Active RFID, RTLS, Sensors

Third Generation Active RFID is the Ubiquitous Sensor Network (USN) sometimes known as the Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and characterized by the tag doubling as a reader and a so-called mesh network being used with a choice of sensors on each tag.

The US and China vie for the title of the world's largest RFID market, this year seeing them level pegging with $1.3 billion of business, which is looking to quintuple in the next ten years.

One reason why the market for Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS) is growing rapidly to pass the billion dollar mark well within ten years is technology. It is improving rapidly, with new variants for the many new sub sectors of the market that are emerging.

In this summary of the Active RFID market Dr. Peter Harrop outlines why Active RFID and its associated technologies are receiving such attention and have such high growth predictions.

Passive radar is a term applied to radar that covertly employs other people's emissions as they reveal targets, no signal being emitted by those doing the covert detection. This has military uses. It is not to be confused with Real Time Locating System RTLS using passive tags, a new form of RFID-based RTLS that has burst onto the scene in 2008. This employs passive tags instead of the traditional active tags. The idea is actually about ten years old and it was mooted as a UHF system by Trolleyscan who called it RFID Radar and demonstrated by RFSAW, which uses Surface Acoustic Wave chips that are more sensitive and simpler to make than the silicon chips used by everyone else - active and passive.

The term Active RFID incorporates many technologies including Real Time Locating Systems, Ubiquitous Sensor Networks and Active RFID with Zigbee, RuBee, Ultra Wide Band and WiFi. A new research report by IDTechEx

In 2007, approximately 650 billion articles will be sent through postal and courier systems around the world. After retail, the tagging of each postal item is the next largest potential market for RFID by volume of tags. There are numerous significant RFID roll-outs in this sector which are under publicized, and here Raghu Das from IDTechEx summarises the latest progress.

With the launch of an RFID Investment Summit to be held in Boston on Feb 20, Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx looks at the recent investor interest in RFID and particularly active RFID and Real Time Locating Systems.

With the ability to track, locate and sense, Active RFID is being rapidly adopted around the World, often creating new markets. Many adopters have reported a rapid return on investment (ROI) of 12 to 18 months which is leading to active RFID being a $6.78 billion market in 2016. Here Dan Lawrence summarizes the topic for the forthcoming IDTechEx Active RFID Summit event.

An analysis of 75 case studies from 18 countries of Active RFID in action shows the hot sectors in this technology vertical.

The number of companies offering Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS) has tripled in the last year. So what is going on and what is RTLS anyway? A new report on this topic from IDTechEx finds some exciting developments.

Active RFID is little reported, but its use is growing rapidly. New IDTechEx research

Read the highlights from the IDTechEx Active RFID Summit which looked at the technologies and application of active RFID (tags with a battery) and how it is embracing other wireless technologies such as Wifi, Zigbee, Bluetooth, sensors and DSRC.

Examining the prospect of ubiquitous sensors saving lives, improving the quality of life of the disoriented elderly, coping with natural disasters and much else besides.

Active RFID becomes big business and will have its own conference

Speeding up adoption of SALs

Definitions

RFID tags with batteries for longer ranges and/or more functionality