Patent ID: 7260553

Claim:
A method for context-aware and real-time tracking of articles, comprising: receiving multiple instances of tag-read-data, each instance including information read from a tag bound to an article, the information read including a unique digital identifier read automatically from the tag, a location of the tag and its bound article, a time when the unique digital identifier was read from the tag, attribute data describing features of the article and rule data defining actions to be invoked, the multiple instances of tag-read-data collectively including information read from tags bound to multiple articles; receiving one or more instances of context information, each instance describing an associated non-taggable physical circumstance, the context information including a location of the circumstance, a time, attribute data describing features of the context and rule data defining actions to be invoked, the multiple instances of context information collectively including information describing multiple circumstances; using the received tag-read-data and context information to maintain physical data processing constructs and context data processing constructs in a virtual world, the physical data processing constructs including a data processing construct for each of the multiple articles, and the context data processing constructs including a data processing construct for each of the multiple circumstances, each of the data processing constructs storing the attribute data and the rule data of a corresponding article or circumstance; mapping the physical data processing constructs and the context data processing constructs to virtual world wide standardized dimensions of time, three dimensional space, and unique identity, whereby the article and the non-taggable physical circumstance associated with the physical data processing constructs and the context data processing constructs are tracked relative to each other through space and time; detecting an interaction occurring in the virtual world between the physical data processing constructs and the context data processing constructs based on the mapping of the physical data processing constructs and the context data processing constructs, the location, the time, and/or the attribute data; and invoking actions based upon the interaction and the rule data.