International Business Machines Corporation

Stehen James Watt

Rhonda L Childress

David B Kumhyr

Stewart Jason Hyman

Bradley Dale Childs

Joann Huffman

A system, method, and medium for tracking the contents of a container in which the items stored in the container are provided with radio frequency identification ('RFID') tags, and a tracker affixed to the container periodically polls the items in the container to collect identification information. An electronic manifest, also attached to the container, is updated periodically to reflect items which have been added to the container or removed from the container since the last polling. The tracker emulates an RFID tag when polled by an external reader, responding by uploading the entire electronic manifest to the external reader. The external reader and the affixed reader preferably utilize distinct RFID protocols so as to produce a hierarchical manifest data structure with high integrity.

Growing community of inventors

Leander, TX, United States of America

Stehen James Watt