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How does indoor tracking assist the process of supply chain and logistics?
Indoor positioning using proximity systems provide a general location for an object of interest, such as a person or object within a room.
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CIO Applications | Monday, January 30, 2023

Indoor positioning using proximity systems provide a general location for an object of interest, such as a person or object within a room. Unlike UWB systems, they do not provide highly precise locations.
With indoor location tracking services, businesses can make faster and better decisions based on real-time data. It is possible to increase the productivity and safety of workers, equipment, and work sites by implementing modern indoor tracking systems.
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People and assets cannot be tracked using traditional technologies such as GPS or satellites by using indoor positioning systems. The service involves connecting a number of devices that work together to track a person's location. To gain functional insights into the movement of people and assets in the workplace when GPS and satellite positioning systems fail, turn to indoor positioning systems.
What is the working principle of indoor positioning systems?
In indoor location tracking, there are five main types of tracking:
Indoor positioning systems using Wi-Fi
Indoor tracking systems based on Wi-Fi send small packets of information to Wi-Fi access points throughout the workplace via wireless transmission tags. Based on the information received from Wi-Fi transmission tags, each Wi-Fi access point calculates the position of the tags with an accuracy of 3-5 meters.
Acoustic systems
Ultra-wideband (UWB) systems work similarly to acoustic systems, except they use sound waves rather than radio frequencies. In order to track their location, they send and receive ultrasonic sounds (sounds you cannot hear).
Infrared systems
A similar principle to that used by TV remotes is used in infrared systems. For communicating with IR tags, each indoor area will have infrared (IR) receivers. Location tracking services provided by IR systems cannot penetrate walls, but they are highly accurate within indoor rooms.
Proximity-based systems
Indoor positioning using proximity systems provide a general location for an object of interest, such as a person or object within a room. Unlike UWB systems, they do not provide highly precise locations.
Reader-based or reference point-based proximity-based systems are used in proximity-based systems. In reader-based systems, tags transmit their identity continuously to reader devices that can calculate their position. BLE beacons communicate with specific reference points within an area to determine the position of an object using reference point-based systems.
Ultra-wideband systems
Tracking indoor locations with ultra-wideband (UWB) systems is the most accurate and precise technology available today.
To display location information, they consist of UWB tags, anchor points, and gateways to local servers and cloud servers. Based on the timing of receiving pulses from UWB tags, anchor points are able to produce highly accurate location data using UWB tags' pulses over a wide GHz spectrum.
In a variety of industries, UWB systems are used primarily for inventory management, material/equipment management, and workplace safety applications.
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