Abstract
Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS) are electronic systems that are intended to
locate small electronic devices on people or things at any time. None are
perfect in this respect but to qualify for the term, they must give real time
identity and location most of the time, or when interrogated. There are many
situations calling for RTLS, particularly now that it has become affordable
and the mobile devices that are sensed have, in many cases, become small and
convenient. Let us look at some examples.
Hospital staff have traditionally had difficulty summoning assistance when
faced with an emergency medical situation or, increasingly, physical assault.
Alarm pendants have alerted backup but not given position. Timely location of
a child lost in a theme park and possibly in danger has been impractical.
Supply chains are traditionally tracked by RFID, barcodes and so on with a
similar lack of precision. At best one knows that the package or conveyance
passed a choke point at some stage and heroic assumptions are then made as to
where it now resides. Vehicles are also tracked with imprecision. Postal
services need to "switch the light on" and take a holistic automated approach.
The antidote to these and other shortcomings is RTLS.
RTLS has consisted of very short range infra-red systems and complex, multiple
antenna, multiple beam long range RFID, making it an esoteric niche market
with only 900 such systems having been sold to date. However, with the new
portability and affordability of RTLS in various forms, its use is now
increasing sharply to become a $2.71 billion business in 2016. New principles
are being brought to bear, such as parasitic and therefore economical WiFi
locators and zonal RFID (arrays of interrogators in, say ceilings of
buildings, so the "tag" is never out of range).
Some of the largest companies in the world are now active in RTLS, which will
become 40% of the active RFID market in only ten years. These companies
include Mitsubishi, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft and Motorola. They know that this is
not like the highest volume uses of passive RFID tags where disposable labels
are usually involved and the label cost can be 50% of total cost.
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