Method and System for Storing, Retrieving, and Managing Data for Tags

Abstract

This invention relates generally to a method and system for storing, retrieving, and managing data for tags that are associated in some manner to any type of object. More particularly, the present invention writes data to these tags, reads data from these tags, and manages data that is written to and/or read from these tags. In addition, the invention accesses and/or stores data associated with tags from or into repositories, constructs and maintains data structures from these repositories and responds to queries using the data structures.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for accessing and organizing tag-related data, the method being implemented by at least one computer including one or more processors and comprising:
 accessing data associated with one or more tags, each of the one or more tags comprising at least a wireless transceiver, control software, a sensor and a memory storing at least (i) one or more tag identifiers; (ii) a time field; and (iii) programming data received via the wireless transceiver;   transmitting, by the control software, from a given tag of the one or more tags via the wireless transceiver associated with the given tag, a first message to a central authority, the first message comprising the tag identifier associated with the given tag and data obtained by the sensor associated with the given tag;   generating, at the central authority, an alert based on at least the data obtained by the sensor and the tag identifier, and storing at least a portion of the first message in a tag data repository;   determining, at the central authority, one or more tag identifiers that satisfy a query or keyword search; and   ranking, at the central authority, the determined one or more tag identifiers based on tag references of the determined one or more tag identifiers.