Self-descriptive data tag

摘要

A data tag containing self-descriptive data, a method for reading such a data tag and a system for interpreting such a data tag are disclosed. Characterizing information about a first data element stored in a memory of the data tag is stored in a first header preceding a first data element. In addition, characterizing information about a second data element stored in the memory of the data tag is stored in a second header preceding a second data element. The application of a multitude of descriptive headers, each characterizing a data element stored in the data tag memory, facilitates flexible data storage on such devices. Furthermore, it also facilitates data compression due to the fact that field lengths can be characterized as well, thus excluding the presence of redundant bits in the data stored in the memory.

主权项

1. A method for reading self-descriptive data from a hardware data tag, the method comprising:
reading metadata by parsing a memory of the hardware data tag to access a first header comprising first metadata describing a first data element from the self-descriptive data using a tag reader; reading metadata by parsing the memory of the hardware data tag to access the first data element from the self-descriptive data using the tag reader; reading metadata by parsing the memory of the hardware data tag to access a second header comprising second metadata describing a second data element from the self-descriptive data using the tag reader; reading metadata by parsing the memory of the hardware data tag to access the second data element from the self-descriptive data using the tag reader; and interpreting at least one of the first and second data elements based on access to respective first or second headers using the tag reader, wherein the first data element is present in a first compressed form, wherein the second data element is present in a second compressed form that is different from the first compressed form, wherein the first data element is compressed using a binary tree, wherein the second data element is compressed by removing leading or trailing zeros from a bit pattern of the second data element, wherein the first and second data elements are of different field types that are sorted in an ascending or descending order with respect to their positions in a field type data structure, wherein the field type of the first data element or the second data element is represented by a difference between numeric values representing the field types of the first and second data elements, and wherein the interpreting the at least one of the first and second data elements comprises encoding the at least one of the first and second data elements based on a specific compression technique used to compress the first data element or the second data element.