Aug. 21, 2007
NoviTech, a Swiss provider of turnkey solutions for access monitoring, is using an ActiveTag RFID system to automatically montior the location of the employees in real time. The system detects the presence of the individuals in front of the access points and grants the access or not by atomatically opeing the door. The log file keeps track of the path of any of the individuals, only for the purpose of investigation in case of forgery.
NoviTech ambitions to deploy this system in many healthcare centers, especially to prevent the wandering of mentally disabled individuals. The company is using ActiveTag hardware and RTLS: "We have evaluated numerous differnet hardware solutions, but only this one provides all the features required, including a very affordable pricing."
The INGECOM solution includes ActiveTags operating in the 2.45GHz range and Controllers. The system is very straightforward and doesn't require a sophisticated and expensive middleware. The controllrs are available in different interface configurations, the most popular being the WiFi that allows reusing the infrastructure of the site. The Wiegand configuration, with reduces throughput, is used in cases where the WiFi is not accepted, such as certain medical environments, banking or military environments. The tags are available in two formats, the thinnest ActiveTag credit card format with 4mm, or the more robust domino format that can be used as a key-chain holder.
The Tags are water-resistant and feature an extraordinary long battery lifetime. Despite the small size of both formats, and unusual autonomy of over 5 years of battery lifetime with a 1 second refresh rate is achieved. The tags can propagate at distance over 3000 ft in open space when using the range enhancer. The software programmable range adapter embedded inside the controllers can bodify the tremendously long range, and adapts to have only the coverage of a single room. The cost of the Controllers being very contained, the expense of dispatching them in different places, as for localizazion or redundancy purpose, is not considered as an investment and can therefore be purchased in most cases without the hassle of an exhaustive round of internal signatures.
Writing the application to locate the room in which a Tag is located is straightforward. All the Controllers are sending their data into a centralized database, out of which the application just picks the relevant query. The system locates the room in which a tag is located. It includes a set of configurable rules to trigger allerts in case of mis-happening.
So fare the system that is in use since the beginning of the summer period with 20 Controllers and 300 Tags is running very well and other customers of NoviTech have already placed orders for a similar installation. By the en of this year 3 sites will be installed with more than 800 Tags in use.