Bataan Death March Memorial Race uses RFID technology to provide real-time location information
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In the Bataan Death March Memorial Run held at the White Sands Missile Base in the Desert of New Mexico a few weeks ago, the organizers used RFID technology to track the route and speed of the participants. In this scheme, passive UHF RFID tags are attached to the bibs of the contestants, and RFID readers are installed in several key positions. Innovative Timing Systems (ITS) provides a Jaguar game timing system to capture the position of the contestant, activate the camera and automatically take a photo of the contestant.
The Bataan Death Memorial Run was for the Bataan death march in World War II in 1942. At that time, the Japanese army forced 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners to walk 65 miles in the Philippine jungle, causing many casualties. The event is to commemorate World War II and raise funds for retired veterans. Participants usually include active military personnel, veterans, athletes and death march survivors from all over the world. The total length of the event is 26.2 miles and includes a 400-foot vertical climb.
(A set of overhead RFID readers are installed on the starting line to read the RFID tag ID worn by the contestants)
The game took about 12 hours. At the starting line, each contestant needs to shake hands with the survivors first. This process takes about one and a half hours.
This year’s competition attracted 6,616 participants. Erin Dorrance, head of public affairs at the Baisha Missile Range, said that the competition started at 6:30 in the morning and the last contestant arrived at the finish line at 10 in the evening. This year, the competition used ITS’s UHF RFID system for the first time. RFID readers were installed at the starting and finishing lines and three other locations. Multiple cameras are installed at these five reading points, and ITS also provides a cloud software to process the collected data and images.
David Rodriguez, Information Security Officer of the White Sands Missile Range, said: “Although we have used other RFID timing systems for many years, none of them can provide the real-time location of the participants. This is very important. The competition is conducted in the desert. Not only that, if someone Left behind or lost, they may also step on the unexploded ordnance.”
In this year’s event, each participant gets an attached ITS RFIDLabeled bib. The tag ID number is bound to the participant information. The tag can also be bound to the contestant’s social account.
RFID readers are installed at several key locations such as the starting line and the finishing line to read the tag of the contestant to determine where the contestant is located. When the contestant is within a certain range of the reader, the system will activate the camera at that location to take a picture of the contestant. The software uses its own algorithm to select the best photos of the contestants. Then, the system will send 5 photos of the contestants to the mailbox or share them on the contestants’ social networking sites.
ITS uses microwave transmitters to connect to the Internet. Company CEO Kurt Hansen said: “We create the signal tower ourselves.”
When the contestant reaches the finish line, the system will automatically calculate the finish time and push it to the contestant’s mobile phone and social media through the Your Race app of ITS. In this way, contestants can check the results of the competition. This is very useful, every contestant wants to know his own results.
In this year’s competition, about 30 tags were not read on the finish line. Some contestants’ bibs dropped in the middle of the race, and some did not finish the race.
Next year, Rodriguez plans to add readers to provide more accurate location data.
In 2006, ITS introduced an alternative to RFID timing solutions (usually using LF or HF passive RFID tags built into shoes, insole readers). Hansen said that he has a background in RF engineering, antenna design, software engineering, and circuit design, and he is an amateur radio enthusiast. He is interested in improving the weaknesses of the existing RFID system. Low-frequency or high-frequency passive RFID tags and readers cannot provide high reading rates, and insole readers may cause contestants to fall. He said: “I want to take an overhead reader.” Therefore, he built a laboratory in his basement and spent 2 years developing a UHF system to read the bib tag ID and identify its location. .
Hansen explained: “We use signal strength, triangulation and other mathematical methods to determine the location. Each timing point is installed with 32 antennas to support these complex algorithms.”
In terms of event management, Jaguar software can not only help organizers know who is left behind, but also know whether contestants have changed their game plan.
Hansen and Alien Technology collaborated to develop reader and tag technology. Hansen said that this is because Alien is very much in line with the company’s attitude to modify the design parameters of the reader. The Jaguar system uses an Alien reader with ITS firmware and an antenna customized for the competition environment. The company also uses self-made labels. In fact, ITS provides 14 different tags, each with unique performance attributes, suitable for different events.
Due to the need to interact with each antenna port, resulting in delays, the reading rate of the existing system cannot reach 98%. Hansen said ITS will improve this.
The ITS system can also provide real-time viewing of game results and images through the broadcast system. In the past year, Interbike and other events have used this technology.
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