Patent ID: 7513425

Claim:
A method for tracking articles, managing articles, or both, wherein RFID tags are associated with the articles, comprising: associating at least one RFID tag with an article, the RFID tag including an electronic memory containing information relating to the article and an antenna coupled to the electronic memory for transmitting and/or receiving information-bearing signals in an RFID tag format, wherein the information-bearing signals represent information to be stored in the electronic memory and/or represent information produced from the electronic memory; associating at least one bar code with the article, the bar code containing information relating to the article that is stored in the electronic memory of the RFID tag and the electronic memory of the RFID tag containing the information that is encoded in the bar code; providing a first station comprising a first RFID reader for transmitting and/or receiving information-bearing signals in the RFID tag format via a first antenna defining a detection region proximate the first station; providing a second station comprising a second RFID reader for transmitting and/or receiving information-bearing signals in the RFID tag format via a plurality of antennas defining a detection region proximate the second station, wherein antennas of the plurality of antennas of the second station are sequenced in time at a rate sufficient for receiving information-bearing signals transmitted by an RFID tag within the time that the RFID tag is within the detection region thereof irrespective of the orientation of the RFID tag; communicating information contained in the received information-bearing signals from RFID tags in the detection regions of the first and second RFID readers to a processor, whereby information is communicated between the electronic memory of RFID tags and the processor via the RFID tag readers of the first and second stations when the RFID tags are in the detection regions thereof; and storing in a database associated with the processor at least information contained in the received information-bearing signals, wherein the information stored in the database includes information relating to the articles, wherein the information relating to the article stored in the RFID tag is erasable and the RFID tag is re-encodable, whereby information stored in the database may be accessed for obtaining information relating to the articles and the RFID tags may be reprogrammed.