In the related art, there is a reading apparatus which reads information stored in an RFID tag, also referred to as a wireless tag. This apparatus can be used for various purposes and provided in various forms. For example, there is a reading apparatus that may read an RFID tag placed in a storage container that has a side wall or side walls covered with a radio wave absorbing material so only the RFID tag within the storage container is read by the reading apparatus. The tag information is read by the reading apparatus through an antenna that is provided proximate to or in a table on which the storage container is placed or mounted.
However, in the above described configuration in the related art, when the position of the storage container is not fully aligned with the antenna, an RFID tag outside of the storage container may respond to a radio wave transmitted by the antenna to the outside of the storage container. Therefore, there exists a configuration in which the antenna (or amounting table including the antenna) is placed in the housing having radio wave absorbing walls or the like, a range to which radio waves from the antenna travel is thus limited to the inside of the housing. The housing can include a door or the like to permit documents to be placed in the housing then enclosed inside the housing.
However, depending on the size of the housing, the storage container may contain a region where an electric field intensity is not strong enough for reading the tag information, due to interference of a radio wave reflected inside of the housing. If the RFID tag is placed in this region, referred to as the null point, a reading miss may occur.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds