Patent ID: 11954551
Assignee: MEPS REAL-TIME, INC.
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC G  H

Claim 0:
1. A radio frequency (RF) module for establishing an RF field within a container, the container having electrically-conductive walls within which medical articles are located, at least some of the medical articles each having an attached identification device that is activated by RF energy and which responds to activation by sending an identification signal, wherein the RF module is for establishing an RF field within the electrically-conductive walls of the container to activate the identification devices of the medical articles and to read their responsive identification signals, the container having a size, the RF module comprising:
a base mountable at the container, the base having a base size selected to be compatible with the container size so that the base and components thereof may interact with medical articles placed within the container, the base having a data port and a power port;
a probe forming a part of the base and located within the electrically-conductive walls of the container to establish an activating RF field within the electrically-conductive walls of the container within a predetermined frequency range;
a reader unit forming a part of the base and having a communications unit with which it connects to the data port, the reader unit also having a control unit connected to the power port and the communications unit, the control unit configured to use power received from the power port to control the probe to inject activating energy into the container to establish an activating RF field within the container, the control unit also configured to control the probe to stop injecting energy into the container and during the non-injection time, to receive the identification signals from the activated identification devices on the medical articles located within the electrically-conductive walls of the container, to process the received identification signals, and to deliver identification data representative of the received identification signals to the data port through the communications unit; and
wherein the control unit is programmed to automatically perform a self-inventory of the container by controlling the probe to inject activating energy into the container to activate identification tags of medical articles in the container, to receive identification signals from the activated identification tags, to process the received identification signals to provide identification data, and to forward the identification data through the communications unit to a server, the server being programmed to track the inventory of the container.