Patent ID: 8266577

Claim:
A radio frequency identification (“RFID”) reader comprising: a hardware platform, the hardware platform including: a transceiver, the transceiver arranged to receive communication signals from at least one RFID tag; an input/output interface; a controller communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the input/output interface, the controller controlling operation of the RFID reader; and a memory communicatively coupled to the controller, the memory containing: a software development framework for developing a software application that is executable on the hardware platform, the framework including a plurality of predefined encapsulated functional components that interact with at least one of the transceiver and the input/output interface to allow the software application to operate in a manner that is independent of a specific embodiment of the RFID reader hardware platform, the functional components including a set of core components, the set of core components enabling the software application to operate; wherein the set of core components includes: a reader interface, the reader interface operating and managing the RFID reader; a tag state handler, the tag state handler filtering responses received from RFID tags according to a current state; a version manager, the version manager maintaining and supporting RFID reader software version information; a license support manager, the license support manager issuing and monitoring a license for the software development framework; and a set of operating system wrappers, the operating system wrappers implementing a consistent usage policy for operating system functions.