MXPA00012244A - A monitoring system - Google Patents

Abstract

A library monitoring system includes a number of borrowable items. Each item has a radio frequency identification device mounted thereon and the radio frequency identification device has a unique identification code. A processing unit (1) is coupled to a database containing an indication of the location of each library item and is also coupled to a borrowing location (3), a borrowed item returning location (2) and the returned item sorting location (5). The borrowed item returning location (2) includes a receptacle (32, 33) into which the borrowed item (34) is inserted. The receptacle (32, 33) includes an antenna (10) which detects an insertion of library item (34) having a radio frequency identification device mounted thereon. The borrowed item returning location (2) responds to the insertion of a library item (34) into the receptacle (32, 33) detects the identification code and sends the identification code corresponding to the returned library item (34) to the processing unit (1). The processing unit (1) responds to the received identification code, updates the information on the database relating to the returned library item (34) to indicate that the returned library item (34) has been returned to the library.

Description

A MONITORING SYSTEM The invention relates to a monitoring system, and especially a system for identifying and monitoring the location of library items, such as books. Existing library identification and location systems generally use a combination of a bar code system to locate the location of a loan item and a magnetic strip as a security device to prevent unauthorized removal of an item. of the library. The disadvantages of this conventional system are that bar codes They require that each book be individually opened and the bar code scanned when the user wishes to borrow a book and for the books to be individually scanned again when they are returned. In addition, the deactivation of the magnetic strip when the article is given to loan and the reactivation of the magnetic strip when it is returned are separate additional operations that are required. Since this is an intense work process, a number of libraries have started using mailbox repositories in which users can deposit, books returned in a designated repository which is periodically emptied and • Returned books are scanned when the deposit is empty and not when the book is returned. Consequently, this has the disadvantage that a book which is returned to the library and is inside a mailbox is not registered in the library system as it is actually returned until after the mailbox deposit has been emptied and the scanned books. As a consequence, with the conventional system there are inaccuracies in the registration system maintained by the library and it is not a real time reflection of the books that are located in the premises of the library.

In addition, a user can only borrow a certain number of books. If that number of books that have been deposited in the mailbox, the person requesting a loan is unable to borrow any of the additional books until after the books deposited in the mailbox have been scanned as being returned. For example, the total number of books that can be borrowed by a user can be limited to four. There is also the additional disadvantage that the classification of the books must be all manually done before returning the books to the correct location. According to a first aspect of the present invention, a system of library monitoring comprises a number of items capable of being ordered from j. loan, each article having a radio frequency identification device mounted thereon, the radio frequency identification device having a unique identification code; a processing unit connected to a database that contains an indication of the location of each library item, and a return location of the item given to loan; wherein the return location of the borrowed article comprises a receptacle into which the borrowed article may be inserted, the receptacle comprising an antenna detecting an insertion of a library article having an identification device • radio frequency mounted on it, the return location of the item given to loan, in response to the insertion of the library article in the receptacle, the detection of the identification code and the sending of the corresponding identification code to the library item returned to the processing unit, the processing unit, in response to the code of received identification, updates the information in the database related to the returned item of library for indicate that the returned library item has been returned to the library.

An advantage of the invention is that by having a library system in which radio frequency identification devices are mounted on items in the library which can be borrowed, it is possible to detect when the items ordered to loan are returned to the library as soon as they enter a designated area. Typically, the radio frequency identification device can also be used as a security feature, such that if an attempt is made to remove a library item from the library or from an area within the library without authorization it is detected by the processing unit that generates a warning signal that can be visual or auditory. Preferably, when the return location detects that a library item has been inserted into the receptacle, the return location also sends a signal to the processing unit to indicate the location to which the item has been returned. Preferably, the processing unit is additionally connected to a returned item classification location. This library system may further comprise a transport mechanism between the return location and the sorting location, the transport mechanism transporting the items returned from the receptacle to the sorting location. Preferably, the sorting station includes a reader of the radio frequency identification device that detects a library article that is to be classified in the sorting station and sends an identification signal corresponding to the article to be sorted towards the unit. processing, in response to which the processing unit displays on a display device at the classification location, the classification information to allow an operator at the classification location to identify the location to which the operator has to return the library article Alternatively, the processing unit may send a signal to an automated classification unit, in response to the identification signal, to instruct the automated classification unit to classify the library article to the correct location to which it is to be assigned. give back. Preferably, the processing unit is additionally coupled with a loan station. This loan location may include a reader of the radio frequency identification device that reads the identification device of radio frequency in the library article which the user wishes to borrow and the ? The loan location sends the identification signal related to that library item and an identification signal related to the borrower to the processing unit, and the processing unit updates the database with the identification information related to that library item. yt > Borrower to show that the item has been borrowed by that borrower. Typically, a number of return stations can be located in different geographic locations that may be inside or without the premises of the library. Preferably, there may be a number of loan stations and 20 typically, all loan stations are located within the premises of the library. According to a second aspect of the present invention, a monitoring system comprises a number of items that are to be controlled, each item monitored having a radio frequency identification device that has a unique identification code, mounted on it; and a number of radio frequency identification device readers located within an area to be monitored; a processing unit linked to a database containing an indication of the location of each item within the area and for each of the readers of the radio frequency identification device; whereby the readers of the radio frequency identification device perform the scanning operation to identify all items within the proximity of each reader and to send the identification codes of each item located to the processing unit, the processing unit , in response to the received identification codes from each reader, identifies the location of each article located within the area and updates the database accordingly. Preferably, the processing unit instructs the reader of the radio frequency identification device to periodically perform the scanning operation to identify all items within the vicinity of each reader. In addition, the processing unit may preferably display a message to a system operator that the item is in the wrong location if the unit processing detects that the item is in a different location from its correct location. Preferably, the database contains information on each item, including unique identification information, the correct location of the item within • the area and the actual location of the item. Preferably, in the second aspect of the invention, the monitoring system is a library monitoring system and the articles are library articles. Typically, the area to be monitored is a library. Typically, the actual location may be a location within the library that may or may not be the correct location or location outside the library, such as that item that has been borrowed by a user of the library.

An example of a library monitoring system according to the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a schematic diagram showing a library monitoring system; Figure 2 is a perspective view of a loan station for use with the library system shown in Figure 1; Figure 3 is a schematic view of a return station for use with the library shown in Figure 1; and Figure 4 is a schematic view of a sorting station for ? Used with the library system shown in Figure 1? Figure 1 shows a library system that includes a guest computer 1 that is connected to a number of return stations (or mailboxes) 2, a number of loan stations 3, two counting stations 4 and one station . In addition, the main computer 1 is also connected to a local server 6 and a supervising computer 7. The library system also includes a conveyor 8 system that transports library items, such as books, videos, CDs or tapes. of cassette, • from the return station 2 to the sorting station 5. Each return station 2, the sorting station 5, the loan station 3 and the counting station 4 are connected to a radio identification device reader 9 frequency and a reader antenna 10. In addition, each of the loan stations 3 and counting station 4 are linked to a mini printer 11 and a bar code reader 12. 25 Each item in the library has a device radio frequency identification (RFID tag) mounted on it.

The loan stations 3 are shown in greater detail in Figure 2. Figure 2 shows that the loan station 3 includes a housing 20 and also includes a personal Pentium (PC) 21 computer which is connected to a visual display unit 22 and a keyboard 23. In addition, the antenna 10, the reader 9, the * mini printer 11 and bar code reader 12 are also mounted inside housing 20 and are linked to the Pentium 21 PC. Antenna 10 is located on the surface of desk 24 that is part of housing 20. Figure 3 is a schematic diagram showing a return station 2 that includes a personal computer (PC) 30 which is linked to the reader 9 which is instead connected to the antenna 10 and a visual display unit 31 connected to the PC 30. The antenna 10 is located inside a conduit 32 through the • which books pass after being inserted through a book slot 33 coming from the other side of the book slot 33 by a user returning a book 34 to the library. The conveyor system & is located at the bottom of the conduit 32 so that the books pass through the conduit 32 and on the surface of the conveyor system 8 The conveying system 8 then transports back to the books 34 towards the sorting station 5. The sorting station 5 is shown in more detail in Figure 4.

• Sorting station 5 includes a visual display unit 31 and a PC 30. The PC 30 is connected to the reader 9 and the reader is connected to the antenna 10. The books arrive at the sorting station 5 through the conveyor system 8 and the books 34 fall towards a receiving depot 35. The books are then removed from the receiver bin 35 by an operator 36 and passed through the antenna 10 to allow the scanning of the RFID located in the book 34 via the reader 9. The PC receives the information from Identification concerning the book 34 which is scanned from the reader 9 and passes the identification information towards the main computer 1. The main computer 1 determines the correct location of the book 34 which is scanned and illuminates a light 36 in a sorting compartment for indicate the area of the library in which book 34 has to be returned. Operator 36 places book 34 in the correct compartment to return to the correct section of the library. • In use, a user can borrow a book 34 from the library by inserting the library card or identification card into the bar code reader 12. For the use of multiple language loan station 3 can incorporate a Multi-language that allows a user to select which language he wants the loan station to use to communicate with it during the procedure loan. f After inserting the membership card or library identification card, the loan station displays instruction on the screen and the correct point in the loan procedure, the user places the book 34 on top of the RFID antenna 10 on the surface 24. A receipt is printed by the mini-printer 10 as each book is scanned. The PC 21 with the identification information for the book 34 coming from the reader 9 and the identification information of the borrower from the reader of bar code 12, pass this information to the main computer 1 to allow the main computer 1 to update a base • of data to indicate that the borrowed book is now located with the borrower corresponding to the identification card of the borrower. When the user has finished scanning all the books they wish to borrow, they are removed from the library card or identity card which activates a cutter (not shown) in the mini-printer to cut the receipt and receipt of the books ordered to loan is distributed to the user.

Alternatively, the user can present the book in one of the counting stations to allow the book to be scanned by a member of the library staff as being borrowed by that user. When a user wishes to return book 34, the user goes to a station • return 2 and drop the book 34 through the book slot 33. The book 34 then passes over the RFID antenna 10 in the conduit 32 on this path to the conveyor system 8. As book 34 passes over the antenna 10 in the conduit 32, the PC 30 reads the identification code of that book from the reader 9 and passes the identification information to the main computer 1. The main computer 1 then updates its database to indicate that the book 34 that fell through the book slot 33 is now located within the library. # In addition, the main computer 1 may assign a number of different locations to the book 34 in such a way that when the book 34 enters the slot of! book 33, the book is entered into the computer database as being located at the return station 2. When the book 34 is scanned at the sorting station the computer can update the database to indicate that the book 34 has been classified and is located in a sorting compartment. In addition, the antennas 10 and the readers 9 can be located throughout the • library. These readers 9 can be interrogated periodically by the computer main 1 to determine all the books 34 in the vicinity of that particular reader 9 and update the database with the locations of the books detected in the vicinity of the reader. This has the advantage of allowing the location of all books 34 in the library to be maintained on a virtually real time basis. In addition to the books, the same library system can be used with any other item that can be borrowed from a library, such as compact discs, cassette tapes and videos.

Furthermore, this system has the advantage that the return stations can be located outside the library itself and as long as the PC 30 is connected to the main computer 1 via an appropriate communication link, the main computer 1 can determine the location of the mailbox in which a book 34 has • been returned. It is possible that certain external mailboxes in the library may not be connected to the library through a transport mechanism 8 in which case the books can be collected manually, for example, by a delivery truck or courier, or other collection agencies to return the books. books to the library. The advantages of the invention are those through the use of a system based on RFID that is not necessary to manually scan each book during the loan of the book, the return of the book and the classification of the book. • In addition, the RFID tag can also be used as a security device to minimize the risk of books being removed from the library without authorization. Typically, the security feature is disabled when a user borrows a book at loan station 3 and is reactivated when the book is returned to the library, either at a return station 2 or a sorting station 5. This security feature can be enabled using a memory location within an EEPROM on the RFID tag. By • example, a typical EEPROM in an RFID tag will have a 128-bit memory.

Approximately 75% of the memory locations are used to identify the library article. For example, if the library article is an identification information book it may include the Dewey decimal number and / or the Library of Congress classification and the branch code of the library to which the book belongs. One of the remaining bits of the memory is allocated to indicate whether the removal of the library article from the library has been authorized. Therefore, if the memory location contains a "0" this indicates that the removal of the library has not been authorized. However, if the memory location contains an "I" it indicates that the removal of the library has been authorized (for example, by an authorized user who borrows the book). Therefore, if a person tries to remove a book from the library that has not been borrowed by a scanner or adjacent to the library exit, it detects the "0" in the location of the library.

• EEPROM security memory and triggers an alarm. If the scanner detects an "I" in the location of the security memory of the EEPROM, the system recognizes that the book has been officially borrowed and the alarm will not sound. This feature operates through the scanner in the loan station 3 by writing an "I" to the memory location when an item is loaned and the 10 scanner in the return station 2 writes a "0" to the memory location when ft the book is returned to reactivate the security feature. Appropriate RFID tags that can be mounted on books 34 are tags such as those manufactured by Motorola Indala Corporation, such as the mini disu? Model IT-52E or the high effort tag model IT-54E. 15 Suitable readers 9 that can be used with the library system include Motorola Indala Corporation readers such as the long-range IR-24E or IR-36E reader, the general-purpose reader IR-50E or the compact IR-12E reader . In addition, manual readers such as those manufactured by Motorola < ^ Indala Corporation, like the IR-200E Geo Technology reader and the point reader of IR-2E focus and the IR-100E portable reader can be used for portable applications, such as manual scanning of books if necessary.

Claims (14)

1. A library monitoring system comprising a number of items capable of being borrowed, each article having a radio frequency identification device mounted thereon, the radio frequency identification device having a unique identification code; a processing unit connected to a database containing an indication of the location of each library item, and to a loan location, to a return location of the item loaned and a sorting location of the item returned as well 10 as to a number of return stations located in geographic locations ^ different away from the location of the library; wherein the return location of the borrowed article and the return stations comprise a receptacle into which the borrowed article may be inserted, the receptacle comprising an antenna detecting an insertion of a library article having an identification device 15 radio frequency mounted on it, the return location of the borrowed item, in response to the insertion of. a library item in the receptacle, detects the identification code and sends the corresponding identification code to the item returned from the library to the processing unit, the unit of • processing in response to the received identification code, update the information 20 in the database related to the article returned from library to indicate that the returned article of library has been returned to the library.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the return location or the return station also sends a signal to the processing unit to indicate the location to which the item has been returned. 25 when the return location or return station detects that the library item has been inserted into the receptacle.

3. A library monitoring system comprising a number of items capable of being borrowed, each article having a radio frequency identification device mounted thereon, the radio frequency identification device having a unique identification code; a unit of • processing connected to a database containing an indication of the location of each library item, and to a loan location, to a return location of the item loaned and a classification location of the returned item; wherein the return location of the borrowed article comprises a receptacle into which the borrowed article may be inserted, the receptacle comprising an antenna that 10 detects an insertion of a library article having a radio frequency identification device mounted thereon, the return location of the article • borrowed, in response to the insertion of a library item in the receptacle, detects the identification code and sends the corresponding identification code to the item returned from the library to the processing unit, the unit of 15 processing in response to the received identification code, updates the information in the database related to the returned item of library to indicate that the returned item of library has been returned to the library and a transport mechanism between the return location and the classification location, the mechanism • transportation transporting the items returned from the receptacle to the 20 classification location.

4. A system according to claim 3, wherein the return location also sends a signal to the processing unit to indicate the location to which the item has been returned when the return location detects that the library item has been inserted in the receptacle.

5. A system in accordance with the preceding claims, wherein the sorting station comprises a reader of the radio frequency identification device which detects a library article that is to be classified in the sorting station and sends an identification signal corresponding to the article to be sorted towards the processing unit, in response to which the processing unit deploys on a display device at the sorting location, the information to allow an operator at the sorting location to identify the location to which the item should be returned library.

6. A system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the loan location comprises a reader of the radio frequency identification device which reads the radio frequency identification device in a library article which the user wishes to request borrowed and the loan location sends the identification signal related to that library item and the identification signal related to the borrower to the processing unit, and the processing unit updates the data base with the identification information related to that library item and borrower showing exactly that the item has been borrowed by that borrower.

A system according to claim 6, wherein the loan station writes a loan code to a memory device inside the radio frequency identification device after reading the radio frequency identification device and the sorting station write a return code to the memory device within the radio frequency identification device in response to the insertion of a library article in the receptacle.

A system according to claim 6, wherein the loan station writes a loan code to a memory device within the radio frequency identification device after reading the radio frequency identification device and the return location or return station writes a return code to the memory device inside the device ^? Radio frequency identification in response to the insertion of a library article in the receptacle.

9. A system according to claim 3, further comprising a number of return stations located in geographic locations • different rooms away from the library.

10. A system according to any of the preceding claims, wherein a number of loan stations are provided within the library.

11. A monitoring system comprising a number of items 10 to be monitored, with each item monitored a tracking device. (A radio frequency identification having a unique identification code mounted on it, and a number of radio frequency identification device readers located within an area to be monitored, a processing unit connected to a base data containing an indication of the location of each article within the area and to each of the readers of the radio frequency identification device, whereby the processing unit instructs the readers of the radio frequency identification device to perform periodically a scanning operation to identify all items within the proximity of each reader and to send the identification codes of each item located to the processing unit, the processing unit, in response to the received identification codes from each reader, identifies the location of each item located within of the area and update the database accordingly.

12. A system according to claim 11, wherein the processing unit displays a message for a system operator that The item is in an incorrect location if the processing unit detects that an item is in a different location from its correct location.

13. A system according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the database contains the information of each article, including the unique identification information, the correct location of the article within the area and the actual location of the article. •

14. A system according to any of claims 11 to 13, wherein the monitoring system is a library monitoring system and the articles •