The present invention relates to RFID tagging in general, and in particular to RFID tag identification management.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags are typically attached to objects for information and/or tracking purposes, where information may be written to an RFID tag and later read by an external reader. Information stored on an RFID tag may include an object identifier (ID) that distinguishes the object from other objects. For example, a medical laboratory may attach RFID tags to vials containing patient blood samples, where each RFID tag includes a unique object ID identifying the vial to which it is attached, which object ID may then be recorded and mapped to the patient from whom the sample was taken.
While RFID tags may be used to provide information about individual objects, it may be desirable to associate objects with other objects. For example, where a patient blood sample in one “parent” vial is divided into several other “child” vials, each destined for a different type of analysis, the object ID of each child vial's RFID tag may be recorded in a database together with the object ID of the parent vial's RFID tag. However, where the contents of child vials are further distributed to several other “grandchild” vials, or when vials are sent outside of an organization, managing the hierarchy of object relationships using object IDs of otherwise unrelated RFID tags may become cumbersome.
The present invention in embodiments thereof discloses RFID tag architecture and methods for managing RFID tag object IDs that are particularly useful for expressing parent-child object relationships among RFID tags.
There is thus provided in accordance with the present invention an RFID tag including an object ID, and a counter.
In another aspect of the present invention an RFID tag system is provided including a parent RFID tag having an object ID and a counter, a child RFID tag, and a reader/writer configured to read the object ID and the counter of the parent RFID tag, combine values of the object ID and the counter, and write the combined value to an object ID of the child RFID tag.
In another aspect of the present invention the reader/writer is configured to read a value of the counter, change the read value, and write the changed value back to the counter.
In another aspect of the present invention the reader/writer is configured to change the counter value subsequent to writing the combined value to the object ID of the child RFID tag.
In another aspect of the present invention the reader/writer is configured to initialize a value of a counter of the child RFID tag.
In another aspect of the present invention a method is provided for managing RFID tags, the method including configuring an RFID tag with an object ID, and configuring the RFID tag with a counter.
In another aspect of the present invention a method is provided for managing RFID tags, the method including reading values of an object ID and a counter of a parent RFID tag, combining the values, and writing the combined value to an object ID of a child RFID tag.
In another aspect of the present invention the method further includes changing the read value of the counter, and writing the changed value back to the counter.
In another aspect of the present invention the changing step includes changing the read counter value subsequent to writing the combined value to the object ID of the child RFID tag.
In another aspect of the present invention the method further includes initializing a value of a counter of the child RFID tag.
In another aspect of the present invention the method further includes reading values of the object ID and a counter of the child RFID tag, combining the values, and writing the combined value to an object ID of a grandchild RFID tag.
Embodiments of the present invention will be understood and appreciated more fully from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the appended drawings in which:
The present invention is now described within the context of one or more embodiments, although the description is intended to be illustrative of the invention as a whole, and is not to be construed as limiting the invention to the embodiments shown. It is appreciated that various modifications may occur to those skilled in the art that, while not specifically shown herein, are nevertheless within the true spirit and scope of the invention.
Reference is now made to
In accordance with the present invention, RFID tag 100 may be used as a “parent” RFID tag by reader/writer 106 to spawn a “child” RFID tag 108, as is shown in
After parent RFID tag 100 is used to spawn child RFID tag 108, its counter is preferably changed by reader/writer 106, such as by adding 1 to the current value of counter 104 and writing the new value to counter 104. Thus, counter 104 changes from a value of 0 to a value of 1 as is shown in
Referring again to
It will be appreciated that the present invention is useful where it is desirable to associate objects with other objects. Thus, in the example above, where a patient blood sample in one parent vial is divided into several other child vials, each destined for a different type of analysis, the relationships among the vials may be expressed by their RFID tags by tagging the parent and child vials with the RFID tags of the present invention, where the object ID and counter of the parent vial's RFID tag is combined to form the object ID of each child vial's RFID tag.
It is appreciated that one or more of the steps of any of the methods described herein may be omitted or carried out in a different order than that shown, without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention.
While the methods and apparatus disclosed herein may or may not have been described with reference to specific computer hardware or software, it is appreciated that the methods and apparatus described herein may be readily implemented in computer hardware or software using conventional techniques.
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