JP3783917B2 - Goods management shelf - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an article management shelf in which an antenna unit of a reader / writer that performs wireless communication with an IC card attached to an article is incorporated in a shelf for storing the article.
[0002]
[Prior art]
An article management system that uses an IC card and a reader / writer to manage articles by wireless communication can send and receive information about the article in a non-contact manner between the IC card and the reader / writer, compared to bar code management. Therefore, since the management of the location of articles can be performed very easily, it has recently been applied to various article management.
[0003]
The applicant has already applied such an article management system to a library, etc., and in addition to the conventional lending business, obtained the position information of the book in real time, grasped the lending status, and grasped the book's location status. An article management system that can manage books is proposed. In such book management, for example, an article management shelf as shown in FIG. 9 may be used. In the article management shelf 10, a plurality of shelves are formed up and down by a plurality of shelf boards 1. Then, a plurality of article management shelves shown in FIG. 9 are arranged in combination in the horizontal direction or the front-rear direction, and books and files are stored.
[0004]
FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a portion of the shelf board 1 constituting the upper and lower shelves of the article management shelf 10 and the books 4 placed thereon. In the figure, a shelf board 1 constituting each shelf is provided in parallel in two upper and lower stages, the loop antennas 2 having the same shape on their surfaces and a rectangular shape along the vicinity of the outer periphery of the shelf board 1. Is attached. The loop antenna 2 transmits and receives information by an electromagnetic field to and from the IC card 5 attached to the spine 4a of the book 4, and the reader / writer 6 connected to the loop antenna 2 is based on an instruction of a management PC (not shown). Thus, the information on the book is configured to be read from or written to the IC card 5. Therefore, according to such a configuration, one of the article management shelves 10 having a plurality of shelves is managed by one reader / writer 6, and the shelves provided with each loop antenna 2 (shelf) are also provided. Management of books arranged on the board 1 can be performed.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the conventional technique, for example, as shown in FIG. 10, when the loop antennas of the shelf plates 1 adjacent to each other are energized alternately, electromagnetic coupling occurs between the loop antennas 2 adjacent to each other, In the communication between the IC card 5 and the reader / writer 6, a loop antenna that is electromagnetically coupled at the top and bottom is interposed. Accordingly, when communication is performed with the IC card 5 of the book placed on one shelf (shelf board 2), communication is performed with the IC card 5 of the book placed on the upper and lower shelves. That is, when the loop antenna on the lower shelf is operated, the loop antenna is coupled with the upper loop antenna. When one IC card (one book) is placed on the upper shelf, the loop antenna on the lower shelf is connected. There is a problem that highly reliable article management cannot be performed, such as erroneous recognition of the placement location.
[0006]
Therefore, the present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and can prevent the occurrence of magnetic coupling between the respective loop antennas arranged on a plurality of racks, and has excellent reliability in article management. The purpose is to provide shelves.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above-described problem, the present invention provides an article management shelf in which an antenna unit connected to one reader / writer is embedded in each of a plurality of shelf plates, and at least of the plurality of shelf plates. An antenna unit embedded in at least a part of the shelf plate by installing a metal electromagnetic shield such as an iron plate at a predetermined distance from the embedded antenna unit on the upper surface or the lower surface of the shelf plate. The electromagnetic field radiated from is shielded by a metal electromagnetic shielding object such as the installed iron plate , and electromagnetic coupling to an antenna adjacent to the surface where the electromagnetic shielding object is installed is prevented. .
[0008]
Further, according to the present invention, the antenna part embedded in the shelf board is a loop antenna, the antenna part has a rectangular shape along the outer shape of the shelf board, and is embedded in the vicinity of the top surface of the shelf board. It is characterized by being.
[0009]
Further, the present invention is characterized in that the electromagnetic shielding object has a substantially U-shape covering the upper surface or the lower surface and the side surface of the shelf board.
[0012]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings, taking an example of an article (book) management shelf applied to book management.
Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing one article management shelf, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing some shelf boards.
The article management shelf 10 is configured by three shelves by shelf plates 1a, 1b, and 1c provided in a plurality of stages (three stages in the figure) in parallel in the vertical direction.
In each shelf 1a, 1b, 1c, a loop line forming a loop antenna 2A is embedded in the surface of the shelf 1a, 1b, 1c, and the bottom shelf 1c is formed on the lower surface of each shelf 1a, 1b. Are provided with shielding plates 1a-1 and 1b-1 that are formed of a metal plate such as an iron plate and shield the electromagnetic field. In each shelf board 1a, 1b, as shown in FIG. 2, each of the loop antennas 2A has a rectangular shape along the outer shape of the shelf boards 1a, 1b, and is near the upper surface of each shelf board 1a, 1b. Buried. The loop antenna 2A and the shielding plates 1a-1 and 1b-1 attached to the lower surfaces of the shelf plates 1a and 1b are separated from each other by a predetermined distance Δ in the height direction in the shelf plates 1a and 1b. As a result, the electromagnetic field generated by the loop antenna 2A is radiated only upward from the shelf plates 1a and 1b, and the downward radiation is blocked.
[0013]
These loop antennas 2A are connected to a tuning circuit 3 shown in FIG. 3, and this tuning circuit 3 is connected to a reader / writer 6 shown in FIG. FIG. 4 shows an example of the tuning circuit 3. The tuning circuit 3 is formed on a substrate by a transformer 3a and a capacitor 3b, and connects the loop line 2a and the coaxial cable 20 by taking resonance and impedance matching. The coaxial cable 20 is connected to the reader / writer 6 through the connector 20a.
[0014]
FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a book to which an IC card is attached, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the IC card. The IC card 5 has a tag shape and is attached to the lower part of the spine 4 a of the book 4. As shown in FIG. 6, the IC card 5 includes a card antenna 5a having a loop shape and an IC chip connected thereto. The resonance card 7 is attached to the lower part of the cover of the book 4 so that the end of the book 4 is close to the end of the IC card 5. The resonance card 7 can resonate with the card antenna 5a to enable communication with the resonance of the resonance card and the loop antenna even when the placement direction of the book is different, for example, when the IC card and the loop antenna are difficult to communicate directly. Yes.
[0015]
FIG. 7 shows an arrangement relationship between each shelf board and the book, in which (a) is a perspective view and (b) is a side view. As is clear from these drawings, the loops of the shelf boards 1a and 1b with respect to the placement position of the book 4 so that the surface of the card antenna of the IC card 5 is positioned in the vertical plane of the loop coil of the loop antenna 2A It is desirable to provide the antenna 2A.
[0016]
Embodiment 2. FIG.
FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing the second embodiment.
In the first embodiment, the iron plate as the shielding plate is a flat plate. However, as shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, it may be substantially U-shaped to cover the lower surface and the side surface of the shelf plate. According to the shielding plates 1a-2 and 1a-3 having such a shape, the shielding plates 1a-2 and 1a-3 not only shield the electromagnetic field, but also function sufficiently as a reinforcing plate for increasing the strength of the shelf plate made of a low strength dielectric. be able to.
[0017]
In the above embodiment, the shielding plate is attached to the lower surface of the shelf plate so that the electric power is radiated only upward and not radiated downward, but conversely, the shield plate is provided on the upper surface of the shelf plate. It goes without saying that power may be radiated only downward. That is, each loop antenna may communicate with an IC card of an article provided below the loop antenna. Moreover, although the book was described as an example as an article, instead of a book, when a document is classified into files and stored in a file shelf, an IC card is attached to each file and a loop antenna is provided in the file shelf. The present invention can also be applied to such a case.
[0018]
【The invention's effect】
As described in detail above, according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent electromagnetic coupling between the respective loop antennas arranged on a plurality of shelves, and to provide an article management shelf excellent in reliability and functionality. be able to.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an article management shelf in Embodiment 1 of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view showing a part of a shelf board.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a tuning circuit.
FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram showing an example of a tuning circuit.
FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a book provided with an IC card and a resonance circuit.
FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing an IC card.
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a positional relationship between a book and a loop antenna.
FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a shelf board showing a second embodiment.
FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a conventional article management shelf.
FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a shelf portion of a conventional article management shelf.
[Explanation of symbols]
1a, 1b, 1c Shelf plate, 1a-1, 1a-2, 1a-3, 1b-1, 1b-2, 1b-3 Shield plate, 2A loop antenna, 4 books, 5 IC card, 6 reader / writer.

Claims (3)

An article management shelf in which an antenna unit connected to one reader / writer is embedded in each of a plurality of shelf boards,
A metal electromagnetic shield such as an iron plate is installed at a predetermined distance away from the embedded antenna portion on the upper surface or lower surface of at least some of the plurality of shelf plates,
The electromagnetic field radiated from the antenna unit embedded in at least a part of the shelf board is shielded by a metal electromagnetic shielding object such as the installed iron plate, and the antenna adjacent to the surface on which the electromagnetic shielding object is installed An article management shelf characterized by preventing electromagnetic coupling . The antenna part embedded in the shelf board is a loop antenna,
The article management shelf according to claim 1, wherein the antenna portion has a rectangular shape along an outer shape of the shelf board, and is embedded in the vicinity of the upper surface of the shelf board.   The article management shelf according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the electromagnetic shield has a substantially U-shape covering an upper surface, a lower surface, and a side surface of the shelf board.

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