RFID-Powered Handhelds Guide Visitors at Shanghai Expo

As a visitor walks through the pavilion, the ICT's tag transmits its ID number to Champtek's readers, installed around the displays and kiosks. The Linkon software can determine a user's location, based on the strength of the tag's signal that is collected by the readers mounted nearest to that person. After completing a quiz or otherwise interacting with a display or kiosk, the ICT directs the guest, based on his or her location, to the next stop along the tour.

As many as 8,000 concurrent visitors to the Information and Communications Pavilion use the RFID-enabled interactive device to guide and inform them.

As the visitor moves through the pavilion, the Linkon software builds up a database of information that he or she has learned, along with answers to any quizzes or games he or she has played throughout the tour. This information is used to build up a guest's personal profile, which that individual can later access online, by logging onto ICP's Web site. At some displays or kiosks, the visitor is instructed to hold the ICT up to a short-range reader. Doing so triggers a specific video file, linked to that particular display, to play on the ICT screen.

To ensure that the tags would be clearly read despite the presence of other wireless systems—not to mention the use of up to 8,000 ICTs in the pavilion at any given time—Champtek had to carefully tune the readers and use a proprietary anti-collision protocol, says Howard Chen, the VP of Champtek's Shanghai office.

Before exiting the pavilion, each guest is asked to complete a feedback form that appears on the ICT's touch screen. The ICT is then cleared of that person's data, and is issued to another guest. If the visitor attempts to leave the pavilion with the ICT, an alarm will sound—triggered by the device's RFID tag.

According to Joe Xu, Linkon's CEO, the pavilion's operators have reported no problems with the RFID system or the ICTs since the Expo began. The firm is currently marketing the ICT system to other potential end users that require a means of providing tour or navigation systems for events or trade shows, he says, and is about to begin implementations for two new events.