RFID NEWS
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Saudi School Tracks Assets Across Multiple Sites
To date, the university has tagged 23,000 items, 3,000 of which have active RFID tags attached with a foam adhesive, while the rest have passive tags, also affixed via adhesive. While those passive tags, in the future, will be read by portal readers at building entrances, the university indicates, they are currently being interrogated with handheld readers only. In this case, the school wants to know that an item is still in a specific department, but does not require an alert if that asset is moved—in most cases, because the item's value is low, but also, in some cases, because the asset is not easily moveable (desks or tables, for example).
With the RFID system, when a new asset is received, order information regarding that item, including the person for whom it has been requisitioned, is retrieved by the staff, and a new tag is then read and linked to that item and its intended guardian in the Asset Trail software. If an active tag is attached to the asset, the specifics regarding the point beyond which that item can not pass is also entered into the system.
The Asset Trail system consists of middleware and application layers. The middleware layer manages connectivity to readers and other hardware, such as CCTV cameras or sensors, while the Asset Trail Active Management software manages alarms, produces reports and statistic data, interprets location data and presents that information to system users in a simplified manner. In the case of active tags, it also determines whether a particular item is in its proper location—and, if it is not, sends an alert to the university's management or security guard via a pop-up, e-mail or SMS text message.
The software can also track maintenance schedules, and issue an alert that includes the asset's location if it is due for maintenance. The system's handheld Motorola readers allow workers to perform inventory checks, add new tags, retrieve assets for maintenance, decommission an asset or search for a particular item. The ID numbers of all passive tags, collected by mobile readers, are sent via a Wi-Fi connection, and are also stored for the asset-management department, which can then run reports tracking where specific assets are located, in addition to when they were moved to that spot.
According to the university, the next step—planned for the first quarter of 2011—will be the installation of CCTV cameras that will automatically enable the recording of video footage when an alert is sounded, based on a tag's location at the time of that alarm, as well as the sending of that video with an alert to the necessary staff members. In addition, DEPCO plans to install RF Code and Motorola RFID portal readers at four more campuses and nine more buildings.
"The system enables us to control our assets from theft," Moussa says, because the alarm offers employees sufficient opportunity to intercept an individual before he or she leaves the building. "It also enables us to know the accountability of assets, and which employee is guardian," he says. "Really, the university has needed a system like this for a long time."
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| Edwin Chikhani, DEPCO Systems' CEO |
The Asset Trail system consists of middleware and application layers. The middleware layer manages connectivity to readers and other hardware, such as CCTV cameras or sensors, while the Asset Trail Active Management software manages alarms, produces reports and statistic data, interprets location data and presents that information to system users in a simplified manner. In the case of active tags, it also determines whether a particular item is in its proper location—and, if it is not, sends an alert to the university's management or security guard via a pop-up, e-mail or SMS text message.
The software can also track maintenance schedules, and issue an alert that includes the asset's location if it is due for maintenance. The system's handheld Motorola readers allow workers to perform inventory checks, add new tags, retrieve assets for maintenance, decommission an asset or search for a particular item. The ID numbers of all passive tags, collected by mobile readers, are sent via a Wi-Fi connection, and are also stored for the asset-management department, which can then run reports tracking where specific assets are located, in addition to when they were moved to that spot.
"The system enables us to control our assets from theft," Moussa says, because the alarm offers employees sufficient opportunity to intercept an individual before he or she leaves the building. "It also enables us to know the accountability of assets, and which employee is guardian," he says. "Really, the university has needed a system like this for a long time."
