In this week's Infoworld, Ephraim Schwartz writes about active RFID tags and so-called WiFi Tags that are now becoming available.
National Scientific Corporation (NSC) produces about a dozen novel products including the WiFi Tracker. It's a pocket-sized radio with an on-off switch that reports your location as long as you're within the range of several Wi-Fi hotspots. NSC claims they can pinpoint the location of objects with less than one meter error.
The positioning engine software comes from Ekahau in Finland. The Ekahau Positioning Engine uses triangulation and signal strength to determine the location of an object when it's in range of more than one WiFi hotspot.
WiFi Tags are distinct from both passive and active RFID. With WiFi tags, the major cost comes from the tags that cost around $100 each. The reader infrastructure is comprised of very inexpensive WiFi hotspots. In some sense the infrastructure is free for companies and organizations that already have WiFi deployed.
WiFi tags have a range of over 100 yards - much longer than RFID. Generally, RFID can only detect the presence of an object, not the location. As a result, WiFi Tags are truly a tracking technology in contrast to RFID which is really an identification technology. |
