Furniture and building structures comprising sensors for determining the position of one or more objects
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A system for determining the location of objects comprising:
- one or more structures;
one or more bodies each forming a thin flexible sheet including a plurality of sensors, wherein the bodies are each releasably coupled to one or more of the structures;
one or more objects having one or more sensor tags, wherein each of the sensor tags store a unique identifier and one or more characteristics about the object including a material contained within the object; and
one or more controllers coupled to the sensors for receiving signals from the sensors when the objects are proximate the sensors such that the controllers are able to determine the location of the objects, wherein the controllers are configured to only check if the objects are proximate a selected subset of the sensors for a plurality of consecutive checking cycles such that all the sensors of the selected subset are checked multiple times without checking any of the sensors not in the subset, wherein the subset is selected by a user based on user input.
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Abstract
A system, device and method for determining the position of objects comprising one or more furniture items and/or building structures having one or more sensors and a controller coupled to the sensors. The sensors detect when one or more objects having at least one sensor tag are positioned proximate one of the sensors and transmit a signal to the controller including an identifier of the object and the sensor that detected the objects. As a result, the controller is able to track the position of the objects in relation to the furniture and/or building structures preventing the items from being lost and increasing efficiency when looking for misplaced objects.
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Citations
57 Claims
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1. A system for determining the location of objects comprising:
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one or more structures; one or more bodies each forming a thin flexible sheet including a plurality of sensors, wherein the bodies are each releasably coupled to one or more of the structures; one or more objects having one or more sensor tags, wherein each of the sensor tags store a unique identifier and one or more characteristics about the object including a material contained within the object; and one or more controllers coupled to the sensors for receiving signals from the sensors when the objects are proximate the sensors such that the controllers are able to determine the location of the objects, wherein the controllers are configured to only check if the objects are proximate a selected subset of the sensors for a plurality of consecutive checking cycles such that all the sensors of the selected subset are checked multiple times without checking any of the sensors not in the subset, wherein the subset is selected by a user based on user input. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A structure for determining the position of objects comprising:
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a body forming a flexible thin sheet; a plurality of sensors coupled with the body, wherein the sensors are able to sense one or more objects having one or more sensor tags by detecting the sensor tags when the objects are proximate one or more of the sensors; and one or more controllers coupled with the sensors for receiving signals from the sensors when the objects are proximate the sensors such that the controllers are able to determine the location of the objects, wherein the signals comprise a unique identifier and characteristic data of each of the proximate objects, and further wherein the controllers are configured to only check if the objects are proximate a selected subset of the sensors for a plurality of consecutive checking cycles such that all the sensors of the selected subset are checked multiple times without checking any of the sensors not in the subset, wherein the subset is selected by a user based on user input. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. A method of determining the position of objects comprising:
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placing one or more objects having one or more sensor tags on one or more bodies coupled to one or more structures, wherein the bodies each form a thin flexible sheet and comprise a plurality of sensors; checking only a selected subset of the sensors for a plurality of consecutive checking cycles such that all the sensors of the selected subset are checked multiple times without checking any of the sensors not in the subset, wherein each checking cycle is performed by reading data stored on the sensor tags with the subset of the sensors when the objects are moved proximate to at least one of the subset of the sensors, wherein the data comprises a unique identifier and one or more characteristics about the object, wherein the subset is selected by a user based on user input; transmitting the data stored on the sensory tags to one or more controllers coupled to the sensors such that the controllers are able to determine the location of the objects; and presenting the determined location of one or more of the objects to a user on a user interface. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56)
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57. A system for determining the location of furniture within room,
the system comprising: -
one or more structures each having a plurality of sensors; one or more pieces of furniture having one or more sensor tags, wherein each of the sensor tags store a unique identifier, values for one or more static characteristics about the furniture including a furniture type and values for one or more dynamic characteristics about the furniture, wherein the dynamic characteristics of the furniture change over time such that the values for the dynamic characteristics must be updated to reflect changes to the dynamic characteristics of the furniture; and one or more controllers coupled to the sensors for receiving signals from the sensors when the furniture is proximate the sensors such that the controllers are able to determine the location of the furniture, wherein the one or more dynamic characteristics about the furniture include a duration that the object has been in a current location.
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Specification