Method and system for tracking clustered items
A method and system for tracking each item in a cluster of items. Each item has an associated item ID. The method and system involve the following steps. Storing a plurality of item records. The plurality of item records includes, for each item in the cluster of items, an associated item record for storing the associated item ID for the item. Each item record in the plurality of records is then linked to the other item records in the plurality of item records. Using the associated item record for each item in the threshold number of items, and the link between each item record and the other item records, the item records for the associated item ID of each item in the cluster that are not in the threshold number of items are determined.
1. A computer-implemented method for tracking a cluster of items, comprising:
receiving, at a computer, signals from a first subset of a plurality of identifiable items in the cluster of items, wherein at least each identifiable item in the first subset is associated with a tag configured to transmit an identifier of the associated identifiable item;
determining a second subset of the plurality of identifiable items as included in the cluster based, at least in part, on the received signals from the first subset of the plurality of identifiable items, the second subset determined as included in the cluster independent of receiving signals from the second subset and different from the first subset; and
identifying one or more records of the second subset of the plurality of identifiable items in response to at least the determination.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each item of the cluster is associated with a tag configured to transmit a unique identifier of the associated item.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least the first subset of identifiable items are in an active range of a Radio Frequency IDentifier (RFID) reader.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying a predefined threshold defining a minimum number of items in the first subset of the plurality of identifiable items; and
determining a number of items in the first subset is greater than or equal to the predefined threshold prior to identifying the one or more records of the second subset.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a signal identifying a location of an associated location tag; and
associating a location with the cluster of the items based, at least in part, on the location signal.
6. The method of claim 5 , the location comprising a first location, the location tag comprising a first location tag of a plurality of identifiable location tags, further comprising:
receiving a signal identifying a second location of an associated second location tag; and
tracking movement of the cluster of items based, at least in part, on the first location and the second location.
7. The method of claim 1 , each signal of the first subset comprising a cluster ID, each item of the cluster associated with the cluster ID.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the one or more records of the second subset are identified in response to at least receiving the cluster ID a minimum number of times.
9. The method of claim 1 , each tag comprises a passive Radio Frequency IDentifier (RFID) tag.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying one or more records of a second subset comprises:
identifying each item in the first subset of the plurality of identifiable items based, at least in part, on the received signals;
determining a cluster ID of each item in the first subset of the plurality of identifiable items;
identifying the second subset of the plurality of identifiable items based, at least in part, on the cluster ID; and
processing records of the second subset of the plurality of identifiable items in response to at least identifying the second subset.