Method and system for identifying and tracking tagged, physical objects

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9740895-B1
Application number	US-201414292482-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	May 30, 2014
Priority date	May 30, 2014
Publication date	Aug 22, 2017
Grant date	Aug 22, 2017

Abstract

A controller device with one or more processors and memory determines an identity and a location of a tagged physical object based on contextual information received from one or more sources. The controller device determines locations for each of a plurality of identifiable tags with associated tag identifiers. The controller device correlates the identity of the tagged physical object with a first set of one or more identifiable tags from among the plurality of identifiable tags based on correspondence between the determined location of the tagged physical object and at least one determined location of the first set of identifiable tags. The controller device stores the at least one determined location of the first set of identifiable tags, tag identifiers of the first set identifiable tags, and the identity of the tagged physical object in a physical object tracking table.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of identifying and monitoring a plurality of unidentified, tagged physical objects, the method comprising:
at a controller device with one or more processors and memory:
determining an identity and a location of a tagged physical object based on contextual information received from one or more sources;
determining locations for each of a plurality of identifiable tags with associated tag identifiers, wherein the locations for each of the plurality of identifiable tags are based on location data corresponding to each respective identifiable tag from two or more tag readers;
correlating the identity of the tagged physical object with a first set of one or more identifiable tags from among the plurality of identifiable tags when the determined location of the tagged physical object is within a predetermined distance of the at least one determined location of the first set of identifiable tags;
storing the at least one determined location of the first set of identifiable tags, tag identifiers of the first set of identifiable tags, and the identity of the tagged physical object in a physical object tracking table; and
providing location information corresponding to the current location of a tagged physical object upon request by a user, wherein the location information is determined based at least in part on the at least one determined location of the first set of identifiable tags, the tag identifiers of the first set of identifiable tags, and the identity of the tagged physical object stored in the physical object tracking table.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
after the storing:
receiving a request for a location of the tagged physical object from a user, wherein the request includes the identity of the tagged physical object; and
in response to receiving the request:
determining a current location of one of the first set of identifiable tags based on the physical object tracking table; and
providing location information corresponding to the current location of the tagged physical object to the user.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the location information provided to the user includes the current location of the physical object relative to another frequently used physical object that is frequently used by the user requesting location information.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
after the storing:
receiving a request for the identity of the tagged physical object from a user; and
in response to receiving the request:
determining the identity of the tagged physical object based on a location of the tagged physical object and the physical object tracking table; and
providing the identity of the tagged physical object to the user.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
after the storing:
determining a current location at least one of the first set of identifiable tags; and
in accordance with a determination that the difference between the current location of the at least one of the first set of identifiable tags and the stored location of the at least one of the first set of identifiable tags exceeds a predetermined distance, updating the physical tracking object table to indicate the current location of the at least one of the first set of identifiable tags.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the storing further includes:
assigning the tag identifiers of the first set identifiable tags to a group identifier in the physical object tracking table.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating a three-dimensional (3D) point cloud model with a plurality of points, wherein the plurality of points correspond to the location of each of the plurality of identifiable tags as obtained from the two or more tag readers, and
wherein correlating the identity of the tagged physical object with the first set of identifiable tags includes labeling points in the 3D point cloud model that correspond to the first set of identifiable tags with the identity of the physical object.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the contextual information includes at least one of: image recognition information, barcode information, and audio information.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining a location for a respective identifiable tag of the plurality of identifiable tags includes:
triangulating the location for the respective identifiable tag based on first location data obtained from a first tag reader and second location data obtained from a second tag reader, wherein the first and second tag readers respectively obtain a time delay for each identifiable tag based on the elapsed time between a pulsed signal and a received response.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the identity of the tagged physical object includes:
determining the identity of the tagged physical object based on audio data obtained from the one or more sources, wherein the audio data includes a user voice information related to the identity of the tagged physical object.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the identity of the tagged physical object includes:
determining a three-dimensional (3D) model of the tagged physical object based on locations of the first set of identifiable tags correlated with the tagged physical object; and
determining the identity of the tagged physical object based on the determined 3D model.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing usage information corresponding to the tagged physical object, wherein the usage information includes motion characteristics of locations of the first set of identifiable tags; and
wherein determining the identity of the tagged physical object includes determining the identity of the tagged physical object based on stored usage information.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of identifiable tags include passive RFID tags that are microscopic and safe for human ingestion and that are applied to the tagged physical object by one or more automatically activated tag applicators.

14. A controller device, comprising:
one or more processors; and
memory storing one or more programs to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising instructions for:
determining an identity and a location of a tagged physical object based on contextual information received from one or more sources;
determining locations for each of a plurality of identifiable tags with associated tag identifiers, wherein the locations for each of the plurality of identifiable tags are based on location data corresponding to each respective identifiable tag from two or more tag readers;
correlating the identity of the tagged physical object with a first set of one or more identifiable tags from among the plurality of identifiable tags when the determined location of the tagged physical object is within a predetermined distance of the at least one determined location of the first set of identifiable tags;
storing the at least one determined location of the first set of identifiable tags, tag identifiers of the first set of identifiable tags, and the identity of the tagged physical object in a physical object tracking table; and
providing location information corresponding to the current location of a tagged physical object upon request by a user, wherein the location information is determined based at least in part on the at least one determined location of the first set of identifiable tags, the tag identifiers of the first set of identifiable tags, and the identity of the tagged physical object stored in the physical object tracking table.

Assignees

• Google Inc

Inventors

• Liu Eric
• Effrat Jonathan James

Classifications

• G06K7/10366 Primary

  the interrogation device being adapted for miscellaneous applications · CPC title

• G06Q10/0877

  by inventory control or reporting using inventory tracking or counting · CPC title

• G06Q10/06 Primary

  Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling · CPC title

• G06Q10/087 Primary

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