IoT-based child tracking using RFID and GPS

Abstract

With growing concerns about their children’s safety and security, parents have shown an increasing interest in creating a dependable system that allows them to track and monitor their children in outdoor environments. The number of children who have gone missing, particularly in public areas, has risen, making it even more necessary to develop efficient solutions. This study focused on designing and implementing an affordable Internet of Things-based system that enables parents to track their children’s movement while they are in outdoor environments. The system described in this study relies on the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) readers installed in multiple locations to detect the presence of a child within a designated area of interest. To connect parents with this system, an Android smartphone application was developed and connected to the Thinger.io platform. The application displays the child’s location on a map using global positioning system technology and sends an alert message through the global system for mobile networks via 3G as soon as the RFID reader detects the child’s mobile tag. The system was tested within the designated area of interest to evaluate its performance. The results revealed that the RFID reader was able to detect the child’s movement within a range of approximately 4.5 meters from each RFID device and 9 meters between two RFID devices. Furthermore, the system was able to accurately determine the child’s real-time geolocation, both with and without Internet access. The system was also found to be lightweight and cost effective.

KEYWORDS:

• IoT
• GPS
• GSM
• outdoor environment
• RFID
• tracking

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the staff of the Department of Computer Engineering Techniques and Medical Instrumentation Engineering Techniques, Electrical Engineering Technical College, Middle Technical University, for their support during this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nadia Ahmed

Nadia Ahmed received her B.Sc.in Computer Engineering Techniques from Middle Technical University, Electrical Engineering Technical college – Baghdad-Iraq. She is with the Department of Computer Engineering Techniques, Electrical Engineering Technical College, Middle Technical University, Baghdad – Iraq. She received an M.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering Techniques from Electrical Engineering Technical College, Baghdad – Iraq, in 2022. Her research interests include tracking systems, Indoor localization based on WSN and neural networks, monitoring systems, and GPS and RFID applications.

Sadik Kamel Gharghan

Sadik Kamel Gharghan received the B.Sc. degree in electrical and electronics engineering and the M.Sc. degree in communication engineering from the University of Technology, Iraq, in 1990 and 2005, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in communication engineering from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Malaysia, in 2016. He is currently with the Department of Medical Instrumentation Techniques Engineering, Electrical Engineering Technical College, Middle Technical University, Baghdad, Iraq, as a Professor. His research interests include energy-efficient wireless sensor networks, biomedical sensors, microcontroller applications, WSN localization based on artificial intelligence techniques and optimization algorithms, indoor and outdoor path loss modeling, harvesting technique, wireless power transfer, jamming on direct sequence spread spectrums, and drone in medical applications.

Ammar Hussein Mutlag

Ammar Hussein Mutlag received the B.Sc. degree in control and computer engineering and the M.Sc. degree in control and computer engineering from the University of Technology, Iraq, in 2000 and 2005, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in control and computer engineering from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Malaysia, in 2016. He is currently the Vice Dean of scientific and students affairs with the Electrical Engineering Technical College, Middle Technical University, Baghdad, Iraq, as an Assistant Professor. His research interests include intelligent controllers, microcontroller applications, developed optimization algorithms, intelligent controllers-based authentication, and intelligent decision-support systems.