Patent ID: 7151453

Claim:
A method for updating information on a writable tag bound to an article, comprising: receiving in a system first attribute information for a first article, where the first attribute information was derived from data read automatically from a first tag bound to the first article, the first attribute information including a first identifier identifying the first article; receiving in the system second attribute information for a second article, where the second attribute information was derived from data read automatically from a second tag bound to the second article, the second attribute information including a second identifier identifying the second article; receiving in the system sensor information derived from data sensed by a sensor coupled to the second article such that the sensor information represents at least one condition existing at the second article; receiving in the system relationship information specifying a relationship of physical proximity between the first article and the second article; maintaining in the system a first physical object representing the first article, the first physical object maintaining information representing the first attribute information; maintaining in the system a second physical object representing the second article, the second physical object maintaining information representing the second attribute information; maintaining in the system a context object representing the relationship of physical proximity between the first article and the second article; associating the sensor information, derived from the data sensed by the sensor coupled to the second article, with the first physical object based on the relationship of physical proximity between the first article and the second article represented in the context object such that the sensor information is determined to describe at least one condition existing at the first article; comparing the sensor information with the first attribute information; determining that an alert condition exists at the first article based on a result of comparing the sensor information and the first attribute information; generating updated attribute information to be written to the first article in response to the determined alert condition; detecting in the system the presence of the first tag at a tag writer station after the alert condition was determined to exist; and causing the tag writer station to write the updated information to the first tag at the tag writer station upon detecting the presence of the first tag at the tag writer station.