Patent ID: 7699226

Claim:
An electronic plan-o-gram system comprising: at least one product storage area capable of storing more than one type of product; a plurality of electronic product identifiers, with one such electronic product identifier associated with each one of a supply of products of each product type stored in the storage area and each electronic product identifier being adapted to receive a polling signal and to generate a responsive electromagnetic signal containing information from which at least the product type of the product can be determined; an electromagnetic sensing circuit having at least one transmitter for transmitting polling electromagnetic fields into the storage area proximate to the products so that the electronic product identifier associated with each product can generate the responsive electromagnetic signal, with the electromagnetic sensing circuit further comprising at least one receiver having at least two sensing locations, wherein the receiver is configured so that each responsive electromagnetic signal is received at two or more sensing locations; a location circuit for using the electromagnetic signals received to determine a location for each product in the storage area; a data interface adapted to determine product information for each product type detected based upon signals received from the product identifiers; a communication circuit adapted to transmit signals having product and location information; a storage area data source for storing permanent previously assembled configuration data associating each storage area and its sensing circuit with a physical location; a central processor operable to assemble a plan-o-gram indicating the physical arrangement of products in each storage area based upon transmitted product information, transmitted location information and configuration data and to store the plan-o-gram in the form of plan-o-gram data in a plan-o-gram data source that stores the information for the location of the products within a given storage area; and a user interface adapted to allowing the presentation of information from the stored plan-O-gram data source.