ELECTRONIC ARTICLE SURVEILLANCE (EAS) USING PIEZOELECTRIC COMPONENTS EMBEDDED IN SURVEILLED ARTICLES

An article to be surveilled includes an article body and an electronic article surveillance (EAS) tag. The EAS tag is attached to, preferably integrated into the article body. The tag includes a power source, a processing device in electrical communication with the a power source, and at least one piezoelectric element in electrical communication with the processing device. The processing device is operative under certain conditions to use power from the power source to generate a signal causing the at least one piezoelectric element to emit ultrasound energy in a pattern based on the signal. In some examples, the tag, transmitting an ultrasound signal emitted by the piezoelectric element is detected by a reader of the EAS system. The EAS system determines whether the detected signal meets an alarm condition; and upon such determining, indicates, an alarm.