Patent ID: 7614555
Filing Date: 2009-11-10
Classification: G06K

Abstract:
1. A method of monitoring an environment in which a radio frequency identification (RFID) system tracks the movement of articles through a supply chain, each article having attached thereto an RFID tag, the method comprising: electromagnetically receiving first information that comprises the signal strength of a detected radio frequency (RF) signal at one or more of a plurality of RFID readers (readers) that are located within the environment, wherein the received first information is sent from one or more detecting readers that were not attempting to read any RFID tags while the RF signal was being detected; storing into a memory device values representing a level of interference with RFID system performance, wherein each stored value is based on the received first information; and electromagnetically locating the source of the detected RF signal, wherein locating the source of the detected RF signal comprises estimating the relative position of the source of the detected RF signal based on the relative strengths of the detected RF signal at each reader and predetermined information about the positions of each of the detecting readers.