JP2008234115A - Portable monitoring device and article monitoring system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve a problem in a mobile terminal that monitors a user-owned article with a radio IC tag that the mobile terminal at the transfer origin determines an article is lost if a procedure to transfer a registration of the monitored article is not conducted when the article is transferred between users who have the mobile terminals. <P>SOLUTION: The mobile terminal 2 detects a radio IC tag 17 attached to the terminal device 2 to be a transfer destination by a tag reader unit 34 that detects an article 10 to be monitored to detect a deliverable approaching state. In the approaching state, when the article 10 cannot be detected, the mobile terminal 2 at the transfer origin determines that the article 10 is delivered, then deletes the article 10 from a monitoring object, and also performs an exact registration procedure such as a registration deletion at the transfer origin and an additional registration at the transfer destination after confirming that the mobile terminal 2 at the transfer destination detects the article 10. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a monitoring apparatus that monitors the presence of an article based on a wireless tag carried with the article such as a portable article and attached to the article, and an article monitoring system using the same.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a system for detecting loss or theft of a carried item using a radio tag called an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag has been proposed. In the system proposed in the following Patent Document 1, when a user takes out an article with a wireless tag from a management area such as home or work, a portable terminal with a tag reader function is also carried along. This portable terminal functions as a monitoring device that monitors whether a tag-carrying item has been dropped or stolen.

In this system, when a user goes out, he / she operates a portable terminal and registers a carry item as a monitoring target in the portable terminal. When a registration operation is instructed, the portable terminal stores the wireless tag detected within the reading range at that time as a monitoring target. When the mobile terminal is out of the office and the wireless tag of the monitored item cannot be detected within the reading range, the mobile terminal determines that it is abnormal such as loss and notifies the user. Note that the reading range of the wireless tag of the portable terminal is set to a predetermined area around the user where it can be determined that the article is carried by the user.
JP 2006-4257 A

  For example, an article to be monitored taken out by a certain user may be delivered to another user on the go. In that case, on the user side taking out the article, an operation for ending the monitoring on the portable terminal is performed, and on the other hand, on the user side receiving the article, an operation for registering the article as a monitoring target on the portable terminal is performed. There is a need. There is a problem that such an operation is complicated for the user. On the other hand, if these operations are not performed, the delivery source mobile terminal detects that the wireless tag cannot be detected for the delivered article as an abnormality such as loss.

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems, and improves the reliability of monitoring of articles delivered on the go, etc., and omits user work, thereby improving the convenience. An object is to provide a monitoring device and an article monitoring system.

  The portable monitoring device according to the present invention monitors the presence / absence of a monitoring target article in a monitoring area set in the vicinity thereof based on the detection status of an article identification wireless tag attached to the article, Based on the detection of the device identification wireless tag by the tag detection unit, the tag detection unit that detects each wireless tag in the monitoring area, and the device identification wireless tag that makes it possible to identify the monitoring device A proximity device detecting means for detecting a proximity monitoring device existing in the case, and a determination means for determining that the loss is abnormal when the article identification wireless tag of the monitored object cannot be detected in a state where the proximity monitoring device cannot be detected. And having.

  The proximity device detection means may be configured to pretend that the proximity monitoring device is being detected until a predetermined grace period elapses after the detected device identification wireless tag becomes undetectable. .

  The determination means performs monitoring related to the detection failure when there is a correlation between a timing at which the article identification wireless tag of the monitored article becomes undetectable and a proximity detection period in which the proximity monitoring device is detected. The target article can be determined to be a delivery article delivered to the proximity monitoring device. In this configuration, for example, the determination unit determines that the article is the delivery article when the article identification wireless tag of the article to be monitored becomes undetectable corresponding to the proximity detection period.

  The article monitoring system according to the present invention is a system including a portable monitoring device that determines the delivery and a management device that collectively manages the plurality of portable monitoring devices, and the portable monitoring device further includes: A delivery notification means for notifying the management device of delivery information relating to the delivery product and a delivery destination monitoring device when it is determined that the delivery device is a delivery product, and the management device receives the delivery information; In addition, a confirmation means for confirming delivery based on presence / absence of detection of the article identification wireless tag of the delivery article in the delivery destination monitoring device, and when the confirmation means cannot confirm delivery of the delivery article And supplementary determination means for determining a loss abnormality.

  In the article monitoring system, the management apparatus further includes monitoring target article management means for managing registration of the monitoring target article of each portable monitoring apparatus, and the confirmation means can confirm delivery of the delivery article. In this case, the monitoring target article management means may shift the registration of the delivery article as the monitoring target article from the portable monitoring device of the delivery source to the delivery destination monitoring device.

  The article monitoring system further includes a tag reader that detects the wireless tag existing in a management area, and a presence / absence based on a detection result of the tag reader among articles attached with the article identification wireless tag. And an article management means for registering an item to be monitored as an article to be monitored in the area, and the tag reader detects that the article identification wireless tag of the article to be monitored in the area becomes undetectable. It can be set as the structure which a determination means determines with a loss abnormality.

  According to the present invention, with a wireless tag attached to each portable monitoring device, a certain monitoring device can detect not only the presence of an article to be monitored in the vicinity but also the presence of another monitoring device. In the state where there is no other user's monitoring device nearby, basically, the articles to be monitored are not delivered to other users. Therefore, in this case, the monitoring apparatus appropriately performs the monitoring process by determining that it is no longer possible to detect the presence of its own monitoring target article. On the other hand, when there is a monitoring device of another user, it can be transferred to the other user. Therefore, if the monitoring device can no longer detect the presence of its monitored item in response to the timing when another monitoring device is nearby, it will not be abnormal immediately, By determining that the delivery from the user to the other user has been performed, the occurrence of an abnormality such as a loss is prevented from being erroneously detected, and the reliability of monitoring is improved. Furthermore, it is possible to accurately determine whether an undetectable article in a certain monitoring device is actually delivered or lost by checking whether the article is detected by the monitoring device at the delivery destination. it can. Further, since the article monitoring system receives the result of the confirmation and transfers the registration of the delivery article as the monitoring target article between the monitoring devices, the user performs the registration / deletion operation of the monitoring target article when delivering the article. There is no need to improve convenience.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as embodiments) will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a schematic configuration of an article monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention. This system includes a portable terminal (portable monitoring device) 2, a management main device 4, and a tag reader 6. Among these, the management main device 4 and the tag reader 6 constitute a management device and are arranged in the management area 8. The management area 8 is a place where the article 10 to be monitored by this system is usually placed, and can be set in, for example, a user's residence or office.

  There are a plurality of portable terminals 2 corresponding to a plurality of users such as family members. The mobile terminal 2 is located in the management area 8 when the user is in the management area 8. On the other hand, the user carries the portable terminal 2 when using the monitoring function of the article 10 of the present system outside the management area 8. Incidentally, FIG. 1 shows a mobile terminal 2 worn by each of two out-of-home users 12 together with the mobile terminal 2 placed in the management area 8. FIG. 1 schematically shows that the user 12 carries the article 10 outside the management area 8 in a clothes pocket or baggage 14.

  Each article 10 to be monitored is attached with a wireless tag 16 for article identification. The mobile terminal 2 is also provided with a wireless tag 17 for terminal device identification. Each of the wireless tags 16 and 17 is provided with a tag ID, which is identification information that can identify each other. The portable terminal 2 has a mobile communication function. The management main device 4 and the monitoring center 18 are configured to be communicable via a network 20 such as a public line network. A mobile communication base station 22 is also connected to the network 20 so that the mobile terminal 2 and the management main apparatus 4 can communicate with each other via the network 20 and mobile communication.

  Hereinafter, the main components of this system will be described individually.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of the mobile terminal 2. The portable terminal 2 includes a control unit 30, a storage unit 32, a tag reader unit 34, an operation unit 36, an output unit 38, a wireless communication unit 40, and the wireless tag 17. During the monitoring operation of this system, the portable terminal 2 is carried when the user goes out as described above. Then, the mobile terminal 2 monitors the presence of the article 10 taken out from the management area 8 by the user by detecting the wireless tag 16 existing in a predetermined range (monitoring area) around the mobile terminal 2.

  The storage unit 32 stores the tag ID of the monitoring target article 10 that the user has when going out, a program for detecting / monitoring the monitoring target article 10 executed by the control unit 30, and the like. Remember. Further, the storage unit 32 stores the tag ID of the wireless tag 17 attached to the portable terminal 2 possessed by another user 12 who is assumed to be handed over such as a family member.

  The tag reader unit 34 is used to detect the wireless tag 16 existing around the mobile terminal 2 and the wireless tags 17 of other mobile terminals 2. Specifically, the tag reader unit 34 detects the wireless tags 16 and 17 by periodically transmitting interrogation waves to the surrounding area and detecting response waves from the wireless tags 16 and 17 corresponding thereto. The tag reader unit 34 is configured to perform wireless communication with the wireless tags 16 and 17 in a non-contact manner and to perform wireless communication only with the wireless tags 16 and 17 that are relatively close to the mobile terminal 2. The communication range is preferably small in order to detect misplacement or theft of the article 10 at an early stage, but in consideration of the fact that it should be somewhat large in order to suppress such erroneous detection. Determined. In addition, as described later, the communicable range is usually determined in consideration of the distance for delivery between users in that the portable terminal 2 in which the wireless tag 17 is detected is determined as a delivery destination. For example, if it is about 2 m, it can be considered that the article 10 that is possessed is generally under the control of the user, and it is considered appropriate in terms of delivery determination. The communicable distance can be set. The interrogation wave is a radio wave having a predetermined carrier frequency, and the communicable distance can be adjusted by the carrier wave frequency and the radio wave intensity.

  The tag reader unit 34 demodulates the response wave and acquires the tag IDs of the wireless tags 16 and 17 that transmitted the response wave. In addition, since it is assumed that the user possesses a plurality of articles 10, it is preferable to use the tag reader unit 34 having an anti-collision function (multiple simultaneous reading function). Thereby, even when the user carries a large number of articles 10, tag IDs can be acquired from these wireless tags 16 all at once and without omission.

  The operation unit 36 is an input unit for the user to select an operation of the mobile terminal 2 or to give an instruction to the control unit 30 and includes, for example, various button switches and a touch panel.

  The output unit 38 is a unit for notifying the user of a message or a predetermined state from the control unit 30, for example, an image display unit such as a liquid crystal, an audio output unit such as a speaker, a vibrator that vibrates the mobile terminal 2, etc. Can be configured.

  The wireless communication unit 40 is a means for performing mobile communication, and is connected to the base station 22 through a wireless line and enables communication with the management main apparatus 4 and the monitoring center 18.

  The control unit 30 has a function of controlling the operation of each unit of the mobile terminal 2. For example, the control unit 30 is configured using a microprocessor, and implements various operations using a program executed by the processor. The monitoring process in the control unit 30 will be described in detail later.

  The wireless tag 17 can be used to cause another portable terminal 2 nearby to detect the portable terminal 2 with the wireless tag 17, and has a portable terminal 2 to be described later based on the detection result. Processing related to delivery of the article 10 between users is performed.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the management main apparatus 4. The management main device 4 includes a control unit 50, a storage unit 52, and a communication interface 54. The management main device 4 comprehensively manages the portable terminals 2 of a plurality of users who use the articles 10 that are normally placed in the management area 8. The communication interface 54 controls communication between the control unit 50, the tag reader 6, the monitoring center 18, and the mobile terminal 2. The storage unit 52 is, for example, a portable article general management table that holds registration contents of a portable article table of each portable terminal 2, each portable terminal 2, in addition to a monitored article table that registers the monitored article 10 in the management area 8. The terminal address table that stores the communication address of the device, the processing program executed by the control unit 50, and the like are stored.

  In the monitoring target article table, monitoring target tag information including the tag ID of the wireless tag 16 attached to the article 10 is associated with each article 10 to be monitored. In addition to the tag ID, the monitoring target tag information is associated with other information related to the corresponding article 10, for example, article information such as the name and image of the article 10. In addition, in the monitoring target tag information, it is registered whether or not the corresponding article 10 is an in-area monitoring target article whose presence is monitored in the management area 8 based on the detection result of the tag reader 6.

  The carrying article general management table associates the portable terminal 2 possessed by each user with the tag ID of the monitored article 10 registered in each portable terminal 2. In addition, the contents of registration / deletion with respect to the carried article table are also reflected in the carried article overall management table. That is, data corresponding to the latest registered contents of the portable article table of all the portable terminals 2 is stored in the portable article management table.

  The terminal address table stores the tag ID of the wireless tag 17 attached to the portable terminal 2 and the address of the wireless communication unit 40 in association with each other.

  The control unit 50 operates based on a program stored in the storage unit 52, and controls the operation of each unit of the management main device 4 such as the storage unit 52 and the communication interface 54. For example, the control unit 50 performs processing for managing the registered contents of the carrying article table of each mobile terminal 2. In addition, when notified from the portable terminal 2 that there is an undetectable article 10 registered in the carrying article table, the control unit 50 determines whether or not there is a loss abnormality. A loss abnormality may occur due to loss or theft, for example. Therefore, when the loss abnormality occurs, the control unit 50 performs a process of notifying the corresponding mobile terminal 2 or the monitoring center 18, for example. Further, the control unit 50 monitors the loss of the monitoring target article 10 in the management area 8 based on the monitoring target article table and the detection information of the tag reader 6.

  The tag reader 6 is used for detecting the wireless tag 16 of the monitoring target article 10 existing in the management area 8. The tag reader 6 detects the wireless tag 16 by transmitting a query wave similarly to the tag reader unit 34 and detecting a response wave from the wireless tag 16 corresponding thereto. The tag reader 6 demodulates the response wave and acquires the tag ID of the wireless tag 16 that has transmitted it. The tag reader 6 and the management main device 4 are communicably connected to each other via a home wiring or a wired / wireless LAN, and the tag reader 6 notifies the management main device 4 of the detected tag ID of the wireless tag 16.

  The monitoring center 18 holds, for example, a monitoring target article table that is periodically sent from the management main apparatus 4. When the management main apparatus 4 reports a loss abnormality, an appropriate countermeasure is taken for the corresponding article 10. I do. For example, when the article 10 is a credit card, it is possible to contact a credit card company based on information registered in the monitored article table and request a use suspension measure.

  Next, the operation of this system will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the transition of the operation mode of the article monitoring process of the portable terminal 2 when the article 10 can be delivered by the users approaching each other. The mobile terminal 2 normally operates in a monitoring mode in which the monitoring target article 10 is monitored based on the wireless tag 16 detected by the tag reader unit 34. In this state, when the tag reader unit 34 detects the wireless tag 17 of another portable terminal 2 registered in the storage unit 32 (S100), the portable terminal 2 shifts to the delivery mode (S102). Although the article 10 is monitored even in the delivery mode, the occurrence of delivery is taken into consideration. The delivery mode is continued until a predetermined grace period T1 elapses after the tag reader unit 34 becomes unable to detect the wireless tag 17 of the other portable terminal 2. That is, when the detection state of the wireless tag 17 of the other portable terminal 2 ends (S104), the control unit 30 starts a timer (S106). Without detecting another portable terminal 2 again (S108), when the timer finishes measuring the grace period T1 (S110), the control unit 30 returns to the monitoring mode (S112). On the other hand, when another portable terminal 2 is detected again within the grace period, the process returns to S104.

  As described above, the control unit 30 continues the delivery mode during the grace period T1 after the wireless tag 17 cannot be detected, assuming that another portable terminal 2 is nearby. This takes into consideration that there may be a time lag between the timing when the wireless tag 17 of the delivery destination portable terminal 2 becomes undetectable and the timing when the wireless tag 16 of the delivery article becomes undetectable. . For example, when the user who has delivered the article leaves, the mobile terminal 2 may go out of the communicable range of the tag reader unit 34 before the delivered article. In such a case, if the monitoring mode principle of determining that the monitored object 10 becomes undetectable when there is no other portable terminal 2 in the surroundings and that the monitored object 10 becomes undetectable is strictly applied, It will be judged and not valid. Therefore, the time during which both the portable terminal 2 and the delivered article 10 will go out of the monitoring area of the portable terminal 2 that is the delivery source is set as a grace period T1, and during that period, the delivery mode is set and no abnormality is determined is doing. For example, since the distance between the portable terminal 2 possessed by the delivery destination user viewed from the delivery source portable terminal 2 and the article 10 is generally small, the time lag that can be caused by the distance difference is also small, and T1 is basically Although it is considered that a few seconds are sufficient, it is possible to set a longer time, for example, about 20 to 30 seconds in consideration of a case where the speed at which the user moves away is slow.

  FIG. 5 is a schematic flowchart of the article monitoring process in the mobile terminal 2. The control unit 30 compares the detection result of the wireless tag 16 by the tag reader unit 34 with the carrying article table stored in the storage unit 32. When the control unit 30 detects that there is an item 10 that is registered as a monitoring target in the carrying item table and the tag reader unit 34 cannot detect the wireless tag 16 (S120), the control unit 30 is currently in the delivery mode. It is confirmed whether or not (S122).

  When the present mode is not in the delivery mode, that is, in the monitoring mode, the control unit 30 determines that the state in which the article 10 has become undetectable without other portable terminals 2 being present, (S124). The control unit 30 transmits a loss notification including the tag ID of the wireless tag 16 that has become undetectable to the management main apparatus 4 via the wireless communication unit 40 (S126). When the management main device 4 receives the notification of loss, it determines that the loss is abnormal, and notifies the monitoring center 18 of the content of the abnormality.

  On the other hand, when the delivery mode is currently in progress, the control unit 30 determines that the undetectable article 10 has been delivered to the user of the nearby mobile terminal 2 (S130), and sends a delivery notification to the management main device 4. Transmit (S132).

  In the delivery notification, delivery information regarding the delivery item and the delivery-destination mobile terminal 2 is notified to the management main device 4. For example, the information related to the delivery item is the tag ID of the wireless tag 16 that has become undetectable, and the information related to the portable terminal 2 that is the delivery destination includes the wireless tag 17 detected by the tag reader unit 34 during or during the transfer mode. Tag ID. FIG. 6 is a schematic flowchart of processing performed by the management main apparatus 4 that has received the delivery notification. When the management main device 4 receives the delivery notification (S140), the management main device 4 transmits a confirmation signal for confirming whether the delivery has actually been made to the delivery-destination mobile terminal 2 (S142). For example, the management main device 4 searches the terminal address table based on the tag ID of the wireless tag 17 of the delivery destination mobile terminal 2 obtained as delivery information, and acquires the communication address of the delivery destination mobile terminal 2. And the confirmation signal containing the information regarding a delivery article is transmitted to the address using mobile communication.

  When receiving the confirmation signal, the delivery-destination mobile terminal 2 checks whether or not the tag reader unit 34 detects, for example, the tag ID of the wireless tag 16 of the delivery article stored in the delivery signal. If it can be detected, the control unit 30 of the portable terminal 2 that is the delivery destination transmits the information being detected to the management main apparatus 4 via the wireless communication unit 40.

  When the management main device 4 has received the information being detected from the portable terminal 2 as the delivery destination within the predetermined period T2 from the transmission of the confirmation signal (S144), the management main device 4 has confirmed the delivery to the portable terminal 2 as the delivery source. An acceptance signal to that effect is transmitted (S146). As will be described later, this acceptance signal is an instruction to cause the portable terminal 2 of the delivery source to delete registration of the carrying article table relating to undetectable articles. In addition, the management main device 4 performs a process of shifting the registration of the owner regarding the delivered article in the carried article overall management table stored in the storage unit 52 (S148). For example, in this migration registration process, the management main apparatus 4 deletes the registration of the delivery article registered as the monitoring target for the portable terminal 2 that is the delivery source in the carrying article overall management table stored in the storage unit 52. Thus, the delivery article is registered as a monitoring target with respect to the portable terminal 2 of the delivery destination. Furthermore, the management main device 4 transmits an instruction signal for adding registration related to the delivery article to the carrying article table stored in the storage unit 32, to the delivery destination portable terminal 2.

  On the other hand, if the information being detected cannot be received within the predetermined period T2 from the transmission of the confirmation signal (S144), the management main device 4 determines that the loss is abnormal (S150) and sends an abnormal signal to the portable terminal 2 that is the delivery source. Is transmitted (S152). Also, the abnormality content is reported to the monitoring center 18.

  Incidentally, as a case where the information being detected cannot be received within the predetermined period T2, in addition to the case where the article 10 is not actually delivered to the portable terminal 2 that is the delivery destination, A case where communication with the management main apparatus 4 is impossible is conceivable. When the delivery is actually performed, the delivery source and delivery destination mobile terminals 2 should be in the vicinity. Therefore, since there is a problem in the situation where communication with the delivery destination mobile terminal 2 is impossible even though communication with the delivery destination mobile terminal 2 is possible, it is determined that there is an abnormality even when communication with the delivery destination mobile terminal 2 is impossible. .

  The processing on the management main apparatus 4 side with respect to the delivery notification S132 of the delivery source mobile terminal 2 has been described above. The processing in the delivery source portable terminal 2 for the processing of the management main device 4 will be described with reference to FIG. As described above, when the management main device 4 confirms delivery of the article 10 to the delivery-destination mobile terminal 2, it sends an acceptance signal (S146). When the delivery source portable terminal 2 receives the delivery signal within a predetermined period T3 after issuing the delivery notification S132 to the management main apparatus 4 (S134), as already described, the carrying article table relating to the delivery article, as described above. Is deleted from the monitoring target of the portable terminal 2 (S136).

  On the other hand, when the reception signal cannot be received within the period T3, the portable terminal 2 determines that the loss is abnormal (S124). In this case, since the management main apparatus 4 has grasped the abnormality, the portable terminal 2 can omit the loss notification S126 to the management main apparatus 4, but even if the loss notification S126 is performed for confirmation, Good. For example, if the management main apparatus 4 is in a situation where it cannot be received by the mobile terminal 2 even though it has transmitted an acceptance signal, the management main apparatus 4 can be For this reason, it is possible to recognize that the acceptance signal has not arrived at the mobile terminal 2 and take measures such as retransmission.

  Note that there may be two or more other users nearby. In this case, the delivery-source mobile terminal 2 performs delivery notification by including in the delivery information all the mobile terminals 2 that have detected proximity. On the other hand, it is assumed that the management main device 4 confirms the delivery if it can confirm the detection of the delivered article to each delivery destination mobile terminal 2 and can receive the information being detected from any of the mobile terminals 2. On the other hand, when it cannot receive from any portable terminal 2, it determines with a loss abnormality.

  The management main device 4 notifies the monitoring center 18 of the loss abnormality in the portable terminal 2 as described above. Further, the management main device 4 monitors the presence of the monitoring target article 10 in the management area 8 by the tag reader 6, and the article 10 registered in the monitoring target article table is taken out as a monitoring target of the portable terminal 2. If it cannot be detected in the management area 8 without a valid reason, it is determined that the loss is abnormal. Also in this case, the management main apparatus 4 notifies the monitoring center 18.

  In addition, regarding the loss abnormality in the portable terminal 2, prior to measures such as notification from the management main device 4 to the monitoring center 18, the user who owns the portable terminal 2 is notified and whether there is an actual abnormal state or not. It can be set as the structure which asks for confirmation. For example, the control unit 30 of the portable terminal 2 uses the output unit 38 to display article information about the article that has become undetectable, or to generate sound or vibration of the portable terminal 2. It can be carried out. In response to this notification, the user inputs a confirmation result as to whether or not there is an abnormality such as loss from the operation unit 36, and only when the user confirms that there is an abnormality, the loss notification S126 to the management main apparatus 4 and the monitoring center Report to 18 and so on. Thereby, for example, unnecessary abnormal reports can be avoided in situations such as depositing a cash card or the like, which is an article to be monitored, at a counter at the time of a bank procedure.

  You may make it report to the monitoring center 18 directly from the portable terminal 2 not via the management main apparatus 4 about the generation | occurrence | production of the loss abnormality in the portable terminal 2. In addition, delivery confirmation and transfer registration are also performed directly between the mobile terminal 2 that is the delivery source and the mobile terminal 2 that is the delivery destination using the mobile communication via the wireless communication unit 40 without going through the management main device 4. It is also possible to adopt the configuration performed in

As described above, the mobile terminal 2 uses the period in which the wireless tag 17 of the other mobile terminal 2 is actually detected and the grace period T1 as the proximity detection period in which the mobile terminal 2 that can be a delivery destination exists nearby. When the monitoring target article 10 becomes undetectable within the proximity detection period, it is basically determined that the delivery has occurred. In other words, if the proximity detection period in which other mobile terminals 2 can actually be detected is from the start time t _S to the end time t _E , in the above-described embodiment, the period in which the end time is delayed by the grace period T1 is the proximity detection period. Imagine. Then, _let t _M be the time when the article 10 becomes undetectable.
t _S ≦ t _M ≦ t _E + T 1 (1)
In the case of, it is determined to be delivery.

Here, the occurrence of the delivery may be determined based on another relationship between the timing at which the monitoring target article 10 becomes undetectable and the proximity detection period. For example, it is considered that the detection failure of the article 10 (time t _M ) and the end of the proximity detection period (time t _E ) often occur in succession at relatively short intervals.
| t _E −t _M | ≦ T1 (2)
In other words,
_{t M} ≦ t E + T1, or _{t M} ≧ _t E -T1
……… (3)
In such a case, it may be determined as delivery. Here, the delivery determination based on the formula (2) is based on the premise that in the delivery case, after the article 10 becomes undetectable, the state in which only the other portable terminal 2 is detected continues for a long time. And in such a case, an approximation that no delivery occurs is included. In order to perform delivery determination with higher reliability without performing such approximation, a configuration in which delivery confirmation is performed based on, for example, the expression (1) as in the above-described embodiment is more preferable. However, it is possible to omit the delivery confirmation, reduce the communication load with the management main device 4 and other portable terminals 2, and simply perform delivery determination. In the configuration where such delivery confirmation is omitted. There is a possibility that better reliability can be realized by the delivery judgment based on the formula (2) excluding a relatively rare case.

1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an article monitoring system according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the schematic structure of a portable terminal. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the outline of a management main apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows the transition of the operation mode of the article | item monitoring process of a portable terminal. It is a general | schematic flowchart of the article monitoring process in a portable terminal. It is a schematic flowchart of the process which the management main apparatus which received the delivery notification performs.

Explanation of symbols

  2 Mobile terminal, 4 management main device, 6 tag reader, 8 management area, 10 monitored item, 14 baggage, 16, 17 wireless tag, 18 monitoring center, 20 network, 22 base station, 30, 50 control unit, 32, 52 Storage unit, 34 Tag reader unit, 36 operation unit, 38 output unit, 40 wireless communication unit, 54 communication interface.

Claims (7)

A portable monitoring device that monitors the presence / absence of an article to be monitored in a monitoring area set in the vicinity of the article based on the detection status of the article identification wireless tag attached to the article,
A device identification wireless tag that enables identification of the monitoring device;
Tag detection means for detecting each of the wireless tags in the monitoring area;
Proximity device detection means for detecting a proximity monitoring device existing in the vicinity of the device based on detection of the device identification wireless tag by the tag detection means;
A determination means for determining a loss abnormality when the article identification wireless tag of the monitored article becomes undetectable in a state where the proximity monitoring device cannot be detected;
A portable monitoring device comprising: The proximity device detection means pretends that the proximity monitoring device is being detected until a predetermined grace period elapses after the detected device identification wireless tag becomes undetectable.
The portable monitoring device according to claim 1. The determination means performs monitoring related to the detection failure when there is a correlation between a timing at which the article identification wireless tag of the monitored article becomes undetectable and a proximity detection period in which the proximity monitoring device is detected. Determining that the target article is a delivery article delivered to the proximity monitoring device;
The portable monitoring device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized by the above-mentioned. The determination means determines that the article is a delivery article when the article identification wireless tag of the article to be monitored becomes undetectable corresponding to the proximity detection period.
The portable monitoring device according to claim 3. An article monitoring system comprising: the portable monitoring device according to claim 3 or claim 4; and a management device that collectively manages the plurality of portable monitoring devices,
The portable monitoring device further includes delivery notification means for notifying the management device of delivery information related to the delivery article and the delivery destination monitoring device when it is determined that the delivery article is the delivery article,
The management device
Confirmation means for confirming that the delivery has been performed based on the presence or absence of detection of the article identification wireless tag of the delivery article in the delivery destination monitoring device when the delivery information is received;
If the confirmation means cannot confirm delivery of the delivery article, a complementary determination means for determining a loss abnormality,
An article monitoring system comprising: The management device further includes:
Monitoring object article management means for managing registration of the monitoring object article of each portable monitoring device;
The monitoring target article management means registers the delivery article as the monitoring target article from the portable monitoring device of the delivery source when the confirmation means confirms delivery of the delivery article. Migrating to a monitoring device,
The article monitoring system according to claim 5. The management device further includes:
A tag reader for detecting the wireless tag present in the management area;
In-region article management means for registering, as an in-region monitoring target article, an article that is monitored based on a detection result of the tag reader among articles attached with the article identification wireless tag;
Have
The complement determining means determines that the tag reader is abnormally lost when the article identification wireless tag of the in-area monitoring target article becomes undetectable,
The article monitoring system according to claim 6.

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