Awarepoint Corporation, a provider of active RFID real-time location system solutions to the healthcare market, announced today it has been granted U.S. Patent No. 7,324,824. The patent covers Awarepoint's mesh network plug-in sensor appliance and describes the use of a plug-in network appliance to perform a bridge between two wireless communication formats and perform position location services.
Awarepoint Corporation, a provider of active RFID real-time location system solutions to the healthcare market, announced today it has been granted U.S. Patent No. 7,324,824. The patent covers Awarepoint's mesh network plug-in sensor appliance and describes the use of a plug-in network appliance to perform a bridge between two wireless communication formats and perform position location services.
"This patented sensor is a small, unobtrusive device that plugs directly into AC outlets forming an automatic mesh sensor network. It requires no cabling, and it can be moved to other AC outlets as needed to optimize the system's performance," said Ron Hegli, Chief Technology Officer of Awarepoint.
This sensor is designed uniquely to perform two key functions: observe radio communications from tags, and route observation data to a central server. The sensors employ a networking standard called ZigBee to automatically form an ad-hoc, mesh data network that allows tag observations to be routed through multiple sensor/routers to a coordinating bridge node and ultimately to their final destination at a server. The ability of the sensors to observe tags and create observation data that allows tag positions to be accurately calculated, the ability to wirelessly communicate the observation data to the central server, and the plug-in form factor described makes the Awarepoint sensor network deployment fast and low-impact."No other vendor employs the low-power radio protocols employed by Awarepoint, that provide both accurate positioning, long tag battery life and wireless data routing," added Hegli. "Further, ZigBee allows the sensors to automatically join a network as soon as they are plugged in, allowing technicians with limited training to deploy. As a result, installations are simple and deployed rapidly."
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