An RFID-based pilgrim identification system (a pilot study)

Every year Muslims from all over the world gather in the Holy areas for Hajj. With the increased number of pilgrims every year (over 2.5 million pilgrims currently), the problems and difficulties facing the pilgrims and the Hajj authorities have also been on the rise - especially in crowd control and the prevention of accidents. A significant number of pilgrims die due to both accidents and natural causes, and a large number get lost in this extremely crowded gathering. The authorities are faced with the problem of identifying the dead and injured pilgrims as well as helping those who get lost during the Hajj. In this paper, a solution based on RFID technology to help the Hajj authorities in the identification of pilgrims is developed. A pilot study is performed on 1000 pilgrims from Ivory Coast to prove the concept and get feedback on the performance.