Identification and accountability system for surgical sponges

An automatic identification system for use with a reading device, said automatic identification system for accounting for and identifying a plurality of surgical sponges used during a surgical procedure, comprising:

• machine-readable information located on a plurality of physically unconnected surgical sponges, wherein each sponge of said plurality of surgical sponges has its own differentiating machine-readable information located thereon which will not repeat on any other sponge used in a given surgical procedure, said machine-readable information being readable by a reading device, wherein the physically unconnected surgical sponges can be recognized and accounted for during a surgical procedure without reliance on human visual detection and counting ability to identify. differentiate and account for the surgical sponges.