Work direction determining method and device, and work provided with direction determining function

• US 8,704,663 B2
• Filed: 03/24/2010
• Issued: 04/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi High-Tech Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Hino, Yoshiharu, Miyake, Akira, Kuroki, Daisuke, Yamaguchi, Takuya, Minemura, Yusuke
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehmood, Jennifer
• Assistant Examiner(s): Casillashernandez, Omar
• Application Number:
  US13/148,675
• Publication Number:
  US 20120025986A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,490 Days
• Field of Search: 340/10.1, 340/10.3, 340/539.11, 340/568.1, 340/572.1, 342/420, 342/465, 455/456.1, 455/420, 700/245
• US Class Current: 340/572.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10445 the record carriers being fixed to further objects, e.g. RFIDs fixed to packages, luggage, mail-pieces or work-pieces transported on a conveyor belt
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2225 used in active tags, i.e. provided with its own power source or in passive tags, i.e. deriving power from RF signal
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/38 formed by a conductive layer on an insulating support patch antennas H01Q9/0407; microstrip dipole antennas H01Q9/065; microstrip slot antennas H01Q13/106; transmission line microstrip antennas H01Q13/206; manufacturing reflecting surfaces using insulating material for supporting the reflecting surface H01Q15/142
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 7/00 Loop antennas with a substantially uniform current distribution around the loop and having a directional radiation pattern in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the loop
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 9/27 Spiral antennas

Abstract

A work direction determining device includes a passive tag type IC tag secured at a predetermined position on the front surface thereof. The IC tag includes a substrate, an IC module and an antenna coil disposed on the substrate in an offset manner. The device includes an antenna communicating with the IC tag, and a determination circuit. Where the work and the direction determining device are located at respective predetermined communication positions, communication is done between the antenna of the direction determining device and the antenna coil of the IC tag, and the magnitude of communication intensity during the communication is determined by the determination circuit to thereby determine a direction of the work.

Claims

1. A work provided with a direction determining function, communicating with a direction determining device at a predetermined communication position and determined by the direction determining device as to whether to assume a normal posture or a reverse posture,

wherein the direction determining device includes an antenna communicating with an IC tag, and a determination circuit determining the magnitude of communication intensity during the communication;

wherein the IC tag capable of communicating with the direction determining device is secured to an upper surface of the work at a predetermined position;

wherein the IC tag is configured as a passive tag type including a substrate, an IC module and an antenna coil, the IC module and the antenna coil being disposed on the substrate adjacent to each other;

wherein the antenna coil is disposed on the substrate in an offset manner so that a communication distance between the antenna coil and a communicable zone of the antenna of the direction determining device is different in magnitude on the basis of a difference in the posture of the work at the predetermined communication position;

wherein the work is shaped as a rectangular parallelepiped and is provided with two compartments;

wherein respective mouths of the two compartments are opened in an upper surface of the work at anteroposteriorly symmetrical positions and the IC tag is disposed between the mouths; and

wherein the antenna coil is disposed in an offset manner on one of front and rear sides of the substrate constituting the IC tag, and the IC module is disposed on the other side.

2. The work provided with the direction determining function, according to claim 1,

wherein the antenna coil is disposed on one side of the substrate in an offset manner so that the whole of the antenna coil installed on the IC tag is located inside the communicable zone of the antenna of the direction determining device only when the work located at the predetermined communication position assumes a normal posture.

3. The work provided with the direction determining function, according to claim 1,

wherein an arrangement pattern of the antenna coil installed on the IC tag is formed in a non-rectangle;

and

wherein the antenna coil is disposed on the substrate so that an overlapping area between the communicable zone of the antenna of the direction determining device and the antenna coil may be different in magnitude between when the work located at the predetermined communication position assumes a normal posture and when assumes a reverse posture.

4. The work provided with the direction determining function, according to claim 1,

wherein a demagnetizing body made of a magnetic material and reducing a leakage magnetic flux of the antenna is disposed adjacently to the antenna coil of the IC tag.

5. The work provided with the direction determining function, according to claim 1,

wherein, the compartments are configured to be filled with liquid directly without an intervening liquid holding container between the liquid and a surface of the compartments, and

wherein, the antenna coil is disposed on an upper surface of the substrate of the IC tag.