Q-Track Launches Breakthrough Real Time Location System

PRLog (Press Release) - May 13, 2009 -
ORLANDO, FL—Q-Track Corporation debuted the world’s first Near-Field Electromagnetic Ranging (NFER®) Real-Time Location System (RTLS) at the RFID Journal Live! conference last week.  Q-Track’s NFER® RTLS can track people or assets in a facility with a typical accuracy of better than three feet at a range of 60-150 feet.  NFER® RTLS has the potential to bring precision location to complicated industrial settings where location data has never before been economical.  In a breakout session at RFID Journal Live!, Arnold Solomon of Southern Company, described Southern’s successful deployment of an NFER® RTLS at the company’s Plant Vogtle nuclear facility.

The release of Q-Track’s NFER® RTLS received an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response by attendees at RFID Journal Live! In fact, Q-Track was a finalist for the 2009 RFID Journal Award’s “Best-In-Show” competition in recognition of the breakthrough nature of the NFER® RTLS product. Q-Track’s NFER® RTLS was the only real-time location system to receive such recognition.

Jerry Gabig, Q-Track CEO, explains the significance, “Q-Track’s breakthrough in indoor wireless tracking could be disruptive for the RTLS market which, according to the Yankee Group, is expected to exceed $1.6 billion by 2010.  NFER® technology is poised to transform the RTLS market.”

Incumbent location providers use high frequency, short wavelength wireless systems like WiFi or ultra-wideband (UWB), that are optimized for high data rate communications.  However, location and communication are two fundamentally different problems requiring two fundamentally different solutions.

Q-Track designed Near-Field Electromagnetic Ranging (NFER®) technology with a wireless physical layer optimized for real-time location in RF hostile industrial settings. NFER® systems operate at low frequencies, typically around 1MHz, with long wavelengths, typically around 300m. Q-Track’s Part 15 compliant, FCC certified, low-power, low frequency tags provide a relatively simple approach to wireless location that provides better tracking in difficult industrial situations.

Low frequency signals penetrate better and diffract or bend around the human body and other obstructions. This physics gives NFER® systems long range. Low frequency signals are virtually immune from multipath. This physics gives NFER® systems high accuracy. Low frequency hardware is less expensive, and less of it is needed because of the long range. These factors combine to make NFER® systems more economical in more difficult industrial RF environments. Installation costs can be as low as $0.50/square foot.

“The Q-Track team has turned conventional wireless wisdom on its head,” notes Dr. Kai Siwiak, CEO of TimeDerivative, Inc. and author of several textbooks on radio frequency technology. The former Motorola Dan Noble Fellow adds: “Their NFER® technology is a counter-intuitive yet remarkably successful approach to wireless tracking. They’ve moved in the exact opposite direction of the wideband, high frequency thinking that dominates wireless tracking today, and achieved stunning results.”