Patent ID: 7591421

Claim:
A method comprising: detecting, using a sensor, a first closing of a door of an apparatus and, in response to the detection of the first closing of the door of the apparatus, automatically scanning the interior of the apparatus using RFID so as to obtain a first RFID scanning result; detecting, using the sensor, opening of the door of the apparatus and, in response to the detection of opening of the door of the apparatus, disabling an RFID scanning system used to perform the RFID scanning: detecting, using the sensor, a second closing of the door of the apparatus and, in response to the detection of the second closing of the door of the apparatus, automatically scanning the interior of the apparatus using RFID so as to obtain a second RFID scanning result; determining whether an item inventory for the apparatus has changed in accordance with a comparison between the first RFID scanning result and the second RFID scanning result; determining an amount of time that an item having an RFID tag has spent in the interior of the apparatus in accordance with the first RFID scanning result and the second RFID scanning result; comparing the amount of time to a shelf life for the item to determine if the item has expired; and in response to the determination that the item has expired, (a) generating an expiration message indicating that the item has expired, and (b) placing the apparatus into a lock down condition that continues until the item has been removed from the interior of the apparatus.