Decreasing false alarms in rfid exit portals

A electronic article surveillance (EAS) system, comprising:

• a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag reader operative to:
• transmit a radio frequency identification (RFID) interrogation signal into an RFID interrogation zone of an EAS system;
• detect at least one response signal from a first RFID tag of the EAS system responding to the interrogation signal;
• at least one sensor operative to capturing, at one or more times in a window of time around the detection, sensor data within a sensor field, the sensor field and the RFID interrogation zone overlapping to form a zone of interest;
• and
• at least one processor:
• in communication with the tag reader and the at least one sensor;
• and
• operative to:
• characterize movement of a non-tag object during the window of time based on the captured sensor data;
• and
• determine whether the first RFID tag is associated with the characterized non-tag object based on a comparison of the at least one response signal and the characterized movement of the non-tag object.

An apparatus for electronic article surveillance (EAS), comprising:

• means for transmitting a radio frequency identification (RFID) interrogation signal into an RFID interrogation zone of an EAS system;
• means for detecting at least one response signal from a first RFID tag of the EAS system responding to the interrogation signal;
• means for capturing, at one or more times in a window of time around the detection, sensor data within a sensor field, the sensor field and the RFID interrogation zone overlapping to form a zone of interest;
• means for characterizing movement of a non-tag object during the window of time based on the captured sensor data;
• and
• means for determining whether the first RFID tag is associated with the characterized non-tag object based on a comparison of the at least one response signal and the characterized movement of the non-tag object.