The referred source claims that the ID card for the school's students combines radio frequency identification (RFID) and GPS technologies. There are currently no known consumer GPS receivers (fitting on a chip/ID card) that can receive a remote signal and respond with its position (transmitting location) to an outside receiver. The market available RFID GPS integrated hybrids work for asset management and logistics.
GPS has also been integrated into RFID readers, in some cases, to provide information regarding where a tag has been interrogated. Ameya Logistics, for example, outfitted mobile cranes—known as reach stackers—with a device from C&B Electronics that incorporates an RFID reader, a GPS unit and a GPRS radio. This enables the company to know the exact location where a container was placed within a very large yard.
There are RFID chip ID cards available in the market based on RFID tags. RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification, and it provides identifying information on a tag that may both receive and transmit information at radio frequencies.
There are three types of RFID tags: active tags, which contain a battery and are constantly transmitting some sort of data such as vital signs, passive tags, which require external source such as a scanner to create a signal in a device without battery, and then battery assisted passive, which function as something of a hybrid of the two in that an external source is required to activate the battery functions.
RFID is terrestrial-based and also consists of two components: the RFID tag and the RFID reader. The reader can only read the tags when they are in close proximity, usually within a few feet or yards. Once the reader reads the tag, it sends the information to a database.
The process of tracking by a combination of RFID and GPS technologies mentioned here and here can be explained as follows:
- Buses or schools are equipped with RFID/GPS Integrated Special Readers.
- In case of buses, once routes are mapped individual children details are added to each route under Drop & Pick up points and there could be multiple Pick Up & Drop at the same Route points.
- When students board or alight the buses, their ID cards will be read by the GPS card readers installed on the school bus doors and on entrance to the school. Alerts are sent to the school’s GPS server that automatically sends an update to parents as SMS.
- SMS alerts are set up using the database system identifying each child's attendance, including Date & Time for Record on boarding the bus, entrance and these alerts are linked to an emergency-SOS feature and to school attendance. So if the bus arrival or departure is delayed, the child should not be marked late when compared with the system.
- The parents or the guardians of the children are alerted on arrival at school and on return. In case of delay at any point, subsequent pick up/drop contacts are alerted along with a alert to the administration and records are saved in the system.
- The school administration can also track the real-time and historical location of the bus on a detailed map and get over-speeding alerts.
Global positioning system (GPS) uses radio waves to transmit data using the global positioning system of 24 satellites. Radio waves sent out from this system of satellites transmit their time and orbital data to receivers down on Earth. Using the data from multiple satellites, receivers can then triangulate their position relative to the satellites, and thus on the Earth's surface. Older GPS receivers have been no smaller than two D-cell batteries and newer models smaller than a dime are present in the market.
GPS is satellite-based and consists of two components: The network of satellites circling the Earth and the GPS receiver. The GPS receiver has its own onboard computing capabilities used to receive signals from the satellites and determine its own location based on those signals; it then relays that information to the navigator. GPS receivers must have an antenna or be exposed to the sky in order to receive signals from multiple satellites. The problem with GPS is that attaching a bulky receiver that's capable of transmitting its location would be cost prohibitive.
Per Lori Bowen Ayre in 2013,
Here are cell phones and smartphones which use another form of radio wave technology.
3G (and 4G) are marketing-speak for the different telecommunications networks. These
networks can carry both data and voice signals over radio wave signals. Your cell phone communicates with the nearest cell tower that matches the telecommunications network of
your provider. Because you are personally linked to your cell phone which is communicating
with cell towers, your cell phone is essentially locating you personally.
If your phone is equipped with a GIS receiver, you are now trackable to within a few feet. Remember the job of the GIS receiver is to pinpoint its location, via satellite, at all times. So if you keep your GIS app running, that information is in your smartphone. And this is where it gets interesting. If you add Internet access to your smartphone, you’ve added
the ability to communicate all these disparate pieces of data about you and your location.
Security concerns of using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in passports are discussed here and Mike Rothman also states "But I'm not aware of RFID implants that have GPS tracking capabilities, so it's not clear that this approach would meet such requirements - unless these "dangerous areas" have RFID readers every 30 feet or so."
