Patent ID: 11915085
Assignee: ZEBRA TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 16:
17. A method for determining directionality of a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag within a venue using an RFID tag tracking system, the RFID tag tracking system comprising (i) a first RFID transceiver arrangement configured to interrogate RFID tags disposed within a lane of a venue, wherein the first RFID transceiver arrangement is configured to have a signal range that extends over at least a first portion of the lane; (ii) a second RFID transceiver arrangement configured to interrogate RFID tags disposed within the venue, wherein the second RFID transceiver arrangement is configured to generate a beam in a plurality of directions relative to the second RFID transceiver arrangement, wherein at least one of the directions extends over at least a second portion of the lane, the second portion of the lane being proximate to the first portion of the lane; (iii) a third RFID transceiver arrangement configured to interrogate RFID tags disposed within a second lane of the venue, wherein the third RFID transceiver arrangement is configured to have a signal range that extends over at least a first portion of the second lane, wherein at least one of the directions for the beams generated by the second transceiver arrangement extends over at least a second portion of the second lane, the second portion of the second lane being proximate to the first portion of the second lane; and (iv) a controller operatively connected to the first RFID transceiver arrangement, the second RFID transceiver arrangement; and the third RFID transceiver arrangement, the method comprising:
detecting, via the first RFID transceiver arrangement, a first plurality of read events respectively corresponding to a first set of RFID tags;
detecting, via the second RFID transceiver arrangement, a second plurality of read events respectively corresponding to a second set of RFID tags, wherein the second plurality of read events occurred within a threshold time from the first plurality of read events;
determining, by the controller, that a particular RFID tag is included in both the first set of RFID tags and the second set of RFID tags;
based upon the read events for the particular RFID tag detected via the second RFID transceiver arrangement, determining, by the controller, a direction of travel for the particular RFID tag; and
associating, by the controller, the determined direction of travel with RFID tags included in the first set of RFID tags.