Direction finding signage system using RFID for healthcare applications

In this paper, we develop a direction signage system that helps a patient to navigate within a health care center effectively without any wait time hassles. This wireless system identifies any patient with a RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag along the hallways and guides them towards their preferred destination. The patient scans a tag with a reader and expresses a destination of interest to the information desk. This information is communicated to the central station, which in turn computes the shortest path to the destination and sends the direction to the display device associated with the reader that scanned the tag. In addition to providing directions, it also performs tracking and monitoring of patients as they navigate. The system evaluation concludes that it is a cost-effective, robust, scalable and easy-to-integrate solution resulting in reduced wait-time for the patients.