System and method for searching physical objects
First Claim
1. A system for searching physical objects having one or more tags disposed respectively thereon, the system comprising:
- one or more substations arranged for communication with tags located within a range around at least one of the one or more substations, and at least one of the one or more substations configured to communicate a descriptor of a location of a substation;
a base station arranged for communication with one or more substations located within a range around the base station; and
an interrogation engine residing in the base station and configured to interrogate, in response to a search query specifying at least one of the physical objects, the one or more substations within the range around the base station, to determine whether the at least one physical object specified by the search query is located within the ranges around the respective one or more substations;
wherein the one or more substations are configured to request and receive, in response to the interrogating, one or more tag descriptors from the one or more tags, calculate respective values of one or more local match counts of a number of tag descriptors matching the search query, and communicate the respective values of the one or more match counts and a number of the tags corresponding to each of the respective values of the match counts to the interrogation engine; and
wherein the interrogation engine is configured to determine a location of the at least one physical object matching the search query based at least in part on the respective values of the one or more match counts and the number of the tags corresponding to each of the respective values of the match counts.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for searching physical objects is described and claimed. The system may include one or more tags, each tag being disposed on one associated object; one or more substations, each substation arranged for communication with tags located within a range around each substation; and one or more base stations, each base station arranged for communication with substations located within a range around each base station. An interrogation engine may reside in each base station for interrogating, in response to a search query, the substations within the range around each base station, to determine whether a search object of the search query is within the range around the respective substations.
-
Citations
22 Claims
-
1. A system for searching physical objects having one or more tags disposed respectively thereon, the system comprising:
-
one or more substations arranged for communication with tags located within a range around at least one of the one or more substations, and at least one of the one or more substations configured to communicate a descriptor of a location of a substation; a base station arranged for communication with one or more substations located within a range around the base station; and an interrogation engine residing in the base station and configured to interrogate, in response to a search query specifying at least one of the physical objects, the one or more substations within the range around the base station, to determine whether the at least one physical object specified by the search query is located within the ranges around the respective one or more substations; wherein the one or more substations are configured to request and receive, in response to the interrogating, one or more tag descriptors from the one or more tags, calculate respective values of one or more local match counts of a number of tag descriptors matching the search query, and communicate the respective values of the one or more match counts and a number of the tags corresponding to each of the respective values of the match counts to the interrogation engine; and wherein the interrogation engine is configured to determine a location of the at least one physical object matching the search query based at least in part on the respective values of the one or more match counts and the number of the tags corresponding to each of the respective values of the match counts. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 19, 20)
-
-
10. A method for searching physical objects having one or more tags disposed respectively thereon, the method comprising:
-
interrogating, by an interrogation engine of a base station in response to a search query for at least one physical object, one or more substations within a range around the base station; requesting and receiving, by the one or more substations, in response to the interrogating, one or more tag descriptors from the one or more tags located within a range around at least one of the substations; calculating, by the one or more substations, respective values of one or more local match counts of a number of tag descriptors matching the search query; communicating, by the one or more substations to the interrogation engine of the base station, the respective values of the one or more match counts and a number of the tags corresponding to each of the respective values of the match counts; determining, by the interrogation engine of the base station, a location of the at least one physical object matching the search query based at least in part on the respective values of the one or more match counts and the number of the tags corresponding to each of the respective values of the match counts. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22)
-
Specification