New Haven Public Schools Keeps Tabs on Laptops

In the data closet, if the sensors detect a temperature rising too high or dropping too low, an alert is transmitted via the RF Code software, and an e-mail message is then sent to the necessary officials. In the case of the door sensor, each time the laptop storage cabinet is opened, the tags send a notification to the reader, and that data is stored in the software. The system can be set, however, so that when the cabinet is opened outside of the appropriate time constraints—such as late at night, or on weekends—an e-mail alert is sent to the appropriate recipients.

RF Code's system is integrated into the school district's inventory-management software application, enabling the district to see the locations of items within its own management system. Each tag placed on laptops and other electronics transmits a unique ID number. The readers capture those tag ID numbers and send that information to the back-end system. Each interrogator can detect the tags in about a 10,000-square-foot area, according to Mitch Medford, RF Code's CEO.

RF Code has supplied RFID tags for approximately a decade, though it has evolved, over the past few years, from being a manufacturer of passive tags and readers to one that makes active interrogators and tags. According to Medford, the company now focuses on tracking—and monitoring the environmental conditions of—such things as high-value assets and equipment in data centers.

Companies such as Clear Channel Communications employ the system to gain visibility into the temperature and humidity conditions within data centers. Typically, Medford says, a system including software, tags and an interrogator for a data room costs approximately $5,000.

Since the system was installed at John C. Daniels School, Gentile says, the computers have been more available to employees and students, and easier to find. "We feel that the pilot has been a great success," he states, "and we will be deploying this solution to the Cooperative Arts magnet [high school], and to the Gateway Center HQ [administrative] offices, during the next budget year. Both of these sites have high-value assets that we would like to ensure are highly available for staff and students."

After the planned installations at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School and the headquarters building are completed, the school district intends to expand the system to other sites as well. "We plan to deploy this system to schools as budget permits and assessed need requires," Gentile says.