Low-frequency tag system and method
First Claim
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1. A system comprising:
- a plurality of routers communicatively coupled with each other;
each router in turn communicatively coupled via RF communication below 1 megahertz to a plurality of tags,each tag having a battery and a static RAM powered by the battery;
each tag having a radio transceiver and controller, the controller of the tag controlling the transceiver and disposed to read and write information to and from the static RAM of the tag and to communicate said information via the transceiver to and from the router;
each tag having a unique hardware address independent of the static RAM and independent of the battery, said unique hardware address communicable by the controller and the transceiver to and from a router;
a portion of said information defining for at least one tag an address independent of the hardware address of the tag, said address stored within the static RAM;
each router characterized in having routing means for routing data packets among the routers to the at least one tag with reference to the address independent of the hardware address of the tag.
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Abstract
A system has tags communicating by means of low frequency (below 1 megahertz) with routers which in turn communicate with nameservers. The tags have IP addresses, either explicitly programmed into the tags or associated in a virtual way with the tags. Lookups analogous to domain lookups permit human-friendly inquiries of tag status and location. Static (battery-backed) RAM in a tag permits great versatility in the localized function of the tag.
7 Citations
6 Claims
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1. A system comprising:
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a plurality of routers communicatively coupled with each other; each router in turn communicatively coupled via RF communication below 1 megahertz to a plurality of tags, each tag having a battery and a static RAM powered by the battery; each tag having a radio transceiver and controller, the controller of the tag controlling the transceiver and disposed to read and write information to and from the static RAM of the tag and to communicate said information via the transceiver to and from the router; each tag having a unique hardware address independent of the static RAM and independent of the battery, said unique hardware address communicable by the controller and the transceiver to and from a router; a portion of said information defining for at least one tag an address independent of the hardware address of the tag, said address stored within the static RAM; each router characterized in having routing means for routing data packets among the routers to the at least one tag with reference to the address independent of the hardware address of the tag. - View Dependent Claims (2, 5)
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3. A method for use with a system comprising a plurality of routers communicatively coupled with each other, each router in turn communicatively coupled via RF communication below 1 megahertz to a plurality of tags, each tag having a battery and a static RAM powered by the battery, each tag having a radio transceiver and controller, the controller of the tag controlling the transceiver and disposed to read and write information to and from the static RAM of the tag and to communicate said information via the transceiver to and from the router, each tag having a unique hardware address independent of the static RAM and independent of the battery, said unique hardware address communicable by the controller and the transceiver to and from a router, a portion of said information defining for at least one tag an address independent of the hardware address of the tag, said address stored within the static RAM, each router characterized in having routing means for routing data packets among the routers to the at least one tag with reference to the address independent of the hardware address of the tag, wherein the information stored in the static RAM further comprises a portion thereof defining a subnet mask, the subnet mask for a particular tag identifying a placement of the particular tag in a predefined taxonomy;
- the method comprising the steps of;
interrogating the plurality of routers with respect to a particular subnet value;
at each router, interrogating tags communicatively coupled thereto with respect to the particular subnet value;
receiving a response from at least two tags each having its subnet mask containing the particular subnet value;
whereby responses from the plurality of routers constitute responses from more than one but less than all of the tags. - View Dependent Claims (4, 6)
- the method comprising the steps of;
Specification