Patent ID: 7336178
Filing Date: 2008-02-26
Classification: A63H,G08G

Abstract:
1. A method for tracking a plurality of participants in a race wherein each participant has an RFID tag attached which broadcasts identifying information specific to that participant in response to an inventory request broadcast, received by the RFID at a monitoring point on a track, comprising the steps of: assigning RFIDs which transmit identification information specific to individual participants in a race, subsequent to a first sequentially ordered inventory request received by said RFIDs; storing said identification information for each of said individual participants in a data storage means; broadcasting said inventory request to said individual participants in proximity to a monitored point on a race track, to thereby elicit a response broadcast of said identification information from any of said individual participants identified in said inventory request and within said proximity to said monitored point; monitoring transmitted identification information contained in each said response broadcast to ascertain in order which of said plurality of participants has responded to said inventory request; storing respective said identification information for each responding participant in a data storage means; employing a first means to prevent data collisions caused by substantially simultaneous transmission of said identification information by said responding participants; and continually updating said identification information stored in said data storage means to determine the most recent response identifying a most recent responding participant from said responding participants; and employing computer software resident on a computing device to monitor said identification information in said data storage means to determine a leader in said race.