Patent ID: 6883710

Claim:
A system for tracking an article at a plurality of stations, wherein a smart tag is associated with the article, comprising: a plurality of stations at which an operation is performed; a plurality of smart tag readers, wherein one of the smart tag readers is associated with each one of the plurality of stations for providing and/or receiving information-bearing electrical signals in a smart tag format, and wherein each of the plurality of smart tag readers produces information signals representative of information contained in the received information-bearing electrical signals and/or inserts information contained in information signals in transmitted information-bearing electrical signals; a plurality of antennas operatively coupled to a respective one of the plurality of smart tag readers for transmitting and/or receiving the information-bearing electrical signals in a detection region proximate the respective station associated therewith, at least some of said plurality of antennas including a plurality of loop antenna arranged with spatial or temporal separation for coupling the information-bearing electrical signals between the smart tag reader and a smart tag in the detection region with substantially 100% reading rate; at least one smart tag associated with an article, the smart tag including an electronic memory and an antenna coupled to the electronic memory for transmitting and/or receiving information-bearing electrical signals in the smart tag format, wherein the information-bearing electrical signals represent information to be stored in the electronic memory and/or represent information produced from the electronic memory; wherein the information to be stored in and the information produced from the electronic memory of the smart tag includes a permanent number, application specific data and a relational check number representative of the permanent number and/or the application specific data; whereby information is communicated between the electronic memory of the smart tag and the smart tag reader of a particular station when the smart tag is in the detection region of that particular station, a computer processor for processing at least information signals including application specific data and a relational check number from the smart tag readers at the plurality of stations and for providing a record of the information represented by the information signals; and communication means for communicating the information signals between said computer processor and said plurality of smart tag readers.