Comparing wifi and ir-rfid rtls for healthcare

Think of a retail environment here where the reader sends a radio signal to a tagged item of clothing and an alarm is triggered only when the tag is sensed in very close proximity to the designated choke point. RTLS on the other hand, is any solution that is used to automatically identify and track the location of an asset, individual or other objects in real time.

RTLS solutions consist of various tags and badges, platforms Wi-Fi, Infrared, Ultrasound, Radio Frequency, and others , network appliances readers and exciters , as well as other components like servers, middleware and end-user software.

Depending on the technology platform chosen, the system locates the tags within varying degrees of granularity. Figures, Tables, and Topics from this paper. Real-time locating system Radio-frequency identification Radio Frequency Identification Device Bluetooth Information retrieval Real-time operating system Engineering Inventory control Qualitative comparative analysis Semiconductor industry Requirement Relevance Handheld game console Electric Power Supplies Real-time transcription paragraphs Foot benefit.

Citation Type. Has PDF. Publication Type. More Filters. Medical Data Privacy Handbook. A comparison of commercial and custom-made electronic tracking systems to measure patient flow through an ambulatory clinic. International Journal of Health Geographics. View 1 excerpt, cites methods.

Real-time location systems in nursing homes: state of the art and future applications. Journal of Enabling Technologies. View 1 excerpt, cites background. As the chief technical innovator and leader of the company, Brian has led the creation and deployment of a new type of ultra long-range, low-power wireless networking which is transforming the Internet of Things and M2M space.

Before starting Link Labs, Brian led a team at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab that solved communications and geolocation problems for the national intelligence community.

He was also the VP of Engineering at the network security company, Lookingglass, and served for eight years as a submarine officer in the U. He graduated from the U. RFID Vs. Carefully consider what you want to track and how much of your hospital or healthcare system will be affected before choosing your solution.

Does it matter whether you can triangulate the exact position of an item, or do you just need to know a general location? What about the room level within your hospital? Proximity-based systems are simpler, less power-hungry, and usually cost much less. For example, a materials management team sees immediate benefit from reducing the search zone for a machine or tool from the entire hospital to a couple of rooms.

On the other hand, what if Dr. Facci needs to know where his special surgery stool has been left, or maybe a certain type of item or person will only need to be tracked for a few days?

But what if you need to track both expensive and inexpensive assets? But why compromise? Why not just look for a system that lets you use several different types of tags while connecting to one network. Perhaps your organization has already decided to peruse RTLS technology. And perhaps you already considered all the aforementioned questions.