Intelligent station using multiple RF antennae and inventory control system and method incorporating same

Abstract

An inventory control system and method that tracks inventories of items with RFID tags, includes a reader unit and an intelligent station that tracks RFID tags to determine item information of items to be inventoried. The reader unit transmits and receives RF signals. The intelligent station includes a first RF antenna connected to the reader unit by a first transmission cable through a first switch, and one or more additional RF antennae connected to the reader unit by the same first transmission cable through additional switches. An inventory control processing unit receives item information from the intelligent stations to update inventory information regarding the items to be inventoried.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of provisional application Ser. Nos. 60 / 346,388, filed Jan. 9, 2002, and 60 / 350,023, filed on Jan. 23, 2002, the disclosures which are incorporated herein in their entireties.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates generally to the field of using multiple RF (radio frequency) antennae in an intelligent station to track items tagged with RFID (radio frequency identification) tags. More generally, the present invention is directed to an inventory control method and system that uses the intelligent station to track and inventory items that are tagged with RFID tags. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Radio frequency identification (RFID) systems typically use one or more reader antennae to send radio frequency (RF) signals to items tagged with RFID tags. The use of such RFID tags to identify an item or person is well known in the art. In response to...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0027] In a further aspect of the present invention, the inventory control method includes software control of the RF power level generated by the reader unit. In a preferred embodiment, testing would determine how much RF power the reader unit must provide to achieve optimal results for each connected antenna, which are positioned at different distances along the RF cable. This information would be stored, for example, in a look-up table or other equivalent indexed data storing means. Thereafter during operation, the power level for each antenna would be set based on this predetermined level stored in the look-up table, so that antennae at differing distances along the RF transmission cable may all operate at essentially equal power.

[0029] In a further aspect of the present invention, the inventory control method includes RF amplifier devices, such as RF filter amplifiers, located periodically along the RF transmission cable such as in every Nth shelf to boost the RF signal strength.

Problems solved by technology

However, such an antenna may be unwieldy and may increase the range of the radiated power beyond allowable limits.

Furthermore, these reader antennae are often located in stores or other locations were space is at a premium and it is expensive and inconvenient to use such large reader antennae.

In another possible solution, multiple small antennae may be used but this configuration may be awkward to set up keeping in mind that space is often at a premium.

However, use of multiple antennae (or components) has the drawback that multiple transmission cables are used to connect a reader unit to the multiple antennae and / or that the multiple antennae cannot be individually controlled when they are all connected by a single transmission cable to the reader unit.

The main disadvantage of the arrangement disclosed in FIG. 2 is the need for a separate transmission cable to each of the antennae.

Since space is often at a premium, the use of these separate cables is a disadvantage because additional space is needed to install or position each of these separate cables.

This disadvantage is accentuated when more than two antennae are used with one reader unit since all of these multiple antennae require separate transmission cables.

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