Method and apparatus verifying RFID to retailer
A system and method of verifying a plurality of articles of manufacture are provided with RFID tags and/or barcode labels and that any applied RFID tag and/or barcode label is encoded with correct information about the article and/or a manufacturer thereof. An automatic calibration process is also disclosed. The system includes a reader; a trigger mechanism coupled with the reader; a controller coupled with the trigger mechanism and the reader; a memory coupled with the controller, said memory having stored therein a database of information concerning articles of manufacture; programming provided in the controller, said programming configured to control the trigger mechanism and the reader; wherein the reader is operable to interrogate an article that comes into a field of view of the trigger mechanism; and wherein the programming is configured to determine if an RFID tag and/or a barcode is applied to the article based on the interrogation.
1 . A method of verifying whether a plurality of articles have correct RFID tags or barcode applied thereto comprising:
providing an article verification system including a reader, a trigger mechanism coupled with the reader, a user interface, and a controller coupled with the trigger mechanism and the reader and having a memory stored therein a database of information concerning the plurality of articles and programming configured to perform a verification process and to control the trigger mechanism and the reader;
automatically calibrating the reader, by the programming, by setting a transmission power level of a transmitter of the reader to a predetermined maximum power level;
sequentially placing each article of the plurality of articles in a field of view of the trigger mechanism; and
determining whether or not an RFID tag or a barcode are provided on each article of the plurality of articles based upon the programming.
2 . The method as in claim 1 , further comprising storing results of determining whether or not each article is provided with an RFID tag or a barcode in the database in the memory of the article verification system.
3 . The method as in claim 1 , wherein when each article placed in the field of view of the trigger mechanism includes an RFID tag or a barcode, the method further comprises:
reading the RFID tag or barcode with the reader.
4 . The method as in claim 3 , further comprising comparing information encoded to the RFID tag or barcode with information stored in the memory of the controller.
5 . The method as in claim 4 , further comprising recording, in the database stored in the memory, whether or not the encoded information matches stored information.
6 . The method as in claim 5 , further comprising generating, via programming provided in the memory, a verification report of whether or not the encoded information matches stored information.
7 . The method as in claim 6 , further comprising shipping the plurality of articles with the verification report.
8 . The method as in claim 7 , further comprising generating, via the programming provided in the memory, a verification report which includes a set of articles from the plurality of articles in which an RFID tag or barcode is applied thereto and in which encoded information on the applied RFID tag or barcode matches information stored in the memory of the controller.
9 . The method as in claim 5 , further comprising removing any article from the plurality of articles in which the encoded information on the RFID tag and or barcode applied to that article does not match the information stored in the memory.
10 . The method as in claim 9 , further comprising shipping the set of articles to a customer with the verification report.
11 . The method as in claim 1 , wherein the reader is a RFID reader and the transmitter is a RFID transmitter.