ASSET & PERSON TRACKING FOR INDOOR APPLICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGIES
WHAT IS ASSET TRACKING? Asset Tracking means tracking of objects by using sensor technologies in a defined space. The objects movement is displayed in real time on any device. The movement of the objects can be tracked live and recorded. Movement can be recorded and logged as well as analyzed. Depending on the use case asset tracking is two-dimensional and with the according technology like Ultra-Wideband (UWB) also three-dimensional possible. The main difference between asset tracking and conventional goods receiving systems is that with Asset Tracking not only an object s position at a certain time can be checked, also the object s route from A to B and it s behavior on the way can be recorded. Only this crucial difference enables the triad of digitalization: Collect data, analyze data, optimize processes. Companies are only able to face the permanently increasing pricing and cost pressure with the help of a constant efficiency optimization and a steady innovation performance. Independent from their vertical companies share one challenge: They have to design their whole value added chain in order to reduce costs and at once increase their productivity and efficiency. Managing, tracking and localizing of assets plays an important role in that. Dr. Holger Schlüter, Associate Director IoT/Industrie 4.0 at Lufthansa Industry Solutions
With Favendo s Asset Tracking the user always has the complete overview of position and usage of goods, products and work equipment. In retail and industrial deployment asset tracking enables not only reliable administration of inventory and operating resources but also effective route planning, optimized running times and planning of maintenance intervals. Favendo offers software, hardware and asset tags to make processes transparent and to build a bridge between the physical world and the Internet of Things. BASIC PRINCIPLES OF POSITIONING Senders transmit radio signals to a receiver. The receiver interprets these signals and determines its position within a given topography. The principles behind that are trilateration and triangulation. BENEFITS OF ASSET TRACKING: Saving time at searching devices Optimization of security stock Reduced down times Real-time stock taking Anti-theft protection via geofence and alert-function Maintenance prediction With Mobile Asset Tracking position and way of every asset can also be tracked mobile and in real-time. The system can also be upgraded by a precise indoor navigation to quickly find the way to the searched asset. Without detour service teams or employees not familiar with the building/site can be lead to the searched good. Following the same principles by which movement and location of goods and assets can be traced also people can be tracked. This maybe on first glance terrifying aspect is especially in effect in retail in the form of in-store-tracking as well as in health care and tourism. According to a research done by SPLENDID RESEARCH in 2016 it can be resumed that the majority of consumers knows and approves that under certain circumstances for example when taking part in a loyalty program their consumer behavior is recorded. * More than eight out of ten questioned Germans, who are taking part in a loyalty program, are clear on the fact that through the bonus program their consumer behavior is recorded. Almost half of them agreed on it and four out of ten questioned members said they hope to gain benefits from the recording of the consumer behavior. The elements referred to sender, receiver, information about environment are also found in radio based Asset Tracking solutions. With increasing distance a sent signal loses strength. At a distance of one meter it is strong, at a distance of 40 meters it is accordingly weaker. If at least three controllers receive the signal of an asset it is possible due to the signal strength to exactly determine every point in a room. For example, the asset is 1.8 meters away from controller 1, 2.1 meters from controller 2 and 3.7 meters from controller 3. This kind of positioning with distance measuring by signal strength is called lateration, the effect of decreasing signal strength, that is utilized here, is called attenuation. When three signal transmitters are involved it is called trilateration, when the number of signal transmitters is even higher it is called multi-lateration. ONE Distance: 1.8 m Signal: Angle: 245 An additional method to determine a position is triangulation. In opposition to lateration here not only the distances to the signal transmitters but also the angles are used to determine the position of an object. For a two-dimensional identification of a position two angles and one length are needed. With angle in technical terms Angle of arrival (AoA) it is meant the angle in which the signal meets the receiver. The angle is measured by the delay of the signal ( Time of flight TOF). TOF measures the time a signal needs to cover the distance between an object and the reference point, the known position of a sender. TWO Distance: 2.1 m Signal: Angle: 5 THREE Distance: 3.7 m Signal: Angle: 123
POSITIONING VIA BLUETOOTH STURDY AND LOW-PRICED bluloc big bay beacon bluloc blackwell beacon bluloc beacon controller Its own position is the most important description an object is supposed to give feedback on. That s why exact positioning is the most important component for Asset Tracking. For that in most cases the objects to be tracked have to be equipped with a transmitter, which sends its ID to a receiver. Asset Tracking uses server based positioning. ** A Bluetooth beacon serves for example as transmitter. Every equipped object constantly sends its ID. These signals are picked up by the receivers called Collectors, passed on to the server and interpreted by the according software. The server in turn communicates with any device, also mobile devices. For that, the system has to be provided with environmental information. For indoors maps, called floor plans, are generated (for example by digitalizing construction plans). How many beacons have to be deployed depends on the size of the area and the architectural conditions. Favendo uses bluloc beacons as standard transmitters. The battery powered senders are extremely durable and suitable for indoor and outdoor deployment. The sturdy cases of the sending units answer to the strict German fire protection laws. The low-priced units can also be maintained and managed remote. In industrial deployment we focus on a combination of beacon and RFID technology to guarantee the best possible positioning also in sturdy industrial environment. THE COLLECTOR: Besides beacon signals the collector is also able to track smart devices which move inside a defined area. One collector can cover up to 2.000 square meters. The sensor receives the so called MAC addresses, which all smart devices like smartphones or tablets transmit to connect with potentially available WiFi networks around them, and collects them. The MAC (Media Access Control) Address is for every device like a unique digital finger print. That s why returning visitors can be identified. Covers an area Needs regular of around 2,000 m² 230 V-connection Suitable for indoor Integrated and outdoor deployment data storage Easy to use plug & play Data transmission per architecture LAN, WLAN and GSM ** In case of indoor navigation one talks about client-based positioning, because the positioning is done on the user s device (client). The smart phone interprets the signals of built-in beacons. This makes also clear that Asset Tracking and indoor navigation are two sides of one coin.
PERSON TRACKING VARIOUS POSSIBILITIES Individual tracking: Also persons, which are supposed to be tracked individually, have to be equipped with a sender. This sender can for example be handed out in touristic facilities (leisure parks, cruise ships, hotel facilities) in form of a bracelet. By that it is possible for example for parents to constantly track where in the facility their children are. Such Kids tracker are for example in use on cruise ships. For shopping malls systems are suitable that automatically send an alert, if the wearer leaves the pre-defined green area. GEOFENCING: Geofencing is a made-up word from geographic and fence. By geofencing for example an immobilizer device can be activated if a car leaves a defined zone. The zone can for example be a whole country. Arriving Dwelling Leaving GEOTARGETING: Welcome Mrs. Smith. It is called geotargeting if actions like push notifications are supposed to be triggered not at a certain point but when entering, leaving or staying in defined zones for example at the entrance area of an exhibition. For example if a festival visitor, who has the corresponding app installed, enters the festival area and with that the defined radio signal radius, a push notification is triggered on his smart phone. This is independent from the point where he goes through the imaginary fence. In a wider sense these systems work like positioning systems but with geographical defined border coordinates. Depending on concept, area of deployment and geographical accuracy these systems can also work satellite or mobile radio based. Such systems can also be used when searching for persons, for anti-theft protection of moveable assets, cars and facilities, monitoring of felons with electronic tags or compliance with driving routes or ways to school.
FINDER FEATURES Finder features are settled at the interface between Social Location-based Services and Location-based Security/Safety. The before mentioned example of the Kid finder shows how Asset Tracking features and indoor navigation are combined to the user s advantage. Data access is up to the parents who can check their child s position and let themselves be navigated to the location. In this case the tracked person has no influence on the data transmission about his/her location. Our experience from a customer project in the tourism sector shows that this feature is often used and is subjectively felt to be very valuable. For so called Friend finders the data souvereignity lies elsewhere. In this case a user can actively release or share his location with other selected users, who can in turn can let themselves be navigated to the shared location. Special feature is that this can happen in real-time. Unlike in active messenger systems it is not a photo of a position that is passed on, but the change of position can be followed in real-time. This features makes the finding and meeting with acquaintances in confusing buildings such like airports, train stations or big shopping malls easier. Also useful in festival areas, sports venues or other leisure facilities. The loation can be shared straight from the app to social networks. Finder features highly answer to the needs and desires of the Millenial generation s digital natives. Richard Lemke, CEO Favendo To actively share one s own location is not only important in the area of leasure activities. Location-based security products like pocket SOS Buttons are within a beacon infrastructure able to exactly identify their location and by the push of a button pass this information in case of emergency on to a control center. Support and help can so be requested and sent as soon as possible. By now systems working with hold-to-run control are coming up: sensor soles in shoes record the activity and way of walking of the wearer. At urgent problems (immobility, collapse, tumble) an alert can be triggered automatically and the person s position can be identified.
TRACKING OF CUSTOMER FLOW For the use cases specified in the category individual tracking a corresponding app that issues the position of the tracked person or triggers the desired actions (for example an alert when leaving a defined zone) is necessary. But it is also possible to track persons without them using a special app. This is especially interesting when tracing customer flow and streams. Used for that is so called WLAN sniffing. Additionally beacon technology provides reliable real-time data about customer and purchase behavior, which previously was reserved for e-commerce. That s why it is often called Google Analytics for offline retail. Popular analytics services are: Live tracking Heatmaps Number of visits and visitor flow Dwell times Response and conversion rates For that the signals of WLAN-enabled devices are picked up by the collectors. So movement data of smart phone users within an infrastructure are available to be analyzed live and historical. Because every active network adaptor is constantly sending this signal, no corresponding app is necessary. The interpretation of the signal is done on a server not on the user s device. WHAT TO DO WITH THE COLLECTED DATA? With that data base the online retail is provided with analytics possibilities, which up to now have been reserved for e-commerce. A retailer is for example able to optimize his floor management and staff deployment. Best practice by a big shopping mall: Only entering and leaving of defined zones and the corresponding dwell times were recorded. The operators realized that the great majority of customers decided for one out of two alternatives after leaving one of the big anchor stores: either leaving the mall or visiting a neighboring restaurant. It also turned out that 72 per cent of customers visiting the restaurant proceeded with shopping afterwards, which of course is of interest for the mall operator. During peak-periods the restaurant did not offer enough space for all prospective visitors, however. The operators decided to double the space of the restaurant. With that the dwell time in the anchor store was increased by 42 per cent. Due to the collected data the existing space was used more efficient. THIS WAY TO THE STUDY
POSITIONING VIA UWB UTMOST THREE-DIMENSIONAL ACCURACY For most use cases positioning via Bluetooth beacons is totally sufficient. When utmost accuracy and three-dimensionality count UWB is at its most impressive. In this case the senders are called locator tags, which communicate with so called anchors. Thanks to the wide band signal an accuracy of less than 10 up to 30 centimeters can be reached. The anchors take over the task as built-in reference points. With three anchors within reach of the tags a two-dimensional positioning is possible. For a three-dimensional positioning at least four anchors have to be within reach. The object or person that is supposed to be located has to be equipped with a battery powered tag. For positioning the tag calculates the distance to several anchors and sends its data back to the anchors, which in turn send this data to a server-based back end. Only there the position is issued. UWB enables up to 100 position queries per second. The display of a tag s position on a device is also possible because the tag is able to communicate via USB interface or BLE directly with a smart device. POSITIONING VIA CODED LIGHT Positioning via coded light is offered market-ready by Favendo partner Philips Lighting. The Indoor Positioning System (IPS) uses LED-lights for local navigation and transmission of information. Their light signals transmit a for every light unique code that is perceptible for the smart phone camera, but not for the human eye. Similar to navigation via GPS the app is able to determine the current position of the smartphone up to an accuracy of 30 centimeters by the signals received from the lights. With pure Visible Light Communication (VLC) the data stream is however a one-way road to the user s smartphone. That means no data about customer movement can be gathered. This solution there is especially useful for indoor navigation.
ASSET TRACKING & INDOOR NAVIGATION Asset Tracking and indoor navigation are two sides of a coin. Basis for both technologies is a precise positioning. Indoor navigation helps customers, staff and external visitors for example service teams or suppliers to quickly orientate themselves in big buildings. The user is shown the route to a certain point on a screen or gets it announced by the device. In an estimation Opus research assumes consumer expenses of 10 billion Dollars till 2018 that are going to be directly influenced by indoor navigation. Favendo reaches a positioning accuracy of under 30 centimeters. That means with us you can lead your customer not only to a certain department but to a certain product on the shelf. Among our customers are Audi, Hammerson, ECE & FRAPORT. Our technology is in daily in use on more than 1.5 million square meters of sales area. You can find more information about Indoornavigation here: MORE ABOUT INDOORNAVIGATION!
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