Patent ID: 8143997

Claim:
A self-service inventory control system comprising: a cart comprising: at least one RFID antenna mat placed adjacent to at least one of a horizontal and vertical surface of said cart; the at least one RFID antenna mat providing a gain and sensitivity to transmit and receive information from a plurality of passive RFID tags within said cart, each of said RFID tags containing information regarding an associated item; and a connector unit attached to the cart at a predetermined known position, the connector unit in communication with each of the at least one RFID antenna mats and including a connector for transferring said RFID tag information; a processing unit comprising: an extendable arm; and a connector attached to one end of the extendable arm, and a processor for: determining a position of said connector unit with respect to the processing unit; controlling the movement of the arm to extend an arm connector proximate to the connector unit, the connector unit connector being in communication with said arm connector when the connector unit connector and the arm connector are in one of a proximate or a physical connection to each other; initiating at least one request signal to the connector unit connector, said request signal being transmitted through the connector unit to said at least one antenna mat; receiving information from each of the RFID tags receiving the request signal; accessing a data base to obtain at least one characteristic information regarding each item based on the associated RFID tag; tabulating the obtained characteristic information of each associated item; and a display unit for displaying the tabulated obtained characteristic information.