Method and tactical passive RFID transponder gloves with morphological actuation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12229339-B2
Application number	US-202318219191-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 7, 2023
Priority date	Jul 18, 2022
Publication date	Feb 18, 2025
Grant date	Feb 18, 2025

Abstract

Disclosed herein are an exemplary apparatus, system, and methods (e.g., Tactical Passive RFID transponder gloves with Morphological Actuation) comprising a glove made predominately of a resistive fabric that varies resistance per degree of deformation; comprising near field communication RFID tag readers, and a controller coupled to the glove to evaluate the varied resistance. A method of classifying RFID tags is also disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. An apparatus comprises:
A glove comprising two or more force sensors configured on an exoskeleton, wherein the force sensors measure resistance;
an RFID reader, wherein the RFID reader is a near field communication RFID reader;
one or more antennas, wherein one of the one or more antennas comprises a passive antenna element configured to be woven into a palm region, one or more appendages, or front-facing or back-facing side of the glove, wherein the passive antenna element comprises a flexible material; and
a controller coupled to the glove to evaluate the resistance and to read and/or tally RFID tags, wherein the controller evaluates an action sequence related to the resistance by classifying the action sequence, and wherein a RFID tag reading of an inventory object together with a respective action sequence classification are used for inventory management.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more antennas are configured to nominally operate at 125 KHz-134 KHz, 13.56 MHz, or 850 MHz-960 MHz or 2.45-5.8 GHz frequencies.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the flexible material comprises a thermoplastic comprising ethylene glycol and dimethyl terephthalate (DMT), or woven conductive fabric.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to disable transmission based on glove morphology.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the controller includes an integrated switch.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a fingerprint scanner.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein one of the two or more force sensors is integrated onto a palm of the glove and at least one of the two or more force sensors is along at least one appendage of the exoskeleton.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the two or more force sensors are mesh-based sensors, mylar film sensors, or thin cable-shaped sensors.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to disable the RFID.

10. A system comprising the apparatus of claim 1 .

11. The system of claim 10 , further comprising a second apparatus so as to form a set.

12. The system of claim 10 , further comprising an external interface configured to permit transfer of status and tag data, wherein the external interface includes Bluetooth, Bluetooth-LE, Wif-Fi, IEEE 802.15.4-Based Technologies, Z-Wave, Cellular low-Power WAN Technologies, or Non-Cellular Low-power WAN technologies.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the status and tag data are sent to an inventory management system.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the inventory management system is a military ammunition management system.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the status and tag data are sent to a second apparatus.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, wherein execution of the instructions by a processor causes the processor to perform operation for the apparatus of claim 1 .

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , further comprising instructions to classify force sensor readings and to tally RFID tag readings.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the instructions to classify force sensor readings are one or more machine learning algorithms with predefined classifications.

Assignees

• Georgia Tech Res Inst

Inventors

• Maxwell Erick Niels
• David Eres
• Eicholtz Steven Paul
• Finlayson Samuel
• Fullerton Dean
• Kealy John
• Lewis Cameron
• Matthews Michael
• Orlando Dante Gabriel
• Ramirez-Medina Jacqueline
• Ridley Jonathan
• Robinson Kelden
• Singh Rudra Pratap
• Terrell Daniel Andrew
• Zaman Samrin

Classifications

• G06K7/10336

  the antenna being of the near field type, inductive coil · CPC title

• G06Q10/087 Primary

  Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders · CPC title

• G06F3/014 Primary

  Hand-worn input/output arrangements, e.g. data gloves · CPC title