F.A.Q.
Frequent Asked Questions
General
What makes WISER's tracking and location system different from other tracking systems?
For a more in-depth exploration and comprehensive comparisons between various asset tracking technologies, refer to WISER’s Comprehensive Guide to Asset Tracking.
What kinds of assets can WISER’s system track?
Our micro-location system excels at locating and tracking almost any type of material asset, ranging from crates, pallets, bins, and shipping containers to forklifts, hand-trucks, individual tools, robots, manufactured parts, hard-hats, security badges, electronic devices, and more.
Setting up our mesh antenna nodes is a straightforward process. Once in place, simply attach a WISER Tracker Tag to the asset you wish to locate. For real-world examples of the system in action, check out WISER’s current Case Studies and Blog to witness the seamless tracking of diverse assets.
How many assets can I track?
Effortlessly monitor a multitude of assets with WISER’s flexible tracking capabilities with either our ATLAS or Locator systems, tailored to accommodate your specific tracking needs. Our systems seamlessly operate across various shapes, sizes, and installations, whether indoors or outdoors. The versatility of programmable ping rates and wired options eliminates any theoretical constraints on the number of assets WISER can effectively track.
How do people use the WISER system?
Customers primarily us the WISER system to streamline operations, save time, and cut costs related to misplaced assets or personnel. Our versatile solution is integral to diverse applications such as inventory management systems, process optimization (including work in progress tracking), logistics, supply chain management, and healthcare. Witness the real-world impact of WISER’s Locator through our latest Case Studies for illuminating examples and insights into its multifaceted functionalities. Elevate efficiency, reduce expenses, and enhance safety with WISER’s innovative Locator technology.
How accurate is WISER’s asset tracking systems?
While wireless RF systems may encounter accuracy challenges in cluttered or interference-prone environments, WISER’s asset tracking Real-Time Location System (RTLS) is engineered to overcome these obstacles. Specifically designed to tackle the multi-path propagation challenges posed by heavy clutter, reflective metal, or wireless interference, WISER’s mesh solution excels in tracking tagged assets with submeter accuracy, with inch-level precision in most cases, ensuring reliable and precise asset tracking even in challenging environments.
How large are your tracking devices?
All of WISER’s devices are small and lightweight. Antenna nodes are approximately 6″ x 2″ x 1″ and tracker tags are 1″ x 1.5″ in size. A system to cover 40,000 square feet can easily fit in a backpack, weighing only a few pounds.
Can you track outdoors?
Yes. WISER’s system requires a wireless mesh to be established for any tracking setting, but this mesh can be created outside as well as inside.
Can you locate assets through partitions and walls?
WISER’s system allows non-line-of-sight locating and tracking through most interior walls and partitions. Tracking range depends on what the walls are made of, their thickness, and other environmental factors. For best results, we typically arrange antennas to track on each side of concrete or metal interior walls.
What infrastructure do I need to install WISER’s system?
WISER tracking arenas can be installed quickly with minimal infrastructure. WISER’s system tracks and locates without reliance on WiFi, Cellular, or other wireless networks. Tracking antennas can be powered via wall outlets, USB batteries, or Power over Ethernet (PoE). Large-scale installations typically use Ethernet to connect antennas. Additional infrastructure like WiFi is only necessary for customers who transmit tracking data to offsite locations, such as to an offsite manager’s computer.
How many antenna nodes do I need for my facility?
The WISER mesh requires a minimum of 4 antennas, placed every 5,000 – 10,000 square feet depending on building construction and materials, clutter, and RF reflections. The size, shape, materials, and complexity of your site will determine this number. For example, tracking in a challenging, reflective environment typically requires antenna placement every 5,000 square feet for accuracy within one meter. Open environments like clear, outdoor settings can allow one-foot precision with antennas spread as far as every 40,000 square feet.
How long will batteries last?
WISER tags designed for extended lifespans and convenient battery changes. Our tags are equipped with off-the-shelf coin cell batteries, known to last for years, ensuring prolonged functionality. The longevity of the batteries is influenced by the tag’s ping rates and movement frequency.
If my product is already labeled with a bar code, QC codes, RFID or NFC tags. Can I keep my current labels to use with WISER’s system?
Yes. The WISER system does not interfere with passive RFID or barcodes and can be used in conjunction with these systems.
This could include actively tracking an object after it crosses a scanning portal, or temporarily associating passive identifiers with active ones. For example, many manufacturers scan barcoded products as they are put into bins, tubs, or buggies, or loaded onto pallets and lift trucks equipped with a WISER tag. WISER’s system associates each scanned item with its conveyor vehicle, device, or person. Each conveyor and its itemized contents are then located and tracked as they move throughout the facility.
What is UWB?
UWB is a radio communications technology similar to WiFi and Bluetooth in many ways. UWB’s unique characteristics enable precise timing and location, making it an ideal technology for RTLS and similar location-based solutions.
Where are you located?
We are headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.
What certifications do you have?
WISER’s solutions are FCC, CE and IC (Industry Canada) certified.
What industries use asset tracking?
You can find instances of asset tracking at work across nearly every industry today. Some industries use their own terminology to describe their tracking systems, but you can find clear examples of asset tracking at work across retail, shipping and logistics, transit, manufacturing, warehousing, healthcare, energy, construction, and education.
What kinds of assets can I track?
Asset tracking—as opposed to digital asset management—accounts for physical objects of almost any variety. Asset tracking systems frequently account for work-in-progress or work order tracking in a manufacturing facility, goods in inventory, vehicles, shipping containers, calibrated tools, electronics, medical equipment, pharmaceutical products, retail goods, and dozens of other asset categories.
Some asset tracking systems will be better suited for one type of asset over another. For instance, passive RFID tags can be extremely small, making them optimal for tracking a variety of smaller objects. However, passive RFID tags are not always reliable for tracking metal objects or items with high water content. In these cases, barcodes might be a better option. Neither barcodes nor passive RFID gives real-time tracking, so high-value assets that move frequently or in unpredictable ways might be more effectively tracked with a real-time location system (RTLS).
Are legacy technologies like barcodes and RFID still worth using?
Yes. While newer technologies expand the scope of asset tracking significantly, barcodes and RFID systems are still the primary asset tracking solutions in use today. Their scalability and wide adoption alone make them invaluable.
Barcodes have proven their value in virtually every industry thanks to their small size and the low cost per individual barcode. Also, new innovations in barcode technology continue to make scanning barcodes simpler and more autonomous, which lowers the need for manual scanning—one of the biggest usage challenges with barcode systems.
RFID is similarly useful. Since passive RFID does not require batteries or external power, passive RFID tags can be some of the smallest, lightest tracking tags available today. RFID also offers more hands-off options than barcodes while providing similar identification / detection systems.
While it is often useful to supplement barcodes and RFID with real-time asset tracking technologies, these two staples of the asset tracking ecosystem are unlikely to lose their value in the near future.
What are the newest tech developments in asset tracking?
Nearly every aspect of asset tracking has evolved in the last few years. For example, asset tracking software has progressed significantly, with new systems to categorize, identify, and account for various assets at the press of a button—as well as to protect and appropriately share key data. Advances in computer vision and invisible barcodes are also making asset-tracking more feasible, robust, scalable, and cost-effective.
Most of the latest developments in asset tracking center on RTLS. The rise of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), GPS, narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) and other location-based tracking solutions has expanded asset tracking drastically in the last decade alone. But, the most recent advances in RTLS is the use of ultra-wide band (UWB), in particular when it’s used in heavy metal or highly reflective environments.
Can I develop my own asset tracking system?
Well, in theory, yes. Many organizations have created their own basic asset tracking systems using pen-and-paper logs or spreadsheets. Because such systems are clumsy and prone to human error, it’s generally worth adopting a more sophisticated approach.
Developing a more complex asset tracking system from scratch can be extremely difficult and is often less effective than adopting or adapting tried-and-true systems based on UWB, BLE, RFID, barcodes, or other validated technologies. The end users of existing asset tracking systems are often directly involved in customizing how a system works, though. This customization could include identifying what sorts of alerts or notifications to deliver, what asset metadata to associate with each item, and other logistical elements of the system.
How do I determine the right kind of asset tracking system for my business?
A few key questions can guide you to select the right kind of asset tracking solution for you and your organization:
How many assets do I need to track?
How valuable are each of those assets?
What will it cost me—or what risks will I face—if I do lose any of those assets?
How much does my current inventory or accountability process cost me in time and money?
How much do I stand to gain or save by adopting a new system?
What other problems am I looking to solve via asset tracking?
If, as an example, you run a factory that frequently loses assets like printed textiles, but the cost to equip each item with a tracking device is greater than the cost to replace the lost item, your best course of action is likely changing existing work processes rather than adding tracking devices to every low-dollar item. If, on the other hand, you frequently misplace valuable mobile assets like workstations on wheels (WOWs), implementing RTLS might save you a significant amount of effort and cash.
How do I select the right asset tracking vendor / solutions provider?
The asset tracking industry has a history of under-delivering on big promises, so choosing the right system—and system provider—is critical.
Because of past system failures, the most important factor might simply be seeing the system you want in action, seeing it work as promised. It’s not always possible for vendors to show the scale you’re considering, but a good asset tracking solution should always be demonstrable. Also, asking for system demonstrations in real-world work environments will quickly indicate whether the system you’re considering can perform in your own setting.
As with any technology, you’ll also need to find out where a solutions provider operates geographically, what installation and training support they provide, what ongoing or integration support is available, pricing information, and the general track record the company has. The thing to note is that none of these vendor-vetting metrics will matter if the system in question fails to operate as advertised.
How can I be sure an asset tracking system is scalable for my use case?
Scalability is a top challenge for nearly any process-improvement system, and asset tracking is no different. Assuming you’ve already vetted your asset tracking system vendor adequately, the three biggest obstacles to scalability tend to be 1) technological limitations, 2) cost, and 3) labor. The best way to determine if your asset tracking project is scalable is to map out how these obstacles intersect in the case of your own asset tracking project.
Here are a few examples:
Using passive RFID to track 5000 hand tools that move frequently through a factory: It’s technologically very doable, and the cost to put passive RFID on individual tools is typically reasonable. The expense to implement many RFID portals (doorway readers) can be significant, however, especially if the factory in question has an open layout not suited to choke-point readers for all needed areas.
Completing the scenario above using handheld RFID readers instead of scanning portals: The relatively low cost for handheld readers would be much more affordable upfront, but this would add extensive labor for manual scans.
Tracking 1000 healthcare workers or patients with GPS: The cost for wearable GPS trackers is quite low now, and the labor involved to manage these devices would also be low even if they were regularly cycled in and out for new workers or patients. Operating GPS reliably indoors, however, isn’t technologically feasible, so another technology like UWB would be needed for this case.
Tracking the real-time locations of 10,000 shipping containers using GPS: The technology is there, and the value of shipping containers should be more than worth the cost to affix a tracking device. The problem is that GPS consumes a lot of power, so recharging or replacing batteries for this many GPS devices adds an immense amount of upkeep labor.
Tracking non-linear metal assemblies with UWB: Manual scans are a cumbersome way to monitor manufacturing processes that don’t follow a uniform, linear journey, so most work-in-progress (WIP) tracking requires a real-time system. Not all UWB solutions will work around metal-filled environments like factories, but the leading ones will. UWB is also ideal for this type of non-linear tracking, since it allows a high level of precision, showing where each item moves and how long it might stay in one place—effectually eliminating any manual labor needed to log steps in a non-uniform path to completion.
How often will I need to replace tracking stickers, barcodes, etc.?
Although every asset tracking system is different, most common tracking tags are designed to last the full lifecycle of an asset or even to be recycled afterward. Barcodes, RFID, and RTLS tags will typically work for many years. Powered assets will require battery changes or recharges on occasion, though.
How often will I get asset updates?
Frequency of asset updates depends on the technologies and systems in use. Point-of-scan systems like barcodes will generate updates each time an asset is individually scanned. RTLS can deliver continual updates, usually at a specified update rate (e.g. once per second, hour, or day, etc.).
What can I do if the asset I’m looking for doesn’t show up?
Most asset tracking systems will allow end users to retrieve an asset history of some kind. If an asset doesn’t show up in your system, this recorded history is often the best place to start looking.
Asset tracking systems dependent on manual scans—whether using choke point / portal scanners or handheld ones—could lose item visibility if a scan is missed. Looping back to the last recorded scan might indicate where an asset could be now, but it may be extremely difficult to locate small items, lookalike objects, or assets that move frequently.
Tracking systems that deliver actual location data, like RTLS, tend to make searching for missing things more straightforward, since it’s possible to navigate to a specific, known location where the asset tag last registered its location.
Privacy
WISER RRLT does not employ cameras, biometrics, facial recognition or personal cell phone tracking—things employees often consider intrusive. The system utilizes a segregated, on-site network of very low-power ultra-wideband (UWB) devices that can be focused to track only within designated workspaces.
The WISER system generates and distributes data using a segregated network of ultra-wideband (UWB) devices. Isolating location data in this way protects data from being scraped over a network. WISER hardware can also be isolated from sensitive company intranets. Furthermore, the WISER Locator does not require WiFi or other pre-existing wireless networks to operate. Not requiring company WiFi or cloud services to operate also helps keep this valuable personal data safe from hackers or other malicious actors. WISER solutions can operate in a secure cloud configuration or entirely on-premises, which adds another layer of control and security for end users.
WISER also lets end users control the size or shape of the area being tracked. This enables them to limit the scope of a tracking arena. Furthermore, users can draw digital zones in WISER’s Tag and Track software to mark virtual blind spots. These blind spots could be parking lots, break rooms, restrooms, or other areas with additional privacy concerns.
Unlike many other real-time location systems (RTLS), the WISER Locator gives the end user full ownership of all data generated. WISER does not monetize any customer-generated data or give data access to any third parties without specific permission from the customer. Distributed, site-based data ownership and control helps to keep data safe and prevent hacking or data breaches by malicious parties.
As a distributed, localized, edge solution, WISER wearable devices can be non-individualized to provide meta-data only. Or they can be individualized only in the event of pre-specified events such as a safety or perimeter violations. Devices are never tracked outside the pre-determined workspace footprint, and employees can leave them at work at the end of the day.
Tracking and locating personnel brings an added consideration to real-time location systems—protecting individual rights to privacy. Whether tracking field workers in hazardous locations, medical professionals in hospitals, or tour guides in sports stadiums, WISER’s industry-leading Redundant Radio Localization and Tracking (RRLT) better protects personal privacy in comparison with conventional methods.
WISER tracks personnel only using metadata like ID numbers for the tracker tag issued to them. These numbers can be changed at will—at the conclusion of an efficiency study or an emergency muster drill, for instance. WISER customers can reissue tags at any time as an additional measure of protection.
End-users have direct control over the unmasking of individual data, such as in the event of an emergency. As such, end users and their employees can determine how individual data may be used in compliance with workplace rules or federal regulations like HIPPA.
Unlike many other real-time location systems (RTLS), the WISER Locator gives the end user full ownership of all data generated. WISER does not monetize any customer-generated data or give data access to any third parties without specific permission from the customer. Distributed, site-based data ownership and control helps to keep data safe and prevent hacking or data breaches by malicious parties.
Does this system require access to employee smartphones?
No. Phones are not required to operate the system. End users can view location data on a smartphone, but WISER’s Locator doesn’t use phones to generate that data and the system does not give employers, or other cell phones, access to any data stored on phones.
How do you protect location data?
The WISER Locator uses a redundant, multi-layered approach to protect all location data. This includes encryption of data in transmission between antennas and transport layer security for WISER’s API. WISER’s broadcast signatures also resemble background noise, making them very difficult to identify or intercept in the first place. Furthermore, the system can operate either within or outside of company firewalls.
Will workers and employees know they are being tracked?
Yes. The WISER Locator only tracks individual WISER devices, which must be issued to each individual. These can be issued as a wearable, a name badge, or simply as a device to be pocketed or carried. This allows worker unions and company policy to direct what kinds of tracking are or are not allowed. This system does not use cameras, facial recognition, or other means of identification that can take place without individual consent.
What kinds of data does this system gather?
The WISER Locator generates only a few types of data: Location in inch-level coordinates, timestamp for each location point, and battery levels for individual tags. If end users add zones to their tracking arena, WISER’s Locator will also generate data points recording which tags appear in which zones and for how long.
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