Patent ID: 7327251

Claim:
A monitoring and location system for mobile objects, the system comprising: a control center to monitor the movement of mobile objects to and from a prescribed local area and a prescribed wide area; a separate RFID tag for each mobile object of a group being monitored; wherein the mobile object is a person to be tracked and wherein said RFID tag is carried upon the person to be tracked and is affixed to a selected one of a garment, hat or shoes of the person, each RFID tag having a unique electronic indicia stored thereon for transmission by a radio frequency signal upon request from an RFID interrogation unit; wherein the prescribed local areas comprise a plurality of zones which include egress zones and ingress zones, each zone having its own RFID interrogation unit for monitoring the ingress and egress, respectively, of its own group of RFID tags; wherein, when an RFID tag has egressed or ingressed one of the zones, said RFID transmits its unique electronic indicia to the RFID interrogation unit of one of the zones, and when the RFID interrogation unit has received the indicia, the RFID interrogation unit transmits a signal including such indicia to the control center; wherein the control center further comprises: means for receiving transmissions from a plurality of RFID tags; means for selectivity displaying the location of the RFID tags; and an alarm for indicating receipt of the indication that the tag, and hence an associated mobile object, has left the defined area; and wherein the control center sends an alert to a system user when an RFID tag being tracked leaves a selected one of the local or wide areas by means of a personal electronic device carried by the system user, the personal electronic device being selected form the group consisting of a cell phone, a PDA, a pager and a wrist watch.