A system and method for monitoring the inventory of a medical storage container such as a tray that has a required inventory of medical articles. An enclosure is used to isolate, scan, and take an inventory of the tray or other container of medical articles. The tray and each of the medical articles in the tray has an RFID tag. The enclosure having a size smaller than the size needed for a resonant frequency at the RFID frequency of operation of the tags. A probe is used to create a robust electromagnetic field standing wave of constructive interference in the enclosure and a program compares the scanned present inventory of the tray to the required inventory database and indicates any differences. Expired and recalled articles and substitutes for recalled articles are identified.

An antenna device includes a power supply coil to which a near field communication circuit is connected, a near field communication coil that is coupled to an antenna coil of a communication target and the power supply coil via a magnetic field and that resonates at the frequency of a near field communication signal, and a non-contact charging coil that is connected to a non-contact charging control circuit and that is coupled to a target coil for non-contact charging. The power supply coil and the non-contact charging coil are provided on the same plane or on planes that are close to each other. The non-contact charging coil is superposed with the near field communication coil when viewed in plan view, and the shortest distance between the power supply coil and the NFC coil is smaller than the shortest distance between the power supply coil and the non-contact charging coil.

An automatic data collection system tracks medical articles by providing a robust electromagnetic (EM) field within an enclosure in which the articles are stored. Respective data carriers, such as RFID tags, attached to each article respond to the electromagnetic field by transmitting data identified with each article. An RFID scanner receives the transmitted RFID tag identification data and a processor compares the received identification data to a data base. The data base associates the identification data with data concerning the medical article to which the RFID tag is affixed, such as the name of the medicine, the size of the dose, and the expiration date. The processor is also programmed to keep track of the number of articles of a particular type remaining in the enclosure, to note receipt of an article in the enclosure, and to note removal of the article.

An incontinence detection system monitors an area for moisture events and wirelessly transmits moisture-related information to one or more notification devices. The system has a pad that includes a substrate and one or more sensors supported by the substrate. The sensor(s) emit wireless signals indicative of the moisture-related information. A sensor event communication system forwards the sensor signals to another device, such as a notification device. Portions of the system are included in a patient support apparatus, such as a bed.

To provide a storage container that employs a metallic housing while allowing individual identification of a contained object by means of radio wave communication with an electronic tag of a managed object in the housing. A storage container 1 comprising: a metallic housing 10 for enclosing battery modules 11, 12, 13, 14 as managed objects with electronic tags 21, 22, 23, 24 for individual identification being attached thereto; and an opening portion 15 that is provided on the metallic housing 10 and has an opening being formed therein, the opening constituting a radio wave propagation path between the electronic tags 21, 22, 23, 24 of the battery modules 11, 12, 13, 14 enclosed in the metallic housing 10 and exterior of the metallic housing 10.

Various aspects of the disclosure generally relate to security for a credit card processing reader. Part of security for a reader is a secure cover having a trace mesh to discourage drilling through the cover. The mesh may be connected to one or more landing areas on the cover. The landing area has electrical pads with trace routing that provides tamper protection for the landing area.

Various aspects of the disclosure generally relate to security for a credit card processing reader. Part of security for a reader is protecting sensitive components, for example components that access information from a credit card during a transaction. An alternative security configuration may include integrated circuits replacing portions of electrically active mesh. This may reduce the size and cost of a reader while maintaining its security with respect to published guidelines.

The system of the present invention includes a conductive element, an electronic component, and a partial power source in the form of dissimilar materials. Upon contact with a conducting fluid, a voltage potential is created and the power source is completed, which activates the system. The electronic component controls the conductance between the dissimilar materials to produce a unique current signature. The system can be used in a variety of different applications, including as components of ingestible identifiers, such as may be found in ingestible event markers, e.g., pharmainformatics enabled pharmaceutical compositions.

A passive, self-steering antenna device is provided along with methods pertaining to operations and controls of the antenna device. The antenna device can include a main antenna for receiving an unmodulated wireless signal, a power harvester configured to obtain power from the unmodulated wireless signal, a main circuit disposed in a central region of the antenna device, and a plurality of peripheral distributed antenna elements configured to modify the radiation pattern of the antenna device. The antenna device can be configured to operate automatically device without needing control information in response to receiving a message from another antenna. Related methods include operations and controls for such an antenna device including automatically performing actions to enhance communications with another antenna device by selecting and activating a subset of the peripheral antenna elements to create a radiation pattern.

An aspect of the present invention provides an RFID tag system in which a null point is hardly generated. The RFID tag system includes an RFID tag and an RFID reader/writer. The RFID reader/writer includes a transmitter that transmits a circularly-polarized radio wave to the RFID tag, a receiver that separately receives horizontal and vertical polarization components of a return wave from the RFID tag; and a received signal combiner that logically combines signals separately received by the receiver. The received signal combiner includes an optimum combiner that combines the horizontal polarization component and the vertical polarization component such that an S/N ratio of the received signal is enhanced compared with the case that the horizontal polarization component and the vertical polarization component are separately received.