Granted Patent B1

US 12,333,376 · App. 18/406,377 · Granted Jun 17, 2025

Inventors: Martin Lumsdon (Haresfield, GB); Saritha Route (Bangalore, IN); Christoph Raisch (Gerlingen, DE); Mike Ghoraishi (Hisingsbacka, SE)

Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation

G06K7/10366G06K19/0723

Abstract

Claims (28)

1. A tracking device comprising:

a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags each having an integrated circuit;

a support member having a plurality of detachable portions with each detachable portion supporting one of the plurality of RFID tags;

wherein the plurality of RFID tags are connected by a plurality of physical data connectors, and wherein detaching the detachable portion supporting one of the plurality of RFID tags breaks a physical data connector of the plurality of physical data connectors connecting the one of the plurality of RFID tags to the plurality of RFID tags; and

wherein the plurality of physical data connectors provide a data link between the integrated circuits of the plurality of RFID tags so that the integrated circuits have a status activated when one of the plurality of physical data connectors is broken, wherein the status further indicates an object number of the detached one of the plurality of RFID tags out of the total number of the plurality of RFID tags required to access information controlled by the plurality of RFID tags.

2. The tracking device of claim 1 , wherein the physical data connector is configured to activate the status to the plurality of RFID tags of the detaching of the one of the plurality of RFID tags upon breaking, the status further including a unique code of the one of the plurality of RFID tags.

3. The tracking device of claim 2 , wherein the physical data connector is configured to activate the status by changing a persistent internal state of the integrated circuit on the plurality of RFID tags.

4. The tracking device of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of RFID tags include an integrated circuit programmed to store a shared secret of the plurality of RFID tags.

5. The tracking device of claim 4 , wherein the shared secret is exchanged between the plurality of RFID tags through the plurality of physical data connectors.

6. The tracking device of claim 4 , wherein the shared secret uses public and private keys to control access to the information on the plurality of RFID tags.

7. The tracking device of claim 6 , wherein a first of the plurality of RFID tags is a primary RFID tag and a remainder of the plurality of RFID tags are secondary RFID tags, wherein a public key part is deployed on the secondary RFID tags and a private key part remains on the primary RFID tag.

8. The tracking device of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of physical data connectors are an additional RFID antenna jointly used by multiple RFID tags of the plurality of RFID tags to initiate personalization by using a different frequency range than disconnected access.

9. The tracking device of claim 1 , wherein the support member is formed of two sealed planar layers encapsulating the plurality of RFID tags.

10. The tracking device of claim 1 , wherein boundaries of the detachable portions are perforated boundaries for detaching the detachable portions.

11. A method for tracking a product, said method comprising:

providing a tracking device having a support member supporting a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and having a plurality of detachable portions with each detachable portion supporting one of the plurality of RFID tags and the plurality of RFID tags being linked together by physical data connectors that extend across boundaries of the detachable portions; and

activating a status on the programmable link responsive to breaking a physical data connector when detaching a detachable portion supporting a first RFID tag, the status being received by one or more of the other RFID tags and indicative of an object number of the first RFID tag out of the total number of the plurality of RFID tags required to access information controlled by the plurality of RFID tags.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein activating the status includes providing a unique code of the first RFID tag on breaking the physical data connector.

13. The method of claim 11 , including interrogating an RFID tag on a detached portion to read a status update and relate the status to other RFID tags that were originally linked.

14. The method of claim 11 , including interrogating an RFID tag on a detached portion using a shared secret to access status information.

15. The method of claim 14 , including remotely interrogating two RFID tags to validate the shared secret based on a match protocol between two remote RFID readers.

16. The method of claim 14 , including locally interrogating two RFID tags to validate the shared secret based on a match protocol through a shared RFID reader.

17. The method of claim 11 , including detaching an RFID tag while being powered by an external radio frequency field and the other RFID tags detecting the disconnect and changing a persistent internal state from connected to disconnected.

18. A method for providing a tracking device, said method comprising:

providing a tracking device having a support member supporting a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and having a plurality of detachable portions each detachable portion supporting one of the plurality of RFID tags and the plurality of RFID tags being linked together by physical data connectors that extend across boundaries of the detachable portions; and

applying programming to the plurality of RFID tags to correlate the information stored on the RFID tags, wherein breaking of the physical data connectors activate a status indicative of an object number of a detached RFID tag of the plurality of RFID tags out of the total number of the plurality of RFID tags required to access the information controlled by the plurality of RFID tags.

19. The method of claim 18 , including storing a shared secret of the plurality of RFID tags, wherein the shared secret uses public and private keys to control access to the information on the RFID tags.

20. The method of claim 19 , including sharing the shared secret while being powered through an external RFID field to exchange information through the physical data connectors.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (1)

References Cited (44)