Ultra High Frequency Radio Research Articles

Critical care resources in surge response: towards real-time situation awareness

ABSTRACT In large-scale emergencies and disasters, real-time situation awareness around health resources can be lifesaving. Understanding the situation at hand, the pressing needs and the actions needed often using information systems that require manual data entry. Relying on humans to enter data manually during surge response is both error-prone and an impediment to the critical requirement of real-time situation awareness. This paper explores the potential of Ultra-High Frequency Radio Frequency Identification (UHF RFID) technology to automate the process of manual data entry followed in providing situation awareness related to critical care resources during surge response. Using design science, an RFID-based prototype was developed to identify and track intensive care resources in real-time. The system was tested in a simulated hospital ward environment to understand deployment challenges and a dashboard was developed to reflect real-time data from multiple sources simultaneously. When properly deployed, UHF RFID can be a viable approach to automating critical care reporting during surge response. Automating routine processes can enhance data quality and minimise workload on health professionals leading to better patient care and evidence based decision-making.

Design of a volumetric cylindrical coil-tuned at 298 MHz for 7 T imaging

The concept of a 2D cylindrical High Pass Ladder (2D c-HPL) is used in the development of this ultra-high radio frequency (UHRF) volumetric head coil for 7 T tuned at the Larmor frequency of 298 MHz. The architecture of the 2D c-HPL helps to overcome the challenges associated with non-uniform magnetic field distribution. The prototype consists of an individual resonating array of inductance-capacitance (LC) elements and each component is tuned to the precise fo frequency. The tuning of the (i) inductance, (ii) capacitance, (iii) mesh size, and (iv) coupling coefficient play critical roles to attain the desired Larmor frequency. For this proof-of-concept, the prototype of a volumetric head coil consists of a cylindrical array size of 4 × 6, with individual LC components of inductance magnitude, 98 nH and four fixed value capacitors and one tunable capacitor that allowed to achieve the desired precession frequency, fr = 298 MHz. The model was tested for three different fo values of 269, 275, and 286 MHz. The mutual coupling and the eigenfrequencies were compared through bench testing and dispersion equation. The experimental data were in good agreement (<5%) with the theoretical eigenfrequencies from the dispersion relation. The theoretical eigenfrequencies and the experimental eigenfrequencies are in good agreement for eigenmodes (1,2), (1,3), (2,2), (2,3), and (4,3).

Mechano- and solvato-fluorochromic chalcone and its water-based flexo-ink for anticounterfeit applications

Pigments with unique optical features are always sought after in realizing superior security features to protect authentic documents/products against forgery. The present study reports the synthesis of triphenylamine-naphthalene chalcone (TPA-NC) with fascinating optical features: solvato-fluorochromism, mechano-fluorochromism, and aggregation-induced emission. The flexo print obtained on UV dull paper using water-based eco-friendly UV fluorescent ink with TPA-NC as pigment displayed good adhesion, resistance to abrasion, light fastness, and favourable electrical parameter values, which could be well utilized in security documents and developing OTFTs in banknotes to prevent them from being forged. Moreover, the printed paper samples could impart superior features including solvent fugitiveness, penetrating fluorescence, and mechanical stimuli responsive variations in emission color for achieving multilevel security. The security ink prepared using the thermally stable and biocompatible TPA derivative could generate a robust platform for tamper-detection, validation of genuine documents/products and in marking technology. Moreover, an ultra-high radio frequency identification (RFID) antenna is designed to resonate at 2.35 GHz. The hybrid arrangement has steady radiation characteristics for electronic anticounterfeiting applications.

A review on RFID using different dielectric resonator antennas for industry 4.0

The Industry 4.0 with smart manufacturing, Industrial Internet, Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud based Manufacturing Productivity and efficiency are achieved through Automation. In this paper, ultra-high Radio frequency (UHF RFID) identification technique is reviewed with dielectric resonator antenna to perform vital tasks such as identifying, locating, authenticating and engaging with other IoT devices. The dielectric resonator UHF RFID antennas are deployed in industries at the end points for facilitating automation. They meet the requirement of high durability to handle thermal shocks and vibrations without effecting performance. Evidently, a highly optimized antennas are required that meet the characteristics in terms of radiation efficiency, bandwidth and low losses. It has been elaborated here, that dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) most suitable candidate for UHF RFID application requirements. The paper presents most UHF RFID appropriate DRA structures and their performance have been evaluated with characteristic parameters such as size, shape, substrate material, bandwidth, feeding mechanism and their peak gain.

Design of Meat Product Safety Information Chain Traceability System Based on UHF RFID.

As a result of the current imperfection of the meat traceability system, there have been numerous food safety events with serious consequences. In this paper, a meat product information traceability system is designed to efficiently prevent such problems. This system develops an identification tag information reader based on ultra-high frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). It is compatible with LoRa wireless, USB serial port, RS485, and RJ45 Ethernet connection. Among them, the efficiency analysis of the Q-value algorithm finds that the recognition rate of the system reaches a maximum of about 0.367 when the number of tags n is about the frame length. The multi-tag anti-collision algorithm design based on the algorithm improves the efficiency of information collection in production and distribution links. The traceability code identification scheme is designed to effectively match various links, and the platform of system is built using LabVIEW2014 software, which has five sub-modules including user management, farm management, slaughter management, logistics management, and sales management. The system uses MySQL databases to store traceability information so that users can complete their queries by entering the traceability code on the system platform. The system not only has a low cost and a broad range of applications, but it also realizes the tracking record of meat product traceability information from breeding to selling, completes the function from information collection to information inquiry, and solves the problem of the incomplete traceability information chain. In addition, the system not only enhances the informational transparency of meat products in the product supply chain but also provides information for the regulatory authorities to effectively monitor safety.

Flexible and Wireless Multipoint Epidermal Temperature Sensor

Measurement of body temperature is the most frequent medical screening performed in both hospital and domestic environments. Dual-heat-flux (DHF) thermometry provides an indirect method to estimate deep body temperature, which is unpractical and uncomfortable to be measured, from the easily accessible surface of the skin, by exploiting four temperature sampling points on a same device. This paper combines, for the first time, the DHF method with the flexible epidermal Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) technology to replace bulky and wired state-of-the-art DHF devices. Four RFID Integrated Circuits (ICs) with embedded temperature sensors are used in place of the wired temperature probes so that they will be in charge of both sensing and wireless transmission of the data by means of four small antennas also embedded in the device. By integrating the antennas within elastomeric substrates, a highly conformable plaster-like device is achieved. It is flexible and soft, and can be read from a distance of more than 15 <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">cm</i> regardless of the curvature of the body region where it is placed, and also in case of moderate displacement (±5 <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">cm</i> ) with respect to the external interrogator.

Dielectric Waveguide Filled With Particulate Media for Ultrahigh Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Applications

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a wireless communication technique that has a wide variety of applications in many fields. In some cases, the read range of the RFID transponder is a limiting factor to the application; thus, it is desired that the read range of a given RFID system be maximized. This paper presents a method to extend the read range of UHF RFID signal (860-960 MHz) by using cost-effective dielectric particulate materials (e.g., dry sand) as filler in dielectric waveguides, which is useful for applications that employ UHF RFID as a sensing or communication tool that need long read ranges, e.g., underground pipeline corrosion monitoring or leak detection. Reading tests conducted in both laboratory (air) and underground showed that the transmission of the UHF RFID signal through dielectric particulate media can considerably extend the read range of passive RFID transponders, which makes it a good material choice for the manufacturing of wireless monitoring systems for underground infrastructures. Classic waveguide theories developed by Marcatili and Emslie et al. were modified to analyze the transmission of the UHF RFID signal in the waveguide filled with dielectric particulate media. Reasonably good agreement was observed between the measured and calculated power values.

Tropospheric Influence on Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) Radio Waves

This research investigates the effects of temperature and relative humidity on UHF signals. A spectrum analyzer was used in measuring UHF signals while a digital thermometer and hygrometer was used in measuring temperature and relative humidity, respectively. From results obtained, relative humidity had no significant effect on measured path loss while a positive correlation coefficient was obtained between temperature and measured path loss. This implies that an increase in temperature will lead to a decrease in received signal strength of UHF signals. Furthermore, a path loss propagation model for Calabar (PL = 37.920 + 2.796T + 0.290R + ) was obtained using multiple regression analysis and we believe that the obtained result will be useful to radio engineers for UHF signal propagation in the study terrain.

Research on the agile management system of workshop production resources

Industry 4.0 has a key technical point that the intelligent factory uses the ‘ raw materials ’ containing information to complete the production tracking. The high-performance real-time positioning system is an important part of the real-time tracking and positioning of materials in the industrial Internet of Things. Passive Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has become the preferred solution for the industrial 4.0 material real-time positioning system. This paper first analyzes the RFID positioning technology, gives the process architecture of workshop manufacturing resource RFID real-time information-driven production line and the classification and management scheme of multi-source real-time manufacturing information, and realizes the RFID tracking and positioning of workshop manufacturing resource.

Electromagnetic Assessment of UHF-RFID Devices in Healthcare Environment

In this work, the evaluation of electromagnetic effect of Ultra High Frequency Radio Frequency Identification (UHF-RFID) passive tags used in the healthcare environment is presented. In order to evaluate exposure levels caused by EM field (865–868 MHz) of UHF-RFID readers, EM measurements in an anechoic chamber and in a real medical environment (Hospital Universitario de Canarias), as well as simulations by 3D Ray Launching algorithm, and of biophysical exposure effects in human models are presented. The results obtained show that the EM exposure is localized, in close vicinity of RFID reader and inversely proportional to its reading range. The EM exposure levels detected are sufficient to cause EM immunity effects in electronic devices (malfunctions in medical equipment or implants). Moreover, more than negligible direct effects in humans (exceeding relevant SAR values) were found only next to the reader, up to approximately 30% of the reading range. As a consequence, the EM risk could be firstly evaluated based on RFID parameters, but should include an in situ exposure assessment. It requires attention and additional studies, as increased applications of monitoring systems are observed in the healthcare sector—specifically when any system is located close to the workplace that is permanently occupied.

Tagcaster: Activating Wireless Voice of Electronic Toll Collection Systems With Zero Start-Up Cost

This work enhances the machine-to-human communication between electronic toll collection (ETC) systems and drivers by providing an AM broadcast service to deployed ETC systems. This study is the first to show that ultra-high radio frequency identification signals can be received by an AM radio receiver due to the presence of the nonlinearity effect in the AM receiver. Such a phenomenon allows the development of a previously infeasible cross-technology and cross-frequency communication, called Tagcaster, which converts an ETC reader to an AM station for broadcasting short messages (e.g., charged-fees and traffic forecast) to drivers at tollbooths. The key innovation in this work is the engineering of Tagcaster over off-the-shelf ETC systems using shadow carrier and baseband whitening without the need for hardware nor firmware changes. This feature allows zero-cost rapid deployment in the existing ETC infrastructure. Two prototypes of Tagcaster are designed, implemented, and evaluated over four general and five vehicle-mounted AM receivers (e.g., Toyota, Audi, and Jetta). Experiments reveal that Tagcaster can provide good-quality (PESQ>2) and stable AM broadcasting service with a 30 m coverage range. Tagcaster remarkably improves user experience at ETC stations, and two-thirds of volunteer drivers rate it with a score of 4+ out of 5.

Direct Chaotic Ultra-Wideband Wireless Communications in the Very High Frequency and Ultra High Frequency Radio Bands

Direct Chaotic Ultra-Wideband Wireless Communications in the Very High Frequency and Ultra High Frequency Radio Bands

Electro-Textile UHF-RFID Compression Sensor for Health-Caring Applications

Electro-textile Ultra High Frequency (UHF, 865–868 MHz) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) devices have great potential to be explored as sensors due to the features of fabric materials. In this work, an electro-textile UHF-RFID compression sensor base on T-match structure with a corresponding interface are developed and evaluated for two application scenarios. For accurate textile UHF-RFID antenna design and maximize the read range, the impedance of the electro-textile based on snap buttons is modelled and characterized an a measured read range of 5.22m is experimentally obtained. If the distance of the RFID reader and RFID sensor remain constant at 1 m. The experimental results show that RSSI range change from −42 dBm to −58 dBm as a quadratic function in terms of the knee angle bending and from −45 dBm to −40 dBm during expiration and inspiration phase when the sensor is located on the chest, which validated the usefulness of the proposed sensor.

Graphene-biopolymer-based RFID tags: A performance comparison

Flexible films fabricated using two different conductive pastes based on mixtures of graphene and biopolymers have been used to fabricate passive Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags consisting of a dipole antenna and a microchip on a paper substrate. The preparation of these composite materials, in addition to the design, manufacturing and characterization of the tags are presented. A comparison of the fabricated tags is carried out, focusing on the most relevant parameters for real applications: read range, dimensions and mechanical robustness. Read ranges from 7.2 m to 9.1 m were reached with conductivities from 1.01 × 104 S/m to 2.04 × 104 S/m, respectively. The results demonstrated that these low-cost materials can be used for mid-range applications, constituting a low-cost and environmentally friendly alternative unlike commercial metal-based tags.

An AOA and Orientation Angle-Based Localization Algorithm for Passive RFID Tag Array

This paper proposes an indoor localization algorithm based on AOA (Arrive of Angle) and orientation angle (OA) for passive UHF RFID (Ultra-High Frequency Radio Frequency Identification) tag array. By utilizing a uniform linear tag array (ULA), the AOA, which is defined as the angle of the reader relative to the tag array, can be estimated by the Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) algorithm. The relationship between AOA, OA of the tag array, and the direction angle (DA) between each reader antenna to the geometric center of the tag array is analyzed, and an OA retrieval method based on rotating the coordinate system is proposed to calculate DA. The tag array localization is finally acquired by the DA of each antenna. Simulation and experiment results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve decimeter-level localization accuracy. The proposed algorithm achieves a mean accuracy of 0.216 m, which is a significant improvement compared with the traditional AOA localization algorithm.

Experimental comparison of three electro-textile interfaces for textile UHF-RFID tags on clothes

Textile Ultra High Frequency (UHF, 865–868 MHz) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) devices meet difficulties from connection of solid chips and textile antennas. In this work, three electro-textile interfaces integrated with the corresponding textile UHF-RFID antennas as the solutions are proposed and compared. The simulated and measured impedance curves of the corresponding antennas are all close and the radiation performance (realized gain) are designed to be near (about 1.4 dBi). According to the Friis formula, the simulated and measured read ranges of the interfaces with the corresponding antennas in air are obtained (all above 4.5 m). For reliability validation, mixed use feasibility tests are implemented and the results show the read ranges of each interface used on other two designs have tolerable read range decrease (< 2 m but all above 3.41 m).In addition, the read ranges of the designs on body are all above 2.05 m. Due to the small sizes of the interfaces, stable performance on body and good reliability, the proposed interfaces solutions are proved feasible.

Setup-Independent Sensing Architecture With Multiple UHF RFID Sensor Tags

Ultra High Frequency Radio Frequency Identification (UHF RFID)-based sensing technology with antenna-integrated sensor tags offers a cost-effective solution for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. A multi-dimensional differential measurement technique for eliminating the effect of measurement setup, such as unknown mutual distance and orientation between the read/write device (RWD) and sensor tags, and line-of-sight obstruction, on acquiring information from multiple sensor tags simultaneously is proposed. The concept is based on 1) using a channel hopping mechanism to acquire multi-dimensional datasets and 2) conducting a dissimilarity analysis between offline and online datasets to extract sensor information. The differential measurement, which is activated by the channel hopping mechanism, mitigates the impact of the measurement setup, making the pattern of the multi-dimensional datasets tightly relate to the sensing state. A sensor tag for measuring the water filling level of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes is designed and fabricated. Experiments show that the proposed method can accurately acquire information from three sensor tags simultaneously under different measurement setups. The performances using datasets of different dimensions are compared. Results reveal that using low-dimensional datasets can still be capable of getting accurate information from the sensor tags, implying that the acquisition time can be reduced.

A Crack Mouth Opening Displacement Gauge Made With Passive UHF RFID Technology

In structural health monitoring crack detection and its width measurement are important monitored parameters. The Crack Mouth Opening Displacement (CMOD) is a good indicator of fracture properties. A new kind of CMOD gauge is shown in the paper, it is a wireless sensor tag based on off-the-shelf Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. The sensor measures the opening of the crack as a variation of the phase of the signal backscattered from an RFID tag connected to a load sensible to the change of the crack width. The novelty of the sensor design relies on an electromagnetic method that permits to enhance both the communication stability and the sensitivity of the RFID tag. The paper shows the electromagnetic theory underlying the design procedure, the method for dimensioning the sensor tag, the realization of a prototype and its experimental measurements. Theoretical and experimental results show that the sensor has a tunable sensitivity with minimum value 16°/mm, a maximum range of 5 mm, a nominal resolution better than <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$187 ~\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and a measurement uncertainty less than <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\pm 250 ~\mu m$ </tex-math></inline-formula> while it allows a reading distance longer than 1.5 meters.

In-Classroom Faculty Attendance Monitoring System based on Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) with Captured Image Cross-verification Mechanism

Objectives: Faculty attendance in schools are monitored based on Daily Time Record (DTR) which captures a daily time-in and time-out of teachers in and out of the school campus using various technologies and methods, however there is a scarcity of studies in monitoring faculty attendance in the actual bounds of the classroom. Hence, this study aimed to develop an In-Classroom Faculty Attendance Monitoring System based on Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) with captured image cross-verification mechanism. Methods: The system comprises two modules, namely the Teacher Attendance Module and Attendance Monitoring Web Application module. The Teacher Attendance Module, it is composed of a UHF-RFID reader and a camera module that is interfaced to the Raspberry Pi board. Passive tags are embedded on the teachers’ ID cards for them to be uniquely identified by the UHF-RFID reader when they are within the 2- meter read distance. Meanwhile, the Attendance Monitoring Web Application module is developed using a PHP framework connected to a MySQL database. It aggregates the attendance data collected from the Teacher Attendance Module for monitoring purposes which is accessible to both the monitoring staff and teachers via a web browser. Findings: Based on the evaluation results, the proposed system received positive feedback from the end users in terms of its functionality and usability and was found to be more favorable over existing attendance monitoring systems. Novelty: The system provides a non-obtrusive way of checking teachers’ attendance by utilizing the UHF-RFID technology which has a longer read range than other RFID categories used in previous studies. Moreover, unlike existing solutions, the system checks for attendance multiple times, not only during entrance and exit which then calculates thetotal stay-in time of the teacher during a class session. Most importantly, the system can prevent fraudulent activities through a camera module. Keywords: UHFRFID; Attendance; Faculty; Raspberry Pi; Camera

A blockchain-based approach to smart cargo transportation using UHF RFID

Today, the continuous growth of electronic commerce volume increases the importance of point-to-point shipment transportation. For this reason, it is extremely important that shipment management systems provide effective, efficient and fast service. A study of the literature shows that the improvements made in the field of transportation have been generally aimed at global logistics networks. In this study, unlike the existing literature, a blockchain-based solution is developed for local cargo networks. With this approach using Ultra High Radio Frequency (UHF-RFID), Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and blockchain-based smart contracts, a fast shipping management architecture that ensures security between the parties is provided. In this context, an automatic payment and approval mechanism is established between the parties using ethereum-based smart contracts. In addition, shipments equipped with RFID tags are automatically tracked and traceable using UHF-RFID antennas. The IoT data collected in the study are stored on a cloud-based server, which is a cost-effective solution. Smart contracts that enable communication between the parties are written in the Solidity language using the Ganache, Truffle and Metamask platforms. It was observed that the integration between the technologies is ensured and the communication between the parties works successfully in the test processes.