Patent ID: 6995654

Claim:
Apparatus for determining the location of an item, from among a plurality of like items, said apparatus comprising, in combination: (a) a paging device adapted to be located on or near said item, said paging device having a unique paging device identification code and including: (1) an RF receiver for receiving and detecting RF transmissions from a commercial paging service, said RF transmissions including a paging device identification code for a particular paging device and a paging message associated therewith; (2) a comparator, connected to said RF receiver, for determining when the paging device identification code received from the commercial paging service equals the paging device identification code for the respective paging device; (3) a decoder, connected to the RF receiver and the comparator, for decoding the paging message when enabled by said comparator, one of said paging messages including a command to emit a locator signal; (b) a locator transmitter, adapted to be co-located with said item and said paging device and being connected to said paging device, said locator transmitter producing a locator signal in response to a command from said paging device; and (c) a locator device, within range to receive said locator signal, for determining the location of said locator transmitter; (d) a transponder tag, adapted to be co-located on or near said item with said paging device, said tag having means for emitting an RF signal in response to an RF interrogation, said RF signal containing a unique tag identification code; (e) a transponder reader for producing an RF interrogation for a transponder tag, for receiving an RF signal from a tag in response to such interrogation and for decoding the tag identification code from said RF signal; and (f) a computer coupled to the transponder reader and having stored therein, in association with each other, both the paging device identification code and the tag identification code.