Advances in Real Time Locating and Wireless Sensor Networks

Friday, 13 August 2010 13:49

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Dr Peter Harrop, the Chairman of IDTechEx says hospitals, manufacturers, and others are embracing the second generation of radio-frequency identification – Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS) – because the technology has interrogators that sense location in 3D without having to be in close physical proximity.

Harrop also notes that there is early adoption of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), the third Generation Active RFID, “where the tag doubles as a reader in a self-healing self-organising mesh network, each of these nodes being able to sense not just locate. However, RTLS and WSN tend to need more power at the tag so energy harvesting is increasingly employed with a rechargeable battery. That will develop into multi-mode energy harvesting with no battery and 20 years life or more, so the tags can be embedded and maintenance free.”

According to Harrod, the advanced RFID generations are being used in numerous industries in several countries. In Germany, he says, “Bamberg Hospital and Universitats Klinikum are monitoring both blood and patients with a full WSN system installed by a Fraunhofer institute. It gives the location of blood and matches it to the patient in these hospitals.” India’s leading systems integrator ICEGEIN has deployed Ekahau RTLS at Apollo Hospital Chennai.

In the United States, Reva Systems has deployed RTLS equipment at the new Roy and Patricia Disney Family Cancer Center in Burbank, California that deploys a comprehensive, integrated RFID solution. Harrop explains, “The readers relay information from low profile passive RFID tags - located, for example, on a patient ID badge - to centralized applications that retrieve patient information in order to enhance the patient experience. This information includes patient preferences to activate custom hospital room settings - music, lighting, temperature, etc. - and location data that are sent to staff phone displays, allowing clinicians to greet or locate patients quickly.”

Harrod also reports that Identec Solutions is installing IntelliFIND RTLS “for the ship to shore crane and yard operations of Total Terminal International Algeciras for deployment at the new Greenfield automated terminal in Algeciras, Spain. ABB will provide the total solution and support systems, with a Terminal Operating System developed by Korean company Cyberlogitec Ltd.”

These uses and other advances will be highlighted In Boston at the upcoming IDTechEx Wireless Sensor Networks & RTLS USA and Energy Harvesting USA event taking place November 16-17. (www.IDTechEx.com/Boston)