An RFID-enabled retail carriage basket, which may be placed within a retail carriage or may be integrated into a retail carriage, such as a shopping cart. The RFID-enabled retail carriage basket may have a base with a near-field radio-frequency antenna, and sidewalls arranged around the perimeter of the base. RF-reflecting material may be attached to the lower part of the carriage basket, on the outside of the base and along the lowest parts of the sidewalls. RF-mitigating material may be attached to the remaining parts of the sidewalls. The RFID-enabled retail carriage basket may be connected to a host device, which may control scanning of the basket that may be performed by the antenna. If desired, the RFID-enabled retail carriage basket may be provided in the lower basket of a double-basket shopping cart and configured to scan both the upper and the lower basket with the antenna.

Plasmonic-surface antenna systems are described in which resonators, or cells, are closely arranged but do not touch. At least a portion of a radiating surface includes a plurality of cells (operative as resonators) placed very close together to one so that a surface (plasmonic) wave causes near replication of the current of one cell in an adjacent cell. Cells with one or more fractal shapes may be used as a fractal plasmonic surface (FPS). Systems and/or methods are described of using plasmonic surfaces or fractal plasmonic surfaces for radiofrequency identification (RFID). A PS or FPS may act as an intermediary array of antennas, which can serve to connect an RFID reader with one or more RFID tags. Structures including cages are described that can include one or more surfaces that are each an FPS. Methods of power transfer are described.

An automatic data collection system tracks 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.

A UHF radiofrequency identification (RFID) device operating at an UHF wavelength for enabling communication of an UHF RFID reader with UHF RFID tags positioned within a cavity having an internal volume with a largest dimension that is below twice said UHF wavelength. The device comprises a wire wave guide having an entry extremity and at least one exit extremity and positioned within said at least one cavity above a ground surface, wherein said entry extremity is fed by said UHF RFID reader and said at least one exit extremity is connected to said ground surface via a load.

A coupling assistance device is provided with a base material having a first principal surface, and a planar antenna provided at the base material. Moreover, the first principal surface of the base material has a first region to which a coil antenna of a portable telephone terminal is to be adjacent, and a second region to which a coil antenna of an RFID tag-containing article is to be adjacent. The planar antenna is provided from the first region over to the second region of the base material, and is coupled to the antenna of the portable telephone terminal in the first region and to the antenna of the RFID tag-containing article in the second region.

A UHF radiofrequency identification (RFID) system comprising a UHF RFID reader and at least one UHF RFID antenna for enabling communication of the UHF RFID reader with UHF RFID tags affixed on articles within a cabinet having electrically conductive walls and at least one door, the UHF RFID antennas being positioned within the cabinet and the UHF RFID system further comprises at least one conductive surface (e.g., a brewer, brasseur, or cross-connector) enclosed in a compartment positioned within the cabinet and comprising a conductive surface set in movement by a motor.

An RFID-enabling system and method include a probe antenna to introduce a robust EM field into a container to activate RFID tags within the container, regardless of the container's resonant frequency. The probe reads the data of the activated RFID tags, and a processor and communications module transmit the RFID tag data to a remote processor. The RFID-enabling module may be used to retrofit existing medication drawers of a medication cabinet or may be used during the construction of a new cabinet. The RFID-enabling system includes auto tuning of the antenna to dynamically compensate for loading changes on the EM field.

A tank support system includes a hollow open-top container having a contiguous sidewall region and a bottom region coupled to the sidewall region. A loop antenna is coupled to a portion of the container's sidewall region. A tuning circuit coupled to the loop antenna provides for adjustment of the loop antenna's electrical impedance. A radio frequency identification (RFID) reader is coupled to the tuning circuit.

An automatic data collection system tracks 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.

Disclosed is a system for electromagnetic interrogation of RFID transponders including at least one RFID transponder, at least one so-called repeater RFID device and at least one RFID terminal, the at least one RFID terminal is configured to emit an interrogation signal towards the at least one repeater at a frequency F1, the at least one repeater is configured to repeat the interrogation signal with frequency F1 towards the at least one RFID transponder at a frequency F2 and the at least one RFID transponder is configured to emit a backscattered response signal at a frequency F3, the system being characterized in that the at least one repeater is configured to perform an exclusively analog frequency transposition from the frequency F1 to the frequency F2.