JP2005339148A - Reading system for radio tag - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a reading system for a radio tag preventing leak of information stored in a radio tag and having excellent flexibility. <P>SOLUTION: This reading system consists of a tag information reader 1, the radio tag 5 and a database processing part 8. When receiving an identification code and address information issued from the radio tag 5, the tag information reader 1 transmits the identification code to the database processing part 8 corresponding to the address information via a wide area network 7. When receiving the identification code, the database processing part 8 accesses the database, acquires product information corresponding to the identification code and transmits the information to the tag information reader 1. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a wireless tag reading system.

Since a wireless tag can store a large amount of data as compared with a barcode or the like, it has been considered to be applied to various systems in recent years. For example, by storing product information such as a manufacturer's name, price, and quality control deadline in a wireless tag attached to the product, the product can be used in a product distribution management system.
However, anyone can obtain the information stored in the wireless tag as long as the reading method matches. For this reason, there is a problem that information held by the wireless tag is read before a person wearing the product to which the wireless tag is attached knows. In other words, privacy such as the clothes worn by the person, brands such as bags, and the name of the book being read may be infringed.

Therefore, when various kinds of information can be acquired using a wireless tag, a measure for preventing leakage of the information is necessary. Therefore, a method has been proposed in which information stored in a wireless tag is encrypted or coded so that the contents cannot be understood even if the information is read by a third party.
JP 2003-208488 A

However, the above method requires a device that reads encrypted or coded information and then analyzes it. However, if a unique analyzer according to the information stored in the target wireless tag is provided in the reader, there is a problem that the versatility of the reader is lost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a radio tag reading system excellent in versatility while preventing leakage of information stored in the radio tag.

The wireless tag reading system of the present invention includes a wireless tag that stores identification information of an object and address information related to analysis of the identification information, and tag information that receives and transmits the identification information emitted from the wireless tag. A reading device; and a database processing unit that converts the identification information into useful information by receiving and analyzing the identification information transmitted from the tag information reading device, and the tag information reading device includes: The identification information is transmitted to a corresponding database processing unit.
In this case, the useful information includes the name of the manufacturing company of the object, the name of the manufacturing factory, the expiration date, the contact information for complaints, the ingredient table, the lot number, and the like.

  According to the present invention, only the tag information reading device that can be connected to the database processing unit can acquire useful information corresponding to the identification information emitted from the wireless tag. Therefore, it is possible to prevent leakage of useful information corresponding to the identification information stored in the wireless tag to a malicious third party as much as possible. Further, since the location of the database processing unit is clarified by storing the access information of the database processing unit in the wireless tag, the tag information reading device can quickly access the database processing unit, and the analysis speed Can be improved. Further, by providing the tag information reading device and the database processing unit separately, the tag information reading device only needs to have a function of reading information stored in the wireless tag, and the tag information reading device can be generalized. Can be planned.

  A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of an entire RFID tag reading system according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, the wireless tag information reader 1 includes an information receiving unit 2, a control unit 3, and a communication unit 4. The information receiving unit 2 reads information stored in the wireless tag element 6 included in the wireless tag 5 and outputs the information to the control unit 3.

The communication unit 4 is configured to be accessible to the database processing unit 8 through a wide-area communication network 7 such as a telephone line or the well-known Internet. The wireless tag information reading device 1 is connected to an input / output device 17 such as a keyboard, a mouse, and a display.
As shown in FIG. 2, the wireless tag element 6 includes a tag control unit 9, an information storage unit 10 and a tag communication unit 11 connected to the tag control unit 9, and an antenna 12 provided in the tag communication unit 11. It is prepared for. The information storage unit 10 stores product information of the target product. FIG. 4 shows the data structure of product information stored in the information storage unit 10. As shown in FIG. 4, the product information includes an identification code consisting of 8 alphanumeric characters and a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) as access information. As will be described later, the URL is a URL of a server having a database processing unit 8 that analyzes product information.

As shown in FIG. 3, the database processing unit 8 includes a communication control unit 14, an analysis unit 15, and a database 16 with a processing control unit 13 as a center. The communication unit 14 receives an identification code transmitted from the communication unit 4 of the reading device 1 via the wide area communication network 7. The database 16 stores product information, which is various useful information regarding products to be managed, in association with identification codes. The product information stored in the database 16 can be updated or added by using an input / output device (not shown) such as a keyboard, a mouse, and a display provided in the server. .
The processing control unit 13 stores an identification code analysis processing program. When the communication unit 14 receives the identification code, the processing control unit 13 gives the identification code to the analysis unit 15 for analysis. The analysis unit 15 acquires product information corresponding to the identification code from the database 16 and outputs the product information to the processing control unit 13.

  Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. Here, the case where the foodstuff management in the refrigerator installed in the home is performed is described as an example. The wireless tag is attached to food stored in a refrigerator or embedded in a food container, and transmits information stored spontaneously or in response to a read signal from the outside. FIG. 5 shows a flow of information transmission / reception performed between the tag information reading device 1 and the database processing unit 8, for example, a new food is stored in a refrigerator, and a wireless tag attached to the food When the tag information (identification code and URL) is transmitted from 5, the information receiving unit 2 of the tag information reading device 1 receives the tag information (step S1).

  The control unit 3 of the tag information reading device 1 accesses the database processing unit 8 based on the URL of the tag information received via the communication unit 4 and transmits an identification code (step S2). The database processing unit 8 receives the transmitted identification code (step T1), refers to the database using the identification code as a key, and acquires product information (step T2). Then, the acquired product information is transmitted to the tag information reading device 1 (step ST3). That is, in the present embodiment, the tag information reading device 1 also functions as a receiving unit.

When receiving the transmitted product information (step S3), the control unit of the tag information reading device 1 stores the information. The stored product information can be output to a display, a printer, or the like when the user operates the input / output device 17, for example.
FIG. 6 shows an example of a display mode on the display of the product information received by the tag information reading device 1. As shown in FIG. 6, the product information includes the name of the food, the date of manufacture, the name of the manufacturer, the ingredient table, and the like together with the identification code. Therefore, the user can know the detailed product information of the food stored in the refrigerator by looking at the display screen of the display.

  On the other hand, FIG. 7 shows an example of updated product information. As shown in FIG. 7, the content of “catechin” (indicated by symbol A in FIG. 7) is added to the component table in the updated product information. Further, the contact information (indicated by symbol B in FIG. 7) is changed. As described above, in this example, a component (“catechin”) that has not been attracting much attention in the past and has not been added to the component table due to increased user interest, such as a manufacturer You can change your contact information as your address moves.

  As is clear from the above description, in this embodiment, only the tag information reading device 1 that is permitted to access the server provided with the database processing unit 8 acquires product information corresponding to the identification data read from the wireless tag 5. can do. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the product information corresponding to the identification data stored in the wireless tag 5 from leaking to a malicious third party as much as possible. Further, since the access information of the database processing unit 8 is stored in the wireless tag 5, the location of the database processing unit 5 becomes clear. Therefore, the tag information reading device 1 that has read the information of the wireless tag 5 can immediately access the database processing unit 8, and the processing speed can be improved. In addition, since the location of the database processing unit 8 is clarified, the reliability of database management is improved.

The tag information reading device 1 and the database processing unit 8 are connected via a wide area communication network 7. Therefore, a plurality of users having the tag information reading device 1 can share the database processing unit 8. Therefore, data management is facilitated as compared with a configuration in which a database is provided in each tag information reading apparatus 1. Further, since the database 16 can be centrally managed, the product information stored in the database 16 can be updated, changed, and corrected easily and quickly. Therefore, the latest useful information can be provided to the user.
Further, since a large number of database processing units 8 are connected to each tag information reading device 1, it is possible to cope with a large number of types of target products. Further, the system can be simplified as compared with the configuration in which each tag information reading apparatus 1 is provided with a large number of databases.

  FIGS. 8 to 10 show a second embodiment of the present invention, and different points of the first embodiment will be described. The same parts as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals. The second embodiment is characterized in that the identification code and URL of the target product stored in the wireless tag 5 are encrypted. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 8, a decryption processing unit 21 is connected to the control unit 3 of the tag information reading apparatus 1. The decryption processing unit 21 decrypts the encrypted identification code and URL using the encryption key (decryption key).

FIG. 9 shows an example of product information stored in the information storage unit of the wireless tag element. The product information shown in FIG. 9 is an example in which the identification code and URL shown in FIG. 4 are encrypted, and the identification code and URL before encryption are not recognized from the encrypted identification code and URL.
As shown in FIG. 10, the control unit 3 of the tag information reading device 1 decodes the tag information received by the information receiving unit 2 by the decoding processing unit 21 (steps S1 and S4). Thereafter, the identification code decrypted based on the decrypted URL is transmitted from the communication unit 4 to the database processing unit 8 (step S5). The processing contents (steps T1 to T3 and step S3) after the database processing unit 8 receives the identification code are the same as those in the first embodiment.

  In the above configuration, the tag information stored in the wireless tag 5 is encrypted, and the decryption processing unit 21 including the encryption key is provided in the tag information reading device 1. For this reason, the tag information stored in the wireless tag 5 can be made more confidential. In particular, by encrypting the address information (URL), it is possible to prevent the third party from knowing the location of the database processing unit 8 that analyzes the product information.

  FIG. 11 shows a third embodiment of the present invention, and the differences from the first embodiment will be described. The same parts as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals. In the third embodiment, it is possible to request to acquire the product information corresponding to the identification information of the wireless tag 5 by accessing the tag information reading device 1 from the mobile phone 31 as a portable terminal through the wide area communication network 7. It is configured.

The tag information reading device 1 that has received the request for acquiring the product information receives the identification information issued from the wireless tag 5 and transmits it to the database processing unit 8 as address information of the mobile phone 31 as transmission destination information. Send. Upon receiving the identification information and the address information of the mobile phone 31, the database processing unit 8 analyzes the identification information and obtains product information, and transmits the analysis information to the mobile phone 31.
According to such a configuration, it becomes possible for a user who is out of the office to obtain product information relating to ingredients in the refrigerator, for example.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and for example, the following modifications are possible.
The tag information reading device transmits authentication information together with the identification information to the database processing unit, and the database processing unit analyzes the identification information only when connection to the database processing unit is permitted based on the authentication information, The useful information may be transmitted to the tag information reading device. According to such a configuration, it is possible to limit the tag information reading device that can access the database processing unit and analyze the identification information, so that it is possible to further prevent information leakage and improve the reliability of the system. be able to.

The analysis processing program stored in the database processing unit may be configured to be updatable.
The access information is not limited to the URL, but may be an IP address, a domain name, or the like.
In the third embodiment, the mobile phone device address information is transmitted. However, the mobile phone device address information may be stored in advance as transfer destination information in the data processing unit. In this case, the tag information reading device that has received the request to obtain the product information transmits the transfer instruction information to the device designated in advance together with the identification information, and in response to this, the database processing unit sends the product information to the mobile phone. It may be configured to transmit.

1 is an overall configuration diagram of a wireless tag reading system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. Schematic configuration diagram of wireless tag element Schematic configuration diagram of the database processing unit The figure which shows the data structure of the product information stored in the wireless tag The figure which shows transmission / reception of the data between a tag information reader and a database processing part Illustration for explaining product information Figure for explaining the contents of the updated product information FIG. 1 equivalent view showing a second embodiment of the present invention. 4 equivalent diagram Figure equivalent to FIG. FIG. 1 equivalent view showing a third embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

In the drawings, 1 is a tag information reader (reception means), 5 is a wireless tag, 7 is a wide area communication network, 8 is a database processing unit, 16 is a database, 21 is a decoding processing unit, and 31 is a mobile phone (portable terminal). ).

Claims (9)

A wireless tag for storing identification information of an object and address information related to analysis of the identification information;
A tag information reader for receiving and transmitting the identification information emitted from the wireless tag;
A database processing unit that converts the identification information into useful information by receiving and analyzing the identification information transmitted from the tag information reader;
The RFID tag reading system, wherein the tag information reading device transmits the identification information to a database processing unit corresponding to the address information.   The database processing unit includes a database that is provided in a server connected to the tag information reading device via a wide area communication network and stores useful information that can be updated about the object, and corresponds to the identification information of the object The wireless tag reading system according to claim 1, wherein useful information to be acquired is acquired from the database.   2. The wireless tag reading system according to claim 1, wherein the analysis program for analyzing the identification information by the database processing unit is configured to be updatable.   2. The radio according to claim 1, further comprising receiving means capable of accessing a database processing unit via a wide area communication network, wherein the database processing unit is configured to transmit useful information to the receiving means. Tag reading system.   5. The wireless tag reading system according to claim 4, wherein the receiving means is a portable terminal. The tag information reading device is configured to transmit authentication information that permits connection to the database processing unit together with identification information to the database processing unit,
2. The radio according to claim 1, wherein the database processing unit transmits useful information corresponding to the identification information to the tag information reading device when connection to the database processing unit is permitted based on the authentication information. Tag reading system. The wireless tag stores the encrypted identification information and address information,
The tag information reading device has a decryption processing unit that decrypts the received identification information and the address information, and transmits the decrypted identification information to a database processing unit corresponding to the decrypted address information. The wireless tag reading system according to claim 1, wherein the wireless tag reading system is configured as follows.   8. The wireless tag reading system according to claim 7, wherein the decryption key of the decryption processing unit can be set for each reader. 9. The useful information includes any one of a manufacturing company name, a manufacturing factory name, an expiration date, a complaint contact address, a composition table, and a lot number of the object. The RFID tag reading system described in 1.

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