A retrofit self-contained RFID-enabling module for automatically identifying and tracking medical articles having RF tags located in a container having electrically-conductive walls includes a base having a probe mounted to the base for injecting activating rf energy into the container in which the module has been mounted. The base also includes a reader board that controls the probe between an injection mode, in which it injects RFID tag activation energy into the container to activate the tags on the medical articles, and a non-injecting mode during which the identification signals of the activated RFID tags on the medical articles can be read. The module is self-contained in that only power is needed to operate. The size of the module, including its components, is selected in relation to the size of the container so that the module may be dropped into the container.

A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag positioning system includes a tag holder having a first region with a slot extending from an edge of the first region, and a second region extending from the first region. When an RFID tag having an antenna is disposed in the slot of the tag holder and when the tag holder is adapted to be retained adjacent a filling fixture of a gas tank with the second region adapted to be in contact with the gas tank so that the slot is approximately perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the gas tank, the RFID tag's antenna is approximately perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the gas tank.

An RFID auxiliary antenna device is provided on an article that is adjacent to an RFID tag to be communicated or accommodates the RFID tag. The RFID auxiliary antenna device includes a conductive pattern that circles the article. A capacitance component generated between conductive patterns and an inductance component of the conductive pattern configure a resonant circuit. A resonant frequency of the resonant circuit is equal to or substantially equal to a communication frequency of the RFID tag, and the RFID auxiliary antenna device is magnetically coupled to each of the RFID tag and a reader/writer.

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 insert for a chip card includes a body provided with a cavity in which is inserted an electronic module provided with a microelectronic chip connected to an inductive or capacitive coupling. The body has a stack of layers at least a first layer of which comprises a first booster antenna and a second layer of which comprises a second booster antenna, the various booster antennas being coupled together inductively and/or capacitively, and at least one of the booster antennas being coupled inductively and/or capacitively with the coupling of the module. The body furthermore comprises at least one metal plate disposed between two layers of ferrite, the first and second booster antennae and the metallic plate being arranged in such a way that at least one of the two booster antennas and the electronic module remain coupled together inductively and/or capacitively, despite the presence of the metal plate.

The problem to solve is how to extend the operating range of small stackable RFID tags when they are placed in an undesirable orientation. Disclosed is an RFID tag that operates in two modes whereby in a first mode the tag has a short range and in a second mode the tag has a long range. The tag is converted from the first mode short range device into the second mode long range device by placing it close to a coupling device. That is in the second mode the tag becomes a two part RFID tag system (1400) capable of communicating with an interrogator antenna (1407).

A method for controlling an actuatable restraining device includes sensing a plurality of crash event indications in response to a crash event. The method also includes classifying the crash event in response to comparing the sensed crash event indications against one another to identify an oblique moving deformable barrier crash event. The method further includes controlling deployment timing of the actuatable restraining device in response to the classification of the crash event.

A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag positioning system includes a tag holder having a first region with a slot extending from an edge of the first region, and a second region extending from the first region. When an RFID tag having an antenna is disposed in the slot of the tag holder and when the tag holder is adapted to be retained adjacent a filling fixture of a gas tank with the second region adapted to be in contact with the gas tank so that the slot is approximately perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the gas tank, the RFID tag's antenna is approximately perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the gas tank.

Reading efficiency of RFID tags in a reading zone of a RFID reading apparatus is improved: A structure is interposed between the RFID tag(s) and the RFID reading apparatus, which is essentially electrically non-conductive and which comprises a RFID antennas network. The RFID antennas network is positioned on said structure according to a pattern whose periodicity in the two dimensions is less than half an operating RFID wavelength so as to create a three dimensional interferometric pattern with peaks of electromagnetic field intensities. The RFID reading apparatus or the at least one RFID tag is set in motion relatively to the other. The at least one RFID tag is read by the RFID reading apparatus during the relative motion within the reading zone so that the three dimensional interferometric pattern shifts and improves the reading efficiency.

The invention relates to a method of reading RF transponders disposed in one and the same magnetic interrogation field, in which a magnetic coupling of the transponders is ensured with a passive resonant circuit during reading. The method is distinguished in that the passive antenna of the resonant circuit is associated with at least one transponder antenna, and the passive resonant circuit is tuned in such a way that the resonant frequency resulting from the association corresponds to one of the frequencies of the emission side bands of the transponder to be read. The invention also relates to the system corresponding to the method, a transponder structure and an object containing the transponder, in particular a travel document.