Pushing the right buttons
Intelligent Distributed Controls (IDC) have launched two new Zigbee-based push- button tracker devices for the tracking of personnel and assets within a short-range wireless personal area network.
Designed for operation with IDC IEEE 802.15.4 wireless gateways, the trackers use industry-leading CC2420 RD transceivers; have built-in positional locational engines; and can remain dormant for months before producing reports at either event- driven or planned time intervals.
The units comprise a key fob unit, offering 1-5 buttons, and a larger hand-held unit with up to nine buttons. Utilizing Zigbee technology, the IDC trackers are low-power devices, with long-battery life, that can ‘sleep’ for 99% of the time until awakened either by a beacon signal or because a reporting period is due.
Zigbee differs from RFID in that it is a complete telemetry system with the ability to provide wireless personal area networking (WPAN), for example, digital radio connections between computers and related devices, such as sensors. This type of network also eliminates the use of physical data buses, including USB and Ethernet cables.
