Providing group tour guide by RFIDs and wireless sensor networks

This paper proposes a new application framework for group tour guiding services based on RFIDs and wireless sensor networks. We consider a sensing field mixed with multiple independent tourist groups, each with a leader and several members. Members of a group will follow the moving path of their leader, but may occasionally roam around randomly on their own interests. Sensor nodes have to track leaders\´ locations and maintain guiding paths from members to leaders. A member may inquire where his/her leader is, and a leader may "recall" his/her members. We propose a feasible solution to such an application by using existing technologies and off-the-shelf components. A group guiding protocol is presented. The design enables reliable group guiding at low cost and low traffic load. Our prototyping system is reported and system performance is discussed.