Passive UHF Location SEnsing (PULSE)

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Within the TINA project, Cambridge University has demonstrated the feasibility of using low cost UHF RFID technology in a new way to provide (i) enhanced tag read range (to >10m), (ii) increased (100%) tag reading probability and (iii) the ability to locate the passive tag to approximately 1m resolution. This has been achieved by combining a customised RFID reader with a distributed antenna system. The ability to use the distributed antennas in a collaborative manner acts to remove the effect of radio propagation fades and also has allowed the development of algorithms, which have been implemented on RFID firmware, to take the RF information from the individual antennas and use this to generate the location information. The TINA project resulted in two ongoing patent applications to protect the concepts described above.These enhancements to passive UHF RFID have generated a great deal of interest, both in an academic sense - we have presented the results in invited papers and a keynote at 5 international conferences - but also commercially across a variety of sectors. The PULSE project therefore seeks to further the commercialisation of the technology. It will do this via (i) building a prototype system suitable for demonstration to customers and (ii) working with commercial partners to understand better the market opportunities and, concentrating on the retail sector, develop an application demonstration based on the prototype location system and field trial this approach. This twin pronged approach will allow the identification of the best route to commercialisation and, working in collaboration with MBA students from the Judge Business School, will result in business plans to map this route forward.