The Florida-based ''Wannado City'' indoor role-playing theme park for children is increasing safety and security throughout its 140,000 square foot facility, using SafeTzone''s RFID wristband-based Real-Time Locating System.

     The SafeTzone technology, which combines passive and active RFID tags in wristbands and RFID readers, allows parents and other members of a group to locate their family and friends at any time while inside the facility. 116.30.147.133 This article is copyright 2004 UsingRFID.com.

     Wannado City, which opened in August 2004 at the Sawgrass Mills Mall in Sunrise, Florida, was designed to inspire children aged 4 to 11 to explore a world where they become doctors, dentists, fire-fighters, archaeologists, actors, TV news reporters, chefs, judges, airplane pilots and a host of other professions. The theme park has a small-scale courtroom, circus, TV studio, police station, bank, dance club, hospital, and even an airplane with a realistic flight simulator.

How it works
     Included in the general admission fee each visitor is given a WannaFinder plastic wristband which is a hybrid wireless bracelet combining a Texas Instruments 23mm passive, low frequency transponder and an RF Code Mantis series active RFID tag.

     The WannaFinder wristband communicates information, including the wearer''s location, to a series of RFID readers, making the information accessible through WannaFinder touch screen kiosks throughout the park. RF Code''s TAVIS data management software collects and consolidates data from the active RFID tags, while SafeTzone''s Real-Time Location Module makes associations between the passive and active data to identify and locate each member of each group.

Locator kiosks
     Groups can easily and securely access the real-time location of their members, on a map of the park, at any time of day in English or Spanish simply by scanning their WannaFinder wristbands at any kiosk. While the active tag communicates a person''s location, the passive RFID tag automatically identifies visitors as they approach the touch screen kiosks and scan their wristbands, linking them to on-screen icons marking the individual location of any of their companions within the park.

     Wannado Entertainment, which plans to open new ''theme cities'' in the top ten US markets over the next few years, is the most recent organisation to incorporate SafeTzone''s Location Services package into an entertainment park. Other deployments of the SafeTzone solution so far include Paramount''s Great America (Santa Clara, CA), Wild Rivers Water Park (Irvine, CA), Dollywood''s Splash Country (Pigeon Forge, TN), Wet ''n Wild (Las Vegas, NV) and the soon to be opened Steamboat Springs Ski Resort (Steamboat Springs, CO).

 

 

 

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