Patent ID: 8305190

Claim:
A method for transmitting tag data read by a radio frequency identification (“RFID”) reader, the method comprising: activating a battery power sensor to monitor a battery level of a first RFID reader; receiving a low battery power signal from said battery power sensor when said battery level reaches below a predefined level; in response to receiving the low battery power signal, (i) informing an access point communicatively coupled to the RFID reader regarding the low battery level of the first RFID reader and (ii) filtering duplicate tag reads and incomplete tag reads to conserve power before tag data transmission; identifying a second RFID reader communicatively coupled to the first reader through an ad-hoc/mesh network, the second RFID reader being closer to the first RFID reader than the access point, the second RFID reader comprising a battery power sensor that has not generated a low power signal; if the filtered tag data is non-time critical tag data, transmitting the non-time critical tag data from the first RFID reader to the access point through the identified second RFID reader for conserving power; and if the filtered tag data is time critical tag data, transmitting the time critical tag data directly from the RFID reader to the access point.