Patent ID: 8872634

Claim:
A timing system for determining a time of detection of a plurality of RFID tags relative to a detection line located along a route traveled by the RFID tags, the system comprising: a tag reader system having housing with a cavity containing a processor, a memory, a clock, a communication interface, a radio frequency transceiver for wirelessly communicating with a plurality of the RFID tags, computer executable instructions and an antenna coupled to the radio frequency transceiver for transmitting and receiving wireless messages between the radio frequency transceiver and each communicating RFID tags, the housing including a fixture for mounting the housing in proximity to the detection line, the tag reader system configured by the computer executable instructions for transmitting a plurality of tag read requests and receiving a plurality of tag reads from each communicating RFID tag when each is located in proximity to the detection line, time stamping at least two of each of the RFID tag reads for each RFID tag including a first tag read and a subsequent tag read and creating a RFID tag read message for each RFID tag read wherein each RFID tag read message includes the first and subsequent tag reads for a single one of the RFID tags with their associated time stamps, and transmitting over the communication interface each RFID tag read message; and a timing system having a memory and processor and a communication interface communicatively coupled to the communication interface of the tag reader system for receiving the transmitted RFID tag read messages, the timing system determining a lapsed time for each of the RFID tags traversing the route traveled responsive to the received RFID tag read message and at least one of the included tag reads and associated time stamps.