Activity inference and reactive feedback

• US 8,121,909 B2
• Filed: 02/22/2008
• Issued: 02/21/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vikram Seshadri
• Original Assignee: Vikram Seshadri
• Inventors: Seshadri, Vikram
• Primary Examiner(s): Gart, Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): IWARERE, OLUSEYE
• Application Number:
  US12/035,459
• Publication Number:
  US 20090138303A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,460 Days
• Field of Search: 705/28
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a method of processing physical information collected from a plurality of sensors and deducing object attributes and actions over a facility. RFID tags are applied to determine position coordinates. A plurality of sensors related to activities or objects are applied for capturing a plurality of physical variables representing the activities or object attributes. Position coordinates and the plurality of physical variables are correlated to infer or deduce the activities that have occurred. Predetermined rules are applied to recommend one or more actions based on the deduced activities.

Claims

1. A method of processing physical information and deducing an action, comprising the steps of:

employing one or more of active radio frequency identification tags and passive radio frequency identification tags to determine one or more of position coordinates and unique identity of activities and objects over a facility, wherein one or more of said position coordinates and said unique identity constitute first partial information streams regarding said activities and attributes of said objects transmitted to a sensor information processor;

applying a plurality of sensors applied to said activities and objects for capturing a plurality of physical variables, wherein one or more of said physical variables constitute second partial information streams regarding the activities and said attributes of the objects transmitted to said sensor information processor;

correlating one or more of said first partial information streams with one or more of said second partial information streams by said sensor information processor to deduce one or more actual physical activities that have occurred; and

applying predetermined rules by said sensor information processor to recommend one or more actions relevant to the facility based on said deduced activities.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said position coordinates are based on a plurality of identification zones located in a facility.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said identification zones comprise a plurality of coverage ranges of one of said passive and active radio frequency identification tags.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said plurality of physical variables may be identification of an object, location of said identified object, quantity of said objects at a particular location, presence or lack of movement at said location, orientation of the objects, time at which said activity occurred, number of activities at a particular identification zone, environmental conditions of each of the identification zones.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said deduced activity comprises loading and unloading of said object within said location, relocation of the objects, authorized movements of personnel, and unauthorized movements and location of said movements.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said recommended actions comprise access control, recording time of said activity, updating object inventory, determining discrepancies in physical object inventory, alarming said discrepancy, and alarming unauthorized movements within an identification zone.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein determination of said quantity of objects at a particular location comprises the steps of determining load at each location, and identifying changes in said load and thereby deducing one of said activity.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein determination of said location of an object comprise the step of scanning passive radio frequency identification tags or barcodes associated with said object, wherein said step of scanning is performed using a mobile radio frequency identification or barcode reader, thereby deducing one of said activity.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein determination of said presence or lack of movement of said object comprises the step of identifying said movement using a motion sensor.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said movement is an authorized movement if a trigger of said motion sensor has a corresponding read from an active radio frequency identification tag.

11. A system for processing physical information and deducing an action, over a facility comprising:

a radio frequency identification system to determine one or more of position coordinates and unique identity of objects and activities, wherein one or more of said position coordinates and said unique identity constitute first partial information streams regarding said activities and attributes of said objects;

a plurality of sensor modules for capturing physical variables applied to said objects and physical activities, wherein one or more of said captured physical variables constitute second partial information streams regarding the activities and said attributes of the objects;

a sensor information processor for correlating one or more of said first partial information streams with one or more of said second partial information streams to deduce one or more actual physical activities that have occurred; and

said sensor information processor for applying predetermined rules to recommend one or more actions relevant to the facility based on said deduced activities.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said sensor modules comprise electronic weighing machines, load cells, active radio frequency identification system, passive radio frequency identification system, barcodes, motion detection equipments, optical sensors, video cameras, radiation monitors, etc.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein each of said sensor modules may provide a partial representation of said physical variables.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein information derived from said sensor modules may be collated electronically to provide a complete representation of an actual physical activity.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein said load cells determine the quantity or amount of the object at a location.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein said passive radio frequency identification system and barcode scan uniquely identify each of said objects.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein said active and passive radio frequency identification systems determine the location of said objects.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein said motion detection equipment determines the presence or lack of any movement or activity of said object at said position coordinates.

19. A computer program product comprising computer executable instructions embodied in a computer-readable medium, said computer program product comprising:

a first computer parsable program code for applying active and passive radio frequency identification tagging to determine one or more of position coordinates and unique identity of activities and objects over a facility, wherein said position coordinates and said unique identity constitute first partial information streams regarding said activities and attributes of said objects;

a second computer parsable program code for applying a plurality of sensors applied to activities or objects for capturing a plurality of physical variables, wherein one or more of said physical variables constitute second partial information streams regarding the activities and said attributes of the objects;

a third computer parsable program code for correlating one or more of said first partial information streams with one or more of said second partial information streams to deduce one or more actual physical activities that have occurred; and

a fourth computer parsable program code for applying predetermined rules to recommend one or more actions relevant to the facility based on said deduced activities.