Radio frequency identification tag based tray and tray receiving method and apparatus

Abstract

A tray (201) comprises electrically conductive material and has at least one hand-graspable fixture (203). This hand-graspable fixture comprises an electrical conductor (301) disposed in a location that is likely to be operably interacted with by a human who grasps the hand-graspable fixture. A capacitively-coupled RFID tag is then disposed on the hand-graspable fixture with a first antenna plate (303) being electrically coupled to the tray and a second antenna plate (304) that electrically couples to the electrical conductor. A corresponding tray receiving compartment (400) has a front lip (401) over which the tray must pass and upon which the tray will rest when properly disposed within the tray receiving compartment. One or more capacitively-coupled RFID tag reader antennas (402) are disposed proximal to the front lip. These antennas may be positioned to facilitate reading the capacitively-coupled RFID tag when the tray is properly disposed within the tray receiving compartment.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.