Patent ID: 7701348

Claim:
An apparatus for emulating multiple RFID tag types associated with multiple product types traversing a supply chain/logistics network, said apparatus comprising: a data storage repository for storing identification data associated with multiple products associated with each of said multiple RFID tag types; an RFID transceiver for receiving an interrogation signal from an RFID interrogation device located at one or more read points in said supply chain/logistics network, said interrogation signal associated with a specific RFID tag type, a controller unit responsive to said interrogation signal for generating a command signal including one of: a write command for adding an identifying data associated with a product to said identification storage data repository upon the request from said RFID interrogation device, or a read command for retrieving identifying data concerning a product from said identification data repository; an RFID emulation controller unit, responsive to said one of: read or write command signal for initiating respective retrieval of identification data from said data storage repository, or storage of identification data to said storage repository, said retrieval of identification data including identification data associated with multiple products at said read point having said specific RFID tag type; said controller unit for generating a single response to a received interrogation signal including said identification data associated with multiple products retrieved from said data storage repository, said single response representing identification information as to said one or more RFID tag types, said controller implementing context information based on a location of said read point for determining said identification data to a specific interrogation provided at said read point; and wherein the RFID emulation unit retrieves or stores said identification data on said data storage repository associated with a server over the Internet, or locally in non-volatile memory of each said apparatus.