Patent ID: 7145437

Claim:
A method for adjusting power consumption of a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader associated with a mobile terminal, comprising: determining a context of the mobile terminal, wherein determining a context of the mobile terminal comprises detecting any RFID tags in an area proximate the mobile terminal in response to interrogation by the RFID reader; determining whether a context of the mobile terminal has changed, wherein determining a change in context comprises monitoring changes in the detection of RFID tags in the area proximate the mobile terminal relative to a prior interrogation to indicate a change in context of the mobile terminal; and adjusting the power consumption of the RFID reader based upon the context of the mobile terminal relative to at least one previous context determination of the mobile terminal, wherein adjusting the power consumption of the RFID reader comprises altering the frequency at which the RFID reader is actuated, and wherein adjusting the power consumption includes reducing the power consumption of the RFID reader when no change in the context of the mobile terminal is determined.