An inside look at wireless location services

A wireless location service at a Harrisburg, Pa., hospital has finally solved a problem that you never see addressed on “Gray’s Anatomy” or “ER”: Where to find a wheelchair in a sprawling 546-bed hospital.

The basic wireless technology that’s been used for real-time location services (RTLS) in outdoor dockyards, container freight yards, and railways is moving indoors. Yankee Group last year estimated the 2005 global market for all types of real-time location systems to be about $20 million, but skyrocketing to $1.6 billion in 2010.

A group of wireless vendors, using a mix of proprietary and standards-based radio gear, and a growing array of software application companies, now offer enterprise users the chance to layer on a network of wireless tags and access points to identify, track and locate both things and people. Harrisburg Hospital is doing both.