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In accordance with the invention there is provided a method for locating items. A plurality of fixed devices are distributed over an area containing the items. The fixed devices are operated as master units using a first wireleSS data communications protocol, wherein each of the master units controls slave units within an area corresponding to the location of each of the fixed devices. The operating includes identifying the Slave units thereby to locate items corre sponding to the Slave units within the area corresponding to the location of each fixed device. The fixed devices are further operated as RFID readers to identify and locate items having RFID tags with respect to the fixed device. In a preferred embodiment of the method, items may be provided with both Slave units using the wireleSS data communications protocol and with RFID tags. The fixed devices may be operable as a master unit and as an RFID reader …