US 12,695,576 B2 · Modified RFID tag inventorying process

Abstract

Protocol-specified RFID tag inventorying can be modified to streamline information exchange. For example, RFID tags may be able to respond to certain RFID reader commands with additional or other information instead of only a pseudorandom number or a certain tag identifier, or may not even respond at all. Such other information may include all or portions of other tag identifiers, or information associated with tag identifiers, such as error-checking codes or protocol control bits. Tags may also choose data stored in tag memory with location of the data known only to the tag, compare to a mask received in an inventorying command and decide to participate or not in an inventory round based on a comparison result.

Claims12

Dependent claims

A method for an RFID integrated circuit coupled to an antenna to respond in an inventory round, the method comprising:

receiving an inventorying command initiating an inventory round, wherein the inventorying command includes a collision resolution (CR) value and a response-type value;
generating a CR reply based on the CR value by:
identifying, based on the CR value, a CR code, wherein the CR code is one of a trailing item identifier (II) portion, a stored cyclic-redundancy-check code, and a pseudorandom number;
and
including the CR code in the CR reply;
sending the CR reply;
receiving a first acknowledgment command in response to sending the CR reply;
and
if the response-type value indicates that no acknowledgment reply is to be sent, then refraining from replying to the first acknowledgment command, otherwise replying by sending an acknowledgment code indicated by the response-type value, wherein the acknowledgment code is one of a tag identifier (TID) portion, another II portion, and the entire II.

6 more elements

A Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) integrated circuit (IC) configured to be coupled to an antenna, the IC comprising:

a memory configured to store data;
a transceiver configured to receive commands and send replies;
and
a processing block coupled to the memory and transceiver, wherein the processing block is configured to:
receive an inventorying command initiating an inventory round, wherein the inventorying command includes a collision resolution (CR) value and a response-type value;
generate a CR reply based on the CR value by:
identifying, based on the CR value, a CR code, wherein the CR code is one of a trailing item identifier (II) portion, a stored cyclic-redundancy-check code, and a pseudorandom number;
and
including the CR code in the CR reply;
send the CR reply;
receive a first acknowledgment command in response to sending the CR reply;
and
if the response-type value indicates that no acknowledgment reply is to be sent, then refrain from replying to the first acknowledgment command, otherwise reply by sending an acknowledgment code indicated by the response-type value, wherein the acknowledgment code is one of a tag identifier (TID) portion, another II portion, and the entire II.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Modified RFID tag inventorying process

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Modified RFID tag inventorying process

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims12