Electronic article surveillance using radio frequency identification
First Claim
1. A method of operating an electronic article surveillance (EAS) system configured to detect radio frequency identification (“
- RFID”
) tags and transmit an EAS tag signal, the method comprising;
interrogating, by an RFID reader, an RFID tag via one or more RFID antennas and according to an RFID protocol to receive a first set of information;
in response to receiving the first set of information;
filtering, by an RFID circuit that includes the RFID reader, the first information to generate filtered information based on the first information;
generating, by an EAS conversion circuit coupled to the RFID reader, an EAS tag signal having the filtered information and containing less than all of the first information;
wirelessly transmitting, by an EAS communication circuit coupled to the EAS conversion circuit, the generated EAS tag signal using the one or more EAS antennas and according to an EAS protocol, wherein the EAS protocol is different than the RFID protocol.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An Electronic Article Surveillance (“EAS”) system is provided wherein the system is configured to detect passive radio frequency identification (“RFID”) tags. The system can be configured to read the passive RFID tags and produce a corresponding emulated EAS signal to initiate an alarm on a detected tag. The system can transmit the emulated EAS signal to a legacy EAS system thereby utilizing an existing EAS infrastructure. In some embodiments, a composite EAS system is configured to detect RFID tags and other EAS tags, wherein the composite EAS system comprises a legacy EAS system and an RFID-based EAS system configured to produce an emulated EAS signal.
19 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method of operating an electronic article surveillance (EAS) system configured to detect radio frequency identification (“
- RFID”
) tags and transmit an EAS tag signal, the method comprising;interrogating, by an RFID reader, an RFID tag via one or more RFID antennas and according to an RFID protocol to receive a first set of information; in response to receiving the first set of information; filtering, by an RFID circuit that includes the RFID reader, the first information to generate filtered information based on the first information; generating, by an EAS conversion circuit coupled to the RFID reader, an EAS tag signal having the filtered information and containing less than all of the first information; wirelessly transmitting, by an EAS communication circuit coupled to the EAS conversion circuit, the generated EAS tag signal using the one or more EAS antennas and according to an EAS protocol, wherein the EAS protocol is different than the RFID protocol. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
- RFID”
-
11. An electronic article surveillance (EAS) system configured to detect radio frequency identification (“
- RFID”
) tags and transmit an EAS tag signal, the system comprising;one or more RFID antennas configured to transmit and receive RFID signals according to an RFID protocol; one or more EAS antennas configured to transmit according to an EAS protocol, wherein the EAS protocol is different than the RFID protocol; an RFID circuit operatively connected to the one or more RFID antennas, the RFID circuit comprising an RFID reader configured to interrogate RFID tags using the RFID protocol, the RFID circuit configured to; receive first information about a first interrogated RFID tag; in response to receiving the first information, filter the first information to generate filtered information based on the first information; an EAS conversion circuit coupled to the RFID reader, the EAS conversion circuit configured to generate an EAS tag signal having the filtered information and containing less than all the first information; an EAS communication circuit coupled to the EAS conversion circuit, the EAS communication circuit configured to wirelessly transmit the generated EAS tag signal using the one or more EAS antennas and according to the EAS protocol. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
- RFID”
Specification