Radio frequency identification (RFID) systems have been proposed for identifying tagged objects for such purposes as taking inventory or tracking movements of objects being transported. Examples are described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,300,875; 5,365,551; and 5,448,110.
RFID systems generally employ a passive or active RF transceiver, called a "tag", mounted on each object to be identified or tracked. An interrogator transceiver periodically transmits RF interrogation signals. Upon receiving an interrogation signal, a tag responds by transmitting a response signal containing data which identifies the object and contains any other information which may have been stored or programmed in the tag.
Conventional RFID systems provide little or no interactive feedback in response to actions performed by handling personnel. Specifically, conventional RFID systems lack any means for discriminating in favor of an individual tagged object a human operator is working with at any given moment; instead, conventional RFID systems generally would confuse the operator by providing information regarding all the tagged objects in the vicinity. Furthermore, if a number of personnel are working close to each other, conventional RFID systems cannot direct information about a tag to the specific individual who is handling the tagged object.
For example, suppose a number of airport baggage handler personnel are sorting or routing tagged suitcases according to the airline flight destination encoded in a tag attached to each suitcase. Conventional RFID systems lack any means for detecting which individual suitcase a human operator or baggage handler is about to pick up so as to provide to the operator only the destination or routing information for the suitcase that person currently is handling, to the exclusion of information about other nearby suitcases. Presumably because of this and other shortcomings of conventional RFID systems, RFID tags never entered commercial use for tagging airline baggage.