Patent ID: 8116904

Claim:
An object search apparatus comprising: an acquisition unit configured to acquire, from each IC tag of a plurality of IC tags corresponding to a plurality of objects respectively, an object information item including an identifier of an object, a hierarchical level, a detection method for detection of the object, and a manipulation method for the object, to obtain a plurality of object information items including a target object information item of a target object; a selection unit configured to select, from the object information items acquired, one of object information item higher in the hierarchical level than the target object and the target information item of the target object, in descending order of the hierarchical levels, to obtain selected object information item; a detection unit configured to detect an object corresponding to the selected object information item by using the detection method in the selected object information item, to obtain a detected object; and a manipulation unit configured to manipulate the detected object when the detected object is not the target object, in accordance with the manipulation method in the selected object information item, wherein the selection unit select another object information item whose hierarchical level is lower than that of the detected object and is equal to or higher than the hierarchical level of the target object, until the target object is detected by the detection unit.