Wi-fi and RFID used for people tracking
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Wi-fi and RFID used for people tracking*
Wireless tracking systems could be used to protect patients in hospitals
and students on campuses, backers of the technology said.
The combination of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags and wi-fi
allows real-time tracking of objects or people inside a wireless network.
Angelo Lamme, from Motorola, said tracking students on a campus could
help during a fire or an emergency.
"You would know where your people are at any given moment," he said.
Marcus Birkl, head of wireless at Siemens, said location tracking of
assets or people was one of the biggest incentives for companies,
hospitals and education institutions to roll out wi-fi networks.
Both firms were at The Wireless Event, in London, this week selling new
products in the area of so-called real-time location services.
Siemens is pushing a complete system, developed with Finnish firm
Ekahau, which can track objects or people.
Battery powered
Battery-powered RFID tags are placed on an asset and they communicate
with at least three wireless access points inside the network to
triangulate a location.
There needs to be standards put in place so the data is not abused for
other purposes
Marcus Birkl, head of wireless at Siemens
Mr Birkl said: "The tags have a piece of software on them and they
detect the signal strength of different access points.
"This information is sent back to the server and it then models the
movement of the tag depending on the shift in signal strength detected."
For the system to work, the building or area that has been deployed with
a wireless network needs to have been mapped and calibrated.
To effectively locate objects a wireless access point is needed every 30
metres and Siemens said it was able to pinpoint assets to within a metre
of their actual position.
Mr Birkl said: "It's very useful for the health care industry - where
there are highly expensive pieces of mobile equipment that move around a
hospital.
"At every point in the day health staff need to know where it is."
The system can also be used to track wi-fi equipped devices, such as
laptops, tablet PCs and wi-fi enabled phones.
"You can record movements over a period of time. You can see if the
security guard in the night makes the right rounds, for example," said
Mr Birkl.
He added: "You can set certain boundaries and parameters. If a certain
device enters or leaves an area it could trigger an alarm."
'More popular'
As wi-fi becomes more popular in schools, the technology could also be
used to track students.
Hospital patient
RFID tags could track patients and equipment
"It has to be aligned with the understanding of the people who are
tracked," said Mr Birkl.
There have been privacy concerns expressed in some quarters about RFID
tags, especially around the possible use of tags on shopping goods to
monitor consumer spending habits.
RFID supporters have pointed out that the tags cannot be read at a great
distance, but combining the technology with wi-fi raises the possibility
of remote tracking.
Tags on products are typically passive - they have no power source and
are only activated when read by a scanner in close proximity. These tags
contain only an identifying number and can be small enough to embed in a
sheet of paper.
But the tags used in conjunction with a wi-fi network have to be active
- they need a power source and have software installed on them that
communicates with the wireless access points.
The tags, therefore, are larger in size, and currently are impractical
for use on anything other than high value consumer goods or,
potentially, on people.
"There needs to be standards put in place so the data is not abused for
other purposes," said Mr Birkl.
He added: "But there are clear benefits to keeping people safe."
More than half of respondents to a recent pan-Europe consultation on
RFID said regulations were needed to police the use of tags.