Patent ID: 7598868

Claim:
A monitoring system for a vehicle, said vehicle comprising a plurality of vehicle components, the system comprising: at least one radio frequency identification (RFID) system comprising at least one transceiver and a plurality of RFID tags, a first RFID tag of said plurality of RFID tags coupled to a first vehicle component of said plurality of vehicle components, said first vehicle component positioned in one of a first position and a second position; a plurality of radio frequency (RF) shields, a first RF shield of said plurality of RF shields operatively configured to substantially shield an amount of RF energy received from said transceiver by said first RFID tag when said first vehicle component is in the first position and configured not to shield said first RFID tag when said first vehicle component is in the second position; and an alert system for generating an alert when said first vehicle component is in the second position based on receipt of a data signal at the at least one transceiver from said first RFID tag.