Benefits Of An Indoor Positioning System

Indoor location tracking systems open up new potential for organizations seeking to make more informed and timely decisions.

FREMONT, CA: Indoor positioning systems comprise a network of linked devices that provide location tracking services for people and assets that cannot be tracked using conventional technologies such as GPS or satellite. Indoor location tracking is divided into some distinct categories:

Acoustic systems: Acoustic systems operate similarly to ultra wide-band (UWB) systems, except that they utilize sound waves rather than radio frequencies. They track their location by transmitting and receiving ultrasonic frequencies. The most precise acoustic systems are sonar-based systems, which are virtually as accurate as UWB systems but are more expensive to operate and are typically utilized in niche applications within the healthcare business.

Wi-Fi-based indoor positioning systems: Indoor tracking systems based on Wi-Fi communicate via Wi-Fi transmission tags that send tiny data packets to Wi-Fi access points located around the workplace. Each Wi-Fi access point uses information from the Wi-Fi transmission tags to calculate the tags' position with an accuracy of between 3-5 meters. Indoor tracking systems based on Wi-Fi may be too expensive to operate in businesses without Wi-Fi access points to provide location tracking.

Proximity-based systems: Indoor positioning using proximity systems determine the general location of an object of interest within a space, such as a person or an entity. They do not provide the same level of precision as UWB systems. Proximity-based systems operate via a reader or a reference point. Reader-based systems operate via tags, which send their identity continuously to reader devices capable of calculating the position of each tag. Bluetooth low energy (BLE) is used in reference point-based systems to communicate between BLE beacons and particular reference points within a region to identify an object's position.

Both proximity-based systems are the least expensive to implement and are widely utilized in healthcare and manufacturing contexts. However, they do not give the level of precision, accuracy, and intelligence provided by UWB systems.

Infrared systems: Infrared systems operate similarly to how television remote controls. Each indoor space will be equipped with infrared receivers (IR)  that communicate with IR tags. At the same time, infrared systems are highly accurate in enclosed spaces but cannot provide location tracking services through walls. IR systems are most effective in settings with numerous rooms and well-defined areas but less effective in warehouses and manufacturing complexes.