How BLE indoor asset location is being deployed in healthcare, office and the military: Part 2

As Jeremy Cowan, IoT Now’s editorial director, hears from Thomas Hasselman, chief marketing officer of Finland-based Quuppa, BLE is finding a home for asset tracking in hospitals, offices, the army and via mobile network operator, Orange. Also see Part 1.

IoT Now: Can you tell us about the deployments?

TH: We have large office buildings, soldier training sites over several thousand square metres in 400 large buildings and tracking thousands of objects. So, then you just look at price points and cost of ownership of the system. That’s where a difference comes from. BLE is a key factor in IoT radio technology. The pricing of tags is in the $5.00 (€4.3) or less range, and the overall system becomes very manageable because BLE is also low power consuming technology, so you don’t spend money on changing or recharging batteries.

IoT Now: What’s the typical battery lifespan?

TH: With the latest BLE chipsets it’s typically about 3-5 years with a small coin battery.

IoT Now: How does the pricing compare to UWB?

TH: One of the big differentiators is the tags, they’re significantly cheaper. Some of our resellers, who used to be UWB resellers, say the price of a deployment is about a third of UWB. We haven’t confirmed that yet but that’s what they say.

Thomas Hasselman

Ubisense became a partner a few months ago. Even though they’re the leading UWB technology provider in the world they see that, in order to compete in the manufacturing space, they need alternative technologies. BLE is something their partners have been asking for. They see a need to be able to track smartphones and devices.

One factor is accuracy, for example car manufacturers track items going beyond the production line and out of assembly into the Just-in-Time delivery chain.

Also scalability; locators are deployable in several thousand square metres of buildings. Fortum, Finland’s biggest energy company don’t want to change their ID card printing process. They wanted BLE tracking (of personnel) in the ID holder itself.

They use it for optimising meeting room utilisation; they have open office space for finding free seating when you arrive on the office floor. You can see if meeting rooms are in use.

One of the benefits of Quuppa’s infrastructure is remote monitoring of BLE sensors, for example in offices if something’s running out or needs emptying, if a room is too hot or cold or a door is left open.

Healthcare is a key sector benefiting from accurate positioning. If a nurse with a tag enters a room and the rules say a handwash is needed before going to the next patient. With geofencing you can see if the nurse enters a sanitation station and he or she can be alerted to the possibility of cross-contamination. In some hospitals it’s via a vibrating wristband so that it doesn’t alarm the patient, others use a visible aid like a blinking light to alert the nurse.

Our technology enables the back channel. The back channel is a 2-way communications system. Our positioning engine doesn’t only receive positioning info, it can also send commands back to tags (and wristbands). It uses the same comms channel.

Jeremy Cowan

Another typical use is in inventory, for example of crash carts with critical drugs. It’s vital if nurses have inventory of where the cart is, what’s missing, or drugs out of date on the cart. This isn’t yet widely deployed in healthcare. Our flagship reference case is Nicholas Children’s Hospital in Miami (the third largest such hospital in the US) where it’s used over 1.7 million square feet. We started in 2016 and it was fully deployed in 2018. It also shows which beds have been changed or need cleaning.

We have smaller deployments at an Alzheimer care home in Italy tracking patients to ensure they don’t leave the home, and at mental health institutions in China for staff safety to alert if they’re attacked.

IoT Now: How have you been working with Orange?

TH: Orange is like many of our other partners, but bigger. They’re using our technology and building their own software on our APIs (application program interfaces) for their live events, logistics and manufacturing and also for healthcare. They chose us for two reasons, for the accuracy of the BLE technology itself, and the other thing they like is they are building their own ecosystem. Already, four of our tag partners will be working with them and are testing now.

IoT Now’s editorial director & publisher, Jeremy Cowan was talking to Thomas Hasselman, CMO of Quuppa. 

Comment on this article below or via Twitter: @IoTNow_OR @jcIoTnow

RECENT ARTICLES

OpenText Europe: AI for growth and sustainability

Posted on: March 19, 2024

OpenText, the information company, is set to host OpenText World Europe 2024 April 15 – 18, 2024, with a series of in-person customer conferences taking place in London, Munich and Paris. The event series will bring together industry leaders, innovators and customers to discuss how technology can enable global organisations to build for growth, experience and sustainability.

Read more

Surrey leads new £8 million FORT centre for advancing secure networks

Posted on: March 18, 2024

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) announced that Surrey’s 5G/6G Innovation Centre will lead a new £8 million Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Open Secure Networks (FORT). 

Read more
FEATURED IoT STORIES

What is IoT? A Beginner’s Guide

Posted on: April 5, 2023

What is IoT? IoT, or the Internet of Things, refers to the connection of everyday objects, or “things,” to the internet, allowing them to collect, transmit, and share data. This interconnected network of devices transforms previously “dumb” objects, such as toasters or security cameras, into smart devices that can interact with each other and their

Read more

The IoT Adoption Boom – Everything You Need to Know

Posted on: September 28, 2022

In an age when we seem to go through technology boom after technology boom, it’s hard to imagine one sticking out. However, IoT adoption, or the Internet of Things adoption, is leading the charge to dominate the next decade’s discussion around business IT. Below, we’ll discuss the current boom, what’s driving it, where it’s going,

Read more

9 IoT applications that will change everything

Posted on: September 1, 2021

Whether you are a future-minded CEO, tech-driven CEO or IT leader, you’ve come across the term IoT before. It’s often used alongside superlatives regarding how it will revolutionize the way you work, play, and live. But is it just another buzzword, or is it the as-promised technological holy grail? The truth is that Internet of

Read more

Which IoT Platform 2021? IoT Now Enterprise Buyers’ Guide

Posted on: August 30, 2021

There are several different parts in a complete IoT solution, all of which must work together to get the result needed, write IoT Now Enterprise Buyers’ Guide – Which IoT Platform 2021? authors Robin Duke-Woolley, the CEO and Bill Ingle, a senior analyst, at Beecham Research. Figure 1 shows these parts and, although not all

Read more

CAT-M1 vs NB-IoT – examining the real differences

Posted on: June 21, 2021

As industry players look to provide the next generation of IoT connectivity, two different standards have emerged under release 13 of 3GPP – CAT-M1 and NB-IoT.

Read more

IoT and home automation: What does the future hold?

Posted on: June 10, 2020

Once a dream, home automation using iot is slowly but steadily becoming a part of daily lives around the world. In fact, it is believed that the global market for smart home automation will reach $40 billion by 2020.

Read more

5 challenges still facing the Internet of Things

Posted on: June 3, 2020

The Internet of Things (IoT) has quickly become a huge part of how people live, communicate and do business. All around the world, web-enabled devices are turning our world into a more switched-on place to live.

Read more