Ultrasound-based RTLS do not have the same drawbacks: “The fact that the ultrasound signal is contained within a room is a big advantage,” according to Øystein Olsen, Sonitor’s Chief Technology Officer, adding that because the signals stay within the confines of the room where one wants them, they do not have to compensate for loss, using up precious battery energy.
Ultrasound-based RTLS has a number of advantages.
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Each room can have its own ultrasound signal, making it inexpensive to listen for the ultrasound signature relative to using a radio to communicate to the rest of the system;
Ultrasound can be sent in particular directions very easily. So, for example, in corridors where a directional beam is sent, it has a shape that fills the corridor very well and spreads very little sideways. “This is desirable because we can create a zone within the corridor and a zone within the room. So it’s the directionality that can be controlled very easily,” Olsen explained, “We don’t have to transmit with such high power since we can focus the energy.”
Performance is more efficient. Increasing the update rate from 30 seconds to one second. Therefore, the latency and the responsiveness of the system become much better, but at the same time, it effectively doubles battery life.
An additional boost in efficiency comes from the very low amount of background noise generally found in rooms occupied by people. This relatively low background noise is also relatively low in the ultrasound range. This means that very little signal has to be sent to get above the noise level.
This background noise advantage contrasts with radio frequency in the 2.4 GHz band, which is very crowded with signal, forcing the use of higher-powered transmissions.
Infrared also has background noise issues. Anything that is hot emits infrared, especially lights, screens, and ovens, but also windows. Incoming sunlight is also problematic in that it actually contains a good deal of infrared.
As more devices go wireless and are run by batteries, ultrasound RTLS may find a growing presence in increasingly cost-conscious hospitals.
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