Prototype RFID Scanners Can Track Employees

San Diego Business Journal
Posted : 2007-06-05

 A La Mesa defense contractor is turning RFID technology on its head to help people track objects or even their employees.

Executives with Strategic Data Systems say their prototype system, called ViewPoint, might be suitable for keeping tabs on firefighters within a smoke-filled building.

Early versions of the system have been tested and the company is working to set up a pre-production system, Senior Vice President Ken Tirman said during a May interview.

RFID stands for radio frequency identification. In conventional use, an RFID scanner is set up at a doorway. It reads the labels of packages that come through that portal.

In Strategic Data Systems' application, however, the RFID scanner moves, while the labels stay put.

Tirman offered a scenario where the RFID scanner travels around with a person, such as a firefighter. The scanner reads the labels, mounted at regular intervals along the walls of a building. Data from a firefighter's scanner goes back to a computer. With the proper software, that computer can offer an incident commander a real-time view of where his forces are.

The system might also let hospital employees keep tabs on key pieces of equipment.

John Ryan, a researcher at San Diego State University, recalled a test of the ViewPoint system earlier this year, when it tracked the movement of people on four floors of SDSU's chemical sciences building.

It's a good product and the company is taking "a good approach," Ryan said.

The RFID approach might be superior to other technologies, Tirman said. Global positioning systems, for example, do not work indoors. Other radio systems can figure out someone's location by triangulation, but can't tell what floor that person is on - a real problem in high-rises.

Strategic Data Systems executives point out that their unconventional approach to RFID might appeal to customers because of its cost. A good RFID reader can cost more than a thousand dollars; putting them at regular intervals in a building would be expensive.

Individual tags, meanwhile, cost pocket change.

Tirman said the company received a good response when it exhibited the system during two recent trade shows devoted to RFID and firefighting.
Strategic Data Systems has 100 employees in all. Many work on Navy contracts.