A card reader may include a card passage where a card inserted into an insertion port for the card is passed, a shutter member for closing the card passage, a magnetic head disposed on a rear side relative to the shutter member and structured to perform reading of magnetic data recorded in a magnetic stripe of the card and/or recording of magnetic data to the magnetic stripe, and a foreign matter detection mechanism which is structured to detect a foreign matter attached to the card passage. The foreign matter detection mechanism is disposed on a rear side relative to the shutter member and is disposed at a position in the width direction of the card where the magnetic stripe is passed. The foreign matter detection mechanism may be structured of an electrostatic capacitance sensor.

An asset tag device including a housing, a battery disposed within the housing, a circuit board disposed within the housing and in electrical communication with the battery. The circuit board includes a local memory, a transceiver to detect local signals and transmit a response packet, and a processor. The processor to identify the detected local signals, determine whether the detected local signals include at least one beacon signal, store, to the local memory, the at least one beacon signal, sort, in the local memory, the stored at least one beacon signal by proximity to the asset tag device, parse the sorted at least one beacon signal, and append tag information to the parsed at least one beacon signal to generate the response packet.

A system determines what regions in a scene captured by a camera include highly reflective (specular) surfaces. The system illuminates the scene by outputting images to a display screen such as a television screen so as to illuminate the scene from different angles. Images of the scene are captured by the camera under the different illuminations. The images are analyzed to determine which regions in the scene exhibit changes in reflected luminance that correspond to the changes in illumination, indicating a specular surface. Regions containing diffuse surfaces are also identified based on such regions exhibiting a reflected luminance that is substantially independent of the changes in illumination.

An erasing apparatus according to an embodiment includes an erasing unit that erases an image formed on a sheet and a scanning unit that scans a surface of a sheet. A control determines whether or not an image on the sheet has been erased based on the scanned surface and count the number of sheets on which images are determined to have been erased, with respect to each size of the sheets. A network interface transmits information including the counted number of the sheets and a size of the sheets on which images are determined to have been erased to a managing apparatus that manages points associated with the erasing of the images on the sheets.

According to one embodiment, a wireless tag communication device includes a controller configured to acquire, from a wireless tag on a sheet, position information indicating a position of the wireless tag on the sheet, identify the position of the wireless tag on the sheet from the acquired position information, and write information to the wireless tag according to the identified position of the wireless tag on the sheet.

A slave device continuously transmits a plurality of tuning blocks to a host device at intervals defined by a clock period between a plurality of data blocks at the time of transmitting the plurality of data blocks and by a clock period defined by a data structure of the plurality of tuning blocks.

This disclosure is generally directed to an RFID system that includes a hybrid RFID tag offering a functionality of a passive RFID tag and an active RFID tag. When operating as a passive RFID tag, an RF signal received from an RFID reader is harvested to produce a DC voltage for powering the hybrid RFID tag. The harvested DC voltage is coupled into a capacitor at a slow-charging rate so as to avoid a capacitor inrush current causing an abrupt power supply voltage drop. A controller chip in the hybrid RFID tag can execute some RFID functions at this time, thereby speeding up a response to the RFID reader. The capacitor is then charged at a fast-charging rate for storing a reserve charge. The hybrid RFID tag can subsequently use the reserve charge to operate as an active RFID tag without waiting for an RF signal from the RFID reader.

An Apparatus and Method for reliably sorting RFID chips, in inlays, labels, tags or other units of manufacture, into rows and columns, and using that information to report their exact position on a moving web, in support of further manufacturing processes, in the presence of crosstalk, with speed and accuracy exceeding prior art.

Aspects of the present disclosure include receiving one or more RFID interrogating signals from the RFID scanner, generating one or more internal signals, mixing the one or more RFID interrogating signals with the one or more internal signals to generate one or more resultant signals, and backscattering the one or more resultant signals.

Reading apparatus for objects each bearing at least one RFID tag, said objects being placed in a cassette that can also be furnished with an RFID tag, said system comprising at least one element in the form of a tunnel in which said cassette can be placed, said element comprising at least one antenna and one RFID reader, said antenna comprising at least two coils composed of several turns, said coils being distributed along and around said tunnel.