RFID-Enabled Location Determination Within Indoor Environments

The ability to track the real-time location and movement of items or people offers a broad range of useful applications in areas such as safety, security and the supply chain. Current location determination technologies, however, have limitations that heavily restrict how and where these applications are implemented, including the cost, accuracy of the location calculation and the inherent properties of the system. The Global Positioning System (GPS), for example, cannot function indoors and is useful only over large-scaled areas such as an entire city. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an automatic identification technology which has seen increasingly prominent use over the last few decades. The technology uses modulated Radio Frequency signals to transfer data between its two main components, the reader and the transponder. Its many applications include supply chain management, asset tracking, security clearance and automatic toll collection. In recent years, advancements in the technology have allowed the location of transponders to be calculated while interfacing with the reader. This article documents an investigation into using an active RFID based solution for tracking.