Tracking transactions by confluences and sequences of RFID signals

• US 9,449,295 B2
• Filed: 06/25/2014
• Issued: 09/20/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Russell, Ryan Scott, Lauka, Wesley Scott, Lecky, Ned, Boelter, Joshua Joel
• Primary Examiner(s): Savusdiphol, Paultep
• Application Number:
  US14/314,439
• Publication Number:
  US 20150379459A1
• Time in Patent Office: 818 Days
• Field of Search: 235/375, 235/376, 235/383, 235/385
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07758 arrangements for adhering the record carrier to further objects or living beings, functioning as an identification tag
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10316 using at least one antenna particularly designed for interrogating the wireless record carriers antennas in general H01Q1/22
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials

Abstract

An RFID device may include one or more manually activated RFID tags configured to transmit unique RFID signals in response to a manual activation thereof. A transaction may be defined upon receiving a confluence of multiple RFID signals at the same time, or at nearly the same time, at an RFID reader. A transaction may also be defined upon receiving multiple RFID signals or confluences of such signals in a predetermined series or sequence. The RFID devices may include a single manually activated RFID tag, or two or more of such tags, which may be individually activated by one or more manual interactions from a user.

Claims

1. An information recording system comprising:

an RFID reader;

a first RFID device associated with at least one aspect of a storage facility, wherein the first RFID device comprises at least a first manually activated RFID tag and a second manually activated RFID tag; and

a computing device in communication with the RFID reader,

wherein the computing device is configured to at least;

identify a first object;

receive, at the RFID reader, a first RFID signal from the first RFID device at a first time, wherein the first RFID signal is transmitted by the first RFID device following contact with a first portion of the first RFID device associated with the first manually activated RFID tag at the first time;

receive, at the RFID reader, a second RFID signal from the first RFID device within a predetermined interval of the first time, wherein the second RFID signal is transmitted by the first RFID device following contact with a second portion of the first RFID device associated with the second manually activated RFID tag within the predetermined interval of the first time;

define a transaction based at least in part on first information regarding the first RFID signal and at least one of the first object, the storage facility, the RFID reader or the first time; and

store at least some of the first information in at least one data store.

2. The information recording system of claim 1, further comprising a second RFID device associated with the first object,

wherein the computing device is further configured to at least:

receive, at the RFID reader, a third RFID signal from the second RFID device at the first time,

wherein the first object is identified based at least in part on second information regarding the third RFID signal.

3. The information recording system of claim 2, further comprising a third RFID device associated with a human,

wherein the computing device further configured to at least:

receive, at the RFID reader, a fourth RFID signal from the third RFID device at the first time,

wherein the transaction is defined based at least in part on third information regarding at least one of the human, the third RFID device or the fourth RFID signal.

4. The information recording system of claim 2, wherein the computing device is further configured to at least:

receive, at the RFID reader, a fourth RFID signal from a third RFID device associated with a second object at the first time,

wherein the transaction is further defined based at least in part on third information regarding at least one of the fourth RFID signal, the third RFID device or the second object, and

wherein the at least some of the first information indicates that the first object and the second object are located in the storage facility.

5. A method comprising:

identifying a first object;

receiving, by at least one RFID reader, a first RFID signal transmitted by a first RFID device associated with a storage facility, wherein the first RFID device comprises at least a first manually activated RFID tag and a second manually activated RFID tag;

receiving, by the at least one RFID reader, a second RFID signal transmitted by the first RFID device associated with the storage facility; and

storing information regarding an association between the first object and the storage facility in at least one data store based at least in part on the first RFID signal and the second RFID signal,

wherein the first RFID signal is transmitted by the first RFID device following contact with a first portion of the first RFID device corresponding to the first manually activated RFID tag, and

wherein the second RFID signal is transmitted by the first RFID device following contact with a second portion of the first RFID device corresponding to the second manually activated RFID tag.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein identifying the first object comprises:

receiving, by the at least one RFID reader, a third RFID signal transmitted by a second RFID device associated with the first object,

wherein the first RFID signal is received at a first time, and

wherein the third RFID signal is received at approximately the first time.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

identifying at least one human associated with the first object,

wherein the first RFID signal is received following contact with the first portion of the first RFID device by the at least one human.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein identifying the at least one human associated with the first object comprises:

receiving, by the at least one RFID reader, a fourth RFID signal transmitted by a third RFID device associated with the at least one human,

wherein the fourth RFID signal is received by the at least one RFID reader at approximately the first time.

9. The method of claim 5,

wherein the first RFID signal is received at a first time,

wherein the second RFID signal is received at a second time, and

wherein the second time is within a predetermined interval of the first time.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

identifying a sequence of RFID signals associated with at least one of the first object or the storage facility;

determining whether the first RFID signal and the second RFID signal are consistent with the sequence;

upon determining that the first RFID signal and the second RFID signal are consistent with the sequence,

generating the information regarding the association between the first object and the storage facility based at least in part on the sequence.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein storing the information regarding the association between the first object and the storage facility comprises:

generating or updating a record of contents of the storage facility to indicate at least that the first object is in the storage facility,

wherein the information regarding the association between the first object and the storage facility comprises the record of the contents of the storage facility.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving, by the at least one RFID reader, a third RFID signal transmitted by a second RFID device associated with a second object; and

generating or updating the record of the contents of the storage facility to indicate at least that the second object is in the storage facility.

13. The method of claim 5, wherein the first RFID device comprises a plurality of manually activated RFID tags,

wherein the plurality of manually activated RFID tags includes at least the first manually activated RFID tag and the second manually activated RFID tag,

wherein each of the plurality of manually activated RFID tags is configured to transmit a unique RFID signal, and

wherein receiving, by the at least one RFID reader, the first RFID signal transmitted by the first RFID device associated with the storage facility comprises:

receiving, by the at least one RFID reader, a plurality of unique RFID signals transmitted by the first RFID device, wherein the first RFID signal and the second RFID signal are two of the plurality of unique RFID signals; and

defining a sequence based at least in part on at least some of the plurality of unique RFID signals received by the at least one RFID reader,

wherein the information regarding the association between the first object and the storage facility is stored in the at least one data store in response to the sequence.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein each of the unique RFID signals is associated with at least one alphanumeric character, at least one symbol or a string comprising the at least one alphanumeric character or the at least one symbol.

15. A method comprising:

providing a first RFID device comprising a plurality of manually activated RFID tags, wherein the plurality of manually activated RFID tags comprises a first manually activated RFID tag and a second manually activated RFID tag, and wherein each of the manually activated RFID tags is configured to transmit an RFID signal upon contact;

receiving, at an RFID reader, a plurality of RFID signals from at least two of the manually activated RFID tags, wherein the plurality of RFID signals comprises a first RFID signal received from the first manually activated RFID tag at a first time and a second RFID signal received from the second manually activated RFID tag within a predetermined interval of the first time;

defining a sequence based at least in part on the plurality of RFID signals received from the at least two of the manually activated RFID tags; and

storing information regarding the sequence in at least one data store.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

receiving, at the RFID reader, a third RFID signal from a second RFID device associated with a human,

wherein the sequence is defined based at least in part on the third RFID signal received from the second RFID device associated with the human, and

wherein the information regarding the sequence comprises an identification of the human.

17. The method of claim 15,

wherein the plurality of manually activated RFID tags is provided in an array on the first RFID device,

wherein each of the plurality of manually activated RFID tags is marked with at least one of an alphanumeric character, a symbol, or a string comprising the alphanumeric character or the symbol, and

wherein each of the plurality of manually activated RFID tags is configured to transmit an RFID signal associated with the alphanumeric character, the symbol or the string marked thereon upon contact.