Patent ID: 7036729

Claim:
A method for tracking an article, managing an article, or both, wherein an RFID tag is associated with the article, comprising: associating at least one RFID tag with an article, the RFID tag including an electronic memory containing information relating to the article and an antenna coupled to the electronic memory for transmitting and/or receiving information-bearing signals in an RFID tag format, wherein the information-bearing signals represent information to be stored in the electronic memory and/or represent information produced from the electronic memory; providing a plurality of stations at which an operation is performed, each station comprising an RFID reader for transmitting and/or receiving information-bearing signals in the RFID tag format via an antenna defining a detection region proximate the station; storing in a database associated with each station at least information contained in the received information-bearing signals, and providing from the database information that is included in the transmitted information-bearing signals, wherein the information stored in the database of the station includes information relating to one or more of an article, an operation performed at the station, and a condition; whereby information is communicated between the electronic memory of the RFID tag and the database of a particular station via the RFID tag reader thereof when the RFID tag is in the detection region of that particular station; and communicating information stored in the database of the station to a remote processor, whereby information stored in the database of the station may be accessed remotely for obtaining information relating to the article.