Tag identification system

• US 8,009,016 B2
• Filed: 12/17/2007
• Issued: 08/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Backes, Michael, Gross, Thomas R., Karjoth, Guenter
• Primary Examiner(s): Bugg; George A
• Assistant Examiner(s): LAI, ANNE VIET NGA
• Application Number:
  US11/957,695
• Publication Number:
  US 20080204243A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,352 Days
• Field of Search: 340 101- 106, 340/572.1, 340/572.4, 340/573.1, 340/5.8, 340/5.92, 235/375, 235383-385, 235/492
• US Class Current: 340/5.92
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/14 by lifting or attempted removal of hand-portable articles

Abstract

The present invention relates to a tag identification system comprising: a plurality of tags, each tag being identifiable by an associated tag identifier, and at least one tag comprising at least one link to at least one other tag in said group.

Claims

1. A distributed tag identification system comprising:

a group comprising a plurality of tags, each tag in said group being identifiable by an associated tag identifier; and

at least one tag in said group comprising at least one link to at least another tag in said group, whereby each tag in said group is linked to at least one other tag in the group;

at least one reading component for reading a first set of tag identifiers and a second set of links; and

a comparison component for comparing the first set to the second set and for identifying a missing tag when said comparing finds a mismatch between the first set and the second set.

2. A tag identification system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said at least one link to said at least another tag comprises at least a tag identifier of said at least another tag.

3. A tag identification system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said tags are RFID tags.

4. A distributed method of tag identification for identifying a missing tag comprising the steps of:

forming a group comprising a plurality of tags, each tag in the group being identifiable by an associated tag identifier;

configuring at least one tag in the group to store at least one link to at least another tag in the group, whereby each tag in said group is linked to at least one other tag in the group;

reading each of the tags in the group;

storing, in a first set, the tag identifiers read in the reading step;

storing, in a second set, the links that are read in the reading step;

performing a comparison between the first set and the second set;

signaling a missing tag if a mismatch is reported between the first set and the second set when the comparison step is performed.

5. A method of tag identification as claimed in claim 4 wherein said at least one link to said at least another tag comprises at least a tag identifier of said at least another tag.

6. A method of tag identification as claimed in claim 4 wherein, in the configuring step, the at least another tag is randomly chosen out of the tags in the group.

7. A method of tag identification as claimed in claim 4 wherein said tags are RFID tags.

8. A method of tag identification as claimed in claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

storing a link to a tag in the group in at least another tag in the group, this being done for all the tags in the group, and

signaling the presence of all the tags in the group when no mismatch is reported between the first set and the second set when the comparison step is performed.

9. A method of tag identification as claimed in claim 4 further comprising the step of arranging links stored in the tags to form a ring.

10. A method of tag identification as claimed in claim 9, wherein the ring comprises a unidirectional ring.

11. A method of tag identification as claimed in claim 9, wherein the ring comprises a bidirectional ring.

12. A method of tag identification as claimed in claim 4 further comprising the step of arranging links stored in the tags to form a scale-free network.