﻿ ProxiTrak Computer-aided design (CAD) FAQ's
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What exactly is ProxiTrak© ?

ProxiTrak is a industrial-level asset location, surveillance and monitoring software suite providing full creative control by allowing you to create your virtual RFID tracking infrastructure through Computer Aided Design (CAD). This CAD-based globalized visual representation of your RFID tracking domain presents true real-time tag, data, events, actions and transitions through the intranet/internet that is not point-in-time discovery (PITD).

2. What is ProxiTrak© broad general terms?

The present software system is a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Heterogeneous System Architecture that encompasses computer-aded design functionality monitoring and providing RFID tag data in real-time through web-based systems. In particular, the RFID software system allows any end-user to import any valid graphical diagrammatic representation file and draw computer assisted zone overlays.

The graphical design allows the assignment of an RFID antenna that creates an associative reference enabling real-time assets tracking (not point-in-time) of on a web-based distributed system or website. The RFID software system associates specific RFID reader events, objects and tag streams with corresponding graphical representation of an area zones. The system also autonomously interpolates the tag associations from graphic computer assisted generated zones to display and stores each movement (for e.g., tag moved from Office 1 to Office 2 at Date/Time and was last seen at Date/Time) in a database that provides visual trend analysis and historical information about all movements that are drawn graphically to the diagrammatic graphical representation element.

3. What need does ProxiTrak© fill?

The industry needs to overcome the huge hurdle it encounters when changes occur in their business environment or process afftects their RFID infrastructure. These changes result in potentially significant costs. There is a real need for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tracking/monitoring software systems that allow users to create, visualize, and modify their RFID infrastructure concepts faster.

In effect, to efficiently create a tracking/ monitoring area by drawing zones (computer assisted) computationally on a imported graphical diagrammatic representation as graphic file, configure it quickly it against their business models and strategic goals for tracking and monitoring assets and immediately have autonomous real-time visual information of asset movements. Furthermore, it would also be desirable to be able to ascertain asset movement and location quickly - through visual acuity that would augment any grid reporting of tag/asset movement and data Therefore, there currently exists a need in the industry for an intuitive, near real-time animated, RFID tag tracking system providing a visual bird-eye animated view from a design-first output display of: current movements of assets, first/last seen dates of assets and a powerful image-based movement/path event-based scheme from a computer-assisted graphical drawing/design functionality.

4. Why use ProxiTrak© versus other "similar" RFID Platforms available?

The majority of RFID solutions on the market have been developed by hardware manufacturers merely as a vehicle to sell their particular hardware. Besides the fact that software development is generally not those manufacturers’ core competency domain, these solutions are typically limited to the products offered by each specific hardware vendor. This limitation is a very severe constraint to project performance, and represents a great risk to ever changing business models and strategic business goals that have requirements outside their specific paradigm.

It’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find a single RFID hardware/software/web combination that is the right solution for every aspect of a RFID business projects with fluid requirements, and more importantly, dynamic real estate —hence, the importance of providing an innovative software solution that is entirely real estate/floor plan-agnostic. In addition, tracking area-centric RFID software focuses on transitional tracking area and real estate, indoors or outdoors, that can easily be combined with a mix of technologies, in order to create an optimized solution. Many RFID software systems rely or are subordinate to middleware which have been morphed to emulate ERP system functionality resulting in increased difficulty of integrating proprietary owned software modules into existing back-end systems.

Over the last several years, significant developments and advances have occurred that produced an array of second generation RFID , tags and web-based frameworks with innovative, built-in features that in many cases supersede the functionality of current middleware vendors yet there is very little software solutions that take advantage of the evolution to provide mechanisms that process RFID data from the field independently based on business illustrations of assigned tracking areas on a graphic source such as floor plan or map that was created using computer-aided design with precise shape- building tools.

Many existing software solutions that boast web-based solutions model come with a plethora of shortcomings and disadvantages. However, one of the most important and relevant hindrance and shortcoming of RFID software solutions operating over a network is the ability to display and monitor tag movement in real-time over the web.

The model has no provisions to allow two-way communications for network platforms. ProxiTrak© provides functionality and mechanisms to push server-side RFID zone/tag data to all connected web-based clients as the RFID readers read/write, in real-time. This will result in asset movement monitoring in real-time.

5. How will ProxiTrak© streamline my Business Intelligence Strategy?

ProxiTrak© supersedes all known solutions by comparison simply because of autonomous nature of the distributed based real-time tracking and monitoring-centric navigation aid it presents. The software incorporate numerous features that allow you to transform RFID asset data into meaningful and useful information for business analysis purposes from your own design in real-time. It represents an electronic version of the traditional paper diagrammatic representation of any area. All computer assisted graphics representing RFID reader artifacts (for e.g., antennas, zones, containers) drawn can be linked autonomously to provide real-time visual aids of tracked assets.

ProxiTrak© will display tag data, location and movements in real-time globally from the grahpical representation’s zones only containing the associated antenna key values. This software platform provides the technology that allows you to create a single or several different diagrammatic representation of any area for zone identification and compose intercommunication between the graphical diagrammatic representation, RFID reader events, objects, tag streams and web-based presentation at the click of a mouse incorporating real-time graphics and animation systems over the network. The vast difference presents itself through the computer assisted graphical construction of the tracking area.

This occurs through the import of a base image which is a graphical depiction of an area’s physical representation. Subsequently, overlays and masks can be drawn on this diagrammatic representation of an area and the associations and relations to a RFID reader’s events or objects can be created. This functionality creates the ”handshake” between the reader’s events, objects and tag streams and the zones on the graphical display. The zones are associated with areas on the graphical representation by simply drawing (or dragging a dynamically movable circle, square or rectangle from the toolset) on the desired area of the imported graphical representation and providing your business labels. The system itself handles the remainder of the associations.

Get an overview of ProxiTrak and what it can do for you

If you have any further questions, comments, or concerns about ProxiTrak© or ProxiGroup RFID Solutions, please feel free to contact us .

ProxiGroup RFID Solutions