Smartphone Applications for Indoor Real-Time Location Systems (RTLSs) with Bluetooth Low Energy

摘要

The benefits of Hospital real-time location systems (RTLSs) have been characterized as increasing efficiency and reducing operational costs. We developed iPhone applications for an indoor RTLS with Bluetooth low energy (BLE) and evaluated the system in our laboratory rooms instead of on actual hospital wards. The applications were installed in peripherals as tags on iPhone5s, centrals as access points (5th-generation iPod touch pads or iPhone5s) placed in rooms in a concrete building, and a monitor as a server on an iPhone5. The centrals and monitor were connected on a wireless LAN. Each peripheral communicates with a central by BLE, and the centrals communicate with the monitor by sockets on TCP/IP. While individuals with iPhone5s moved around in the building, the "access events" were captured in a few tensecond units at about 10 m from a central. The monitor showed the access events with the peripheral identifier and location, and interactively returned messages to the peripheral. A RTLS was simply created with only iPhone applications using Bluetooth low energy without RFID tags. This system may effectively be used as an indoor RTLS, patient tracking, and calling system.