System and method for radio frequency tag group select
First Claim
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1. A method of selecting subgroups of a group of radio frequency tags comprising the steps of:
- a. sending a radio signal from a base station to a plurality of radio frequency tags, the radio signal carrying one or more commands, the commands each being one of a SELECT command and an UNSELECT command, the tags each having a radio frequency communications component for receiving the command and a tag memory with tag fields;
b. using one or more of the SELECT commands to initiate a comparison between a select condition on the respective SELECT commands to a select tag data value in the tag memory of each of the tags, and moving one or more of the tags to a SELECTED state if the tag data value meets the selection condition, the tags moved to the SELECTED state being in a selected subgroup; and
c. using one or more of the UNSELECT commands to initiate a comparison between an unselect condition on the respective UNSELECT commands to an unselect tag data value in the tag memory of each of the tags, and moving one or more of the tags to an UNSELECTED state if the unselect tag data value meets the unselection condition, the tags moved to the UNSELECTED state being in an unselected subgroup.
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Abstract
A system and method is disclosed for selecting certain subgroups of radio frequency (RF) tags for querying, communicating, and/or identifying by a base station. The base station sends commands to a group tags within a RF field of the base station. The tags use control logic to determine whether or not they meet certain criteria sent out by the commands. This may cause the tags to change state which either prevents or allows a given tag to participate in an identification process. In this way, a given subgroup(s) of tags meeting certain criteria can be selected for querying, communicating, and/or identifying.
256 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method of selecting subgroups of a group of radio frequency tags comprising the steps of:
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a. sending a radio signal from a base station to a plurality of radio frequency tags, the radio signal carrying one or more commands, the commands each being one of a SELECT command and an UNSELECT command, the tags each having a radio frequency communications component for receiving the command and a tag memory with tag fields; b. using one or more of the SELECT commands to initiate a comparison between a select condition on the respective SELECT commands to a select tag data value in the tag memory of each of the tags, and moving one or more of the tags to a SELECTED state if the tag data value meets the selection condition, the tags moved to the SELECTED state being in a selected subgroup; and c. using one or more of the UNSELECT commands to initiate a comparison between an unselect condition on the respective UNSELECT commands to an unselect tag data value in the tag memory of each of the tags, and moving one or more of the tags to an UNSELECTED state if the unselect tag data value meets the unselection condition, the tags moved to the UNSELECTED state being in an unselected subgroup. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method of selecting subgroups of a group of radio frequency tags comprising the steps of:
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a. sending a radio signal from a base station to a plurality of radio frequency tags, the radio signal carrying one or more commands, the commands each being one of a SELECT command and an UNSELECT command, each of the commands defining one or more conditions, the tags each having a radio frequency communications component for receiving the command and a tag memory with tag fields; b. sending one or more SELECT commands on the radio signal; c. comparing a selection condition on the SELECT commands to a select tag data value in the tag memory of each of the tags, and moving one or more of the tags to a SELECTED state if the select tag data value meets the selection condition, the tags moved to the SELECTED state being in a first selected subgroup of tags from the group of tags, and the tags in the first selected subgroup having data in their respective tag memory that meets the selection condition; d. sending one or more UNSELECT commands on the radio signal from the base station to the plurality of radio frequency tags, the UNSELECT commands defining an unselection condition; and e. comparing the unselection condition on one of the UNSELECT commands to an unselect tag data value in the tag memory of each of the tags in the first selected subgroup, and moving one or more of the tags in the first selected subgroup out of the SELECTED state if the unselect tag data value meets the unselection condition, the remaining tags in the SELECTED state being a second selected subgroup of tags, the tags in the second selected subgroup having data in their respective tag memories that meet the selection conditions and do not meet the unselection conditions. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A system for selecting subgroups of radio frequency tags from a group of tags, comprising:
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a. a base station for communicating radio frequency commands to the tags, the commands comprising command type, function, tag memory address value, and command data, the command type capable of being any one of a select command and a UNSELECT command; b. a plurality of tags having radio frequency component for receiving the radio frequency commands from the base station and sending radio frequency information to the base station, a tag memory with a tag memory address and a tag memory data, tag control logic, a tag compare function, and a tag state, whereby the command type sent by the base station causes the tag control logic to perform the function sent by the base station in the tag compare function to compare the tag memory data located in the tag memory address specified by the tag memory address value with the command data, and if the respective comparison condition are met, the tag control logic causing the tag to move to a SELECTED state if the command type is a SELECT command and the tag control logic causing the tag to move to an UNSELECTED state if the command type is an UNSELECT command. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A radio frequency transponder comprising:
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a radio frequency component for receiving one or more frequency signals, the radio frequency signals carrying one or more commands, the commands having a command type, a command function, a tag memory address value, and a command data, the command type capable of being any one of a SELECT command and an UNSELECT command; a tag memory with a tag memory address and tag memory data; a tag control logic performing the command function, the command function specifying a comparison with one or more comparison conditions; and a tag compare function performing the comparison between the tag memory data located in the tag memory address specified by the tag memory address value and the command data, if the comparison conditions are satisfied, the tag control logic causing the tag to move to a SELECTED state if the command type is a SELECT command the tag control logic causing the tag to move to an UNSELECTED state if the command type is an UNSELECT command. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
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Specification