KR101830376B1 - sensor tag without battery and method for processing data thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The sensor tag includes a plurality of sensors, and at least one of the plurality of sensors operates to acquire sensor data according to an instruction for requesting a sensing operation from the reader. The acquired data is transferred directly to the reader without being stored in memory.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a sensorless tag and a method for processing the same,

The present invention relates to a sensor tag, and more particularly, to a non-battery sensor tag and a data processing method thereof.

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a technology that stores information of a product or object such as production process, distribution, and life cycle of a product in an electronic tag and uses radio waves to recognize the information. The RFID system consists of a tag that stores information and exchanges data with a wireless protocol, and a reader that communicates with these tags. The tags are classified into active type and passive type depending on whether power is supplied or not. The active tag has the advantage of reducing the power of the reader and distanting the recognition distance with the reader. However, since the power supply is required, there are restrictions on the price and usage. On the other hand, passive tags are cheaper and can be used semi-permanently, but they have a short recognition range, consumes more power in the reader, and does not have a lot of data to be stored.

As the fields of use of RFID become more widespread and the usage methods become more diverse, the functions of tags are increasing. In particular, when the amount of data to be stored in the tag is used for simple product management, it is only several bytes. However, in the case of a sensor tag such as USN (Ubiquitous Sensor Network), it is necessary to store several kilobytes of data . In the case of storing measured data from a sensor, the greater the amount of data stored in the memory space, the greater the efficiency of the sensor and play a role in the intended use.

However, as the amount of data to be stored increases, the capacity of the memory used as the storage space of the RFID becomes larger and the power consumption of the RFID increases. When the power consumption increases, the passive sensor tag becomes unusable, and even in the case of the active sensor tag, the battery life is shortened, so that various uses may be restricted. Especially, since the memory of RFID mainly uses nonvolatile memory, the current data is erased to write new data, new value is written, and high voltage is used in the process, thereby increasing overall power consumption.

In terms of service using RFID, there are many services that are attached to an animal or objects and transmit environmental information of surrounding environment to a reader. Therefore, there is a need for a sensor tag that operates as a non-electric power source. In order to operate the RFID tag with the non-electric power, the low power operation became an indispensable requirement. Especially, the sensor tag which can be operated with the non-electric power is necessary.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a non-battery sensor tag and a data processing method thereof that can reduce the capacity of a memory for data storage and minimize power consumption.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of processing data of a sensor tag, the method comprising: receiving a command related to a sensing operation from a reader; The sensor tag generates a power source according to the command word and operates the sensor to perform sensor operation to acquire sensor data; And transmitting the sensor tag to the reader without performing a process of storing sensor data acquired by the sensor.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, the sensor data acquired by the sensor tag can be directly transmitted to the reader without being stored in the memory in a nonvolatile manner, thereby reducing the capacity of the memory in the tag. In addition, a separate nonvolatile memory for the sensor data may not be implemented in the tag, so that the power consumption can be reduced and the cost of the sensor tag can be reduced by reducing the area of the chip.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a structure of a memory of a general sensor tag.
2 is a view illustrating a structure of a battery-less sensor tag according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a diagram illustrating a structure of a memory according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a flowchart of a data processing method of a sensor tag according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art can easily carry out the present invention. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. In order to clearly illustrate the present invention, parts not related to the description are omitted, and similar parts are denoted by like reference characters throughout the specification.

Throughout the specification, when an element is referred to as "comprising ", it means that it can include other elements as well, without excluding other elements unless specifically stated otherwise.

Hereinafter, a battery-less sensor tag and a data processing method thereof according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

In general, a sensor tag having a built-in sensor function communicates with a reader via wireless, stores and manages sensor data input from various information and sensors in the tag, and stores the stored sensor data in a reader send. Specifically, the sensor tag stores the sensor data provided from the sensor in a storage area corresponding to the memory address allocated for the sensor data of the memory. Thus, the data stored in the storage area for the sensor data of the memory is transmitted to the reader through a separate memory access command.

1 is a diagram specifically showing a memory structure in a sensor tag.

The sensor tag includes a memory 100 as shown in FIG. 2. The memory 100 includes a memory 101 for storing electronic product code (EPC), which is unique to a tag, a memory 102 for storing a tag identification And a memory 103 for storing sensor data. The memory 100 is made of a nonvolatile memory. In general, a minimum amount of nonvolatile memory is used to minimize power consumption and to reduce the price of the sensor tag.

Since the power consumption and price of the tag are rapidly changed according to the capacity of the nonvolatile memory, the memory 103 for storing the sensor data should have a small capacity as much as possible. However, depending on the use of the sensor tag, have.

In general, the sensor data generated by the sensor is stored in the memory 103. Since the sensor data requires a high-voltage power supply to store the sensor data, much power is consumed. Further, the memory 103 occupies a large portion of the area of the sensor tag, which causes a rise in cost.

The sensor tag according to the embodiment of the present invention transmits the sensor data to the reader without storing the sensor data, thereby reducing the power consumption and storing the sensor data.

The sensor tag according to an embodiment of the present invention has the following structure.

2 is a diagram illustrating the structure of a sensor tag according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2, the sensor tag 200 according to the embodiment of the present invention includes an RF connection unit 201 for communicating with the reader 300 via radio, a sensor unit including a plurality of sensors for sensing various information 202, a memory 203 for storing various pieces of tag related information, and a control unit 204.

The control unit 204 analyzes and processes the command received from the reader 300, controls the processing of sensor data acquired from the sensor unit 202, and controls reading and writing of data to and from the memory 203 do. The control unit 204 according to the embodiment of the present invention transmits the sensor data provided from the sensor unit 202 to the reader 300 through the RF connection unit 201 without storing the sensor data in the memory 203. [

Since the sensor data is not stored in the sensor tag 200 but transmitted to the reader 300, the memory 203 of the sensor tag 200 according to the embodiment of the present invention can store a separate storage area for storing sensor data May not be included.

3 is a diagram illustrating a structure of a memory according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 3, the memory 203 according to the embodiment of the present invention includes only a storage area for EPC storage and a storage area for TID storage, and does not include a separate storage area for storing sensor data . As a result, a separate memory capacity for storage of sensor data having a capacity of several kilobytes is not secured, so that the storage capacity of the memory 203 can be remarkably reduced compared to the conventional case.

The sensor tag 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention having such a structure can be configured in a board form using individual elements and can be realized as a single chip including a sensor using a semiconductor process.

Meanwhile, the reader 300 may be embodied in a form including a database for storing and managing sensor data from the sensor tag 200.

Next, a data processing method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described based on a sensor tag having such a structure.

4 is a flowchart of a data processing method of a sensor tag according to an embodiment of the present invention.

When communication is started between the reader 300 and the sensor tag 200 and communication is started through an inventory procedure in step S100, for example, the reader 300 transmits predetermined information (S110). ≪ / RTI > At this time, the command for the sensing operation may be implemented using a memory access command for a specific address (for example, Memory Read @FFFF_FFFF).

The sensor tag 200 receives a command from the reader 300 and generates power based on a signal corresponding to the received command. The generated power source is supplied to the sensor unit 202, and the sensor unit 202 performs a sensing operation under the control of the control unit 204 while being driven according to the supplied power (S120).

The sensor unit 202 provides the sensor data obtained according to the sensing operation to the control unit 204. The sensor data is stored in the temporary register of the control unit 204 and then transmitted to the reader 300 immediately (S130, S140) . That is, the sensor data acquired in accordance with the sensing operation is directly transmitted to the reader 300 without being stored in a separate nonvolatile memory for sensor data. Here, the sensor tag 200 substantially stores only the sensed data, and the reader 300 can accumulate, store, and manage the sensor data from the sensor tag 200.

By this process, the controller 204 can save power required for accessing the non-volatile memory 203. [ Also, since the necessity of the nonvolatile memory for the sensor data can be eliminated, the memory capacity can be reduced and the overall area of the sensor tag 200 can also be reduced.

Also, in the embodiment of the present invention, the sensor data can be transmitted to the reader by one command after the inventory procedure. In other words, conventionally, a reader must transmit a plurality of commands such as a command for sensing operation and a command for transmitting sensor data to acquire sensor data. However, according to the embodiment of the present invention, sensor data can be easily acquired . Therefore, it is possible to reduce the power consumption by the command transmission of the reader.

Meanwhile, unlike the embodiment described above, the controller 202 can selectively store sensor data acquired from a specific sensor among the sensor data acquired by the sensor unit 202 including a plurality of sensors in the memory 203 have. For example, the sensor data acquired in advance by the specific sensor is set to be transmitted to the reader 300 immediately without being stored in the memory 203, and the sensor data acquired from the other specific sensor is set to be stored in the memory 203 . In this case, the sensor data of the specific sensor set to be stored in the memory 203 may be stored only when the predetermined condition is satisfied. For example, even if the sensor data of a predetermined sensor is set to be stored, only the sensor data acquired at a specific period or time among the sensor data of the sensor can be stored in the memory 203. Or to store only the sensor data acquired at the time point in the memory 203 upon occurrence of an event in which the value of the other sensor data satisfies a predetermined condition. Accordingly, when the sensor data is selectively stored in the memory 203, a predetermined storage area for storing the sensor data is required. However, since only a small amount of memory is required compared to storing sensor data of all the sensors in the memory, The memory capacity for power consumption and sensor data storage according to sensor data storage can be remarkably reduced.

The embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the above-described apparatuses and / or methods, but may be implemented through a program for realizing functions corresponding to the configuration of the embodiment of the present invention, a recording medium on which the program is recorded And such an embodiment can be easily implemented by those skilled in the art from the description of the embodiments described above.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, It belongs to the scope of right.

Claims (8)

A sensor unit including a plurality of sensors, each sensor performing a sensing operation and outputting sensor data;
A memory for storing tag related information;
A radio frequency (RF) connection for communicating with the reader; And
And a controller for receiving sensor data from a sensor connected to the reader via the RF connection unit, wherein sensor data obtained by a predetermined sensor among the plurality of sensors among sensor data transmitted from the sensor unit is stored in the memory, And transmits the sensor data directly to the reader via the RF connection unit. The sensor data obtained from the sensors other than the predetermined sensor is stored in the memory.
. The method of claim 1, wherein
Wherein the memory includes only an area for storing tag related information excluding an area for storing the sensor data. The method according to claim 2, wherein
Wherein the area for storing the tag-related information of the memory includes an area for storing an electronic product code (EPC), which is tag-specific information, and an area for storing a TID (tag identification). The method according to claim 2, wherein
Wherein the memory comprises a non-volatile memory. The method of claim 1, wherein
Wherein the sensor tag is a non-battery sensor tag, and operates by generating power based on a signal corresponding to a command word from the reader. delete The method of claim 1, wherein
Wherein the controller stores the sensor data acquired from the remaining sensors other than the predetermined sensor in the memory only when the predetermined condition is satisfied. The method of claim 1, wherein
Wherein the command is a sensing operation command, and the sensor tag sequentially performs power generation, sensing operation, and sensing data transmission according to the command.

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