System and method for searching physical objects

• US 8,749,378 B2
• Filed: 04/07/2006
• Issued: 06/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National University of Singapore
• Original Assignee: National University of Singapore
• Inventors: Srinivasan, Vikram, Motani, Mehul, Yap, Kok Klong
• Primary Examiner(s): Bugg, George
• Assistant Examiner(s): SMALL, NAOMI J
• Application Number:
  US11/887,958
• Publication Number:
  US 20090128302A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,986 Days
• Field of Search: 340/539.32, 340/10.1, 340/505, 340/539.1
• US Class Current: 340/539.32
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0009 Transmission of position information to remote stations involving assistance data G01S5/0236
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0295 Proximity-based methods, e.g. position inferred from reception of particular signals
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/0008 General problems related to the reading of electronic memory record carriers, independent of its reading method, e.g. power transfer
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10356 using a plurality of antennas, e.g. configurations including means to resolve interference between the plurality of antennas
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

A system and method for searching physical objects is described and claimed. The system may include one or more tags, each tag being disposed on one associated object; one or more substations, each substation arranged for communication with tags located within a range around each substation; and one or more base stations, each base station arranged for communication with substations located within a range around each base station. An interrogation engine may reside in each base station for interrogating, in response to a search query, the substations within the range around each base station, to determine whether a search object of the search query is within the range around the respective substations.

Claims

1. A system for searching physical objects having one or more tags disposed respectively thereon, the system comprising:

one or more substations arranged for communication with tags located within a range around at least one of the one or more substations, and at least one of the one or more substations configured to communicate a descriptor of a location of a substation;

a base station arranged for communication with one or more substations located within a range around the base station; and

an interrogation engine residing in the base station and configured to interrogate, in response to a search query specifying at least one of the physical objects, the one or more substations within the range around the base station, to determine whether the at least one physical object specified by the search query is located within the ranges around the respective one or more substations;

wherein the one or more substations are configured to request and receive, in response to the interrogating, one or more tag descriptors from the one or more tags, calculate respective values of one or more local match counts of a number of tag descriptors matching the search query, and communicate the respective values of the one or more match counts and a number of the tags corresponding to each of the respective values of the match counts to the interrogation engine; and

wherein the interrogation engine is configured to determine a location of the at least one physical object matching the search query based at least in part on the respective values of the one or more match counts and the number of the tags corresponding to each of the respective values of the match counts.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a query terminal configured to input the search query and to display a search result.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more substations is configured to provide a list of tag descriptors of tags located within the range around the substation to the interrogation engine, together with values indicative of signal strengths from the respective tags.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the tag descriptors comprise descriptions of the respective physical objects the tags are disposed on.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the base station is configured to designate a space corresponding to the range of the base station as public or private, and wherein the interrogation engine is configured to process the search query in a manner dependent on whether the space is designated public or private.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein at least one of the tags is configured to designate a corresponding physical object as public or private, and wherein the interrogation engine is configured to process the search query in a manner dependent on whether the physical object specified by the search query is designated public or private.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the interrogation engine is configured to instruct display of a search result in a binary form if the physical object specified by the search query is designated public and is located in a private space.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the interrogation engine is configured to instruct display of a search result in a binary form if the physical object specified by the search query is privately associated with a first user and the physical object specified by the search query is located in a private space associated with a second user.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the interrogation engine is configured to employ an interrogation engine protocol optimized for energy or latency, or both.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the interrogation engine is configured to determine a value of a global match count based on the respective values of the local match counts and the number of tags corresponding to each of the respective values of the match counts, and to communicate the value of the global match count to the one or more substations.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the one or more substations are further configured to communicate the one or more tag descriptors corresponding to the value of the global match count to the interrogation engine to facilitate determining, by the interrogation engine, the location of the at least one physical object matching the search query based at least in part on the respective locations of the one or more substations that communicated the one or more tag descriptors corresponding to the value of the global match count.

10. A method for searching physical objects having one or more tags disposed respectively thereon, the method comprising:

interrogating, by an interrogation engine of a base station in response to a search query for at least one physical object, one or more substations within a range around the base station;

requesting and receiving, by the one or more substations, in response to the interrogating, one or more tag descriptors from the one or more tags located within a range around at least one of the substations;

calculating, by the one or more substations, respective values of one or more local match counts of a number of tag descriptors matching the search query;

communicating, by the one or more substations to the interrogation engine of the base station, the respective values of the one or more match counts and a number of the tags corresponding to each of the respective values of the match counts;

determining, by the interrogation engine of the base station, a location of the at least one physical object matching the search query based at least in part on the respective values of the one or more match counts and the number of the tags corresponding to each of the respective values of the match counts.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising utilizing a query terminal for inputting the search query and for displaying search results.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising providing, by the one or more substations to the interrogation engine of the base station, respective values indicative of signal strengths from the respective tags received by the substation.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising providing, by the one or more substations to the interrogation engine of the base station, a list of tag descriptions of tags within the range around the substation to the interrogation engine, wherein the tag descriptions comprise descriptions of the respective physical objects the tags are disposed on.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising configuring the base station to designate a space corresponding to the range of the base station as public or private, and further comprising utilizing the interrogation engine to process the search query in a manner dependent on whether the space is designated public or private.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising configuring at least one tag to designate the respective physical object as designated public or private, and further comprising utilizing the interrogation engine to process the search query in a manner dependent on whether the physical object specified by the search query is designated public or private.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising utilizing the interrogation engine to instruct display of a search result in a binary form if the physical object specified by the search query is designated public and is located in a private space.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising utilizing the interrogation engine to instruct display of a search result in a binary form if the physical object specified by the search query is designated private and associated with a first user and the physical object specified by the search query is located in a private space associated with a second user.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising optimizing an interrogation engine protocol for energy or latency, or both.

21. The method of claim 10, further comprising determining, by the interrogation engine of the base station, a value of a global match count based on the respective values of the local match counts and the number of tags corresponding to each of the respective values of the match counts and communicate the value of the global match count to the one or more substations.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising communicating, by the one or more substations to the interrogation engine, the one or more tag descriptors corresponding to the value of the global match count to the interrogation engine, and determining, by the interrogation engine, the location of the at least one physical object matching the search query based at least in part on the respective locations of the one or more substations that communicated the one or more tag descriptors corresponding to the value of the global match count.