Project Description
A senior design project comprising of a short-range tracking system (up to 1 mile) that can be used as an added safety measure to prevent children that require around the clock supervision from wandering off and possibly getting lost when left unsupervised. The system consists of: • A GPS-enabled device light enough to be carried by a child. • A web application hosted in Google App Engine that can be accessed from any internet-enabled device and offers a map to track the GPS-device. • An RFID system to act as an alarm system when the GPS-device leaves the designated area. • A base station that handles the communication between all the components. The system can be used with or without the RFID component with small modifications.
With RFID
The GPS-device contains an RFID tag that can be read using an RFID reader when the device is close enough to the reader. When this happens, the RFID system reads the unique tag ID number associated with the GPS-device and then sends this information to the base station. The base station then alerts the web application and sends it the ID number which is used to identify the person wearing the GPS-device. A text message is then sent to the emergency number that is associated with that person.
Overall System
Without RFID
The GPS-device is modified to create a geo-fence based on the perimeter the user wants to monitor. The geo-fence is a rectangle created using the NW-most point and the SE-most point of the perimeter. The microcontroller on the GPS-device compares its current location against the geo-fence coordinates and, if found to be outside, alerts the base station sending it its ID number and coordinates. The base station in turn alerts the web application and sends it the unique ID number used to identify the person wearing the GPS-device. A text message is then sent to the emergency number that is associated with that person.
