RFID technology has provided a means of identifying individuals, assets, products and objects at a relatively short range (a few hundred yards, at best). That could be changing. A startup called Iotera has developed an innovative wireless sensing and tracking platform consisting of ultra-long-range active RFID readers and tags that can communicate over a distance of 2 to 4 miles. The new system includes a back-end server engine that manages the network of readers, processes tag data and has a customizable business rules engine. This technology could have big implications for RFID’s use in a wide range of markets, including construction asset tracking, precision agriculture, water meter reading and indoor/outdoor hybrid positioning for tracking personnel in mines, chemical refineries and other dangerous environments.
