Appeal No. 2006-2284 Page 15
Application No. 09/912,211
interrogator 43, and . . . portable RFID scanners 42, both of which are used for
identifying articles 22 presented at the checkout station 50." (Col. 8, ll. 12-18.)
Because an object of Bowers' inventory control system is to determine whether
articles are in the proper location, (see col. 1, ll. 38-41), we find that having more than
one interrogator record the location of the same article would have lead to ambiguity.
Figure 1 of the reference, for example, shows that the exterior book drop 32 is near the
smart pedestals 36 and the fixed interrogators 43 and portable scanners 42 of the
checkout station 50. If an article in the book drop 32 was scanned by interrogators of
the smart pedestals 36, the fixed interrogators 43, and the portable scanners 42,
besides being scanned by the interrogator of the book drop, the system might identify
the article as simultaneously being located in the book drop, between the pedestals,
and in the checkout area, which would have lead to uncertainty as to the precise
location of the article.
"An object tracking and management system and method using radio-frequency
identification ('RFID') tags is [similarly] disclosed," (abs., ll. 1-3), by Francis. As
aforementioned, the appellants admit that Francis teaches "RF shielding. . . ." (Reply
Br. at 7.) More specifically, "[a]n RF shield 410, such as a metal plate, metal screen or
other RF reflective or absorbant [sic] material, is positioned between," (col. 9, ll. 53-55),
Page: Previous 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Next
Last modified: September 9, 2013