JP3756493B2 - Wireless data carrier recognition device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a wireless data carrier recognition apparatus that recognizes a wireless data carrier attached to, for example, a registered mail using wireless.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In recent years, wireless data carriers that have a unique wireless ID and have a memory area in which information can be rewritten, and can read and write wireless IDs and read and write arbitrary information wirelessly are drawing attention. ing.
[0003]
An example of this wireless data carrier is a wireless tag. The wireless tag is a small and lightweight tag including a transmission / reception antenna and an IC chip, and is attached to the surface of the article or embedded in the article to be provided on the article. The IC chip is provided with a non-volatile memory and a control circuit that modulates information in the memory in response to a signal received by the antenna and transmits the information as a radio wave through the antenna.
[0004]
A wireless tag recognition device has been developed as a device for recognizing a wireless tag. This apparatus includes an antenna, and recognizes the wireless tags collectively by receiving radio waves transmitted from all the wireless tags placed in the communication area (sensitivity range) of the antenna. .
[0005]
In such a wireless tag recognition device, conventionally, a plurality of antennas are arranged in a matrix on a plane, and on a plurality of trays that are spaced substantially the same as or more than the effective reception range of each antenna. Each RFID tag is placed one by one, and when the respective trays move on the antennas, the respective antennas are sequentially activated to recognize each RFID tag placed on each tray in a batch. Known (for example, see Patent Document 1)
[0006]
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-21351
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, a conventional wireless data carrier recognition device (wireless tag recognition device) arranges a plurality of antennas in a matrix on a plane, and moves a tray on which wireless data carriers (wireless tags) are placed one by one. The configuration has a problem that the larger the number of wireless data carriers to be recognized, the larger the area required for antenna arrangement and the longer the recognition time.
[0008]
The present invention has been made based on such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a wireless data carrier recognition device capable of recognizing a large number of wireless data carriers at once in a compact space in a short time. It is something to try.
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The present invention provides a turntable for placing a plurality of wireless data carriers to be recognized, a rotation driving means for rotating the turntable in one direction, and a line around the turntable along the rotation direction of the turntable. A plurality of antennas that are arranged on the turntable, each having a partial area on the turntable as a recognition area, and each antenna is placed on the turntable by sequentially activating each antenna in the direction opposite to the turntable rotation. And a recognition processing means for recognizing the wireless data carriers, and individually recognizing the wireless data carriers by wireless radio waves transmitted from a plurality of wireless data carriers.
[0010]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
This embodiment is a case where the present invention is applied to a wireless tag recognition device that recognizes information of a wireless tag attached to each of a plurality of registered mails that are recorded mails. The wireless tag is an example of a wireless data carrier, and the wireless tag recognition device is an example of a wireless data carrier recognition device.
[0011]
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of the present embodiment. In this embodiment, a wireless tag recognition device includes a wireless tag reader 1 and four antennas 2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D connected to the wireless tag reader 1, respectively. A turntable 4 on which a mail-bag case 3 containing a large number of registered postal items to be recognized is placed, a turntable drive motor 5 as a rotation drive means for rotating the turntable 4 in one direction, and the turntable It comprises a drive motor 5 and a controller 6 that controls the wireless tag reader 1.
[0012]
As shown in FIG. 2, the wireless tag reader 1 includes, for example, an interface unit 11 with a host device such as a personal computer, a control unit 12 including a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, and the like, and antennas 2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D. The antennas 2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D are sequentially switched by sequentially switching the connection between the provided transmission / reception circuits 13A, 13B, 13C, and 13D and the control unit 12 and the transmission and reception circuits 13a, 13b, 13C, and 13D in a predetermined order. And an antenna switch 14 that sequentially activates. Each of the transmission / reception circuits 13a, 13b, 13C, and 13D includes a modulation unit 15 that modulates data supplied from the control unit 12 into a modulation signal suitable for wireless communication, and antennas 2A and 2B connected by amplifying the modulation signal. , 2C, 2D to radiate as inquiry radio waves, a receiving amplifier 17 for amplifying radio signals received by the connected antennas 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, and demodulating data from the amplified radio signals The demodulator 18 is provided to the controller 12.
[0013]
The turntable 4 has a circular base surface large enough to place the mail-bag case 3. Then, the table surface is leveled, and is rotated clockwise in FIG. 1 at a constant speed by the power of the rotary table drive motor 5.
[0014]
The antennas 2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D are arranged in a line in the order of the antenna 2A, the antenna 2B, the antenna 2C, and the antenna 2D along the rotation direction of the turntable 4 over a substantially half circumference around the turntable 4. The antenna surfaces are directed so as to be parallel to the rotation center axis of the turntable 4. Thus, each of the antennas 2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D uses a part of the space area on the turntable as a communication area, and uses this communication area as a wireless tag recognition area.
[0015]
In the mail bag case 3 placed on the surface of the turntable 4, a large number of registered mail items 8 each having a wireless tag 7 attached are accommodated separately. As shown in FIG. 3, the wireless tag 7 includes a coiled loop antenna 71 formed along the outer periphery of a belt-like substrate and an LSI chip 72 formed on the substrate. The LSI chip 72 rectifies and stabilizes the modulated radio wave received by the loop antenna 71 to demodulate the modulated radio wave and send it to the control unit 76. The modulation unit 75 that modulates the data sent from the demodulation unit 74 and the control unit 76 and sends the data to the loop antenna 71, the data demodulated by the demodulation unit 74 is written to the memory 77, and the transmission data is read from the memory 77. A control unit 76 for sending to the modulation unit 75 and a non-volatile memory 77 are included. In the memory 77, a wireless ID area 77a for storing a unique wireless ID (RFID) assigned and set by the manufacturer at the manufacturing stage of the wireless tag 7, and a user area 77b in which a user can write arbitrary data. The user area 77b stores data for identifying the registered mail 8 to which the wireless tag 7 is attached.
[0016]
In the present embodiment configured as described above, the mail bag case 3 containing a large number of registered mail items 8 is placed on the turntable 4 with respect to the controller 6 by operating means (not shown). When the start of wireless tag recognition is instructed, the controller 6 instructs the wireless tag reader 1 to start tag recognition and also instructs the turntable drive motor 5 to start driving.
[0017]
When the turntable drive motor 5 receives a drive start command, the turntable drive motor 5 operates a rotation mechanism (not shown) to rotate the turntable 4 in a clockwise direction at a constant speed.
[0018]
When the wireless tag reader 1 receives a wireless tag recognition start command, the wireless tag reader 1 switches the antenna switch 14 to sequentially activate the antennas 4A, 4B, 4C, and 4D in the order shown in the flowchart of FIG. That is, first, the antenna 2A is activated as step ST1. And it waits for the time required for the turntable 4 to rotate 1/8 as step ST2. As a result, as shown in FIG. 5 (a), if the wireless tag 7 is located in the area A of the upper space of the turntable 4, the inquiry radio wave transmitted from the antenna 2A is reliably received. The antenna 2A reliably receives the radio wave transmitted from the radio tag 7 in response to the radio wave. Therefore, the wireless tag reader 1 and the controller 6 that is a host device thereof can reliably recognize the wireless tag in the area A within the time required for the turntable 4 to rotate 1/8.
[0019]
When the turntable 4 rotates 1/8, the antenna 2B provided next to the direction opposite to the rotation direction of the turntable 4 with respect to the antenna 2A is activated as step ST3. In step ST4, the process waits until the time required for the turntable 4 to make 1/8 rotation elapses. As a result, as shown in FIG. 5B, if the wireless tag 7 is located in the area B of the upper space of the turntable 4, the inquiry radio wave transmitted from the antenna 2B is reliably received. The antenna 2B reliably receives the radio wave transmitted from the radio tag 7 in response to the radio wave. Therefore, the wireless tag reader 1 and the controller 6 that is a host device thereof can reliably recognize the wireless tag in the region B within the time required for the turntable 4 to rotate 1/8.
[0020]
When the turntable 4 further rotates by 1/8, the antenna 2C provided next to the direction opposite to the rotation direction of the turntable 4 with respect to the antenna 2B is activated in step ST5. Then, in step ST6, it waits for the time required for the turntable 4 to make 1/8 rotation. As a result, as shown in FIG. 5C, if the wireless tag 7 is located in the area C of the upper space of the turntable 4, the inquiry radio wave transmitted from the antenna 2C is reliably received. The antenna 2C reliably receives the radio wave transmitted from the radio tag 7 in response to the radio wave. Therefore, the wireless tag reader 1 and the controller 6 that is a host device thereof can reliably recognize the wireless tag in the area C within the time required for the turntable 4 to rotate 1/8.
[0021]
When the turntable 4 further rotates 1/8, next, in step ST7, the antenna 2D provided on the side opposite to the rotation direction of the turntable 4 with respect to the antenna 2D is activated. Then, in step ST8, the process waits until the time required for the turntable 4 to make 1/8 rotation elapses. As a result, as shown in FIG. 5D, if the wireless tag 7 is located in the area D of the upper space of the turntable 4, the inquiry radio wave transmitted from the antenna 2D is reliably received. The antenna 2D reliably receives the radio wave transmitted from the radio tag 7 in response to the radio wave. Therefore, the wireless tag reader 1 and the controller 6 that is a host device thereof can reliably recognize the wireless tag in the area D within the time required for the turntable 4 to rotate 1/8.
[0022]
Thus, the controller 6 can individually recognize the wireless tags 7 attached to all the registered mail items 8 in the mail bag case 3 placed on the turntable 4, so that the wireless tag reader 1 is instructed to end tag recognition. At the same time, it instructs the rotary base drive motor 5 to stop driving. Thereby, the rotation of the turntable 4 stops and the wireless tag reader 1 also stops the tag recognition operation.
[0023]
If the tag recognition end is not instructed from the controller 6 even after a lapse of 1/8 rotation time after the antenna 2D is activated, the wireless tag reader 1 executes each process again in order from ST1. Here, the wireless tag reader 1 sequentially activates the antennas 2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D in the direction opposite to the rotation direction of the turntable 4 along with the rotation of the turntable 4 so that the wireless tag placed on the turntable 4 is activated. The recognition processing means for recognizing 7 is configured.
[0024]
As described above, according to the present embodiment, the four antennas 2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D are disposed on the turntable 4 in a compact configuration in which the four antennas 2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D are arranged around the circumference of the disk-like turntable 4. A large number of wireless tags 7 can be recognized at a time.
[0025]
Further, in the present embodiment, the turntable 4 is rotated in one direction, and the antennas 4a, 4B, 4C, 4D are sequentially activated in the direction opposite to the rotation direction. It is possible to recognize a large number of wireless tags 7 placed on the turntable 4 during a substantially half turn. For example, it is possible to arrange one antenna around the turntable 4 and recognize the wireless tag 7 placed on the turntable 4, but in this case, it is necessary to rotate the turntable once. is there. On the other hand, in this embodiment, since it can be recognized in a substantially half circumference, the processing speed can be improved.
[0026]
In addition, in the said embodiment, although the base-surface shape of the turntable 4 was made circular, a base-surface shape is not limited to this. Needless to say, the number of antennas arranged around the turntable 4 may be two or more, and is not limited to four. For example, what is shown in FIG. 6 can be considered as another embodiment. In this example, the base surface shape of the turntable 4 is an octagon, and two antennas 2A and 2B are disposed around the turntable 4 along the rotation direction of the turntable 4. Also in this embodiment, first, in a state where the antenna 2A is activated, it waits for the turntable 4 to make a quarter turn, and if it makes a quarter turn, the antenna 2B is activated to further turn the turntable 4 further. By waiting for 1/4 rotation, all the wireless tags 7 placed on the turntable 4 can be recognized.
[0027]
Of course, various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.
[0028]
【The invention's effect】
As described above in detail, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a wireless data carrier recognition device capable of recognizing a large amount of wireless data carriers at once in a compact space.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of the wireless tag reader according to the embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a wireless tag used in the embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure at the time of tag recognition of the wireless tag reader in the embodiment.
FIG. 5 is an operation explanatory diagram of the embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a schematic configuration of another embodiment of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Wireless tag reader, 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D ... Antenna, 3 ... Mailbag case, 4 ... Turntable, 5 ... Turntable drive motor, 6 ... Controller, 7 ... Wireless tag, 8 ... Registered mail.

Claims (2)

In a wireless data carrier recognition device for individually recognizing the wireless data carrier by wireless radio waves transmitted from a plurality of wireless data carriers,
A turntable for placing a plurality of wireless data carriers to be recognized;
Rotation drive means for rotating the turntable in one direction;
A plurality of antennas that are arranged in a line along the rotation direction of the turntable around the turntable and each have a partial area on the turntable as a recognition area;
Recognition processing means for recognizing a wireless data carrier placed on the turntable by sequentially activating each antenna in the direction opposite to the turn direction of the turntable as the turntable rotates.
A wireless data carrier recognition device comprising: 2. The wireless data carrier recognition apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of antennas are arranged in a line over a substantially half circumference around the turntable.

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