The market for RFID-based real-time location systems will grow substantially in the next decade, provided development of the underlying technology keeps pace, according to analyst firm IDTechEx, based in the United Kingdom.
One area of the RTLS spectrum that could drive significant market growth is ultra-wide-band technology. RFID vendors are busy devoting resources to UWB offerings, according to IDTechEx Chairman Peter Harrop, who authored the industry update. UWB is a technology that can provide traceability accuracy as precise as centimeters, and cost restrictions that initially kept the technology stuck in the high-end market are beginning to fall, Harrop says, drawing increased interest to the technology.
In his analysis, though, Harrop warns, "Without new, affordable technologies to cover ranges from centimetres to kilometres and other parameters differing by many magnitudes, the predicted huge market for RTLS ... will not be created."
The report also notes growing recognition of the value of handheld readers — often as supplements to fixed reader infrastructures. And Harrop says the market for active RTLS tags will not disappear as the passive-tag market grows. He cites applications that involve writing data from sensors to a tag as an enduring market for active tags, which use battery power to stay awake.