This disclosure relates to sortable tracking objects. In particular, this disclosure relates to sortable tracking objects that can be associated with item containers and items for tracking and organization.

For a measurement period, signal strengths, device identifiers and access point identifiers are received from a plurality of access points. A record for the measurement period is stored in random access memory with the record being associated with a single device identifier and containing access point identifiers associated with signal strengths received for the measurement period. The location of a device is determined for the measurement period by retrieving spatial coordinates of a corresponding access point for each access point identifier in the record for the measurement period and setting the location of the device for the measurement period to the average of the retrieved spatial coordinates.

An image forming device includes a wireless tag communication device and a controller. The wireless tag communication device is configured to acquire identification information to identify a wireless tag from the wireless tag provided in a sheet. The controller is configured to acquire dispensing information required to write to the wireless tag and perform a warning process by using the acquired dispensing information and the acquired identification information, upon the dispensing condition not being satisfied.

A wireless tag communication device for communicating with a wireless tag conveyed in a conveyance direction includes an antenna with a plurality of radiation regions from which a polarized radio wave is emitted and including a first radiation region extending along a first direction crossing the conveyance direction and having a first length in the first direction, and a second radiation region extending parallel to the first radiation region and having a second length that is different from the first length in the first direction, and a controller configured to cause at least one of the first and second radiation regions to emit a polarized wave towards the wireless tag.

A vessel is assigned a unique vessel identifier (620). Before or after the vessel is filled, the vessel identifier is encoded into a machine-readable code that is printed or etched onto the vessel (630; 640). The code may have the property that it can be quickly read by a scanner from a variety of different angles and vessel orientations. When the vessel is sold to a user, the user may scan the machine-readable code (or a different code placed on a label associated with the vessel) using a smartphone (710), and the unique vessel identifier is linked to a user account associated with the user (740). Later, when the user places the empty vessel in the recycling stream, a scanner or camera placed in the recycling facility scans or captures the machine-readable code on the vessel and extracts the vessel identifier from the code (810; 820).

Recommended installation position and posture of a stationary code reader can be proposed to a user to facilitate installation work of the code reader by the user. An installation support device for the stationary code reader acquires camera information including a camera parameter of the code reader, code information to be read, and environment information including a conveying speed of a line, determines required field of view and depth of the code reader required to read a code under an environment specified by the environment information, and determines an installation pattern which is recommended installation position and posture of the code reader that can satisfy the required field of view and depth based on the camera information and the code information.

A radio frequency identification (RFID) apparatus includes a housing, an RFID reader, and one or more RFID antennas disposed in the housing. The housing includes a first opening, a second opening, and a tunnel between the first and second openings. The housing is configured to be disposed over a track configured to transport a garment on hanger through the tunnel. The RFID antennas are configured to generate a first RFID signal substantially in the tunnel to interrogate an RFID tag associated with a garment on hanger as it transits through the tunnel. The RFID reader receives a second RFID signal transmitted by the RFID tag in response to receiving the first RFID signal. The RFID apparatus can include a segment of the track. The track can include a trolley configured to secure one or more garments on hangers. The trolley can include an RFID tag.

An image forming device includes a wireless tag communication device and a controller. The wireless tag communication device is configured to acquire identification information to identify a wireless tag from the wireless tag provided in a sheet. The controller is configured to acquire dispensing information required to write to the wireless tag and perform a warning process by using the acquired dispensing information and the acquired identification information, upon the dispensing condition not being satisfied.

Even if a size of a read image is large, a code search process can be speeded up to enable immediate output of a decoding result. Each time a predetermined number of lines of image data is taken, a pre-processing circuit executes pre-processing on the image data and calculates a characteristic amount indicating the likelihood of the code for each area in the image data. A processor determines a code candidate area based on the acquired characteristic amount and executes a decoding process of the determined area to generate a decoding result.

Recommended installation position and posture of a stationary code reader can be proposed to a user to facilitate installation work of the code reader by the user. An installation support device for the stationary code reader acquires camera information including a camera parameter of the code reader, code information to be read, and environment information including a conveying speed of a line, determines required field of view and depth of the code reader required to read a code under an environment specified by the environment information, and determines an installation pattern which is recommended installation position and posture of the code reader that can satisfy the required field of view and depth based on the camera information and the code information.