Radio frequency identification (RFID) tag location verification using acousto-magnetic detection

An electronic article surveillance (EAS) system tag comprising:

• an acousto-magnetic (AM) interrogation signal detection subsystem;
• and
• a radio frequency identification (RFID) transponder subsystem operative to detect an RFID interrogation signal, p1 wherein the tag is operative to signal a concurrent detection of both an AM interrogation signal and an RFID interrogation signal by setting a bit flag in a RFID response signal indicating that the tag detected the AM interrogation signal.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium of electronic article surveillance (EAS), executable by a processor to:

• transmit concurrently, an acousto-magnetic (AM) interrogation signal into an AM interrogation zone of an EAS system, and a radio frequency identification (RFID) interrogation signal into an RFID interrogation zone of the EAS system, the AM interrogation zone and the RFID interrogation zone overlapping to form a zone of interest;
• and
• indicate, by the EAS system, a presence of a first tag of the EAS system in the zone of interest upon a concurrent detection of both an RFID response signal of the first tag in response to the RFID interrogation signal and an AM response signal of the first tag in response to the AM interrogation signal.