US 8,301,473 B2 · Stowage and center of gravity verification and assessment tool

Abstract

A stowage and center of gravity verification and assessment tool which assists users in locating items within an environment, determining the center of gravity of the environment, and calculating item location changes that facilitate altering the center of gravity. Each item to be tracked within the environment is equipped with one or more remotely pollable identifiers, such as, without limitation, barcodes, or RFID or ultrasonic tags, and the system stores the mass of each item. As items are moved in the environment, the system tracks the impact of such movement on the environment's center of gravity and recommends item location changes. The system can also assist users in locating items within the environment, provide access to detailed information about individual items, and assist with task scheduling.

Claims23

Dependent claims

An item monitoring system comprising:

a plurality of items, each item having associated therewith at least one remotely pollable identification tag;
a plurality of sensors employed within a confined environment to remotely read the pollable identification tags;
a first computing device, the first computing device interfacing with the plurality of sensors to determine a location of at least a subset of the plurality of items;
and
a user interface, displayable by a second computing device, to provide a graphical representation of the environment and to allow a user to locate at least one of the plurality of items within the confined environment,
wherein the first computing device interfaces with the plurality of sensors to determine the mass of at least a subset of the plurality of items, and
wherein the first computing device determines the center of gravity for the environment, the center of gravity being determined, at least in part, based on the location and mass of each of the plurality of items in the environment.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Stowage and center of gravity verification and assessment tool

Life of this patent

Stowage and center of gravity verification and assessment tool

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims23