JP7306730B2 - Information processing device, reading system, information processing method, and program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an information processing device, a reading system, an information processing method, and a program.

Various techniques have been proposed for radio frequency identifier (RFID) tags. For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a data processing device capable of avoiding erroneous reading of non-reading tags when reading a large number of RFID tags. This data processing device judges that a tag with a low RSSI level is a tag that is not to be read because it is not arranged at a prescribed position for reading, and performs reading processing while excluding the tag when reading. .

JP 2011-113496 A

In recent years, various types of RFID tags with different response performance have become popular, and it is expected that RFID tags will be read in a mixed state. In this case, it is required to appropriately read RFID tags existing within a predetermined area regardless of their types. However, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 is a technique for appropriately reading a plurality of RFID tags of one type with the same response performance. cannot be read by

Therefore, one of the objects to be achieved by the embodiments disclosed in this specification is to appropriately read even when various types of RFID tags with different response performance are mixed and used. To provide an information processing device, a reading system, an information processing method, and a program that can

An information processing device according to a first aspect includes:
a tag information acquisition unit that acquires tag information stored in the RFID tag;
an RSSI acquisition unit that acquires the RSSI of the signal from the RFID tag;
a read determination unit that identifies the type of the RFID tag and determines whether the tag information is valid read data based on a comparison result between a threshold corresponding to the identified type and the RSSI. .

A reading system according to a second aspect includes:
a reading device that communicates with an RFID tag to read tag information stored in the RFID tag and measures the RSSI of a signal from the RFID tag;
comprising an information processing device and
The information processing device is
a tag information acquisition unit that acquires tag information stored in the RFID tag from the reader;
an RSSI acquisition unit that acquires the RSSI of the signal from the RFID tag from the reader;
a read determination unit that identifies the type of the RFID tag and determines whether the tag information is valid read data based on a comparison result between a threshold corresponding to the identified type and the RSSI. .

In the information processing method according to the third aspect,
Acquiring tag information stored in an RFID tag,
Obtaining the RSSI of the signal from the RFID tag;
The type of the RFID tag is specified, and whether or not the tag information is valid read data is determined based on the result of comparison between the threshold corresponding to the specified type and the RSSI.

A program according to a fourth aspect,
a tag information acquisition step of acquiring tag information stored in the RFID tag;
an RSSI acquisition step of acquiring an RSSI of a signal from the RFID tag;
a reading determination step of identifying the type of the RFID tag and determining whether the tag information is valid reading data based on a comparison result between the threshold corresponding to the identified type and the RSSI; to execute.

According to the above-described aspects, an information processing device, a reading system, an information processing method, and an information processing device capable of appropriately reading even when various types of RFID tags with different response performance are mixed and used. program can be provided.

1 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of an information processing apparatus according to an outline of an embodiment; FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of a reading system according to Embodiment 1; FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the information processing apparatus according to the first exemplary embodiment; FIG. 6 is a table showing an example of information indicating the correspondence relationship between the type of RFID tag and the threshold, which is used by the reading determination unit to specify the threshold; FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing a range of RFID tags from which tag information is extracted as effective read data when only one type of RFID tag is used in a comparative example; FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing a range of RFID tags from which tag information is extracted as effective reading data when three types of RFID tags are used in a comparative example; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a range of RFID tags from which tag information is extracted as effective read data when three types of RFID tags are used in Embodiment 1; 4 is a flow chart showing an example of an operation for determination on tag information; FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of a reading system according to a second embodiment; FIG. It is a schematic diagram showing the periphery of the gate, and is a view of the gate as seen from the side. It is a schematic diagram showing the detection area of the sensor, and is a view of the gate as seen from above. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of functional configuration of an information processing apparatus according to a second embodiment; FIG. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a flow line that satisfies a condition for starting reading processing of an RFID tag; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a flow line that satisfies a condition for starting reading processing of an RFID tag; FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a flow line that does not satisfy the conditions for starting RFID tag reading processing; FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a flow line that does not satisfy the conditions for starting RFID tag reading processing; FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a flow line that satisfies conditions for ending reading processing of an RFID tag; FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a flow line that satisfies conditions for ending reading processing of an RFID tag; FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a flow line that satisfies conditions for ending reading processing of an RFID tag; FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a flow line that satisfies an RFID tag reading process termination condition and is determined that an article has not passed through a gate; FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a flow line that satisfies an RFID tag reading process termination condition and is determined that an article has not passed through a gate; 9 is a flow chart showing an example of the operation flow of the reading system according to the second embodiment; FIG. 23 is a flow chart showing an example of a specific processing flow of step S211 shown in FIG. 22; FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment; FIG.

<Overview of Embodiment>
Prior to detailed description of the embodiments, an outline of the embodiments will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of an information processing device 1 according to the outline of the embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the information processing apparatus 1 has a tag information acquisition section 2, an RSSI acquisition section 3, and a reading determination section 4. FIG.

The tag information acquisition unit 2 acquires tag information stored in the RFID tag. Here, the tag information is arbitrary information stored in the RFID tag. For example, the tag information may be identification information for identifying the RFID tag itself or the object to which the RFID tag is attached, or information indicating the characteristics of the article (for example, product) to which the RFID tag is attached (for example, , expiration date, etc.). For example, the tag information acquisition unit 2 acquires tag information read by a reader from the reader. The reading device includes, for example, an antenna that transmits radio waves for communicating with the RFID tag and receives radio waves that respond to the radio waves from the RFID tag.

The RSSI acquisition unit 3 acquires the RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) of the signal from the RFID tag. For example, the RSSI acquisition unit 3 acquires the RSSI measured by the reading device from this reading device. Note that this RSSI is specifically the RSSI of the signal received from the RFID tag when the reader reads the tag information from the RFID tag via the antenna.

The reading determination unit 4 identifies the type of RFID tag from which the tag information and RSSI have been acquired, and determines whether the tag information is valid reading data based on the comparison result between the threshold corresponding to the identified type and the RSSI. determine whether or not In other words, the read determination unit 4 sorts out whether the acquired tag information is valid read data or invalid read data according to the comparison result between the RSSI and the threshold value.

In general, the RSSI magnitude depends on the distance between the RFID tag and the reader's antenna. Therefore, by determining whether the read tag information is valid reading data based on the comparison result between the RSSI magnitude and the threshold value, it is possible to read from the RFID tag existing within the predetermined area. Only the tagged tag information can be extracted as valid read data. However, in general, when various RFID tags with different response performance are used, the following can be said. In this case, even if the distance between the RFID tag and the antenna of the reader is the same, and the transmission power of the radio wave output from the antenna of the reader is the same, the RSSI of the response signal from each RFID tag is different. Therefore, if a uniform threshold value is used to determine the response signal from the RFID tag when radio waves are output from the antenna at a constant transmission power, the tag information can be extracted as valid read data. The area changes depending on the type of RFID tag. On the other hand, according to the information processing apparatus 1, as described above, it is determined whether or not the acquired tag information is valid read data by switching the threshold according to the type of RFID tag. Therefore, the region from which tag information is extracted as valid reading data can be fixed regardless of the type of RFID tag. Therefore, even when various types of RFID tags with different response performance are used together, reading can be performed appropriately.

<Embodiment 1>
Next, details of the embodiment will be described.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the reading system 10 according to the first embodiment. The reading system 10 includes a reading device 100 and an information processing device 300 . Note that FIG. 2 also illustrates three types of RFID tags having different response performances, namely, an RFID tag 91A, an RFID tag 91B, and an RFID tag 91C. Hereinafter, the RFID tag 91A, the RFID tag 91B, and the RFID tag 91C will be referred to as the RFID tag 91 when they are referred to without particular distinction.

The RFID tag 91 is, for example, a passive RFID tag. For example, the RFID tag 91A is the RFID tag with the shortest reading distance among the three types of RFID tags 91 described above. Further, the RFID tag 91C is the RFID tag with the longest reading distance among the three types of RFID tags 91 described above. The RFID tag 91B has a longer reading distance than the RFID tag 91A and a shorter reading distance than the RFID tag 91C. Here, the reading distance means the RFID tag 91 and the response from the RFID tag 91 to which the RFID tag 91 can respond when a signal is output from the antenna 102 of the reader 100 to the RFID tag 91 at a predetermined transmission power. Refers to the maximum distance between antennas 102 that receive signals. The reading distance can also be called a communicable distance or a responsive distance. Note that the reading distance depends on the transmission power of the antenna 102, and by increasing the transmission power, the reading distance of the RFID tag 91 becomes longer. In the example shown in FIG. 2, three types of RFID tags 91 with different reading distances are read together, but the number of types is not limited to three, and may be less. and may be more. Each RFID tag 91 stores tag information.

The reading system 10 is a reading system that extracts only the tag information of the RFID tags 91 existing within a predetermined area without omission as effective read data. For example, the reading device 100 may be placed in a store that sells products, and may be used to read the RFID tags 91 attached to each of the purchased products gathered within a predetermined area. In this case, it is required to extract the tag information of the RFID tag 91 attached to the product to be purchased without excess or deficiency. In other words, the tag information of all the RFID tags 91 located within the predetermined area should be used as valid read data without using the tag information of the RFID tags 91 located outside the predetermined area as valid read data. is required.

The reader 100 is a device for communicating with an RFID tag 91 attached to an article such as a product to read tag information stored in the RFID tag 91 , and has an RFID reader 101 and an antenna 102 . The reading device 100 is communicably connected to the information processing device 300 by wire or wirelessly.

RFID reader 101 is a control circuit that communicates with RFID tag 91 via antenna 102 according to a predetermined communication protocol and reads information stored in RFID tag 91 . The RFID reader 101 also measures the RSSI of the signal (response signal) from the RFID tag 91 received by the antenna 102 . The RFID reader 101 outputs information read from the RFID tag 91 to the information processing device 300 . Further, the RFID reader 101 outputs RSSI data of the signal from the RFID tag 91 to the information processing device 300 . More specifically, the RSSI data is data in which the identification information included in the tag information of the RFID tag 91 that transmitted the signal is associated with the RSSI value.

The antenna 102 is installed at a position where radio waves can be transmitted and received with the RFID tag 91 within a predetermined area, transmits radio waves toward the RFID tag 91, and receives radio waves transmitted by the RFID tag 91. . Note that the number of antennas 102 may be one or more, and the number is not limited. Further, the antenna 102 may be provided with a separate antenna for transmission and an antenna for reception.

The information processing device 300 is a device that controls the reading device 100 and extracts only effective reading data from the read tag information group based on the RSSI measured by the reading device 100 . That is, the information processing device 300 is a device that determines whether or not the read tag information has been stored in the RFID tag 91 within a predetermined area. The information processing device 300 is communicably connected to the reading device 100 . The information processing apparatus 300 may be communicably connected to a server having a database that manages tag information determined to be valid read data. Also, the information processing device 300 itself may have such a database.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the information processing device 300. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3 , the information processing apparatus 300 has a communication section 310 , a reading control section 320 and a reading determination section 330 .

Communication unit 310 is a component that communicates with other devices and transmits and receives information to and from other devices, and includes tag information acquisition unit 311 and RSSI acquisition unit 312 . A tag information acquisition unit 311 corresponds to the tag information acquisition unit 2 in FIG. 1 and acquires tag information stored in the RFID tag 91 from the RFID reader 101 of the reader 100 . An RSSI acquisition unit 312 corresponds to the RSSI acquisition unit 3 in FIG. 1 and acquires RSSI data from the RFID reader 101 of the reader 100 . The tag information acquisition unit 311 and RSSI acquisition unit 312 can also acquire the tag information and RSSI of the RFID tag 91 existing outside the predetermined area. Note that the communication unit 310 transmits tag information determined to be valid read data by a reading determination unit 330, which will be described later, to a server (for example, POS (Point of Sales) data) having a database that manages tag information. may be sent to a server that manages the

The reading control unit 320 controls the start and end of reading processing of the reading device 100 . Further, the reading control unit 320 may control transmission power of radio waves output from the antenna 102 of the reading device 100 . Here, as the transmission power of the radio waves output from the antenna 102, the following transmission power is set. That is, the transmission power of the radio waves output from the antenna 102 is set to the transmission power at which the RFID tag 91A, which has the lowest response performance among the RFID tags 91 to be read, can respond at all positions within a predetermined area. In other words, the transmission power of the radio waves output from the antenna 102 is set to the transmission power at which the RFID tag 91A, which has the shortest reading distance among the mixed RFID tags 91, can respond at all positions within a predetermined area. be. It should be noted that such set values are experimentally determined in advance. As a result, the tag information of all the RFID tags 91 existing within the predetermined area can be read without leaking. However, since the tag information of the RFID tag 91 existing outside the predetermined area can also be read, the information processing apparatus 300 excludes such tag information by the read determination unit 330 described later. The transmission power of the radio waves output from the antenna 102 may be set by the user's operation on the reading device 100 instead of being controlled by the reading control unit 320 . The antenna 102 outputs radio waves to various RFID tags 91 at a set constant transmission power, and receives response signals from these various RFID tags 91 .

The read determination section 330 corresponds to the read determination section 4 in FIG. That is, the reading determination unit 330 first identifies the types of all RFID tags 91 whose tag information and RSSI are acquired by the communication unit 310 . The reading determination section 330 identifies the type of the RFID tag 91 based on the tag information acquired by the tag information acquisition section 311 . Specifically, for example, the reading determination unit 330 identifies the type of the RFID tag 91 using the identification information included in the tag information read from the RFID tag 91 . Here, the identification information may be identification information for identifying the RFID tag 91 itself, or identification information for identifying an object to which the RFID tag 91 is attached. Further, the identification information for identifying the RFID tag 91 itself may be identification information for identifying the individual RFID tag 91, or may be identification information for identifying the type of the RFID tag 91. good. Similarly, the identification information for identifying the object to which the RFID tag 91 is attached may be identification information for identifying the individual object, or identification information for identifying the type of object. good too.

When identification information for identifying the type of RFID tag 91 is used to identify the type of RFID tag 91 , reading determination section 330 refers to this identification information to identify the type of RFID tag 91 . When the type of RFID tag 91 is specified based on the identification information for identifying the RFID tag 91 itself, the reading determination unit 330 specifies the type of RFID tag 91 as follows. In this case, the reading determination unit 330 refers to information indicating the correspondence relationship between the identification information and the type of the RFID tag 91, stored in advance in a storage device such as a memory 361 (to be described later) of the information processing device 300, and reads the RFID tag 91. The type of tag 91 is specified. Even when the type of the RFID tag 91 is specified based on the identification information for identifying the individual object to which the RFID tag 91 is attached or the identification information for identifying the type of the object, the reading determination unit 330 Similarly, the type of RFID tag 91 is identified. That is, in these cases as well, the read determination unit 330 refers to information indicating the correspondence relationship between the identification information and the type of the RFID tag 91, which is stored in advance in a storage device such as the memory 361. Identify types.
By using the tag information in this manner, the type of RFID tag 91 can be easily identified.

When the type of the RFID tag 91 is specified, the reading determination unit 330 reads the tag information from the RFID tag 91 based on the comparison result between the threshold corresponding to the specified type and the RSSI of the radio wave from the RFID tag 91. to be valid read data. The read determination unit 330 determines that the tag information is valid read data when the RSSI value is equal to or greater than the threshold. That is, in this case, the read determination unit 330 determines that the RFID tag 91 storing the tag information to be determined is the RFID tag 91 existing within the predetermined area. On the other hand, when the RSSI value is less than the threshold value, the read determination unit 330 determines that the tag information is invalid read data. That is, in this case, the read determination unit 330 determines that the RFID tag 91 storing the tag information to be determined is the RFID tag 91 that exists outside the predetermined area. In this manner, the read determination unit 330 sorts out whether each piece of acquired tag information is valid read data or invalid read data according to the comparison result between the RSSI and the threshold.

FIG. 4 is a table showing an example of information indicating the correspondence relationship between the type of RFID tag 91 and the threshold, which is used by the reading determination unit 330 to specify the threshold. The lookup table shown in FIG. 4 is stored in advance in a storage device such as the memory 361, for example. The lookup table shown in FIG. 4 manages the threshold values for each of the three types of RFID tags 91 of type A, type B, and type C. FIG. For example, the RFID tag 91A described above is a type A RFID tag, the RFID tag 91B is a type B RFID tag, and the RFID tag 91C is a type C RFID tag. In this case, the reading determination unit 330 uses the threshold TH_A for the RFID tag 91A, the threshold TH_B for the RFID tag 91B, and the threshold TH_C for the RFID tag 91C. Here, since the reading distance is longer in the order of the RFID tag 91A belonging to type A, the RFID tag 91B belonging to type B, and the RFID tag 91C belonging to type C, the above-mentioned thresholds are set in the order of threshold TH_A, threshold TH_B, and threshold TH_C. set to be large. In this way, the reading determination unit 330 uses the first threshold value for the first type RFID tag 91, and the second type RFID tag 91 whose reading distance is longer than the first type RFID tag 91. , a second threshold that is greater than the first threshold is used. By doing so, even if the tag information of the RFID tag 91 existing outside the predetermined area is read, this tag information can be treated as invalid read data regardless of the type of the RFID tag 91. .

Here, the effects of this embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. First, a comparative example for explaining the effects of the present embodiment will be described using FIGS. 5 and 6, and the effects of the present embodiment will be described using FIG. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a range of RFID tags from which tag information is extracted as valid read data when only the RFID tag 91B is used in the comparative example. Note that FIG. 5 also shows the antenna 102 and the predetermined area 900 . A predetermined area 900 is an area in the vicinity of the antenna 102, and is an existence range of the RFID tag 91 from which tag information is to be extracted. That is, while it is necessary to extract the tag information of all the RFID tags 91 within the area 900, it is required that the tag information of the RFID tags 91 outside the area 900 not be extracted. Note that these also apply to FIGS. 6 and 7, which will be described later.

In the comparative example, it is assumed that only the transmission power of the antenna 102 is adjusted in order to match the existence range of the RFID tag 91 from which tag information is to be extracted with the predetermined area 900 . Therefore, in the comparative example, all tag information read by the reading device 100 is treated as valid read data.

In FIG. 5, an arrow 901B indicates the existence range of the RFID tag 91B from which tag information is extracted. When only the RFID tag 91B is used, by adjusting the transmission power of the antenna 102 to adjust the readable range, the presence of the RFID tag 91B from which the tag information is extracted as indicated by the arrow 901B in FIG. The range can be matched with a predetermined area 900 .

However, when multiple types of RFID tags 91 are used, the following problems arise. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a range of RFID tags from which tag information is extracted as valid reading data when three types of RFID tags 91 are used in a comparative example. Specifically, in FIG. 6, an RFID tag 91A and an RFID tag 91C are also used in addition to the RFID tag 91B. In FIG. 6, an arrow 901A indicates the existence range of the RFID tag 91A from which tag information is extracted, an arrow 901B indicates the existence range of the RFID tag 91B from which tag information is extracted, and an arrow 901C indicates the extraction of tag information. It shows the existence range of the RFID tag 91C to be detected. In this case, tag information is properly extracted for the RFID tag 91B, but tag information is not properly extracted for the RFID tag 91A and the RFID tag 91C. The RFID tag 91A is an RFID tag with lower response performance than the RFID tag 91B. For this reason, the transmission power of the antenna 102 is insufficient for the RFID tag 91A, and the range in which the tag information can be read becomes narrower than that of the RFID tag 91B. That is, the existence range of the RFID tag 91A from which tag information is extracted becomes narrower than the area 900. FIG. Further, the RFID tag 91C is an RFID tag with higher response performance than the RFID tag 91B. Therefore, the range in which the tag information can be read becomes wider than that of the RFID tag 91B. That is, the existence range of the RFID tag 91C from which tag information is extracted becomes wider than the area 900. FIG.

On the other hand, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, appropriate tag information can be extracted for all kinds of RFID tags 91 . FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing a range of RFID tags from which tag information is extracted as effective read data when three types of RFID tags 91 are used in this embodiment. In the example shown in FIG. 7, as in the example shown in FIG. 6, RFID tags 91A and 91C are also used in addition to the RFID tag 91B. In FIG. 7, a dashed arrow 902A indicates the existence range of the RFID tag 91A from which tag information is read. Similarly, the dashed arrow 902B indicates the existence range of the RFID tag 91B from which tag information is read, and the dashed arrow 902C indicates the existence range of the RFID tag 91C from which tag information is read. In FIG. 7, a solid arrow 901A indicates the existence range of the RFID tag 91A from which tag information is extracted. Similarly, the solid-line arrow 901B indicates the presence range of the RFID tag 91B from which tag information is extracted, and the solid-line arrow 901C indicates the presence range of the RFID tag 91C from which tag information is extracted. In this embodiment, the transmission power of antenna 102 is adjusted so that the tag information of RFID tag 91A can be read at all positions within area 900 . Therefore, as indicated by arrows 902B and 902C, even if the RFID tag 91B and the RFID tag 91C exist outside the area 900, the tag information can be read by the reader 100. FIG. However, in the present embodiment, even if such tag information is read, the RSSI value and an appropriate threshold according to the type of RFID tag 91 are used to Only the tag information of the is properly extracted. That is, as indicated by arrows 901A, 901B, and 901C, tag information can be appropriately extracted for any RFID tag 91. FIG. In the example shown in FIG. 7, the readable range of the RFID tag 91A (see arrow 902A) matches the range of the area 900. It can be wide. That is, as the transmission power of the antenna 102, such transmission power may be set.

Next, the flow of operation for judgment on tag information will be described. FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing an example of the operation for determination on tag information. The flow of operation will be described below with reference to FIG.

In step S<b>100 , based on the tag information (identification information) acquired by the tag information acquisition section 311 , the reading determination section 330 identifies the type of the RFID tag 91 that transmitted the tag information.
Next, in step S101, the read determination unit 330 compares the threshold corresponding to the type of RFID tag 91 identified in step S100 with the RSSI of the RFID tag 91 acquired by the RSSI acquisition unit 312. FIG. If the RSSI value is greater than or equal to the threshold (Yes in step S102), the process proceeds to step S103, and if the RSSI value is less than the threshold (No in step S102), the process proceeds to step S104.
In step S103, the read determination unit 330 determines that the tag information to be determined is valid read data.
On the other hand, in step S104, the read determination unit 330 determines that the tag information to be determined is invalid read data.
If determination has not been performed for all the tag information read by the reading device 100 (No in step S105), the process returns to step S100, and another tag information is similarly determined. On the other hand, if determination has been made for all tag information read by the reading device 100 (Yes in step S105), the process ends.

The first embodiment has been described above. According to the present embodiment, as described above, it is determined whether or not the acquired tag information is valid read data by switching the threshold according to the type of RFID tag 91 . Therefore, even when various types of RFID tags with different response performance are used together, reading can be performed appropriately. More specifically, only RFID tags 91 existing within a predetermined area 900 can be read without leaking.

<Embodiment 2>
Next, Embodiment 2 will be described.
In the present disclosure, a gate is a partition of space set to manage the loading or unloading of articles, and does not necessarily have to be a physical structure. A gate may be referred to as a transfer port, or may be referred to as a loading port or a loading port. For example, when managing the delivery of goods to a certain place, it means that the goods have been carried in when the goods are moved from the entrance side to the exit side of a gate (carry-in entrance). Similarly, when managing the unloading of goods from a certain place, it means that the goods have been unloaded when the goods are moved from the entrance side to the exit side of the gate (unloading port). It should be noted that carrying-in or carrying-out may specifically be carrying-in or carrying-out (warehousing or leaving) of articles in a warehouse or a store, for example. In addition, when the gate is installed in a store that sells products, management of passage of products through the gate (that is, management of carry-out of products) means identification of products to be purchased.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the reading system 20 according to the second embodiment. FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing the periphery of the gate 50, and is a view of the gate viewed from the side. FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing detection areas of the sensors 200A and 200B, and is a top view of the gate. As shown in FIG. 9, the reading system 20 has a reading device 100a, sensors 200A and 200B, an information processing device 300a, and a DB server 400. FIG. The reading system 20 is a system that manages the transportation of the article 90 (specifically, the carry-in or carry-out) by managing the passage of the article 90 through the gate. The reading system 20 identifies the article 90 that has passed through the gate 50 by reading the RFID tag 91 attached to the article 90 to be managed. Thereby, the reading system 20 manages whether or not each article 90 has been transported. Here, the RFID tag 91 to be used is not limited to one type, as in the first embodiment. In other words, various types of RFID tags 91 are used in this embodiment as well.

In the description of the present embodiment, for convenience of explanation, an entrance and an exit are defined for the gate 50. You may manage transportation.

The reading device 100a is a device for communicating with an RFID tag 91 attached to an article 90 to be managed to be carried in or carried out and reading information stored in the RFID tag 91, and includes an RFID reader 101 and an antenna 102. have. The reading device 100a is communicably connected to the information processing device 300a by wire or wirelessly. Identification information for uniquely identifying the article 90 is pre-stored in the RFID tag 91 , and the reader 100 a reads the tag information stored in the RFID tag 91 .

Since the RFID reader 101 and the antenna 102 have been described in Embodiment 1, detailed description thereof will be omitted. The RFID reader 101 outputs information read from the RFID tag 91 to the information processing device 300a. Further, the RFID reader 101 outputs RSSI data of the signal from the RFID tag 91 to the information processing device 300a.

In this embodiment, the antenna 102 is installed at a position where it can transmit and receive radio waves to and from the RFID tag 91 passing through the gate. receive radio waves. That is, in this embodiment, the antenna 102 is provided near the gate 50 and communicates with the RFID tag 91 near the gate 50 . In this embodiment, two antennas 102 are installed on each side of the gate 50, for a total of four antennas 102, but the number of antennas 102 is not limited as long as it is one or more. Further, the antenna 102 may be provided with a separate antenna for transmission and an antenna for reception.

Sensors 200A and 200B are sensors that detect an object in a predetermined area. The sensors 200A and 200B are communicably connected to the information processing device 300a by wire or wirelessly. The sensors 200A and 200B detect various objects such as a person, an AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle), and an article that have entered a predetermined area. The sensor 200A is a sensor that detects an object within a predetermined detection area 51A on the entrance side of the gate 50 (see FIGS. 10 and 11). A sensor 200B is a sensor that detects an object within a predetermined detection area 51B on the exit side of the gate 50 (see FIGS. 10 and 11). In this embodiment, the sensor 200A is provided near the upper portion of the gate 50 on the entrance side, and the sensor 200B is provided near the upper portion of the gate 50 on the exit side.

In the present embodiment, sensors 200A and 200B emit light beams 201 to respective partial regions 510A and 510B obtained by dividing predetermined detection regions 51A and 51B in a grid pattern, and receive reflected light of the light beams 201. It is a sensor that detects an object. In addition, although the light ray 201 is, for example, infrared rays, it is not limited to infrared rays. Sensors 200A, 200B detect an object by detecting whether the respective light beam 201 emitted to each partial area 510A, 510B is blocked by the object. The sensor 200A emits light beams to each of the partial areas 510A (see FIGS. 10 and 11) obtained by dividing the detection area 51A on the entrance side of the gate 50 into a grid pattern, and receives the reflected light of each emitted light beam. . Similarly, the sensor 200B emits light beams to each of the partial areas 510B (see FIGS. 10 and 11) obtained by dividing the detection area 51B on the exit side of the gate 50 into a grid pattern, and reflects the emitted light beams. receive light.

Sensors 200A and 200B detect the presence of an object based on the difference in the reception state of reflected light between when the object exists and when the object does not exist. The difference in light receiving state may be a difference in reflection time or a difference in the amount of light received.

As described above, sensors 200A, 200B emit light beams to respective sub-areas 510A, 510B. Therefore, if the total number of partial areas 510A or 510B in the detection area 51A or 51B is n, the sensors 200A and 200B obtain n detection results of the object. When an object moves within the detection area 51A or 51B, the range of the partial area 510A or 510B where the detection result that the object exists changes over time. The transition of the range of the partial area 510A or 510B where the detection result that the object exists corresponds to the movement direction. Therefore, by analyzing the time-series data of the n detection results of the sensors 200A and 200B, it is possible to identify the movement direction of the object within the detection area 51A or 51B. That is, it is possible to identify the line of flow. In the present embodiment, the information processing device 300a identifies the line of flow. Therefore, the sensors 200A and 200B each sequentially transmit the above-described n detection results to the information processing device 300a. Thereby, the information processing device 300a acquires time-series data of detection results of the partial regions 510A and 510B by the sensors 200A and 200B.

In this embodiment, the entrance sensor 200A and the exit sensor 200B are used to detect an object, but one sensor that detects both the detection areas 51A and 51B is used. may

Further, as described above, in the present embodiment, the sensor that emits the light beam 201 to each of the partial regions 510A and 510B is used for object detection. Any other sensor capable of For example, a camera that captures movement of objects in the detection areas 51A and 51B may be used.

The DB server 400 is a database server that stores information about each item 90 . The DB server 400 manages, for example, various pieces of information about articles, including at least information indicating the transportation state of articles (hereinafter referred to as transportation information) in association with identification information of articles 90 . Conveyance information is information indicating whether or not the article has already been conveyed. In this embodiment, the transport information stored in the DB server 400 is updated by the information processing device 300 a based on the tag information of the RFID tag 91 that has passed through the gate 50 .

The information processing device 300a controls the reading device 100a based on the detection results of the sensors 200A and 200B, and conveys each article based on the detection results of the sensors 200A and B and the RSSI measured by the reading device 100a. It is a device that manages whether or not the The information processing device 300a is communicably connected to the reading device 100a, the sensors 200A and 200B, and the DB server 400. FIG. In the configuration shown in FIG. 9, the information processing device 300a updates the transportation information of the article 90 managed by the database by communicating with the DB server 400. The information processing device 300a updates such database. may have. That is, in the reading system 20, the DB server 400 may be omitted.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the information processing device 300a. As shown in FIG. 12, the information processing apparatus 300a includes a communication unit 310a, a reading control unit 320a, a reading determination unit 330, a flow line identification unit 340, and a data update unit 350.

The communication unit 310a is a component that communicates with other devices and transmits and receives information to and from other devices. including. Since the tag information acquisition unit 311 and the RSSI acquisition unit 312 have been described in the description of the first embodiment, detailed description thereof will be omitted. A tag information acquisition unit 311 and an RSSI acquisition unit 312 acquire tag information and RSSI of the RFID tag 91 through which signals are transmitted to and from the antenna 102 . Note that the tag information acquisition unit 311 and the RSSI acquisition unit 312 acquire the tag information and RSSI of the RFID tags 91 near the gate 50. Tag information and RSSI may also be obtained. The sensor information acquisition unit 313 acquires detection results from the sensors 200A and 200B. Also, the server communication unit 314 transmits and receives information about the article 90 to and from the DB server 400 .

The flow line identification unit 340 identifies a flow line of movement of objects within a predetermined detection area near the gate 50 . Specifically, the flow line identification unit 340 identifies the flow line of movement of the object within the predetermined detection area 51A on the entrance side of the gate 50 based on the detection result of the sensor 200A. The flow line identification unit 340 also identifies the flow line of movement of the object within the predetermined detection area 51B on the exit side of the gate 50 . In the present embodiment, flow line identifying section 340 uses the time-series data of the detection results obtained from sensors 200A and 200B to obtain the detection results indicating the presence of an object. Analyze temporal transitions. Thereby, the flow line identification unit 340 identifies the flow line of the object. Specifically, the flow line identification unit 340 identifies the movement direction (movement route) of the object as the flow line. Note that when a camera is used as a sensor for object detection, the flow line identifying unit 340 identifies the flow line of the object by analyzing the image captured by the camera.

Since the reading determination unit 330 has been described in the description of the first embodiment, detailed description thereof will be omitted. In this embodiment as well, the reading determination unit 330 identifies the types of all RFID tags 91 for which tag information and RSSI have been acquired by the communication unit 310a. Then, the read determination unit 330 determines whether or not the read tag information is to be valid read data based on the comparison result between the threshold corresponding to the identified type and the RSSI.

The data updating section 350 updates the transportation information about the article 90 that has passed through the gate 50 . Therefore, the data updating unit 350 determines whether or not the article 90 specified by the tag information (identification information) read from the RFID tag 91 has passed through the gate 50 . Based on the flow line identified by the flow line identification unit 340 and the determination result of the reading determination unit 330, the data update unit 350 determines whether the article 90 identified by the tag information read from the RFID tag 91 passes through the gate 50. Determine whether or not it has passed. That is, the data update unit 350 determines whether or not the tag information stored in the RFID tag 91 near the gate 50 is valid reading data based on the specified flow line and the determination result as to whether the article 90 is valid. It is determined whether or not the gate 50 has been passed. More specifically, when it is determined that the identified flow line corresponds to a predetermined pattern and the read tag information is valid read data, the data updating unit 350 updates the article 90 to judged to have passed. Note that the data update unit 350 may be called a passage determination unit. Details of the processing of the data updating unit 350 will be described later.

The reading control unit 320a determines whether or not the flow line specified by the flow line specifying unit 340 corresponds to a predetermined pattern as a condition for starting the process of reading the RFID tag 91 . More specifically, the reading control unit 320a starts reading processing of the RFID tag 91 near the gate 50 when the identified flow line of movement of the object within the detection area 51A corresponds to this predetermined pattern. control to Specifically, the reading control unit 320a instructs the reading device 100a to start reading the RFID tag 91. FIG. As a result, reading processing is started by the reading device 100a, and if there is an RFID tag 91 that can communicate with the reading device 100a, the tag information of the RFID tag 91 is read by the reading device 100a. Also in this embodiment, the following transmission power is set as the transmission power of the radio waves output from the antenna 102 . That is, the transmission power of the radio waves output from the antenna 102 is set to the transmission power at which the RFID tag 91 with the lowest response performance among the RFID tags 91 to be read can respond at all positions within a predetermined area.

Specifically, in the present embodiment, the pattern predetermined as the condition for starting the reading process of the RFID tag 91 is a movement pattern of approaching a predetermined position near the entrance of the gate 50 . In other words, when the specified flow line indicates a movement approaching a predetermined position near the entrance of the gate 50, the reading control unit 320a controls to start reading processing of the RFID tag 91. FIG. Specifically, the predetermined position near the entrance is, for example, the edge of the detection area 51A on the side of the gate 50 .

13 and 14 are schematic diagrams showing examples of flow lines that satisfy conditions for starting the reading process of the RFID tag 91. FIG. In FIGS. 13 and 14, the hatched partial area 510A indicates the partial area 510A where the existence of the object is detected, and the arrow indicates the flow line. As shown in FIGS. 13 and 14, the identified object's flow line moves closer to a predetermined position near the entrance of the gate 50 (specifically, the edge of the detection area 51A on the side of the gate 50). When indicating, the reading control unit 320a controls to start reading processing.

On the other hand, FIGS. 15 and 16 are schematic diagrams showing examples of flow lines that do not satisfy the conditions for starting the process of reading the RFID tag 91. FIG. 15 and 16, the hatched partial area 510A indicates the partial area 510A where the existence of the object is detected, and the arrow indicates the flow line. FIG. 15 shows an example of a line of flow corresponding to movement across the periphery of the gate 50 . In addition, FIG. 16 shows an example of a line of flow corresponding to a movement to turn back after once approaching the gate 50 .

Further, the reading control unit 320a determines whether or not the flow line specified by the flow line specifying unit 340 corresponds to a predetermined pattern as a termination condition of the reading process of the RFID tag 91 or not. More specifically, the reading control unit 320a controls to end the reading process when the identified flow line of movement of the object within the detection area 51B corresponds to this predetermined pattern. Specifically, the reading control unit 320a instructs the reading device 100a to finish reading the RFID tag 91. FIG. This completes the reading process by the reading device 100a.

Specifically, in the present embodiment, one of the patterns predetermined as conditions for ending the reading process of the RFID tag 91 is a moving pattern of moving away from the vicinity of the exit of the gate 50 . That is, the reading control unit 320a controls to end the reading process of the RFID tag 91 when the specified line of flow indicates movement away from the vicinity of the exit of the gate 50. FIG.

17 and 18 are schematic diagrams showing examples of flow lines that satisfy conditions for ending the reading process of the RFID tag 91. FIG. 17 and 18, the hatched partial area 510B indicates the partial area 510B where the existence of the object is detected, and the arrow indicates the flow line. As shown in FIGS. 17 and 18, when the identified object's flow line indicates movement away from the vicinity of the exit of the gate 50, the reading control unit 320a controls to end the reading process.

Note that the pattern predetermined as the condition for ending the reading process may be a movement pattern from the vicinity of the exit of the gate 50 to the outside of the detection area 51B, as shown in FIGS. It may be a movement pattern that does not go out of 51B. That is, the pattern predetermined as the condition for ending the reading process may be a moving pattern (see FIG. 19) in which the exit of the gate 50 moves away from the predetermined position within the detection area 51B. In this case, even if the object has not moved outside the detection area 51B, the reading process can be terminated, and it is possible to prevent unnecessary continuation of the reading process.

By the way, when a flow line that satisfies the conditions for starting the reading process is obtained, for example, it is conceivable that the transporter turns back without passing through the gate 50 or after passing it once. In this case, the flow line described above that satisfies the conditions for ending the reading process cannot be obtained. Therefore, a predetermined pattern other than the pattern described above is also used as a termination condition for reading the RFID tag 91 . Such a pattern is a movement pattern moving away from near the entrance of gate 50 on the entrance side of gate 50 . Therefore, when the line of flow specified after the start of the reading process indicates movement away from the vicinity of the entrance of the gate 50 on the entrance side of the gate 50, the reading control unit 320a controls to end the reading process. That is, the reading control unit 320a controls to end the reading process when the specified flow line of movement of the object within the detection area 51A after the start of the reading process indicates movement away from the vicinity of the entrance of the gate 50. do. In such a case, the transport information should not be updated assuming that the article 90 specified by the tag information (identification information) read from the RFID tag 91 has passed through the gate 50 . Therefore, if the line of flow specified after the start of the reading process indicates movement away from the vicinity of the entrance of the gate 50 on the entrance side of the gate 50, the data updating unit 350 determines that the article 90 has not passed through the gate 50. do. In other words, the data update unit 350 detects movement away from the vicinity of the entrance of the gate 50 on the entrance side of the gate 50 instead of movement away from the vicinity of the exit of the gate 50 after the start of the reading process. It is determined that 50 has not been passed.

20 and 21 are schematic diagrams showing an example of a flow line that satisfies the conditions for ending the reading process and determines that the article 90 has not passed through the gate 50. FIG. 20 and 21, hatched partial areas 510A and 510B indicate partial areas 510A and 510B where the presence of an object is detected, and arrows indicate flow lines. FIG. 20 shows an example of a line of flow corresponding to movement that turns back without passing through the gate 50 . In addition, FIG. 21 shows an example of a line of flow corresponding to a movement that once passes through the gate 50 but turns back. As shown in FIGS. 20 and 21, after the reading process is started, when the entrance side of the gate 50 moves away from the vicinity of the entrance of the gate 50, the reading control unit 320a controls to end the reading process. Then, the data updating section 350 determines that the article 90 specified by the read tag information (identification information) has not passed through the gate 50 . By doing so, it is possible to prevent the transport information from being updated to erroneous information.

Here, consider the case where the article 90 is left near the entrance of the gate 50 . Also in this case, the transport information should not be updated assuming that the article 90 specified by the tag information (identification information) read from the RFID tag 91 has passed through the gate 50 . Therefore, the data updating unit 350 determines that the article 90 has not passed through the gate 50 when the flow line specified after the reading process is started indicates that the object remains near the entrance of the gate 50 . That is, if the specified flow line for the movement of the object within the detection area 51A after the start of the reading process indicates that the object stays near the entrance of the gate 50, the data updating unit 350 updates the article 90 to the gate. It is determined that 50 has not been passed. In other words, after the reading process is started, the data updating unit 350 determines that the article 90 does not pass through the gate 50 when it is detected that the object remains near the entrance of the gate 50 instead of moving away from the vicinity of the exit of the gate 50 . determine that it is not. By doing so, it is possible to prevent the transport information from being updated to erroneous information. Further, in this case, the reading control unit 320a controls to end the reading process. That is, when the flow line specified after the start of the reading process indicates that the object stays near the entrance of the gate 50, the reading control unit 320a controls to end the reading process.

Note that, as described above, the reading control unit 320a controls to end the reading process when the flow line specified after the reading process starts corresponds to any of patterns predetermined as conditions for ending the reading process. do. As described above, this predetermined pattern is, for example, moving away from the vicinity of the exit of the gate 50, moving away from the vicinity of the entrance of the gate 50 on the entrance side of the gate 50, and staying near the entrance of the gate 50. .

The data update unit 350 determines whether or not the article 90 specified by the tag information (identification information) read from the RFID tag 91 has passed through the gate 50 . As described above, the data update unit 350 determines that the article 90 does not pass through the gate 50 when the reading process is completed by identifying a flow line other than the movement pattern that moves away from the vicinity of the exit of the gate 50. determine that it is not. That is, the data updating unit 350 determines that the article 90 specified by the tag information (identification information) read by this reading process has not passed through the gate 50 . Therefore, in this case, the data updating unit 350 does not update the transportation information of the article 90 to transportation information indicating that the article 90 has passed through the gate 50 .

On the other hand, when the reading process is completed by specifying a flow line corresponding to the moving pattern moving away from the vicinity of the exit of the gate 50 , the data updating unit 350 determines that the article 90 has passed through the gate 50 . The article 90 specified by the tag information (identification information) obtained by this reading process is treated as a candidate for the article 90 that has passed through the gate 50 . Here, the candidate items 90 that have passed through the gate 50 may include items 90 that have not actually passed through the gate 50 . For example, when another article 90 exists near the gate 50 (reading device 100a) when the article 90 passes through the gate 50, the tag information of the RFID tag 91 of this another article 90 is also may be read.

When the data update unit 350 determines that the reading process is completed by specifying a flow line corresponding to the movement pattern moving away from the vicinity of the exit of the gate 50, that is, when it determines that the article 90 has passed through the gate 50, which Identify whether the item 90 has passed through the gate 50 . For this reason, the data updating unit 350 refers to the determination result of the reading determination unit 330 regarding the tag information read by this reading process. When the reading determination unit 330 determines that the tag information is valid read data, the data update unit 350 determines whether the article 90 attached with the RFID tag 91 storing this tag information actually passes through the gate. It is determined that That is, when the tag information is determined to be the data read from the RFID tag 91 in the predetermined area, the data update unit 350 updates the article 90 attached with the RFID tag 91 storing this tag information to the gate. is actually passed through. On the other hand, when the reading determination unit 330 determines that the tag information is invalid read data, the data updating unit 350 determines that the article 90 attached with the RFID tag 91 storing this tag information is actually is judged to have not passed through the gate. That is, when it is determined that the tag information is data read from the RFID tag 91 outside the predetermined area, the data updating section 350 updates the article 90 with the RFID tag 91 that stores this tag information. It is determined that the gate is not actually passed. In this way, when the specified flow line corresponds to a predetermined pattern, the data update unit 350 determines which article 90 (RFID tag 91) passes through the gate 50 according to the determination result of the reading determination unit 330. identify whether

After specifying the article 90 that has passed through the gate 50 , the data updating section 350 updates the transportation information of this article 90 to the transportation information indicating that the article 90 has passed through the gate 50 .

Next, the operation of reading system 20 will be described. FIG. 22 is a flow chart showing an example of the operation flow of the reading system 20 according to the second embodiment. The operation flow of the reading system 20 will be described below with reference to FIG.

In step S200, the flow line identification unit 340 identifies the flow line of movement of the object based on the detection results of the sensors 200A and 200B. It should be noted that this processing by the flow line identifying unit 340 is continuously performed while the processing after step S201 is being performed.

Next, in step S201, the reading control unit 320a determines whether or not the flow line specified by the flow line specifying unit 340 corresponds to a pattern predetermined as a condition for starting the reading process of the RFID tag 91. . In other words, the reading control unit 320a determines whether or not the specified line of flow indicates movement toward the entrance of the gate 50 . If the identified flow line does not indicate movement closer to the entrance of gate 50, the reading process is not started and the process returns to step S200. On the other hand, if the specified line of flow indicates movement toward the entrance of the gate 50, the process proceeds to step S202.

In step S<b>202 , the reading control unit 320 a determines that the conditions for starting the reading process are satisfied, and controls to start reading the RFID tag 91 .

Next, in step S<b>203 , the data updating unit 350 determines whether or not the line of flow after the start of the reading process indicates an object staying near the entrance of the gate 50 . If the object remains at the entrance of the gate 50 for the predetermined time or longer, the process proceeds to step S204, otherwise the process proceeds to step S206.

In step S204, the reading control unit 320a controls to end the reading process.

Then, in step S205, the data updating unit 350 determines that the article 90 specified by the tag information (identification information) read from the RFID tag 91 by the reading process started in step S202 has not passed through the gate 50. do. After step S205, the process returns to step S200.

On the other hand, in step S<b>206 , the data updating unit 350 determines whether or not the line of flow after the start of the reading process indicates movement back from the vicinity of the entrance of the gate 50 . If the line of flow indicates movement to turn back from near the entrance of gate 50, the process proceeds to step S207; otherwise, the process proceeds to step S209.

In step S207, the reading control unit 320a controls to end the reading process.

Then, in step S208, the data updating unit 350 determines that the article 90 specified by the tag information (identification information) read from the RFID tag 91 by the reading process started in step S202 has not passed through the gate 50. do. After step S208, the process returns to step S200.

On the other hand, in step S<b>209 , the data update unit 350 determines whether or not the line of flow after the start of the reading process indicates movement away from the vicinity of the exit of the gate 50 . If the line of flow indicates movement away from the vicinity of the exit of gate 50, the process proceeds to step S210; otherwise, the process returns to step S203.

In step S210, the reading control unit 320a controls to end the reading process.

Then, in step S<b>211 , the data update unit 350 updates the transport information of the article 90 that has passed through the gate 50 to transport information indicating that the article 90 has passed through the gate 50 . The flow of processing in this step will be specifically described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 23 is a flow chart showing an example of a specific processing flow of step S211 shown in FIG. In this process, the data updating unit 350 determines that the RSSI value of each of the RFID tags 91 read by the reading process started in step S202 is equal to or greater than the threshold set according to the type of the RFID tag 91. Determine whether or not As a result, the data updating unit 350 identifies the RFID tag 91 (item 90) that has passed through the gate 50. FIG. The flow of processing will be described below with reference to FIG.

In step S250, based on the tag information (identification information) acquired by the tag information acquisition section 311, the reading determination section 330 identifies the type of the RFID tag 91 that transmitted the tag information.
Next, in step S251, the read determination unit 330 compares the threshold corresponding to the type of RFID tag 91 identified in step S250 with the RSSI of the RFID tag 91 acquired by the RSSI acquisition unit 312. FIG. If the RSSI value is greater than or equal to the threshold (Yes in step S252), the process proceeds to step S253, and if the RSSI value is less than the threshold (No in step S252), the process proceeds to step S254.
In step S253, the read determination unit 330 determines that the tag information to be determined is valid read data.
On the other hand, in step S254, the read determination unit 330 determines that the tag information to be determined is invalid read data.
If determination has not been performed for all the tag information read by the reading device 100a in the reading process performed between steps S202 and S210 (No in step S255), the process returns to step S250 to read another tag information. is similarly determined. On the other hand, if determination has been made for all the tag information read by the reading device 100a (Yes in step S255), the process proceeds to step S256.
In step S<b>256 , the data updating unit 350 determines that the article 90 specified by the tag information determined to be valid read data has passed through the gate 50 . Then, the data updating unit 350 updates the transportation information of this article 90 to a value indicating that transportation has been completed.

The second embodiment has been described above. According to the reading system 20 , gate passage determination is performed using the flow line identification result and the RSSI determination result corresponding to the type of the RFID tag 91 . Therefore, it is possible to more reliably manage the carry-in or carry-out of articles. In particular, as described above, in the present embodiment, the RSSI threshold corresponding to the type of RFID tag 91 is used to distinguish between valid tag information and invalid tag information. Therefore, even if a plurality of sets consisting of the gate 50 and the reader 100a corresponding to the gate 50 are arranged, an article 90 that has passed through a certain gate 50 is erroneously determined to have passed through the next gate 50. The occurrence of defects such as

The information processing device 300 and the information processing device 300a described in the above embodiments may be configured as computers. FIG. 24 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of the information processing device 300 and the information processing device 300a. As shown in FIG. 24, the information processing device 300 and the information processing device 300a include a communication interface 360, a memory 361, and a processor 362. FIG.

Communication interface 360 is used to communicate with other devices. For example, the communication interface 360 includes an interface for communicating with the RFID reader 101, an interface for communicating with the DB server 400, and the like.

The memory 361 is configured by, for example, a combination of volatile memory and non-volatile memory. The memory 361 is used to store software (computer program) including one or more instructions executed by the processor 362, data used for various processes of the information processing device 300 or the information processing device 300a, and the like.

The processor 362 reads and executes software (computer program) from the memory 361 to process each component shown in FIG. 3 or 12 . The processor 362 may be, for example, a microprocessor, MPU (Micro Processor Unit), or CPU (Central Processing Unit). Processor 362 may include multiple processors.

In this way, the information processing device 300 and the information processing device 300a may have functions as computers. Similarly, the DB server 400 may also have a processor and memory, and may have functions as a computer. Note that the RFID reader 101 may also have a processor and a memory and function as a computer. Therefore, the functions of RFID reader 101 may be realized by executing a program by a processor. As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the functionality of reading system 10 or reading system 20 can be implemented in various forms using only hardware, only software, or a combination thereof, and is limited to either. isn't it.

Also, the programs described above can be stored and supplied to computers using various types of non-transitory computer readable media. Non-transitory computer-readable media include various types of tangible storage media. Examples of non-transitory computer-readable media include magnetic recording media (eg, flexible discs, magnetic tapes, hard disk drives), magneto-optical recording media (eg, magneto-optical discs), CD-ROM (Read Only Memory) CD-R, CD - R/W, including semiconductor memory (eg Mask ROM, PROM (Programmable ROM), EPROM (Erasable PROM), Flash ROM, RAM (Random Access Memory)). The program may also be supplied to the computer on various types of transitory computer readable medium. Examples of transitory computer-readable media include electrical signals, optical signals, and electromagnetic waves. Transitory computer-readable media can deliver the program to the computer via wired channels, such as wires and optical fibers, or wireless channels.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and can be modified as appropriate without departing from the scope of the invention.

1 information processing device 2 tag information acquisition unit 3 RSSI acquisition unit 4 reading determination unit 10 reading system 20 reading system 50 gate 51A detection area 51B detection area 90 article 91 RFID tag 100 reader 100a reader 101 RFID reader 102 antenna 200A sensor 200B Sensor 201 Light ray 300 Information processing device 300a Information processing device 310 Communication unit 310a Communication unit 311 Tag information acquisition unit 312 RSSI acquisition unit 313 Sensor information acquisition unit 314 Server communication unit 320 Read control unit 320a Read control unit 330 Read determination unit 340 Flow line Identification unit 350 Data update unit 360 Communication interface 361 Memory 362 Processor 400 DB server 510A Partial area 510B Partial area 900 Predetermined area

Claims (8)

a flow line identifying unit that identifies a moving route near a gate of an object carrying one or more articles each attached with an RFID tag ;
a tag information acquisition unit for acquiring tag information stored in the RFID tag and including information for identifying the article to which the RFID tag is attached ;
an RSSI acquisition unit that acquires the RSSI of the signal from the RFID tag;
a reading determination unit that identifies the type of the RFID tag and determines whether the tag information is valid read data based on a comparison result between a threshold value corresponding to the identified type and the RSSI;
When the specified movement route corresponds to a predetermined movement route pattern, according to the determination result of whether the tag information stored in the RFID tag near the gate is valid read data, and a passage determination unit that identifies which of the articles identified by the tag information read from the RFID tag has passed through the gate. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reading determination unit identifies the type of the RFID tag based on the tag information. 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the read determination unit determines that the tag information is valid read data when the RSSI value is equal to or greater than the threshold value. The reading determination unit uses a first threshold value for a first type RFID tag, and uses a second threshold value for a second type RFID tag whose reading distance is longer than that of the first type RFID tag. using a threshold,
The information processing apparatus according to any one of Claims 1 to 3, wherein the second threshold is greater than the first threshold. a reading device that communicates with an RFID tag to read tag information stored in the RFID tag and measures the RSSI of a signal from the RFID tag;
comprising an information processing device and
The information processing device is
a flow line identifying unit that identifies a moving route near a gate of an object carrying one or more articles each attached with an RFID tag ;
a tag information acquiring unit that acquires from the reading device tag information that is stored in the RFID tag and includes information that identifies the article to which the RFID tag is attached ;
an RSSI acquisition unit that acquires the RSSI of the signal from the RFID tag from the reader;
a reading determination unit that identifies the type of the RFID tag and determines whether the tag information is valid read data based on a comparison result between a threshold value corresponding to the identified type and the RSSI;
When the specified movement route corresponds to a predetermined movement route pattern, according to the determination result of whether the tag information stored in the RFID tag near the gate is valid read data, a passage determination unit that identifies which of the articles identified by the tag information read from the RFID tag has passed through the gate. 6. The reading system according to claim 5, wherein the reading determination unit identifies the type of the RFID tag based on the tag information. The information processing device
identifying a path of movement near a gate for objects carrying one or more items each tagged with an RFID tag ;
Acquiring tag information stored in the RFID tag and including information identifying the article to which the RFID tag is attached ;
Obtaining the RSSI of the signal from the RFID tag;
Identifying the type of the RFID tag, determining whether the tag information is valid read data based on a comparison result between the threshold corresponding to the identified type and the RSSI,
When the specified movement route corresponds to a predetermined movement route pattern, according to the determination result of whether the tag information stored in the RFID tag near the gate is valid read data, An information processing method for specifying which of the articles specified by the tag information read from the RFID tag has passed through the gate. A flow line identifying step of identifying a movement route near the gate of an object carrying one or more articles each attached with an RFID tag ;
a tag information acquisition step of acquiring tag information stored in the RFID tag and including information identifying the article to which the RFID tag is attached ;
an RSSI acquisition step of acquiring an RSSI of a signal from the RFID tag;
a reading determination step of identifying the type of the RFID tag and determining whether or not the tag information is valid read data based on a comparison result between the threshold corresponding to the identified type and the RSSI;
When the specified movement route corresponds to a predetermined movement route pattern, according to the determination result of whether the tag information stored in the RFID tag near the gate is valid read data, and a passage determination step of identifying which of the articles identified by the tag information read from the RFID tag has passed through the gate.

Images