Patent ID: 8339266

Claim:
A system for determining where to place a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag on each of multiple boxes whose contents may affect response characteristics of the RFID tag, the system comprising: an RFID tag reader comprising: a reader antenna located at a fixed distance from at least one RFID tag, wherein the fixed distance is larger than one wavelength of an interrogation signal generated by the reader antenna to interrogate the at least one RFID tag; and a variable power signal source for generating the interrogation signal at differing power levels; and a power reader receiving an indication of a minimum power level of the interrogation signal for which the at least one RFID tag responds to the interrogation signal when the at least one RFID tag is placed at in a particular location relative to one of the multiple boxes, wherein the RFID tag reader is located adjacent to a conveyor belt; wherein the at least one RFID tag comprises a sheet of multiple RFID tags attached to, or at least temporarily held on to, a test box on the conveyor belt; and wherein the system determines where to place an RFID tag on each of the multiple boxes by detecting a most sensitive RFID tag among the multiple RFID tags attached to the test box and determining to place the RFID tag on the multiple boxes at a location corresponding to the location of the most sensitive RFID tag on the test box.