Patent ID: 8770479

Claim:
Medical storage cabinet comprising a frame, side walls, a top, a base, a back, a plurality of horizontal shelves arranged one above another in said cabinet wherein successive ones of said shelves define between them respective storage compartments in which may be stored a plurality of RFID-tagged items; and for each compartment an access door disposed at a front side of the cabinet; wherein the side walls, top, base, back, shelves and doors are formed of steel; an RFID inventory interrogation and data collection arrangement within said cabinet, including an RFID transducer having an antenna array capable of emitting an RFID interrogate signal and capable of receiving from said RFID tagged items RFID response signals, a vertical elevator disposed within said cabinet at a rear of said shelves, and on which said RFID antenna array is mounted, and a drive arrangement for controllably driving said elevator up and down to move said RFID antenna array to a position aligned with a selected one of said compartments; and means controlling the RFID transducer to cause same to interrogate the RFID-tagged items within the selected compartment and to interpret the RFID response signals received from said RFID-tagged items.