RFID Applications for Sanitary Environments

Healthcare represents one of the most significant sectors where the diffusion of RFID technology is growing day by day. Many different applications have already been studied and developed, with both active and passive devices working at all the available operative frequencies. Sanitary environments are nowadays extremely complex structures employing several thousands of people with very strict safety requirements: in emergency situations for example 5 minutes can make the difference for a patient between survive and die. RFID is especially indicated to be employed in these scenarios for two main reasons: first of all because it’s a particularly reliable technology, with good performances, few errors and fast interaction, and secondly because, due to the presence of many different technological systems, ad-hoc solutions can be designed on the specific requirements of the application to be realized. At present the most common RFID applications in healthcare can be divided into two main categories: the items tracking and the tracking and identification of people, patients and sanitary operators. The items tracking is performed in order to avoid the loss of expensive devices and to reduce wasting of time during assistance operations: systems studied and realized for this purpose cover all the range of RFID systems and provide different services according to their different performances. RFID systems for the identification of people probably represent the most interesting sector, due to the variety of different applications that can be studied and realized. The most common systems foresee the use of RFID for the tracking of sanitary operators or patients during their assistance operations. Along with this many other applications have been implemented, including systems operating the unambiguous matching between the patient and his treatments (for example the medicine or the blood sack) or between the mother and the child in the paediatrics departments. Finally the availability of a memory on the transponders fostered to the use of RFID technology also as a mean to promptly store and retrieve patient related information: for example electronic case history or electronic medical prescription applications have been studied and developed

Sisäpaikannus: Teknologiat ja käyttötapaukset vähittäiskaupan alalla

Indoor positioning systems (IPS) are required in buildings to offer the possibility to position people and assets indoors, as the widely utilized GPS signal cannot penetrate through walls. IPSs are already implemented in many indoor environments. Several indoor positioning technologies exist, but none of them is clearly a dominant technology over the others. Consequently, this study identifies the different kinds of indoor positioning technologies and methods as well as the use cases they are used in. For this purpose, six companies using or developing indoor positioning systems were interviewed. The interviews were held in person, and they were 60-minute long semi-structured interviews with a set of questions in Appendix 1. In addition, two companies interested in indoor positioning, and that are working with retail were interviewed in 30-minute semi-structured interviews with questions in Appendix 2. Indoor positioning is employed in the interviewed companies to help users to navigate in public spaces; raise employee satisfaction in an office; improve customer service and satisfaction in malls, stores, and restaurants and develop processes and safety in warehouses. These different use cases have distinctive specifications and needs for indoor positioning, and thus, there is not a simple solution as to which technology is the right choice for a particular use case. Nevertheless, three points affecting the choice of indoor positioning technology were concluded from the interviews: 1) the accuracy of a technology, 2) whether the positioning happens through a tag or a mobile device, and 3) if positioning infrastructure, such as anchor nodes, can be installed in the building. Finally, based on the interviews, a suggested model for an indoor positioning system for a retail company is presented in a form of a Value Network Configuration.Sisäpaikannusjärjestelmiä tarvitaan rakennuksissa, jotta ihmisiä ja tavaroita voidaan paikantaa sisätiloissa, sillä ulkona yleisesti käytetty GPS signaali ei pysty läpäisemään rakennusten seiniä. Vaikka sisäpaikannusta käytetäänkin jo useissa eri sisätiloissa ja useita eri sisäpaikannusteknologioita on olemassa, mikään niistä ei ole selvästi hallitseva teknologia. Tässä tutkimuksessa tunnistetaan eri sisäpaikannusteknologiat ja –tekniikat kuten myös niitä hyödyntävät käyttötapaukset. Tätä varten haastateltiin kuutta eri yritystä, jotka käyttävät tai tarjoavat sisäpaikannusjärjestelmiä. Haastattelut olivat puolistrukturoituja, kestivät 60 minuuttia ja ne pidettiin kasvotusten. Lisäksi haastateltiin 30 minuutin puolistrukturoiduissa haastatteluissa kahta kaupan alaan liittyvää yritystä, jotka ovat kiinnostuneita sisäpaikannuksesta. Haastattelukysymykset ovat liitteissä 1 ja 2. Sisäpaikannusta käytetään haastatelluissa yrityksissä käyttäjien navigoinnin helpottamiseksi julkisissa tiloissa, työntekijöiden tyytyväisyyden kasvattamiseen toimistossa, asiakaspalvelun ja asiakkaiden tyytyväisyyden parantamiseen ostoskeskuksissa, kaupoissa ja ravintoloissa sekä prosessien ja turvallisuuden kehittämiseen varastoissa. Näillä eri käyttötapauksilla on hyvin erilaiset vaatimukset ja tarpeet sisäpaikannukselle, joten ei ole olemassa vain yhtä hyvää teknologista ratkaisua tietylle käyttötapaukselle. Haastatteluista oli kuitenkin mahdollista muodostaa kolme sisäpaikannusteknologian valintaan vaikuttavaa asiaa: 1) sisäpaikannusteknologian tarkkuus, 2) tapahtuuko paikannus mobiililaitteen vai käyttäjän kantaman tunnisteen kautta ja 3) voiko paikannusjärjestelmän tukiasemia asentaa rakennukseen. Lopuksi esitellään ehdotelma sisäpaikannusmallista arvoverkkokonfiguraatiolla (Value Network Configuration) vähittäiskaupan alan yritykselle haastatteluiden perusteella

An IoT-aware Architecture to improve Safety in Sports Environments

The introduction of Internet of Things enabling technologies into the sport and recreational activities domain provide an interesting research challenge. Their adoption could significantly improve the sport experience and also the safety level of team sports. Despite this, only few attempts have been done to demonstrate the benefits provided by use of IoT technologies in sport environments. To fill this gap, this paper propose an IoT-aware Sport System based on the jointly use of different innovative technologies and standards. By exploiting the potentialities offered by an ultra-low-power Hybrid Sensing Network (HSN), composed of 6LoWPAN nodes integrating UHF RFID functionalities, the system is able to collect, in real time, both environmental parameters and players’ physiological data. Sensed data are then delivered to a Cloud platform where a monitoring application makes them easily accessible via REST Web Services. A simple proof of concept has demonstrated the appropriateness of the proposed solution

Passive low frequency RFID for non-destructive evaluation and monitoring

Ph. D ThesisDespite of immense research over the years, defect monitoring in harsh environmental conditions still presents notable challenges for Non-Destructive Testing and Evaluation (NDT&E) and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). One of the substantial challenges is the inaccessibility to the metal surface due to the large stand-off distance caused by the insulation layer. The hidden nature of corrosion and defect under thick insulation in harsh environmental conditions may result in it being not noticed and ultimately leading to failures. Generally electromagnetic NDT&E techniques which are used in pipeline industries require the removal of the insulation layer or high powered expensive equipment. Along with these, other limitations in the existing techniques create opportunities for novel systems to solve the challenges caused by Corrosion under Insulation (CUI). Extending from Pulsed Eddy Current (PEC), this research proposes the development and use of passive Low Frequency (LF) RFID hardware system for the detection and monitoring of corrosion and cracks on both ferrous and non-ferrous materials at varying high temperature conditions. The passive, low cost essence of RFID makes it an enchanting technique for long term condition monitoring. The contribution of the research work can be summarised as follows: (1) implementation of novel LF RFID sensor systems and the rig platform, experimental studies validating the detection capabilities of corrosion progression samples using transient feature analysis with respect to permeability and electrical conductivity changes along with enhanced sensitivity demonstration using ferrite sheet attached to the tag; (2) defect detection using swept frequency method to study the multiple frequency behaviour and further temperature suppression using feature fusion technique; (3) inhomogeneity study on ferrous materials at varying temperature and demonstration of the potential of the RFID system; (4) use of RFID tag with ceramic filled Poly-tetra-fluoro-ethyulene (PTFE) substrate for larger applicability of the sensing system in the industry; (5) lift-off independent defect monitoring using passive sweep frequency RFID sensors and feature extraction and fusion for robustness improvement. This research concludes that passive LF RFID system can be used to detect corrosion and crack on both ferrous and non-ferrous materials and then the system can be used to compensate for temperature variation making it useful for a wider range of applications. However, significant challenges such as permanent deployment of the tags for long term monitoring at higher temperatures and much higher standoff distance, still require improvement for real-world applicability.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) CASE, National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL)