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Active RFID

Enablers of good governance, efficiency and national security in the modern world.

Gartner Group analysts have predicted that the physical and virtual worlds will soon overlap, making computing transparent to humans and creating an 'intelligent' environment populated by 'smart objects'. In this world all valuable assets and people will be tracked, transmitting regular 'pulses' of information describing both their whereabouts and other valuable data, the so called 'world heartbeat' of information. This vision of the future may well be some way off but the company believes that the first phase of its rollout has begun.

All technology markets in the automatic identification and data capture (ADIC) sector are growing strongly; indicating the growing demand for data, quickly captured and applied for a number of reasons both business and security related. The fast-moving pace of our modern world and the increase of traumatic natural and terrorist disasters has led to the increased need for realtime accurate data enabling quicker response and pro-active decision-making. RFID, which has its origin in the identification friend or foe (IFF) transceivers, first deployed on aircraft in the Second World War lends itself to a number of applications that highly improve the security of people and assets.

Active RFID systems are uniquely suited for use in government, container tracking, police protection services, vehicle identification and tracking, and critical emergency services. Active RFID tag - and reader technology, integrated with GPS, satellite, GSM or GPRS technologies, enables realtime wireless logistics management, improved fleet utilisation and improved overall resource utilisation..

RFID applications

Asset management and protection is a widely used RFID application of the technology, and in South Africa numerous government departments have been using this technology since the inception of Wavetrend Technologies - the developers and manufacturers, to manage their assets. Government also uses active RFID applications for the safety of people by means of integrated access control and the monitoring of visitors and contractors into sensitive/high risk areas. This of course also allows for effective evacuation should an emergency situation arise.

In the healthcare industry, resource utilisation of both employees and equipment and operational efficiency improvement is being achieved using active RFID technology - again to monitor the location of people and equipment for effective management of emergency situations. Emergency vehicles, such as ambulances and fire fighting trucks can also be managed more efficiently by ensuring that all the necessary equipment is available onboard these vehicles; this is achieved by a simple means of installing reader technology onboard the vehicles that 'read' tagged items and 'flags' as a warning on the monitoring system when an item is not 'seen'/present.

The number of applications that utilise active RFID technology is broad and varied and the uptake of systems that are enabled to provide realtime data relating to the condition and location of assets and people, are proving to be the most effective means for managing assets, people and the security of both.

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