Identification and telemetry system

Details Identification and telemetry system Identification and telemetry system

1994-03-08

1997-11-18

Hofsass, Jeffery

Communications: electrical

Condition responsive indicating system

Specific condition

34082554, 34082534, 340551, 340505, 235383, 235385, 283 85, H04Q 900

Patent

active

056892390

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a system for automated identification of articles such as baggage or carrier cargo wherein an electronic sub system called an interrogator including a transmitter and receiver extracts by electromagnetic means useful information from an electronically coded label attached to such items as they are processed through the sorting operations at an airport or node of an article handling organisation.
Although the present invention is herein described with reference to a baggage or cargo sorting system, it is to be appreciated that it is not thereby limited to such applications. Thus the identification system may be applied to material handling operations generally e.g. the sorting of stock or parts, or to personnel or animal identification or accreditation.
An illustration of the type of system to which the invention relates is shown in FIG. 1. This system uses the principle of electromagnetic communication in which an interrogator 1 containing a transmitter 2 generates an interrogation signal which is conveyed to an electromagnetic field creation system 3 to provide an interrogation field 4 which is coupled to an electronically coded label 5 attached to an object 6 which may be moving on a conveyor 7.
The label contains an electromagnetic coupling element and an electronic circuit which may use a rectifier to generate a dc power supply for operation of a reply generation circuit within the label. That circuit produces a reply signal, containing information previously encoded into the label, which either through the said electromagnetic coupling element or a separate coupling element, generates in the vicinity of the label a reply electromagnetic field 8.
As a result of the electromagnetic coupling between the reply field and either the field creation system 3 or a separate field detection system 9, a portion of the reply signal generated by the label enters the interrogator, and in a signal separator 10 which may be located within or exterally to the interrogator may be separated from the interrogation signal and passed to a receiver 11 wherein is amplified, and decoded to determine the information encoded into the reply.
The decoded information may be further processed in a micro-controller 12 or larger computer to generate, possibly with the aid of information contained in a data base, signals to a system of sorting gates which may control the movement of the object.
Practical applications of the system include the sorting of airline baggage or other cargo, security validation of the entry of objects into defined areas, an example being the loading on to aircraft only of articles which are known to accompany passengers who have already boarded, the provision of security in the collection of objects being re-delivered to customers, the determination that objects intended to remain grouped have been successfully handled to preserve the intended grouping, control of the entry of personnel into secured areas, and identification of livestock in animal management systems.
In the design of practical systems for cargo and baggage handling several problems can arise. One is that objects to be sorted may be closely spaced or may even overlap, and as a result more than one label may be simultaneously present in the interrogation field. Replies from such simultaneously present labels can interfere with one another so that errors in reading of label data or failure to read label data can occur.
A further problem is caused by the fact that not only is it necessary to determine the identification of all objects which are present during the passage of an object on the conveyor through the interrogation field, but it is also necessary for sorting purposes to determine the order in which they are presented on the conveyor even when they are closely spaced.
A further problem can arise from the orientation sensitivity of the generally magnetic field sensitive labels and the fact that the electromagnetic field generation system may have symmetry planes or conducting planes, within which both the

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patent: 3780368 (1973-12-01), Northeved et al.
patent: 4274090 (1981-06-01), Cooper
patent: 4308530 (1981-12-01), Kip et al.
patent: 4635041 (1987-01-01), Maimann et al.
patent: 5019813 (1991-05-01), Kip et al.
patent: 5105109 (1992-04-01), Kip et al.
patent: 5126749 (1992-06-01), Kaltner

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