Bulk radio frequency identification tag reading

A bulk radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag detection system, the system comprising:

• an RF antenna disposed proximate to a point-of-sale area;
• a bulk item detector configured to determine whether physical items in the point-of-sale area satisfy a bulk item condition;
• a controller circuit configured to drive the RF antenna at a first power level if physical items in the point-of-sale area do not satisfy a bulk item condition, and to drive the radio-frequency antenna at a second power level during a bulk item condition period of time if physical items in the point-of-sale area do satisfy a bulk item condition, the first power level being lower than the second power level;
• and
• an RFID tag reader coupled to the RF antenna and configured to recognize RFID tags.

A system for characterizing the radio-frequency identification (RFID) environment of a point-of-sale device, the system comprising:

• an radio-frequency RF antenna disposed proximate to a point-of-sale area and having a first range when driven at a first power level and a second range when driven at a second power level, the first power level being less than the second power level and the first range being smaller than the second range;
• an RFID tag environment characterizer configured to recognize persistent physical items having RFID tags embedded therein in an environment of the point-of-sale area, the persistent physical items being located outside the first range of the RF antenna and inside the range of the second range of the RF antenna;
• and
• a controller circuit configured to drive the RF antenna according to at least the first power level and the second power level, the controller further configured to filter persistent physical items from physical items recognized during bulk item sensing transactions at the point-of-sale area.

A method of bulk a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag detection at a point of sale area, the method comprising:

• driving a radio frequency (RF) antenna at a first power level, the RF antenna being positioned in an environment of a point-of-sale device;
• detecting, at the point-of-sale device, the presence of a plurality of bulk items, each of the plurality of bulk items having the same product identifier and each of the plurality of bulk items having a (RFID) tag associated therewith, each RFID tag including the same product identifier;
• driving the RF antenna at a second power level, the second power level being higher than the first power level;
• recognizing, by the RF antenna operating according to the second power level, a plurality of RFID tags including the same product identifier;
• comparing the bulk items detected at the point-of-sale device in the detecting operation with the plurality of RFID tags having the same product identifier in the recognizing operation;
• and
• recording a discrepancy if a number of the plurality of bulk items is different from a number of the plurality of RFID tags having the same product identifier.