Method and identification tag for asset management

• US 8,032,429 B2
• Filed: 03/10/2004
• Issued: 10/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Shafer, Steven
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender; F. Ryan
• Assistant Examiner(s): ALMATRAHI, FARIS S
• Application Number:
  US10/798,007
• Publication Number:
  US 20050209947A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,764 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/604 Address structures or formats
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/25 of the same type
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/30 Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknames name-to-address mapping H04L61/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/35 involving non-standard use of addresses for implementing network functionalities, e.g. coding subscription information within the address or functional addressing, i.e. assigning an address to a function
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/45 Network directories; Name-to-address mapping

Abstract

A method, identification tag, data signal, and service for asset management are disclosed. Identification data may be retrieved from an identification tag. The identification data may include a first data element comprising a global routing prefix and a second data element comprising an asset identifier. Based on the global routing prefix, a uniform resource locator may be determined for a selected asset lookup service. Based on the determined uniform resource locator, the received asset identifier may be sent to the asset lookup service.

Claims

1. A method of asset management comprising:

sending an identification query to an asset identification tag, the asset identification tag having a global routing prefix of an Internet Protocol address and an asset identifier stored therein;

receiving, from the asset identification tag, the asset identifier and the global routing prefix;

based on the global routing prefix received from the asset identification tag, identifying a predetermined suffix of a uniform resource locator for a selected asset lookup service of the received global routing prefix;

appending the predetermined suffix to the global routing prefix received from the asset identification tag to create the uniform resource locator for the selected asset lookup service; and

based on the created uniform resource locator, sending the received asset identifier to the selected asset lookup service,

wherein the method is implemented by a processor operating with a computer readable medium.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the appending is performed by interrogating a predetermined resource service.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the predetermined resource service formats the uniform resource locator from the global routing prefix and the predetermined suffix.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending asset property information to the selected asset lookup service.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein the global routing prefix and the asset identifier are stored together on the asset identification tag as part of an individual Internet Protocol version 6-compliant address.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the asset identifier and the global routing prefix are received from the asset identification tag together in the Internet Protocol version 6-compliant address.

17. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

rewriting the asset identification tag with a new global routing prefix.

18. The method according to claim 17, further comprising:

rewriting the asset identification tag with a new asset identifier.

5. A method of asset management comprising:

sending an identification query to an asset identification tag, the asset identification tag having a global routing prefix of an Internet Protocol address stored therein;

receiving, from the asset identification tag, the global routing prefix and an asset identifier indicating at least one of;

an asset model descriptor, a unique asset serial number, an asset physical location, an asset age descriptor, or an asset environment descriptor; and

formatting a uniform resource locator by appending a predetermined uniform asset lookup service suffix to the received global routing prefix,

wherein the method is implemented by a processor operating with a computer readable medium.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising receiving predetermined fixed data representing a tag index compliant with an Internet Protocol address format.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the global routing prefix, the asset identifier, and the predetermined fixed data representing the tag index are compliant with an Internet Protocol version 6 address format.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising, based on the uniform resource locator, sending the asset identifier to an asset lookup service.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the formatting is performed by a predetermined resource service.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein sending an identification query includes transmitting a modulated data signal over a frequency communication channel.

11. The method of claim 5, further comprising sending at least one of the asset physical location and the asset environment descriptor to an asset lookup service for storage.

12. One or more computer readable storage media storing computer executable instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, perform:

receiving, from an asset identification tag, identification data having a first data element comprising a global routing prefix of an Internet Protocol address and a second data element comprising an asset identifier indicating one or more asset properties of an asset, the asset identification tag having stored therein the global routing prefix and the asset identifier;

formatting a uniform resource locator for a selected asset lookup service by appending a predetermined uniform asset lookup service suffix for the selected asset lookup service to the received global routing prefix; and

based on the formatted uniform resource locator, sending the received asset identifier to the selected asset lookup service.

13. The computer readable storage media of claim 12, wherein the one or more asset properties comprise at least one of:

an asset model descriptor, a unique asset serial number, an asset physical location, an asset age descriptor, or an asset environment descriptor.

14. The computer readable storage media of claim 12, further comprising computer executable instructions which, when executed the by one or more processors, perform:

storing the global routing prefix in a database, the database associating the global routing prefix with;

the asset identifier;

a serial number associated with the asset;

a model of the asset;

a manufacturer of the asset;

an expiration date of the asset;

a weight of the asset;

a color of the asset;

or

a location associated with the asset.