KR101048631B1 - Electronic Shelf System and Shelf Data Processing Method Using RDF - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed are an electronic shelf system and a shelf data processing method using RFID. A shelf data processing method using RFID includes collecting tag information of an RFID tag for each pre-defined zone of a shelf, storing the tag information for each zone in a predetermined storage means, and the same tag information is duplicated in one or more data areas. Dividing the data area so as not to store the tag information.

RFID (RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION), electronic shelf system, shelf antenna, antenna recognition range, overlap range, item location, shelf data processing, storage, data area, redundant data

Description

ELECTRONIC SHELF SYSTEM USING RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING SHELF DATA}

The present invention relates to an electronic shelf system using radio frequency identification (RFID), and more particularly, to an electronic shelf system and a shelf data processing method capable of accurately determining the position of an article in consideration of overlapping areas in an electronic shelf recognition process. It is about.

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a technology that processes information of an object using a small semiconductor chip.It is a non-contact recognition system that attaches a small chip to various articles to transmit and process information of the object and surrounding environment information at a radio frequency. RFID, which consists of an RFID reader with a read / decode function and an RF tag with unique information, operating software, and a network, RFID processes information by identifying a thin flat tag attached to an object.

Such RFID does not have to be in direct contact or scanning in the visible band as a bar code. Because of these advantages, it is evaluated as a technology to replace the bar code, and the scope of application is expanding. Low frequency band radio frequency identification systems (30 kHz to 500 kHz) are used at short distances up to 1.8 m and high frequency band electronic identification systems (850 MHz to 950 MHz or 2.4 GHz to 2.5 GHz) are transmitted over long distances of 27 m or more. This is possible. That is, RFID is a system that recognizes the information of the RFID tag within a few meters by processing the data by connecting the antenna to the RFID reader.

The conventional electronic shelf system using the RFID is a system to facilitate the real-time inventory management of the article attached to the RFID tag by integrating the RFID on the shelf. In particular, according to the position of the shelf it can be said that even the position of the article can be easily identified.

However, the recognition range of the RFID antenna for the reading operation on the RFID tag is impossible to exactly match the size of the electronic shelf, and even if possible, the cost is greatly increased. Therefore, the actual recognition range of the antenna is inevitably larger than the area of the shelf to recognize the electronic shelf 100%. Also, considering the case where the area changes due to environmental influences, the recognition range of the electronic shelf is generally larger than the size of the shelf.

As described above, in the case of a shelf antenna for recognizing a plurality of electronic shelves, since a plurality of antennas are configured to be close to each other, a recognition range between the shelves occurs.

In order to solve the overlapping problem of the recognition range, a method of securing a sufficient distance between shelves may be used, but this causes a waste of space. In addition, there is a method of using the radio wave blocking material for the boundary between the shelf and the shelf, but also has the disadvantage that the cost increases significantly.

On the other hand, a switching method may be used to provide a time interval between reads of different shelves. To read a shelf using the switching technique, the zones are divided, which is to facilitate data processing of the overlapped zones.

However, the data processing technique using the switching technique also has a limitation in identifying the classification and the exact position of the article because overlapping regions occur in the antenna recognition range.

The present invention provides an electronic shelf system and shelf data processing method using RFID that provides a technique for dividing and storing article identification data for accurate article position management.

The present invention provides an electronic shelf system and shelf data processing method using RFID that can more accurately locate the article without incurring additional costs.

The present invention includes an RFID reader for recognizing tag information of an RFID tag attached to an article of a shelf for each predefined zone of a shelf, and storage means for configuring a plurality of data areas to store the tag information for each zone. In the process of storing the tag information, an electronic shelf system using RFID for dividing the data area to store the tag information so that the same tag information does not overlap in one or more data areas.

The present invention provides a method of collecting tag information of an RFID tag for each predefined zone of a shelf, and storing the tag information for each zone in a predetermined storage means, so that the same tag information is not duplicated in one or more data areas. It provides a shelf data processing method using RFID comprising the step of dividing the tag information to store the tag information.

The storing of the tag information by dividing the data area so that the same tag information is not duplicated in at least one data area may include configuring data areas for each of the areas to store tag information of each area in the corresponding data area. Generating a new data area for tag information overlapping the zones and storing the corresponding tag information; and if the same tag information exists between adjacent data areas, maintaining one data area and storing the corresponding tag information in the remaining data areas. It may include the step of deleting the tag information.

According to the present invention, it is possible to solve the problem that tag information is duplicated and stored by generating and storing a new data area for data overlapping between zones in the process of storing tag information which is shelf data.

Therefore, by storing the shelf data for each zone, the data amount of the storage means for storing the shelf data can be reduced and stored in the independent data area without duplicate data, and the shelf data can be updated more easily.

According to the present invention, by easily managing shelf data in a software way, an efficient electronic shelf system can be constructed at low cost, and more precisely guiding the position of goods on the shelf.

The electronic shelf system according to the present invention can be applied to a wide range of applications, from a store dealing with various products to a warehouse using a shelf.

Hereinafter, an electronic shelf system and a shelf data processing method using RFID according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First, an electronic shelf system configuration using radio frequency identification (RFID) will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

1 is an example for explaining an RFID system in the present invention. As illustrated, when the RFID reader 102 requests the tag information included in the RFID tag 101 from the RFID tag 101, the RFID reader 102 uses its own power source or transmits the tag information according to the tag information request. The tag information is transmitted to the RFID reader 102 using the signal as an operating power source, and the tag information is received by the RFID reader 102.

The electronic shelf system using the RFID system is a combination of RFID on the shelf, by attaching the RFID tag 101 to each article of the shelf to receive the tag information of the RFID tag 101 through the RFID reader 102 It is a system that can identify the location.

By receiving the tag information of the RFID tag 101 through the RFID reader 102 and storing it in the storage means 103 to provide an electronic shelf service such as guiding the location of the article based on the tag information of each article. Can be.

2 illustrates an electronic shelf system configuration for identifying an item on a shelf using a shelf antenna. As shown, the electronic shelf system may include a shelf antenna 203 for receiving the RFID tag 101 of the article 202 loaded on the shelf 201. At this time, the shelf antenna 203 receives the tag information from the RFID tag 101 of the article 202 and transmits it to the RFID reader 102 so that the RFID reader 102 can recognize it.

The shelf antenna 203 may be configured such that a plurality of antennas are adjacent to each other so as to recognize the RFID tag 101 of the corresponding zone for each predefined zone of the shelf 201. Each of these antennas may be connected to a separate reader to transmit information. The apparatus may further include a switching unit for selectively driving and switching one of the plurality of antennas, and using the switching unit, recognizes the RFID tag 101 of the article 202 in sequence for each zone, thereby providing a plurality of antennas with a single reader. It can also drive the antenna of.

The shelf antenna 203 may recognize the article 202 loaded on the shelf 201 for each zone according to the recognition range 204 emitted by each antenna. In addition, the recognition range 204 of the shelf antenna 203 (which is described in the same concept as the 'zone') generates an overlapping portion 205 between zones due to influence between adjacent antennas. That is, the overlapping portion 205 may exist between the recognition ranges 204 of two adjacent antennas.

The shelf antenna 203 receives an RFID tag 101, that is, tag information of an article 202 located in the recognition range 204 by driving one or more antennas among the plurality of antennas in sequence or simultaneously. 102).

According to the structure of the shelf antenna 203 as described above, the RFID tag of the article 202 is recognized for each zone with respect to the shelf 201 and transmitted to the RFID reader 102. Thus, it is possible to identify the area recognized in the article and to provide the location information of the article.

The electronic shelf system of the present invention receives the tag information of the RFID tag 101 attached to the article 202 of the shelf 201 through the RFID reader 102 and stores each article by storing it in the storage means 103. The tag information of 202 may provide an electronic shelf service for managing and guiding the location of the article 202.

The tag information may be configured as shown in Table 1 below. That is, the tag information may include a product name and an article unique number as information on the corresponding article. In addition, an error check code (CRC) may be further included to check an error that may occur in the process of receiving such tag information.

Access
Information
data
Item Name

Item unique number

CRC

The storage means 103 may store the article index including the tag information.

In the process of storing the tag information recognized for each zone in the storage means 103, since overlapping portions 205 are generated between adjacent areas, the tag information is duplicated and stored, thereby determining the exact position of the article 202. Unexpected problems may arise.

The present invention solves the problem that tag information is duplicated and stored in the process of storing the tag information for each zone, and appropriately divides the data area of the storage means 103 so that the position of the article 202 can be accurately identified. It is characterized by storing tag information.

The storage means 103 constitutes a data area for each of the zones, and stores tag information of each zone in the corresponding data area (hereinafter, the storage means according to the process is referred to as a 'physical shelf'), and the zone. Generating a new data area with respect to tag information overlapping the data and storing the corresponding tag information (hereinafter, the storage means according to the above process is referred to as a 'first logical shelf') and the same tag information exists between adjacent data areas. In this case, it may be configured through a process of maintaining one data area and deleting corresponding tag information stored in the remaining data area (hereinafter, the storage means according to the above process is referred to as a 'second logical shelf').

The electronic shelf service of the present invention is preferably provided based on the data set of the second logical shelf.

3 and 4, a process of processing shelf data (that is, tag information) in an electronic shelf system using RFID according to the present invention will be described in detail.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a whole process of a shelf data processing method using RFID according to the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a data region partitioning process for storing shelf data in a shelf data processing process.

In operation S310, the electronic shelf system receives the RFID tag of the article located within the recognition range of the shelf antenna for each zone of the shelf and stores the tag information for each zone. In step S310, the physical shelf 410 is composed of a plurality of data areas corresponding to each zone to store the tag information in the corresponding data area.

For example, for a shelf consisting of a first zone 411, a second zone 412, and a third zone 413, the physical shelf 410 is an article 1, article corresponding to the first zone 411. 2, a data area having the tag information of the article 3 as a data set, a data area having the tag information of the articles 3, 4 and 5 corresponding to the second zone 412 as a data set, and a third zone 413 And a data area including tag information of the items 4, 5, and 6 corresponding to the data set.

In operation S320, the electronic shelf system divides the data area and stores tag information in consideration of tag information overlapping between adjacent data areas based on data sets of data areas of the physical shelf. In the step S320, the first logical shelf 420 includes a data area for storing the tag information for each zone and a data area for newly generating the overlapping tag information and storing the overlapping tag information. .

 The first logical shelf 420 corresponds to a data area 421 including tag information of the items 1, 2 and 3 corresponding to the first zone 411 and the second zone 412. Data area 423 using tag information of article 3, article 4, and article 5 as a data set, and data using tag information of article 4, article 5, and article 6 corresponding to the third zone 413 Region 425 is included.

In addition, the first logical shelf 420 may include a data area 422 including tag information of the item 3, which is tag information overlapping between the first zone 411 and the second zone 412, and a second data set. A data area 424 is generated and included as a data set using tag information of article 4 and article 5 which are tag information overlapping between the zone 412 and the third zone 413.

According to the physical shelf 410 or the first logical shelf 420, it is not possible to determine the exact position of the overlapping recognized items between the zones. For example, article 3 belongs to the first zone 411 and also to the second zone 412, so that its exact location cannot be determined. In addition, since tag information is duplicated and stored, it may cause a large amount of data. Specifically, when the information of the article 3 is updated, processing time is increased because all of the data stored in the Area A 421, the Area B 422, and the Area C 423 must be updated.

In operation S330, the electronic shelf system stores the tag information of each zone in an independent data area based on the data set for each data area of the first logical shelf 420 in consideration of items overlapped between zones. .

In operation S330, the second logical shelf 430 is configured by rearranging the tag information without overlapping data sets between data areas based on the first logical shelf 420. That is, the step S330 is a process of configuring the second logical shelf 430 based on the first logical shelf 420.

In detail, step S331 compares tag information stored in a data area of the first logical shelf 420 to determine whether the same tag information exists between adjacent areas, that is, consecutive data areas.

In step S332 and step S333, if the same tag information exists between the consecutive data areas, the same tag information stored in another data area is maintained while maintaining one data area among the data areas in which the same tag information is stored. Delete it.

For example, on the basis of the first logical shelf 420, it can be seen that the article 3 is duplicated and stored in the area A 421, the area B 422, and the area C 423. Here, it can be seen that the article 3 is located between the articles 1, 2 and 4 and the data area Area B 422 is generated for the article 3 based on the physical shelf 410. That is, since the article 3 can be stored independently in the generated data area, the article 3 is maintained in the area B 422 and the tag information of the article 3 stored in the area A 421 and the area C 423 is deleted.

The second logical shelf is arranged by deleting items 3 of Area A 421 and Area C 423 among data areas Area A 421, Area B 422, and Area C 423 to rearrange the corresponding data areas. There is no tag information overlapping between the data areas of Area A 421, Area B 422, and Area C 423 configured in 430.

In step S334, after checking whether the duplicate tag information checking operation is completed for all data areas of the first logical shelf 420, in step S335, there exists a data area for which duplicate tag information checking is not performed. In this case, check duplicate tag information for the data area in order.

That is, the second logical shelf 430 performs the above-described duplicate tag information checking process, and the data area 431 having the tag information of the articles 1 and 2 as a data set and the tag information of the article 3 as the data set. The data area 432, the data area 433 using the tag information of the article 4 as the data set, the data area 434 using the tag information of the article 5 as the data set, and the tag information of the article 6 The data area 435 can be configured as.

Accordingly, the second logical shelf 430 is configured by rearranging the tag information such that the same tag information does not exist between consecutive data areas based on the first logical shelf 420.

According to the present invention, the data amount and processing time of the storage means can be reduced and the exact position of the article can be determined by storing the shelf data for each zone in separate data areas without duplicate data. That is, the position for article 3 may be specified between area A 431 and area C 433, and information update of article 3 may be performed only for area B 432.

The shelf data processing method using RFID according to the present invention may be implemented in the form of program instructions that can be executed by various computer means and recorded in a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, etc. alone or in combination. Program instructions recorded on the media may be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of the present invention, or they may be of the kind well-known and available to those having skill in the computer software arts. Examples of computer-readable recording media include magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape, optical media such as CD-ROMs, DVDs, and magnetic disks, such as floppy disks. Magneto-optical media, and hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program instructions, such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. Examples of program instructions include not only machine code generated by a compiler, but also high-level language code that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like. The hardware device described above may be configured to operate as one or more software modules to perform the operations of the present invention, and vice versa.

As described above, the present invention has been described by way of limited embodiments and drawings, but the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains various modifications and variations from such descriptions. This is possible.

Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be determined not only by the claims below but also by the equivalents of the claims.

1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an RFID system for applying to an electronic shelf system of the present invention.

2 illustrates an electronic shelf system configuration for identifying an item on a shelf using a shelf antenna.

3 is a diagram illustrating a whole process of a shelf data processing method using RFID according to the present invention.

4 is a diagram illustrating a data area partitioning process for storing shelf data in a shelf data processing process.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

101: RFID tag

102: RFID reader

103: storage means

Claims (10)

An RFID reader for recognizing tag information of an RFID tag attached to an article of the shelf for each predefined area of the shelf; And, Storage means for configuring a plurality of data areas to store the tag information for each zone; The storage means, The data area for each zone is divided to form a data area for each zone, and the tag information recognized in each zone is stored in the data area for each zone to generate a physical shelf. In the physical shelf, when the same tag information is overlapped by comparing tag information between two adjacent data areas, a new data area is generated between the two adjacent data areas for the duplicated tag information. Create a logical shelf, In the first logical shelf, a second logical shelf is deleted by deleting the duplicated tag information of the zone-specific data area among the zone-specific data area and the new data area so that the tag information is not duplicated and stored in at least one data area. To generate the electronic shelf system using RFID. delete delete The method of claim 1, Electronic shelf system using RFID further comprising a plurality of antennas corresponding to each area of the shelf. 5. The method of claim 4, Electronic switching system using RFID further comprising a switching unit for selectively driving by switching one of the plurality of antennas. The method of claim 1, Electronic shelf system using RFID to provide a goods management service for providing real-time management of the goods on the shelf based on the tag information of the storage means stored without the tag information is duplicated. Collecting tag information of the RFID tag for each predefined area of the shelf; And, Storing the tag information for each zone in a predetermined storage means; The storing of the tag information for each zone may include: The data area of the storage means is separated for each of the zones to form a zone-specific data zone, and the tag information recognized in each zone is stored in the zone-specific data zone to generate a physical shelf. In the physical shelf, when the same tag information is overlapped by comparing tag information between two adjacent data areas, a new data area is generated between the two adjacent data areas for the duplicated tag information. Create a logical shelf, In the first logical shelf, a second logical shelf is deleted by deleting the duplicated tag information of the zone-specific data area among the zone-specific data area and the new data area so that the tag information is not duplicated and stored in at least one data area. The shelf data processing method using RFID. delete delete A computer-readable recording medium in which a program for executing the method of claim 7 is recorded.

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