks of receiving, demodulating, and decoding concurrent responses from multiple RFID tags, the primary RFID reader may be made less expensive and/or may devote its resources to other tasks.
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Citations
12 Claims
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1. An apparatus, comprising
a receive-only radio device to receive concurrent wireless signals from multiple radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and to receive a first wireless signal directed to a first RFID tag, the first wireless signal transmitted by a primary RFID reader, the radio device comprising: -
a digital signal processor to convert the received wireless signals into digitized data representing contents of the wireless signals, wherein the digital signal processor is configured to process the first wireless signal and determine a type of response to expect from the first RFID tag based on the first wireless signal; a counting module to count a number of times a particular RFID tag has responded in a read cycle; and a communications interface to transmit digitized data received in a response from the particular RFID tag to the primary RFID reader only once in the read cycle when multiple responses are received from the particular RFID tag during the read cycle. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method, comprising:
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receiving a first wireless signal through an antenna of a read-only wireless communications device from a primary RFID reader, wherein the first wireless signal is directed to a first RFID tag; processing the first wireless signal to determine a type of response to expect from the first RFID tag; receiving wireless signals through the antenna of the read-only wireless communications device from multiple radio frequency identification (RFID) tags;
converting the received signals into a digital format;processing the digital signals to extract encoded data and separate the encoded data from separate RFID tags; counting a number of times a particular RFID tag has responded in a read cycle; and transmitting data received in a response from the particular RFID tag to the primary RFID reader through an interface other than the antenna, the transmitting occurring only once in the read cycle when multiple responses are received from the particular RFID tag during the read cycle. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12)
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Specification