Patent ID: 7375638

Claim:
An electronic tether comprising: a monitoring module associated with a monitored object, wherein the monitoring module comprises an RFID tag configured for receiving a polling signal and for transmitting a reflected signal in response to the polling signal, wherein the reflected signal comprises an RFID tag identifier unique to the RFID tag; and an alert module comprising: a memory comprising the RFID tag identifier; an RFID tag polling manager comprising instructions for sending the polling signal; a receiver configured for receiving the reflected signal from the RFID tag; a separation manager comprising instructions for: determining whether the reflected signal comprising the RFID tag identifier has been received; issuing an “object-not-present” signal if the reflected signal comprising the RFID tag has not been received; in response to the object-not-present signal, identifying the RFID tag as non-responsive; resending the polling signal; and if the RFID tag identifier is not received after at least one resend attempt, then issuing an object-not-present alert with respect to the non-responsive RFID tag.