GB2357612A

GB2357612A - Electronic inventory tag

Info

Publication number: GB2357612A
Application number: GB9930168A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Colin David Mccall; Gavin Munro Cameron
Original assignee: International Business Machines Corp
Current assignee: International Business Machines Corp
Priority date: 1999-12-21
Filing date: 1999-12-21
Publication date: 2001-06-27
Also published as: GB9930168D0

Abstract

An electronic location tag comprises stored data which includes an identifier. The data is transmitted to an attached data processing system through an interface. The attached data processing system is adapted to initiate an inventory action responsive to receiving the identifier. The electronic location tag is adapted to be physically attached to the item for which an inventory is to be maintained.

Description

2357612 ELECTRONIC INVENTORY TAG

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to determining the physical location of movable capital items such as production machinery, medical equipment or works of art and to detecting changes in the physical location of such movable capital assets.

Background of the invention

The physical location of movable capital assets like production machinery, medical equipment or works of art must be accurately recorded and tracked both for financial accountability and to locate the object is when it is needed. This is normally done by f ixing an asset label with a serial number to each asset, recording the location in a central f ile, and taking regular inventories by walking round the organization and checking each asset label against its recorded location.

The problem with this approach is that if an asset is moved it relies on the person moving it to update the central file, or the discrepancy is only discovered at the next routine inventory. By that time control may have already been lost.

The universal serial bus (OUSBI1) is specified to be an industry standard extension to the personal computer architecture with a focus on computer telephony interface, consumer and productivity applications.

The USB architecture is described in the "Universal Serial Bus Specification", Revision 1.1, September 23, 1998 available on the

Internet World Wide Web at http://www.usb.org/developers/docs.html. The USB architecture provides for ease of use of peripheral expansion, transfer rates up to 12 megabits per second, protocol flexibility for mixed modes, isochronous data transfers, and asynchronous messaging. USB is a cable bus supporting data transfer between the host personal computer and a range of simultaneously accessible peripherals. The bus allows peripherals to be attached, configured, used and detached while the host and other peripherals are in operation. One host controller can support up to 127 physical devices using a tiered topology. A hub is at the centre of each star with each wire segment creating a point-to-point connection of up to 5 metres. The 5 metre limitation mav be between a host and a hub or a hub function or a hub connected to another hub or function.

Pending GB patent application 99020722.7 discloses the tracking of objects within a building using a radio device associated with each object to be tracked and an array of transmitting beacons.

2 Pinpoint Corporation (see www. pinpoint cc. com) market a solution to asset location using a proprietary radio technology. Their solution is much more expensive and does not integrate into standard systems management tools. 5 So it would be desirable to provide a mechanism for accurately recording the location of, and tracking changes in the location of, movable capital items.

Disclosure of the Invention

Accordingly, the present invention provides a method of maintaining an inventory of items, the method comprising the steps of: providing a data tag, having stored data therein including a stored identifier, the data tag being physically attached to the item; reading by a data processing system of data from the data tag; and responsive to the reading step, initiating an inventory action. The attachment of a data tag to the inventory item and the ability to read the data tag remotely means that an inventory can be very easily and quickly taken of many items.

In a first embodiment, the data processing equipment is linked to the data tag and the method further comprises the step of, responsive to the addition of, or the removal of, a dat a tag, initiating an inventory action. Having data processing equipment linked to the data tag means that as soon as an item is added or removed, an alert to indicate the change can be generated, giving real time management of inventory.

In a second embodiment, the data processing equipment is linked to the data tag periodically. Linking the data processing equipment periodically means that an inventory can be taken of many items by connecting each of the data tags in turn to the data processing equipment. Multiple data tags may be linked to the data processing equipment by means of a device such as a hub, thus allowing multiple devices to be read at a single location.

The invention also provides a data tag comprising: stored data, including a identifier; and an interface for transmitting said identifier to a data processing system attached to the interface, the data processing system being adapted to initiate an inventory action responsive to receiving the identifier; the data tag being adapted to be physically attached to an asset to be monitored.

The invention further provides an inventory management system comprising: an interface for receiving a identifier from a data tag, the data tag being adapted to be physically attached to an item forming part of an inventory to be managed; and means for initiating an inventory 3 action responsive to receiving the identifier.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a prior art data processing system using a USB bus f or interconnection; Figure 2 illustrates a USB plug; Figure 3 is a block diagram of an electronic data tag connected to a personal computer in an embodiment of the invention; is Figure 4 is a block diagram showing the software elements used in the prior art data processing system of figure 1.

Detailed Description of the Invention

Referring firstly to figure 1, there is illustrated a diagram of a prior art data processing system providing connectivity using a USB bus f or other peripheral devices in a desktop environment. The data processing system shown in figure 1 includes personal computer 101, monitor 102, and keyboard 103. Coupled to the personal computer 101 are phone 108 and another hub 109. Coupled to monitor 102 are speaker 106 and microphone (MIC) 107. Coupled to keyboard 103 are pen 104 and mouse 105. Personal computer 101 is coupled to monitor 102, which is coupled to keyboard 103. Coupling is via USB buses 202 with USB plug connectors 201 (see figure 2).

A function is a USB device that is able to transmit or receive data or control information over the bus. A function is typically implemented as a separate peripheral device, such as devices 104 to 108, with a cable that plugs into a port on a hub,such as the 0ON8215 multi-port hub from IBM Corporation. However, a physical package, such as devices 102 and 103, may implement multiple functions and an embedded hub with a single USB cable 202. This is known as a compound device. A compound device appears to the host 101 as a hub with one or more permanently attached USB devices. Each function contains configuration information that describes its capabilities and resource requirements. Before a function can be used, it must be configured by the host 101. This configuration includes allocating USB bandwidth and selecting function specific configuration options.

Referring next to figure 2, there is illustrated a standard USB cable plug 201 having bus 202 coupled thereto.Plug 201 includes a 4 standard USB shielded plug housing 203, with an overmold 204, which conforms to the standard USB architecture described in the Universal Serial Bus specification referenced above. Standard USB shielded plug housing 203 operates to communicate differentially driven data signals D+ and D-, a S-volt signal, and a ground signal.

The present invention comprises two parts, a hardware device, permanently or semi -permanently attached to the item of capital equipment, and a software module located on the personal computer.

Referring to figure 3, the hardware device is a data tag 302 comprising an electronic chip 304 wired to a USB socket 201. The data tag 302 can be permanently or semi -permanently attached to the asset or item of capital equipment. USB is the preferred interface, but a is standard personal computer 101 serial or parallel interface could also be used. The interface to the data tag 302 must provide power to the electronic chip 304 in the data tag 302 and a data path from the data tag 302 to the personal computer 101. The chip 304 contains an identifier which is set at the time of manufacture. The identifier may be a unique identifier or it may be an identifier which the chip 304 shares with other chips, such as, for example, other chips which are to be used in the same physical location. The data tag 302 may have its identifier printed externally, though this is not necessary. The data tag 302 may optionally also include a programmable data area which can be set at installation.

In an embodiment, shown in figure 3, data tags 302 are used to control the inventory of assets by being linked together and the wiring taken to a central point, such as a hub 109. The person taking the inventory can plug in a mobile device like a laptop computer 101 and read all the asset data tags 302 in a single action. The computer 101 is not located in the vicinity of the data tags 302, but is taken to the area when an inventory is desired to be taken. After the reading is completed the mobile device 101 is removed. A feature of the USB bus is that devices, such as data tags, can be attached, configured, used and detached while the host and other devices, such as other data tags are in operation, or alternatively a host may be added to a USB bus having devices, such as data tags and a hub connected together. In this way the inventory for an area like a complete production line or a large room in an art gallery can be taken in seconds.

In a variation of the embodiment of figure 3, the data tag 302 is permanently or semi -permanently connected to a personal computer 101 in its immediate vicinity, within a few hundred feet. many data tags 302, each associated with a separate asset, are wired to the same personal computer 101, using hubs 109. The personal computer 101 may be connected to a central asset management system 306 by a standard data network 308 either a Local Area Network or a telephone or similar connection into a Wide Area Network. If a data tag 302 is added or removed from the USB connection, the personal computer 101 is alerted and reports to the central asset management system 306 that an asset has been added or removed from its set of assets.

The USB communications protocol uses four types of transactions:

Control, Bulk, Interrupt and Isochronous. The Control type of transaction is used during device enumeration to communicate device configuration information to the host. This is done in two stages: Setup and Status. The Setup stage moves request information from the host to the device, followed by zero or more Data transactions sending data in the direction indicated by the Setup transaction. The Setup stage contains three packets: Token, Data and Handshake. The Status stage is returns status information from the device to the host. The data that is transferred from the data tag (USB device) to the host (personal computer) is the unique ID that was assigned to the data tag. That data may be transferred as a binary string, binary coded decimal, an A.SCII string or any other f ormat in which the ID may be expressed in. For further detail of implementation using the USB protocol, reference should be made to section 5.5 "Control Transfers" and section 8.5.2 "Control transfers" of the "Universal Serial Bus Specification,' previously referred to.

The software module is located on the attached personal computer which reads the unique identifier through the personal computer USB port.

The software module can behave in a variety of different ways as described below.

Figure 5 shows the software elements that are present on a typical prior art personal computer such as that of figure 1. The elements include an operating system 402. Typically this may be an operating system such as Windows 95 from Microsoft, the Linux operating system or OS/2 from IBM Corporation (Windows and Microsoft are trademarks of Microsoft Corp. and OS/2 and IBM are trademarks of IBM Corp.).

Personalisation files 404 may also be present. These personalisation files include such files as define the language of text to be displayed on the screen to the user. Application files 406 may be present and may include an "office suite,, application such as Lotus Smartsuite from Lotus Development Corp. or Microsoft office (Lotus and Smartsuite are trademarks of Lotus Development Corp.). Also present on the personal computer are operating system extensions 408 and device drivers 410 for hardware additions to the basic personal computer including such devices as audio devices, video devices, communications devices and mass storage devices. All of the above files are typically stored on a mass storage device which is a part of the personal computer. Typically contained within the hardware of the personal computer is BIOS (Basic input Output 6 Software) 412 programming code, which provides the low level interface to the system hardware. The BIOS 412 provided with the personal computer may be complemented or replaced in part, or as a whole, by routines stored on a mass storage device.

A software module is located on an attached personal computer which reads the identifier through its USB port. The software module can operate in a variety of different modes as described below.

Alerting In this embodiment, the program running on the personal computer monitors the bus for the addition or removal of any device. If there are any changes, it notifies a central system, possibly using a standard is systems management alerting mechanism like Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), or the Common Information Model of the Desktop Management Task Force (CIM). Additionally, an alarm may be immediately raised if any asset is moved. Some security authorization like a password would be required to override the alarm for authorised moves.

Polling In this embodiment, the central asset management system regularly queries its asset management personal computers, which in turn query the asset tags and return the information to the central system. The inventory is preferably accessed through a standard systems management inventory mechanism like CIM, so as to integrate directly into all major systems management tools such as Tivoli Enterprise or to CA Unicenter, which would be particularly suitable if the assets managed were computer peripherals.

Programmable data area option In this embodiment the data tag contains a programmable non volatile memory module (PROM or EEPROM) that can be written through the USB. During the installation of the tag, a special installation program running on a personal computer is used to write user defined data to the module which is then read back by the detection software. This could typically contain the asset description and the using organization's asset identifier, so that there is no requirement to keep a centralised record of which tag ID maps to which asset. This has the disadvantage that the hardware is slightly more expensive.

7

Claims

1. A method of maintaining an inventory of items, the method comprising the steps of providing a data tag, having stored data therein including a stored identifier, the data tag being physically attached to the item; reading by a data processing system of data f rom the data tag; and responsive to the reading step, initiating an inventory action.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the data processing equipment is linked to the data tag and the method further comprises the step of, responsive to the addition of, or the removal of, a data tag, initiating an inventory action.

is

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the inventory action comprises storing the data read from the data tag for later action.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3, further comprising the step of transmitting the stored information to a remote database.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the data processing equipment is linked to the data tag periodically.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5 wherein a plurality of data tags are connected together and the step of reading data from the data tag comprises the step of reading data from each of the plurality of attached data tags.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the stored data in the data tag corresponds to the location of the data tag.

B. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the stored data is read f rom the data tag using a USB interf ace.

9. A data tag comprising:

stored data, including a identifier; and an interface for transmitting said identifier to a data processing system attached to the interface, the data processing system being adapted to initiate an inventory action responsive to receiving the identifier; the data tag being adapted to be physically attached to an asset to be monitored.

10. A data tag as claimed in claim 9 wherein the stored data in the data tag corresponds to the location of the data tag.

8

11. A data tag as claimed in claim 9 wherein the interface is a USB interface.

12. An inventory management system comprising:

an interface for receiving a identifier from a data tag, the data tag being adapted to be physically attached to an item f orming part of an inventory to be managed; and means for initiating an inventory action responsive to receiving the identifier.

13. An inventory management system as claimed in claim 12 wherein data processing equipment is linked to the data tag and the system further comprises means, responsive to the addition of, or the removal of, a data tag, for initiating an inventory action.

is

14. An inventory management system as claimed in claim 12 or claim 13 wherein the means for initiating an inventory action comprises means for storing the data read from the data tag for later action.

15. An inventory management system as claimed in claim 14 wherein the means for initiating an inventory action further comprises means for transmitting the stored information to a remote database.

16. An inventory management system as claimed in claim 12 wherein data processing equipment is linked to the data tag periodically.