Left: Dr Andreas Brielmaier, of Siemens, with Ralf Schwirzheim of Syntron demonstrating BabyGuard during Cebit 2007
Reward for silent ‘sentry’ guarding babies
A system that aims to prevent newborns from being swapped or kidnapped in hospitals, has received the RFID Award in the German Innovations Prize 2007, granted by Initiative Mittelstand, an association for small and medium businesses.
The winner, BabyGuard WLAN Video, is the only baby protection system to be given an industry award in Germany.
Without using microwaves, but using harmless radio frequencies to detect newborn babes and their mothers, transmission works with three encryption levels: WEP, WPA and WPA-2, with real time video streaming to mobile devices, such as a PDA and laptop, via WLAN. When connected, whichever the mobile device, it can also control camera rotation and zoom. The real time videos are seen on the mobile with a slight delay of 0.5 seconds. Signals on similar, or even the same, frequencies do not jam the connection. When launched at the computer fair CeBIT 2007, the system performed without quality loss, despite having about 240 other ‘hot spots’ nearby.
BabyGuard WLAN Video was developed by the Hanover-based firm Syntron, which specialises in the integration of security systems, in collaboration with Munich-based Siemens Enterprise Communications.
Further details: www.syntrongmbh.de
This article was published on 05/01/2007
