JP2016091273A - Article management device and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To surely manage an article to be managed by surely notifying a user of the results of a things-left-behind prevention function and a things-left-behind search function.SOLUTION: The article management device includes: ID code storage means for storing the ID code of a radio tag mounted on an article to be managed in a storage medium; radio tag reading means for communicating with the radio tag mounted on the article to be managed, and for reading the ID code; collation means for collating the ID code read by the radio tag reading means with the ID code stored in the storage medium; notification means having an alarm sound generation device, a vibration generation device and a light emission device for notifying a user of a collation result by the collation means; and selection means for selecting which of the alarm sound generation device, the vibration generation device and the light emission device should be operated.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

  The present invention relates to an article management apparatus and program, and more particularly, to a technique suitable for use in preventing an article taken from a living base from being forgotten or stolen.

  Patent Document 1 discloses an article management system in which a seal-like receiver is attached to a managed article, a radio wave signal is transmitted from the transmitter, and whether or not the receiver exists in the vicinity is detected. In this article management system, it is possible to efficiently search for articles by acquiring the distance and direction to the receiver.

  In Patent Document 2, radio waves are transmitted from a transmitter possessed by the owner, and are received by a receiver attached to baggage or carry-on, and the transmitter and the receiver are separated and received by the receiver. There has been disclosed a forgotten article prevention detector that detects an alarm when an electric field intensity of a radio wave is below a reference intensity.

  Patent Document 3 includes a left-behind object prevention function and a left-behind object search function. The left-behind object prevention function generates an alarm sound when the transmitter and the receiver are separated from each other by a predetermined distance or more. A forgotten object prevention device that generates an alarm sound when a machine approaches a predetermined distance or more is disclosed.

JP 2002-338013 A JP-A-8-161653 JP-A-6-44475

  In Patent Document 1, a transmitter (controller) and a receiver (seal) receive radio wave signals, whereby the distance and direction from the transmitter to the receiver can be detected. However, if the radio signal does not reach, the position of the receiver cannot be specified.

In each of Patent Documents 2 and 3, an alarm sound is generated when the distance between the transmitter and the receiver is greater than a predetermined distance. May be lost in the surrounding noise, and the owner may not be able to recognize it even though a forgotten item is detected. Therefore, there has been a problem that an article to be managed cannot be reliably managed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and it is an object of the present invention to reliably notify the user of the results of the left-behind-item prevention function and the left-behind-object search function so that the article to be managed can be reliably managed.

An article management apparatus according to the present invention is an article management apparatus that is used by being worn on a user's body, and an ID code storage unit that stores an ID code of a wireless tag attached to an article to be managed in a storage medium; A wireless tag reading unit that communicates with a wireless tag attached to an article to be managed and reads the ID code; an ID code read by the wireless tag reading unit; and an ID code stored in the storage medium A collation means for collating, a warning sound generating device for notifying the user of a collation result by the collating means, a vibration generating device, a notification means having a light emitting device, and the alarm sound generating device, the vibration generating device, and the light emitting device. Selection means for selecting which one to operate,
The wireless tag reading unit is configured to be communicable with the wireless tag within a predetermined distance set in advance.
The notification means includes
A forgotten item prevention mode that operates when the RFID tag reading unit fails to read any of the ID codes stored in the storage medium within a predetermined distance set in advance;
The RFID tag reading unit has a forgotten object search mode that operates when any of ID codes stored in the storage medium is read within a predetermined distance set in advance.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to reliably notify the user of the results of the left-behind item prevention function and the left-behind item search function, so that it is possible to reliably manage an article to be managed.

It is a figure showing an outline of an article management device concerning an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure explaining a mode that RFID tag concerning an embodiment of the present invention was attached to various articles. It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the article | item management apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of the RFID tag which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the warning distance error range set in the article | item management apparatus of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the correspondence of the articles | goods and identification code which concern on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart explaining an example of the processing operation of the article | item management apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention.

[First Embodiment]
The overall configuration of the article management apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, the article management apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment is configured as a wristband type in which the article management apparatus main body A is attached to a user's arm through a wristband 120.
The article management apparatus main body A includes a power switch 130, a flashlight 140, a charging terminal 150, and the like.

The article management apparatus main body A is configured to function as a rechargeable reader / writer incorporating a lithium ion battery, and is configured to be able to charge a lithium ion battery by inserting a mini USB terminal into the charging terminal 150. ing.
Further, the article management apparatus main body A is provided with chip monitors 171 to 174 corresponding to management objects. Further, as an alarm changeover switch, an alarm sound changeover switch 161, a vibration (vibrator) changeover switch 162, a light emission (flash) changeover switch 163, and an operation mode changeover switch 164 are provided.

  The operation mode changeover switch 164 is for setting the operation mode of the article management apparatus 100, and the article management apparatus 100 can select the lost article prevention mode and the lost article search mode.

The article management apparatus 100 functions as a reader / writer apparatus, and is configured as a left-behind item prevention system with one article management apparatus 100 and a plurality of RFID tags. Wireless communication is designed to satisfy the ISO / IEC14443 standard.
In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, an example will be described in which a wallet 210, a key 220, a regular case 230, and a mobile phone 240 are managed objects. An RFID tag (Radio Frequency IDentification tag) that performs wireless communication using radio waves or electromagnetic waves is attached to these management objects.

  In the example of FIG. 2, the RFID tag 30B is attached to the wallet 210, the RFID tag 30C is attached to the key 220, the RFID tag 30D is attached to the periodic slot 230, and the RFID tag 30E is attached to the mobile phone 240. In FIG. 2, the wallet 210, the key 220, the periodical compartment 230, and the mobile phone 240 are shown in the same rectangular shape for the sake of simplicity, but these management objects are indicated by the names of the objects. It is configured in a corresponding shape. These RFID tag B, RFID tag C, RFID tag D, and RFID tag E are configured in a sheet shape to be attached to an article to be managed.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a reader / writer that can configure the article management apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment. FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of the RFID tag 30 that can configure the RFID tag of the present embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 3, the reader / writer 300 of the present embodiment includes a reader / writer main body 312 that performs control for transmitting / receiving data to / from the RFID tag 30 described later, radio wave output, and RFID tag command data to the RFID tag 30. And an RFID reader / writer antenna 311 for receiving a response from the RFID tag 30.

The reader / writer main body 312 includes a transmission / reception unit 313, a communication control unit 314, a control unit 315, a power supply unit 316, an attachment state detection unit 317, and an alarm unit 318. The alarm unit 318 includes an alarm sound generating device, a vibration generating device, and a light emitting device that notify the user of the result of the collation processing performed by the control unit 315.
The RFID tag 30 includes a tag antenna 31, a rectification unit 32, a power supply unit 33, a communication control unit 34, a control unit 35, and a storage unit 36.

The transmission / reception unit 313 transmits RFID tag command data to the RFID tag 30 using the reader / writer antenna 311 and receives a response thereto.
The communication control unit 314 performs modulation during transmission of RFID tag command data and amplification and demodulation of signals during reception and controls a communication method. The control unit 315 includes a memory 315a as a storage medium for storing a program that realizes a necessary function in the reader / writer 300, and controls the entire RFID reader / writer.

  Specifically, an ID code storage process for storing the ID code of the wireless tag attached to the managed article in the memory 315a, a wireless tag that communicates with the wireless tag attached to the managed article and reads the ID code A reading process, and a collation process for collating the read ID code with the ID code stored in the memory 315a, are performed.

  The memory 315a stores a tag ID that is an identification number of the RFID tag 30, identification information of management units of the wallet 210 to the mobile phone 240 to which the RFID tag 30 is attached, and other information. An example of the identification code managed by the memory 315a will be described later with reference to FIG. The power supply unit 316 includes a lithium ion battery that stores electric power supplied from the outside, and supplies the stored electric power to each unit.

  The wearing state detection unit 317 detects that the article management device is worn on the user's body, and includes, for example, a triaxial acceleration sensor. Triaxial acceleration sensors have been used in general-purpose pedometers and the like, and can detect the walking state regardless of the posture of the device and can measure the number of steps of the user.

  The article management apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment uses such a characteristic of the three-axis acceleration sensor, and when the user wears the article management apparatus 100 on the arm, the wearing is detected and the apparatus is automatically left in the forgotten object prevention mode. It is possible to work with. As described above, since the article management apparatus main body A is provided with the power switch 130, it can be set to operate in the forgotten item prevention mode manually by operating the power switch 130.

The tag antenna 31 of the RFID tag 30 is used for receiving radio waves transmitted from the reader / writer 300 and transmitting / receiving signals and data to / from the reader / writer 300.
The rectification unit 32 rectifies the radio wave received from the antenna 31. The power supply unit 33 detects the voltage obtained by rectification by the rectification unit 32 and supplies power to each unit.

The communication control unit 34 demodulates the received signal and RFID tag command data, and modulates the RFID identification code transmitted to the reader / writer 300.
The control unit 35 executes various processes such as an access process for the identification code stored in the storage unit 36 and a process for generating response data to the reader / writer 300.

  The reader / writer 300 configured as described above outputs radio waves with a predetermined intensity to the RFID tag 30 and transmits RFID tag command data. The RFID tag 30 that has received the radio wave operates with electric power caused by the radio wave received by the tag antenna 31, and the RFID tag 30 having the identification code transmitted from the reader / writer 300 returns it to the reader / writer 300.

FIG. 5 shows an example of near field communication performed between the reader / writer 300 and the RFID tag 30.
The reader / writer 300 transmits radio waves to the RFID tag 30 so that the communication distance becomes R.

  In the example of FIG. 5, the RFID tag B, the RFID tag C, the RFID tag D, and the RFID tag E can receive the radio wave transmitted from the article management apparatus main body A. A range in which this radio wave can be received is set as a management object detection range. In the present embodiment, the distance between the self and the belongings that exceed the distance, and the possibility of becoming a forgotten thing when it leaves without knowing it is defined as a radius R (100 cm) or more.

  In this way, if the radius R (100 cm) is set as the management object detection range, the alarm unit 318 operates and alarm processing is executed when the distance from the user to the possession exceeds 100 cm. As a result, he / she becomes aware of his belongings, and as a result, it is possible to prevent the generation of forgotten items. In other words, even if you move away from your belongings, your belongings are within distance control if they are within a radius of about 100 centimeters, and if you notice that, you can almost always find them.

  There is no need to fix the distance from yourself to 100 centimeters, and there is no problem with an error of about 80 centimeters to 120 centimeters in radius considering radio wave conditions. Therefore, when actually used, the management object detection range is about 80 cm to 120 cm. In FIG. 5, the distance from the article management apparatus main body A to the short distance R1 is 80 cm, and the distance from the long distance R2 is 120 cm. Therefore, when the reader / writer 300 is operating in the lost article prevention mode, the RFID tag existing between the short distance R1 and the long distance R2 from the article management apparatus main body A can receive the radio wave transmitted from the RFID tag 30. It becomes.

As a result, if any of the RFID tag B to RFID tag E attached to the management object moves farther than the long distance R2, the radio wave transmitted from the article management apparatus main body A cannot be received. When operating in the forgotten item prevention mode, reading of the RFID tag fails. In this case, the alarm unit 318 of the article management apparatus main body A operates to execute alarm processing.
Further, when operating in the forgotten article search mode, when approaching from the article management apparatus main body A closer than the short distance R1, the alarm unit 318 of the article management apparatus main body A operates to execute alarm processing.

FIG. 6 shows a correspondence relationship between articles and identification codes stored in the memory 315a.
As shown in FIG. 6, an identification code A is assigned to the apparatus main body. In addition, an identification code B is assigned to the wallet 210, an identification code C is assigned to the key 220, an identification code D is assigned to the periodic case 230, and an identification code E is assigned to the mobile phone 240.

Next, an example of the forgotten object prevention process performed by the article management apparatus 100 will be described.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation of the article management apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.
As described above, in the article management apparatus 100, the user operates the power switch 130 to turn on the power supply unit 316 of the article management apparatus main body A, and the article management apparatus main body A is lifted and swung. And an automatic mode in which the wearing state detection unit 317 detects this and enters an operating state. In the following description, the case of operating in the automatic mode will be described.

When the article management device 100 is lifted by the user from the placed state, the movement is detected by the wearing state detection unit 317, and the operation of the article management device 100 is started (start).
Next, in S71, it is determined whether or not it is worn on the body. This determination is “YES” when the movement is detected by the wearing state detection unit 317 of the article management apparatus 100, and the process proceeds to S72.

Next, in S72, when a preset time elapses, the process proceeds to S73, and RFID tags attached to nearby articles are read.
Next, in S74, it is determined whether or not the identification codes related to all the tags stored in the memory 315a and set as management objects have been acquired. If all the setting tag information has been acquired, the process proceeds to S76 to determine whether or not the article management apparatus 100 has been removed from the body. If not, the process returns to S72 and the above-described processing is performed.

On the other hand, as a result of the determination in S74, if all the setting tag information cannot be acquired, the process proceeds to S75.
In S75, a notification process related to the RFID tag for which tag information could not be acquired is executed. This notification process is controlled by the control unit 315 and executed by the alarm unit 318. The contents of the notification process can be set by an alarm sound changeover switch 161, a vibration changeover switch 162, and a light emission changeover switch 163.

  When the alarm sound switch 161, the vibration switch 162, and the light emission switch 163 are all turned on, the sound output by the buzzer provided in the alarm unit 318, the vibration output by the vibrator, and the light output by the LED are output. Done. As a result, the user wearing the article management apparatus 100 on his / her body can recognize that the management target has moved out of the monitoring target area.

  Further, in the present embodiment, since the chip monitors 171 to 174 are arranged corresponding to the management target object, the RFID tag B to the RFID tag E attached to the management target object outside the monitoring target area. By turning on the chip monitors 171 to 174 corresponding to, it is possible to immediately identify the management object that has gone out of the monitoring target area.

In the above-described example, the alarm sound switch 161, the vibration switch 162, and the light emission switch 163 are all turned on. However, the switch can be arbitrarily turned on / off according to the use state. it can.
For example, when working, at a meeting, or on a public vehicle, by setting the alarm sound switch 161 to OFF, the object to be managed is caused by vibration without causing trouble to people around. The user can be notified that he / she has gone out of the management target range.

  Further, the flashlight 140 is useful as a notification function in a dark place, but may not function effectively in a bright place. Therefore, power consumption can be reduced by turning off the flashlight 140. The on / off control of the flashlight 140 can be set by the light emission changeover switch 163, but may be configured to be automatically performed with a brightness detection monitor.

  In the above-described embodiment, an example in which a buzzer is provided on the article management apparatus main body A has been described. However, a buzzer may also be provided on the RFID tags B to E attached to the management target. In this way, when a lost article is found, a buzzer attached to the article can be sounded, so that it can be easily proved that it is his belongings.

  Further, in the present embodiment, an example has been described in which a forgotten object prevention system including four RFID tags B to RFID E is constructed for one article management apparatus main body A, but the number of RFID tags is arbitrary. is there. When a large number of RFID tags are to be managed, it is necessary to register the RFID tags to be managed in the article management apparatus main body A when going out from a living base. If the number of RFID tags to be managed is large, it is troublesome to perform manual registration processing.

  Therefore, an RFID tag registration mode to be managed is provided, and the operation mode changeover switch 164 is operated to set the RFID tag registration mode, whereby the RFID placed within the short distance R1 of the article management apparatus main body A is set. The tag and the article management apparatus main body A may perform wireless communication so that the identification code of the RFID tag to be managed can be registered in the memory 315a of the article management apparatus main body A.

  In addition, when a left-behind item prevention function and a left-behind item search function are provided, it is necessary to perform an operation for properly using these functions according to the situation. For example, when the user goes out, he / she is operated with the left-behind item prevention function, but when returning to his / her home which is a living base, the article management apparatus main body A is placed in a charging position, and the article to be managed is placed in each storage position. As a result, the article management apparatus and the article to be managed may be separated by a predetermined distance or more. In such a case, it is not necessary to generate an alarm sound, so the forgotten object prevention function is turned off.

  And when going out, it operates using the thing-left-behind prevention function. In this case, as described above, the RFID tag to be managed is placed within the short distance R1 of the article management apparatus main body A, and wireless communication is performed between the RFID tag and the article management apparatus main body A, so that when the user goes out The identification code of the RFID tag to be managed can be registered in the memory 315a of the article management apparatus main body A.

  In addition, when sleeping in a group, if there is a concern that an article to be managed will be lost, the RFID tag B to RFID tag E to be managed are placed within the setting range of the management target, and the power source that is the main key The switch 130 is turned on. In this way, even in an environment where other people can approach the vicinity, there is no fear of being stolen while sleeping.

  Since the article management apparatus 100 of this embodiment operates as described above, it can not only prevent theft when going out, but can also be used in various ways as an apparatus for managing forgotten things. For example, in business meetings, if an RFID tag is attached to an important document, it is possible to prevent the important document from being forgotten.

  For school children, etc., if an RFID tag is attached to textbooks and notebooks necessary for the class of the day, and the RFID tag information, departure time, and class schedule are registered in the article management device in advance, the departure time It is possible to check whether or not textbooks and notebooks are carried according to the timetable of the day when the date is reached, and it is possible to prevent forgetting to take textbooks and notebooks according to the timetable of the day.

  As communication to be used, in addition to the above-mentioned standards, for example, 13.56 MHz based on NFC (Near Field Communication) standards (ISO / IEC18092 (NFC IP-1), ISO / IEC21481 (NFC IP-2)). It is also possible to use electromagnetic waves. Moreover, you may use DSRC (Dedicated Short Range Communication).

[Second Embodiment]
In the first embodiment described above, the example in which the article management apparatus main body A is configured as an original wristband type is shown, but the article management apparatus according to the present invention can also be configured using a smartphone.
For example, the system can be configured with an article management application that functions as the article management apparatus of the present invention and a plurality of touchpads (for example, 10) as a set.

By configuring in this way, it is possible to electrically connect each touchpad and the smartphone when the article management application is installed on the smartphone, so an article management system can be constructed without troublesome connection work. can do. Moreover, since the article management apparatus main body A can be configured using an existing smartphone, the article management apparatus of the present invention can be configured at low cost.
When an article management system is constructed using a smartphone, the alarm sound function, the vibration function, the light emission function, and the like provided in the smartphone can be used as in the first embodiment described above.

[Modification]
In the embodiment described above, an example of the RFID tag 30 configured in a seal shape has been shown, but various shapes of RFID tags may be used in addition to such a shape. For example, the shape may be a credit card shape, a mobile strap shape, a key chain shape, or the like.

  In the case of the RFID tag having such a shape, not only the trouble of sticking the seal-shaped RFID tag 30 to an article configured in these shapes can be omitted, but also the seal-shaped RFID tag 30 can be pasted. The present invention can also be applied to an article having a difficult shape.

30 RFID tag 100 Item management device 120 Wristband 140 Flash light 150 Charging terminal 161 Alarm sound switch 162 Vibration switch 163 Light emission switch 164 Operation mode switch 171-174 Chip monitor 300 Reader / writer 311 RFID reader / writer antenna 312 Reader / writer Main body 313 Transmission / reception unit 314 Communication control unit 315 Control unit 315a Memory 316 Power supply unit 317 Wearing state detection unit 318 Alarm unit

Claims (7)

An article management device used by being worn on a user's body,
ID code storage means for storing in a storage medium the ID code of the wireless tag attached to the article to be managed;
Wireless tag reading means that communicates with a wireless tag attached to an article to be managed and reads its ID code;
Collating means for collating the ID code read by the wireless tag reading means with the ID code stored in the storage medium;
A warning sound generator, a vibration generator, and a light emitting device for notifying the user of the result of the verification processing by the verification unit;
A selection means for selecting which of the alarm sound generation device, the vibration generation device, and the light emitting device is operated;
The wireless tag reading unit is configured to be communicable with the wireless tag within a predetermined distance set in advance.
The notification means includes
A forgotten item prevention mode that operates when the RFID tag reading unit fails to read any of the ID codes stored in the storage medium within a predetermined distance set in advance;
An article management apparatus comprising: a forgotten object search mode that operates when the RFID tag reading unit reads any of ID codes stored in the storage medium within a predetermined distance set in advance. .   The article management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined distance is 80 centimeters to 120 centimeters.   The article management apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an operation mode switching unit configured to set the lost article prevention mode or the lost article search mode.   The article management apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the wireless tag is configured in a sheet shape to be attached to an article to be managed.   The article management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the wireless tag is configured in a credit card shape, a mobile strap shape, or a key chain shape. Having wearing state detection means for detecting that the article management device is worn on the user's body;
The notification means includes
When it is detected by the wearing state detection means that the article management device is worn on the user's body, it operates in a forgotten item prevention mode,
The article management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the article management apparatus operates in a left-behind object search mode when the wearing state detection unit detects that the article management apparatus is not worn on a user's body.   A program that causes a computer to be executed as each unit of the article management apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

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