Passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) RFID alone does not always provide the reliability or read range required to track the movements of individuals and items within a large space. Active RFID tags (typically 433 MHz, 915 MHz or Wi-Fi) can be expensive to deploy when many tags are needed, while Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons are not designed to identify the location of a person or an object with a high degree of granularity. Bluetooth beacons are low-cost, however, and because they have a battery, they can be used in environments in which personnel or materials need to be read from up to 100 feet away, according to John Baker, Venture Research‘s president.
Based on the premise that hybrid solutions can often solve the numerous challenges that companies face in tracking tagged items or individuals, Venture Research has released a new generation of its Intelligent Surface Reader, incorporating UHF RFID and BLE technologies into a single device (when the Surface Reader was first launched in 2011, it supported only UHF RFID). The reader, measuring only a half-inch in thickness but available in a variety of lengths and widths, comes with an integrated antenna array and is designed to capture the ID numbers of passive EPC Gen 2 UHF tags located up to 2 feet above its plastic surface. However, it can also capture a signal emitted by a Bluetooth beacon as far as 100 feet away, depending on the transmission range set for that beacon.
A strip of LEDs lines the four sides of the new Surface Reader, which illuminate green if the device reads the tags expected, or red if any problems occur, such as an item missing. This latter feature enables a company to install a Surface Reader on a shelf for storing tools, and to program the device to shine red anytime even one tool is missing, thereby ensuring that all tools are accounted for at the end of each shift or day.
Traditionally, Venture Research has offered RFID solutions for logistics, supply chain and material-handling applications, to track the locations of items and individuals. However, Baker says, there are numerous applications in which UHF RFID cannot solve a customer’s problem. For one thing, RFID tags lack the long read range offered by beacons, and they can be blocked by the presence of fluids or metal, as well as the human body. At a portal, for instance, if a vehicle’s driver has a passive RFID tag in his or her back pocket while driving through a gate, that tag will likely remain unread. If the tag is attached to a laptop, Baker adds, it can be very difficult to read, especially if an individual has his or her hand over the tag while carrying the computer through a portal, or if it is packed in a bag or satchel.
On the other hand, the shorter range of passive RFID can prove advantageous in other use cases. In a refrigerator or on a tool bench, for example, the Surface Reader can detect, via RFID, when a tagged item is removed from and returned to the shelf or cooler.
If a hospital or another customer attaches both a Bluetooth beacon and a passive UHF RFID tag to each item being monitored, it can not only use the Surface Reader to record when a particular item is placed onto or removed from a specific shelf (by means of that object’s passive RFID tag), but also use the item’s Bluetooth beacon to track—via triangulation, provided that at least three surface readers are in use—where the item moves outside the RFID range of the refrigerator or cabinet.
In addition, Baker says, multiple Surface Readers can be daisy-chained via a CanBUS interface, so that one will act as a gateway with an Ethernet, cellular or Wi-Fi connection. It could then collect data from the other readers, forwarding it to a server where software would manage the collected information. Each Surface Reader comes with cellular and Wi-Fi functionality, enabling it to transmit data back to a server wirelessly, if configured to do so.
The Surface Reader is available in as many as 25 different sizes—some as large as 6 feet by 4 feet, designed for large shelves. The standard size, however, is intended to be small (19, 24 or 27 inches square) and easy to fit into something like a small shelf or table surface.
The company began offering RFID-enabled cabinets to the pharmaceutical and health-care industry in 2011. At that time, Baker recalls, many of its customers were still waiting to determine whether high-frequency (HF) or passive UHF tags would become ubiquitous for tagging drugs, devices and specimens. Venture Research built readers that could support both transmission frequencies, then daisy-chained the devices together so they could better forward data to a server.
The latest version of the Surface Reader is made with a ThingMagic UHF RFID reader module and an antenna designed and manufactured by Venture Research. Several companies are currently using or testing the newest model’s Bluetooth and UHF RFID functionality, while other existing users of previous versions are planning to deploy it. None of these companies were willing to comment about how they use the technology.
The businesses currently testing the latest Surface Reader are employing the device to encode their RFID hard tags, and are using the LED lighting functionality to indicate whether an item placed on the reader has an approaching expiration date. The companies then utilize Bluetooth functionality to track tools’ movements throughout their facilities, not just when they are on the reader. In this case, something like a torque wrench, which is very expensive, could be located in real time if fitted with a Bluetooth beacon. Venture Research works with middleware partners that create the necessary solutions to take advantage of the combined RFID and BLE capability, Baker says. “Venture Research also has embedded applications that provide inventory visibility suitable for tool-tracking and health-care applications,” he states.
A company that provides mobile phone repair plans to use the new Surface Reader but without the BLE functionality, Baker says. Each cell phone that arrives for repair is tagged with a UHF tag. The components that go in the phone also contain UHF RFID tags, so if they are placed on the Surface Reader, the RFID read functionality links every component with that particular phone, thus creating a record of all repair work carried out. If the BLE functionality were used, the company could also find the phones throughout the facility in real time, to ensure that they were being serviced according to schedule.
The new Surface Readers are priced to be low-cost, Baker says, though the price varies according to the volume in which they are purchased. “They’re priced about the cost of an off-the-shelf reader,” he states.
All of the UHF RFID readers that the company now offers, including its portal and forklift models, come with the BLE functionality, Baker reports. An aerospace firm is already using one of Venture Research’s beacon-reading portals, installing the device at a doorway to track RFID-tagged assets, such as lab equipment, as it is moved from one facility to another. By having personnel wear similar RFID tags, the labs can identify not only when an item was removed, but also by whom. Once they implement the BLE-enabled technology, the laboratory managers will also be able to know, in real time, the specific lab—or the particular part of a lab—in which the asset is located.
Another user of beacon-reading portals is a utility company that operates a warehouse and yard in which it stores generator parts that it tags with Bluetooth beacons. With the portal installed in its warehouse’s doorway, the utility can determine whether those items are within its warehouse or in its yard.