Localisation of Forgotten Items using RFID Technology

The frequency with which items are misplacedincreases with age, leading to increased frustration and anxietyespecially for those who develop cognitive impairments such asdementia. Providing ICT support to assist with relocating itemscan significantly contribute to sustain independent living. In thispaper we present a method for locating RFID tagged itemsthroughout a home environment. Specifically, items are locatedby comparing and analysing signal strength, received fromtagged items, with that received from a number of fixed locationreference tags. This paper presents experiments which have beenperformed within a typical living environment usinghomogeneous and practical placement of reference tags. This isperformed to consider the feasibility of RFID positioning in suchenvironments. Results obtained indicate that the approachprovides acceptable location estimation in pervasiveenvironments with sparsely placed reference tags, however,further investigation is required to accurately quantify its value.