DE-102012218701-B4 - CONTROLLING THE ACTIVATION OF WIRELESS DETECTION TAGS

DE102012218701B4DE 102012218701 B4DE102012218701 B4DE 102012218701B4DE-102012218701-B4

Abstract

A process that exhibits: Using at least one processor and one memory for: Controlling a first wireless recognition read cell to activate a first group of wireless recognition tags within an initial data transmission range and Controlling a second wireless recognition reader for the purpose of activating a second group of wireless recognition tags within a second data transmission range during the activation of the first group of wireless recognition tags and after the initial activation of the first group of wireless recognition tags, wherein the first data transmission range overlaps with the second data transmission range, and wherein a portion of the wireless recognition tags of the first group contains wireless recognition tags of the second group, wherein these wireless recognition tags of the portion are kept in an "enumerated" state after being read by the first wireless recognition reader, such that these wireless recognition tags do not transmit data a second time when the second wireless recognition reader activates wireless recognition tags, the method further comprising receiving data from each of the wireless recognition tags, and which involves receiving data: Receiving data from the first group of wireless detection tags in the order of the tags and After receiving data from the first group of wireless detection tags, receiving data from the second group of Wireless detection tags not included in the first group, in the order of the tags.

Inventors

P. Daniel Kangas
Jeff D. Thomas

Assignees

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION

Dates

Publication Date: 20260513
Application Date: 20121015
Priority Date: 20111029

Claims (13)

A method comprising: Using at least one processor and one memory to: Control a first wireless recognition reader for activating a first group of wireless recognition tags within a first data transmission range and Controlling a second wireless recognition reader for activating a second group of wireless recognition tags within a second data transmission range during the activation of the first group of wireless recognition tags and after the initial activation of the first group of wireless recognition tags, wherein the first data transmission range overlaps with the second data transmission range, and wherein a portion of the wireless recognition tags of the first group contains wireless recognition tags of the second group, wherein these wireless recognition tags of the portion are kept in an "enumerated" state after being read by the first wireless recognition reader, such that these wireless recognition tags are not read a second time. Data is transmitted when the second wireless recognition reader activates wireless recognition tags, wherein the method further comprises receiving data from each of the wireless recognition tags, and where the receiving of data comprises: receiving data from the first group of wireless recognition tags in the order of the tags and after receiving data from the first group of wireless recognition tags, receiving data from the second group of wireless recognition tags, which are not included in the first group, in the order of the tags.
Procedure according to Claim 1 , where each of the wireless identification tags is a radio frequency identification tag (RFID tag) or a transponder.
Procedure according to one of the Claims 1 until 2 , wherein the wireless detection tags transmit the data sequentially based on the identifiers of the wireless detection tags.
Procedure according to one of the Claims 1 until 3 , which further includes receiving data from the first group of wireless recognition tags, and wherein controlling the second wireless recognition read cell includes controlling the second wireless recognition read cell to activate the second group of wireless recognition tags after receiving data from the first group of wireless recognition tags.
Procedure according to one of the Claims 1 until 4 , which further features: receiving data from the second group of wireless detection tags and, in response to receiving data from the second group of wireless detection tags, controlling the first wireless detection read cell to deactivate the first group of wireless detection tags.
Procedure according to one of the Claims 1 until 5 , wherein the first wireless recognition read cell is one from a first group of wireless recognition read cells, wherein the second wireless recognition read cell is one from a second group of wireless recognition read cells, controlling the first group of wireless recognition read cells to activate wireless recognition tags in the order of the tags; and controlling the second group of wireless recognition read cells to activate wireless recognition tags in the order of the tags during the activation of the wireless recognition tags of the first group of wireless recognition read cells and after the initial activation of the wireless recognition tags of the first group of wireless recognition read cells.
Procedure according to Claim 6 , where the data transmission range of the first group of wireless detection read cells overlaps with the data transmission range of the second group of wireless detection read cells.
System comprising: a network interface configured for data exchange with a first wireless detection reader and a second wireless detection reader, and a wireless detection manager configured to: control the first wireless detection reader to activate a first group of wireless detection tags within a first data transmission range; and controlling the second wireless detection reader to activate a second group of wireless detection tags within a second data transmission range during the activation of the first group of wireless detection tags and after the initial activation of the first group of wireless detection tags, wherein the first data transmission range overlaps with the second data transmission range, and wherein a portion of the wireless detection tags of the first group contains wireless detection tags of the second group, wherein these wireless detection tags of the portion are kept in an "enumerated" state after being read by the first wireless detection reader, such that these wireless detection tags do not transmit data a second time when the second wireless detection reader activates wireless detection tags, receiving data from each of the wireless detection tags, wherein the receiving of data includes: receiving data from the first group of wireless detection tags in the order of the tags and after receiving data from the first group of wireless detection tags, receiving data from the second group of wireless detection tags that are not included in the first group, in the order of the tags.
System according to Claim 8 , where each of the wireless identification tags is a radio frequency identification tag (RFID tag) or a transponder.
system according to one of the Claims 8 until 9 , where the network interface is configured to receive data from each of the wireless detection tags.
System according Claim 10 , wherein some of the wireless detection tags of the first group contain wireless detection tags of the second group, and wherein the network interface is configured to: receive data from the first group of wireless detection tags in the order of the tags, and after receiving data from the first group of wireless detection tags, receive data from the second group of wireless detection tags that are not included in the first group, in the order of the tags.
System according Claim 11 , wherein the wireless detection tags are configured for the sequential transmission of data based on the identifiers of the wireless detection tags.
A computer program product for controlling the activation of wireless detection tags, wherein the computer program product comprises: a computer-readable data storage medium with in this computer-readable program code, wherein the computer-readable program code comprises: computer-readable program code configured to control a first wireless recognition reader for the purpose of activating a first group of wireless recognition tags within a first data transmission range, and computer-readable program code configured to control a second wireless recognition reader for the purpose of activating a second group of wireless recognition tags within a second data transmission range during the activation of the first group of wireless recognition tags and after the initial activation of the first group of wireless recognition tags, wherein the first data transmission range overlaps with the second data transmission range, and wherein a portion of the wireless recognition tags of the first group contains wireless recognition tags of the second group, wherein these wireless recognition tags of the portion are kept in an "enumerated" state after being read by the first wireless recognition reader. were read so that these wireless detection tags do not transmit data a second time when the second wireless detection read cell activates wireless detection tags and computer-readable program code configured to receive data from each of the wireless detection tags, wherein receiving data includes: receiving data from the first group of wireless detection tags in the order of the tags and, after receiving data from the first group of wireless detection tags, receiving data from the second group of wireless detection tags not included in the first group, in the order of the tags.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED REGISTRATIONS This application is related to the concurrently pending, concurrently filed US patent/utility model application no. 13/284,883 , entitled “COORDINATION OF TRANSMISSION OF DATA FROM WIRELESS IDENTIFICATION TAGS” and the simultaneously filed US patent/utility model application no. 13/284,888 entitled “IDENTIFIER SEQUENCER OF WIRELESS IDENTIFICATION TAGS”, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. BACKGROUND Field of invention The present invention relates to wireless identification tags and in particular to the control of the activation of wireless identification tags. Description of related technology Wireless tag technology uses wireless data transmission techniques to transfer data from a wireless tag, such as a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag or transponder, to a wireless reader. One example of RFID technology applications is attaching an RFID tag to an object for identification and tracking purposes. Other examples of RFID technology include tracking inventory, merchandise, assets, people, and the like. An RFID tag can be attached to items such as food, cars, computer equipment, books, and mobile phones. In retail environments such as grocery stores, RFID tags can be attached to items to enable item identification at checkout and to track item movement through the store. One or more RFID readers may be located within the store, wirelessly sending signals to RFID tags within their data transmission range to activate them. A problem can arise when an RFID reader activates multiple RFID tags simultaneously. In this scenario, the RFID tags transmit their data to the RFID reader at the same time. Such simultaneous transmission by the tags can lead to signal collisions. Current techniques for avoiding collisions include pausing data transmission and then waiting a randomly determined amount of time before attempting to transmit data from an RFID tag again. However, collisions can still occur later if two or more RFID tags are transmitting data simultaneously. Furthermore, as the number of RFID tags increases, so does the time required to read the data from all of them. In light of these difficulties, there is a need for improved systems and techniques for managing RFID tags. A system and a method for reading RFID tags using a plurality of RFID readers are described in US 2006 / 0 022 800 A1 revealed. From the JP 2010 092 208 A It is known to set a reader to different detection distances one after the other in order to detect different RFID tags. SUMMARY According to one or more embodiments of the present invention, methods and systems for controlling the activation of wireless recognition tags are disclosed herein. An exemplary method includes controlling a first wireless recognition read cell for the purpose of activating a first group of wireless recognition tags within a first data transmission range. The method further involves controlling a second wireless recognition reader to activate a second group of wireless recognition tags within a second data transmission range during the activation of the first group of wireless recognition tags and after the initial activation of the first group of wireless recognition tags. The first data transmission range overlaps with the second data transmission range. In another aspect, the invention relates to a system that features: a network interface configured for data exchange with a first wireless detection read cell and a second wireless detection read cell, and a wireless detection manager configured to: Controlling the first wireless recognition read cell to activate an initial group of wireless recognition tags within an initial data transmission range and Controlling the second wireless detection read cell to activate a second group of wireless detection tags within a second data transmission range during the activation of the first group of wireless detection tags and after the initial activation of the first group of wireless detection tags, wherein the first data transmission range overlaps with the second data transmission range. According to one embodiment of the invention, each of the wireless identification tags is an RFID tag (radio frequency identification tag, RFID tag) or a transponder. According to a further embodiment of the invention, the network interface is configured to receive data from each of the radio detection tags. According to a further embodiment of the invention, some of the wireless detection tags of the first group contain wireless detection tags of the second group, and the network interface is configured to: Receiving data from the first group of wireless detection tags in the order of the tags and After receiving data from the first group of wireless detection tags, receive data from the second group of wireless detection tags that are not included in the first group, in the order of the tags. According to a further embodiment of the invention, the wireless rec