Patent ID: 8319641

Claim:
An article management method comprising steps of: attaching a first RF chip to an article in a space; providing a plurality of second reader/writers in the space, each of the plurality of second reader/writers set on a known location in the space, wherein each of the plurality of second reader/writers is separate from the first RF chip; moving a first reader/writer in the space, the first reader/writer comprising a shared memory portion and a second RF chip; retrieving first information stored in the first RF chip by the first reader/writer when the first reader/writer is in close proximity to the first RF chip; retaining the first information stored in the first RF chip retrieved by the first reader/writer in the shared memory portion; reading out the first information stored in the first RF chip from the shared memory portion by the second RF chip; and retrieving the first information stored in the first RF chip and second information stored in the second RF chip and obtaining third information about a location of the second RF chip by the plurality of second reader/writers, wherein the first RF chip is a passive RF chip and the second RF chip is an active RF chip.