Equipment management system

1. A method for monitoring inventory items, the method comprising:

sending, for each of a plurality of wireless tag identifiers, a query via an antenna to an associated wireless tag;

verifying that an inventory item corresponding to the wireless tag is present in an area for each of the plurality of wireless tag identifiers when a response is received via the antenna from the wireless tag corresponding to the wireless tag identifiers by storing data associated with the inventory item;

associating each of the inventory items with a different entity;

determining one or more additional inventory items to be checked out to at least one of the entities as a function of a profile of the entity; and

changing a status indicator associated with the inventory items to show that the inventory items have been checked out to the entities.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each query is sent via the antenna to the corresponding wireless tags via a wireless link between the antenna and the wireless tags.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving one of the inventory items after it has been checked out to one of the entities;

determining whether the inventory item corresponding to the wireless tag has been checked out to the one of the entities; and

checking the inventory item back in by changing a status of the inventory item.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

performing a scan operation to determine a presence of a new wireless tag that does not have a corresponding wireless tag identifier in an inventory list; and

updating the inventory list to include the new wireless tag determined to be present during the scan operation.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein a list is accessed from a memory device and further comprising storing data in the list that identifies a location associated with each of the inventory items.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the list that is accessed from a memory device is a prior list that was generated during a monitoring operation prior to a start of a predetermined inventory event, wherein data identifying the predetermined inventory event is stored in the memory device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the query sent to the wireless tags contains a prompt that causes the wireless tags to respond with the wireless tag identifiers.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein a list contains a status indicator corresponding to each of the wireless tag identifiers, the status indicator providing an indication of whether the inventory item associated with the wireless tag that corresponds to the wireless tag identifier has been used in an inventory event.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving the inventory items from the entities after they have been used; and

changing a status indicator associated with the inventory items to show that the inventory items have been checked in from the entities.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein a unique identification code is generated that is a value of one of the wireless tag identifiers that corresponds to one of the wireless tags.

11. A monitoring system for monitoring inventory items, each of which has a corresponding wireless tag with a corresponding wireless tag identifier, comprising:

a transceiver system operable to receive and transmit signals within an area; and

a processor configured to:

send a query via the transceiver system to the wireless tags corresponding to wireless tag identifiers;

receive a verification that the inventory items corresponding to the wireless tags are present in the area after a response is received via the antenna from the wireless tag corresponding to the wireless tag identifier;

associate each of the inventory items with an associated entity;

receive a verification that each of the inventory items has been checked out to the associated entity; and

determine one or more additional items to be checked out to each of the associated entities as a function of a profile.

12. The monitoring system of claim 11 , wherein each query is sent via the transceiver system to the corresponding wireless tag via a wireless link between the transceiver system and the wireless tag.

13. The monitoring system of claim 11 , wherein each wireless tag is an active RFID tag.

14. The monitoring system of claim 13 , wherein the unique identification code is a value of the wireless tag identifier that corresponds to the wireless tag.

15. The monitoring system of claim 11 , further comprising a memory device that is operationally coupled to the processor and configured to store a list of the wireless tag identifiers and the associated inventory items.

16. The monitoring system of claim 11 , wherein the list is a prior list that was generated during a prior inventory monitoring operation.

17. The monitoring system of claim 11 , wherein the query sent to the wireless tag is based on the wireless tag identifier that corresponds to the wireless tag.

18. The monitoring system of claim 11 , wherein a list further contains a first status indicator and a second status indicator corresponding to each of the wireless tag identifiers, the first status indicator providing an indication of whether the wireless tag that corresponds to the wireless tag identifier is associated with an entity and the second status indicator providing an indication of whether the wireless tag that corresponds to the wireless tag identifier has been checked out to the entity.

19. The monitoring system of claim 11 , wherein the query sent to the wireless tag returns a unique identification code that corresponds to the wireless tag.

20. The monitoring system of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

perform a scan operation to determine a presence of a new wireless tag that does not have a corresponding wireless tag identifier on a list; and

update the list to include the new wireless tag.