Inertial tracking systems have an unfortunate tendency to slowly drift over time. University of Michigan Professor Johann Borenstein has developed a very effective solution to that problem. First, he places a MEMS sensor in a boot. With every step, the sensor is momentarily stationary, allowing drift to be completely reset. […]
RTLS
53 posts
Here are a few RTLS and wireless updates: UWB RTLS vendor Ubisense raised £5M to fund expansion. And 50 Ubisense tags are available on eBay with a starting bid of $9.99. Another UWB RTLS vendor, decaWave, was honored for “best technology development” at a tradeshow. It’s Nearly Time for Near-Field […]
A few recent items of interest: St. Croix Systems is hosting a free 5-part educational webinar series on asset tracking using Real Time Location Systems. Four of the leading RTLS vendors in healthcare will present their solutions to give the audience a better understanding of how RTLS can support effective […]
John Brandon, writing at Digital Trends, features my company, The Q-Track Corporation, as one of “Six tech start-ups that could change the way we live.” Q-Track’s Near-Field Electromagnetic Ranging technology provides the “indoor GPS” to bring location awareness to the most difficult industrial RF propagation environments. The piece is a […]
Time for more wireless updates: Here’s a great article about the British precursor to LORAN: “GEE.” GEE was one of the first implementations of the “Time-Difference-of-Arrival (TDOA)” concept used in some modern RTLS implementations. A simple explanation of Ekahau RTLS: “The Perfect Pairing of RF and IR.” Whatever happened to […]
A few updates: The FCC has granted Garmin’s request for an extension of the waiver allowing transmission of digital GPS coordinate data on GMRS. Hat Tip: Steven J. Crowley Trimble acquired RFID vendor ThingMagic. Hat Tip: VeryFields RFID GS1 Hong Kong announced the winners of the Hong Kong RFID Awards […]
It was a busy week to have been out on vacation. Here are some RTLS and Location-Based Services links to help get caught up: My employer, NFER® RTLS vendor Q-Track, unveiled an updated website, took second place in the Global Security Challenge, West Coast Final, and was featured in RFID […]
Here are some updates: Not only does Steve Crowley have his monthly review of experimental license applications at the FCC, he also draws attention to a review of the proportion of lawyers, economists, and engineers at the FCC compared to other country’s telecommunications regulatory bodies. MP Antenna partners with TESSCO […]
A few quick updates, while I recover from Wireless Wednesday on Twitter: New Scientist explains the history of complex numbers in a fascinating piece, “Putting the ‘i’ in iPods.” But since the iPod is more an accomplishment of engineering instead of physics, shouldn’t it be called the” jPod?” To learn […]
Earlier this summer, noted technology writer Robert X. Cringely embarked on a cross-country tour to visit promising start-up companies with exciting stories. The project, sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, aims to help America rediscover entrepreneurship. Cringely’s tour will be the basis of a television series […]
On August 11, 2010, a major wireless milestone passed largely unnoticed: the end of a tumultuous twelve year regulatory process to authorize ultra-wideband (or “UWB”) wireless systems. The FCC ordered ET Docket No. 98-153 “TERMINATED.” By dismissing the last outstanding Petitions for Reconsideration, the FCC has finally and firmly secured […]
The Boston Globe has a great article on Q-Track’s successful firefighter rescue demonstration at WPI earlier this month: WORCESTER — The blinded, disoriented firefighters who crawled up the stairs of a century-old brick building here recently had to find a missing colleague, and find him fast. Their only hope was […]
It’s been a busy week, so here is yet another RTLS/RFID update: Mark Roberti of RFID Journal has a new blog entry on the RFID Privacy Conundrum. From the Daily Californian, New Backpack Makes 3D Maps of Buildings H/T: Ericsson Labs Harris unveils firefighter location system. H/T: Stephen J. Crowley […]
A few RTLS and Location Based Services updates: First, a nice introduction to Location Based Services from ComputerWorld. An explanation of Facebook’s new Location Based Service from the New York Times. Yet another Location Based Service launched yesterday: “Qilroy,” a Qualcomm Service Labs incubated project. Precise Path has a precision […]
Last month, a Q-Track team traveled to the historic Safety Research Coal Mine in Bruceton, Pennsylvania to conduct RF propagation and performance tests on a Near-Field Electromagnetic Ranging (NFER®) Real-Time Location System (RTLS). We optimized the system for use in a mine environment in an effort funded by NIOSH. We […]
The organizers of Fifth Precision Personnel Locator (PPL) Workshop (held on the campus of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, or WPI, August 2-3, 2010) collaborated with the Worcester Fire Department to conduct realistic firefighter rescue exercises. All three systems tested enabled rescues substantially faster than the 24 minute unaided rescue baseline. The […]
Back in July, a team from Q-Track Corporation traveled to Bruceton, PA, just outside Pittsburgh, to conduct RF propagation and performance tests on a Near-Field Electromagnetic Ranging (NFER®) Real-Time Location System (RTLS) optimized for use in a mine environment. The visit inspired this post about the history of the Bruceton […]
The proceedings of the Fifth Precision Personnel Locator (PPL) Workshop, held on the campus of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) August 2-3, 2010, are now available online. The agenda includes links to most of the presentations. A copy of Q-Track’s Firefighter Location and Rescue Equipment (FLARE) presentation (Near-Field Electromagnetic Ranging (NFER®) […]
The Huntsville Times has a great write-up on Q-Track’s recent successful test of prototype Firefighter Location and Rescue Equipment (FLARE): HUNTSVILLE, AL — Q-Track, a wireless tracking technology company in Huntsville, unveiled its firefighter location system prototype last week in Worcester, Mass., where six firefighters died in a warehouse fire […]
You have no right to privacy in public places, and police can observe you to gather evidence without a warrant. But having a detective tail you everywhere you go is expensive. So why not automate the process by hiding a compact GPS tag to monitor your location? The system can […]
It was a busy couple of days at the 5th Annual Workshop “Precision Indoor Personnel Location and Tracking for Emergency Responders” at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA. Q-Track (Facebook) unveiled our FLARE (Firefighter Location and Rescue Equipment) prototype system on Monday. Yesterday we participated in a realistic fire rescue […]
Under optimal conditions during daylight hours, direction finding (DF) accuracy could be as good as one to two degrees (300m at 10km range). [[1]] At night, however, the ionosphere reflects distant signals from over the horizon. The resulting “skywave” signals have a mix of vertical and horizontal polarization components that […]
Zebra Enterprise Solutions announced last week that they will be releasing the DART Ultra-Wideband (UWB) Real-Time Locating System (RTLS) this Fall. Zebra acquired UWB pioneer MSSI in 2008.
A prolific inventor, Lee de Forest not only invented some of the first direction finding (DF) antenna systems, but also deserves the credit for having invented the first RF ranging system. Realizing that signal strength declines with distance, de Forest proposed inserting a variable resistor into the RF circuit to […]