US 11,886,856 B2
Firmware update for a pallet of devices
Matt Karlgaard, Brainerd, MN (US); Keith Mario Torpy, Sydney (AU); David Bain, Buckworth (GB); Mohammad Malas, Peterborough (GB); and Bruno Benedetti, Rotkreuz (CH)
Assigned to Landis+Gyr Technology, Inc., Alpharetta, GA (US)
Filed by Landis+Gyr Innovations, Inc., Alpharetta, GA (US)
Filed on Dec. 1, 2020, as Appl. No. 17/108,341.
Prior Publication US 2022/0171609 A1, Jun. 2, 2022
Int. Cl. G06F 9/445 (2018.01); G06F 8/65 (2018.01); G06F 1/3287 (2019.01); G06K 7/10 (2006.01); G06K 19/07 (2006.01); G06Q 30/018 (2023.01); G06Q 50/28 (2012.01)
CPC G06F 8/65 (2013.01) [G06F 1/3287 (2013.01); G06K 7/10158 (2013.01); G06K 7/10297 (2013.01); G06K 7/10336 (2013.01); G06K 19/0709 (2013.01); G06K 19/0723 (2013.01); G06Q 30/0185 (2013.01); G06Q 50/28 (2013.01); G06K 2007/10504 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for providing data to a group of devices on a pallet, the method comprising:
positioning a set of near field communication (NFC) antennas at different locations around a perimeter of the pallet, each antenna of the set of NFC antennas being configured to surround the pallet;
broadcasting, by an NFC reader/writer utilizing the set of NFC antennas, an identification command simultaneously to the group of devices on the pallet, each device of the group of devices including an NFC tag storing a unique identification (ID) indicator;
receiving, by the NFC reader/writer, unique ID indicators from each device of the group of devices that receives the identification command;
transmitting, by the NFC reader/writer, individual commands to each device of the group of devices based on the unique ID indicator to enable energy harvesting by the NFC tag, wherein NFC tags for each device of the group of devices harvests energy from transmissions by the NFC reader/writer, wherein energy harvested by each device provides power to operate a processor of the device and a nonvolatile memory of the device in a low power mode;
broadcasting, by the NFC reader/writer, data to the group of devices, wherein the data is stored in a memory of the NFC tag of each of the devices, and
transmitting, by the NFC reader/writer, a verification message to verify that the data was successfully received by interrogating each device individually based on the unique ID indicator.