US 12,457,478 B2
Tag based tracking with faraday cage hopper
Burdette Brown, Northfield, MN (US); and Keri Lynn Rateliff, Lakeville, MN (US)
Assigned to Phil My Bin, LLC, Northfield, MN (US)
Filed by Phil My Bin, LLC, Northfield, MN (US)
Filed on Aug. 31, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/446,595.
Prior Publication US 2023/0064946 A1, Mar. 2, 2023
Int. Cl. H04W 4/35 (2018.01); G06Q 10/087 (2023.01); H05K 9/00 (2006.01)
CPC H04W 4/35 (2018.02) [G06Q 10/087 (2013.01); H05K 9/002 (2013.01); H05K 9/0045 (2013.01); H05K 9/006 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system comprising:
a plurality of bins capable of holding one or more parts,
each bin of the plurality of bins having a wirelessly readable identifier tag with a unique digital ID;
a hopper comprising a faraday cage configured to receive multiple empty bins; and
a reading device comprising:
an antenna positioned to receive wireless signals representative of the unique digital ID of each bin of the multiple empty bins placed within the hopper; and
reading circuitry communicatively coupled to the antenna to convert the wireless signals to the unique digital IDs and
transmit the unique digital IDs to a management system configured to track each bin of the multiple empty bins.
 
10. A system comprising:
a hopper comprising a faraday cage configured to receive multiple bins capable of holding one or more parts,
each bin of the multiple bins having a wirelessly readable identifier tag with a unique digital ID; and
an antenna positioned within the hopper to receive wireless signals representative of the unique digital ID of each bin of the multiple bins placed within the hopper.
 
18. A method comprising:
detecting insertion of a bin into a hopper comprising a faraday cage;
reading a unique ID of the bin from an RFID tag associated with the bin via an antenna positioned within the hopper;
transmitting the unique ID to an inventory management system to identify the bin and enable the inventory management system to determine that the bin needs restocking.