Active RFID Tracking
Active RFID Tracking and Security Solutions
UHF RFID (915MHz) is designed to saturate a ‘circle of coverage’ of approximately 10’, meaning the cost to achieve facility or grounds ‘real time’ tracking is unreasonably expensive. Real-time tracking with UHF ‘anywhere an object or person may be at anytime’ would require excessive implementation of RFID readers and antennas, making the investment unreasonable.
Further, UHF tags remain in standby mode until a RFID radio wave reaches the tag and activates the tag. Metal objects, objects with metal under a polymer covering (like a laptop) and/or human bodies block UHF radio waves, meaning that depending on the application use-case, may mean that tags are missed when passing through detection zones or when being inventoried.
Active RFID (433MHz) supports multiple antenna types, to produce detection zones with detection ranges from a few inches to up to 1,500’. As such, Active RFID is an effective and affordable technology for real-time RFID asset and personnel tracking.
Further, active RFID tags include a long-life battery that can be configured to proactively send out a long-range radio wave beacon on a time basis, from every few seconds to once a week or whatever time interval that is appropriate for a specific use-case. Because active RFID tags are not blocked by metal or human bodies, tags should not be missed at RFID detection zones or when using portable RFID scanner.
Active RFID tags also include tamper and motion detection features, triggering alerts if assets or people move in an unauthorized manner or if a tag is removed or tampered. Active RFID tags also include an optional duress button, if active RFID is being utilized for personnel/visitor tracking, which transmits a ‘duress call alert’ to the active RFID software when the active RFID tag duress ‘button’ is depressed.
Active RFID can be integrated with long-range radio communications, solar power and/or wireless mesh networks for a wide range of applications.