Patent ID: 8099737

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for processing event streams generated by Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) sensor hardware, the method comprising: receiving, at one or more computer systems in communication with the RFID sensor hardware, metadata defining a finite state machine configured to detect events in the event streams generated by the RFID sensor hardware, the metadata identifying a set of processing components, a set of states, and a set of entry points into the event streams generated by the RFID sensor hardware; configuring, with one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, an event processing engine hosted by the one or more computer systems based on the metadata to process the event streams generated by the RFID sensor hardware; receiving, at the one or more computer systems, event data associated with an event stream generated by the RFID sensor hardware; processing, with the one or more processors associated with the one or more computer systems, the event data according to the finite state machine defined by the metadata to generate an event; and storing the event in a database such that the event is accessible to one or more applications.