Patent ID: 7106198

Claim:
A portable processing device for processing an electronic tag associated with a module, the processing device comprising: a hand-held data receiver comprising a communication element for receiving data from an electronic tag associated with a module; a processor for analyzing data received at the communication element in accordance with programmed instructions to produce a processor result, wherein the processor result is based on the received data; a transmitter for transmitting the processor result; and a user input element, wherein the transmitter transmits the processor result in such a manner that at least a portion of the processor results can cause information to be stored in a memory segment of the electronic tag; wherein the communication element is adapted to receive authentication data from the electronic tag; wherein the processor is adapted to analyze the received authentication data to determine if the received authentication data matches predetermined authentication criteria to produce a ‘tag authenticated’ signal if the received authentication data matches the authentication criteria; wherein the processor is further adapted to generate a processor result comprising tag programming information only if the processor produces the ‘tag authenticated’ signal; and wherein the processor is adapted to generate a first processor result if both the user input element receives a first instruction and the processor produces the ‘tag authenticated’ signal; wherein the processor is adapted to generate a second processor result if both the user input element receives a second instruction and the processor produces the ‘tag authenticated’ signal; wherein the transmitter is adapted to transmit first tag programming information if the processor produces the first processor result; and wherein the transmitter is adapted to transmit second tag programming information if the processor produces the second processor result.