US 11,922,252 B1
Metamaterials technology for ore tracking
Michael Hadmack, Honolulu, HI (US); Ryan Miyamoto, Honolulu, HI (US); Glen Nakafuji, Honolulu, HI (US); Vinod Veedu, Houston, TX (US); Donald Harbin, Mililani, HI (US); and Manabu Kimura, Honolulu, HI (US)
Assigned to Oceanit Laboratories, Inc., Honolulu, HI (US)
Filed by Oceanit Laboratories, Inc., Honolulu, HI (US)
Filed on Jan. 14, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/149,675.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/961,198, filed on Jan. 14, 2020.
Int. Cl. G06K 7/10 (2006.01); G06K 19/07 (2006.01); G06N 3/08 (2023.01); G06N 20/00 (2019.01)
CPC G06K 7/10366 (2013.01) [G06K 19/0723 (2013.01); G06N 3/08 (2013.01); G06N 20/00 (2019.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for automated processing of materials, the method comprising:
extracting a sample from a process stream, the process stream being a stream of one or more materials moving from a source of origin to a downstream processing of the one or more materials;
scanning the sample by interrogating the sample using one or more energy sources, thereby producing scanned sample data, wherein the one or more energy sources are selected from the group consisting of: visible light, infrared light, radio-frequency (RF) energy, ionizing radiation, chemical energy, electrical energy, acoustic energy, and combinations thereof;
using one or more artificial intelligence (AI) methods to analyze the scanned sample data to identify and sort the one or more materials in the process stream, thereby producing analyzed sample data; and
providing the analyzed sample data to a user;
wherein the sample comprises one or more RFID tags, wherein each of the one or more RFID tags comprises one or more radio-frequency (RF) metamaterials that produces a unique spectral feature when illuminated with microwave radiation, wherein each of the one or more RFID tags has a unique spectral response representing a one-bit code, wherein each of the one or more RFID tags has a code of “1” if the unique spectral response is present at a pre-determined spectral frequency, and a code of “0” if the unique spectral response is not present at the pre-determined spectral frequency;
wherein the one or more RFID tags are chip-free and encapsulated in a package comprising hard epoxy and one or more polymer layers.