This article was originally published by RFID Update.
August 15, 2007—RFID solutions provider ODIN technologies announced its award of a patent for what the company calls S.M.A.R.T. container technology. The goal of S.M.A.R.T., or Secure Material Accounted in Real Time, is to enhance the automation and accuracy of visibility into containerized assets.
An example of the S.M.A.R.T. system (US Patent 7,256,682) would function as follows. A single RFID tag is attached to the outside of the container. That tag stores a record of all the container’s tagged inventory. An RFID reader is installed within the container and programmed to emit a read signal whenever the container is closed. All the tagged assets within the container respond to the read signal with their identification data, which the reader receives and transmits to the external tag. Thus, as tagged assets are added to or removed from the container, the external tag’s inventory record is updated dynamically. The benefit is that despite there being numerous tags within the container at any given time, only the single external tag need be read to secure an accurate, up-to-date record of inventory.
ODIN indicates that motivation for S.M.A.R.T. came from work with clients that needed the functionality. “Our extensive work in the military, aerospace, and health care industries revealed a common challenge,” ODIN CEO and S.M.A.R.T. container inventor Patrick J. Sweeney II President was quoted in the announcement. “People would put contents into a box, update the contents to an exterior tag, but never update the inventory when items were removed. This leads to inventory inaccuracy and added effort.”
ODIN sees a wide variety of applications and markets for S.M.A.R.T. containers, including military, operating rooms, port security, and shipping companies with multiple drop-off locations. The company is open to licensing the technology to other RFID solutions providers and is already working with existing clients on deployment.
Read the announcement