Systems and methods for detecting activities

• US 8,217,759 B2
• Filed: 01/21/2009
• Issued: 07/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Consortium P Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Consortium P Incorporated
• Inventors: Tessier, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu, Shirley
• Application Number:
  US12/357,370
• Publication Number:
  US 20090184823A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,266 Days
• Field of Search: 340/10.1, 340/572.1, 340/573.1
• US Class Current: 340/10.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/09 for tracking people
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0081 Transmission between base stations
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02521 using a radio-map
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/16 using electromagnetic waves other than radio waves
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Exemplary embodiments provide systems and methods for detecting activities and determining information about the activities. Exemplary embodiments use one or more items of context information on one or more objects to detect an activity. Examples of context information include, but are not limited to, identities of objects, roles or activities associated with objects, locations/locales of objects, historical locations/locales of objects, associations between objects, duration of associations between objects, etc. Upon detecting an activity, exemplary embodiments also determine information about the detected activity.

Claims

1. A system for determining an activity involving at least one object at an indoor site, the system comprising:

a real-time bi-directional object identifier device linked with each of the at least one objects for providing data identifying the at least one object,

at least one fixed location identifier (FLI) providing data to determine a 3-D spatial location of the at least one object;

at least one network connected element (NCE) providing data to determine the 3-D spatial location of the at least one object;

at least one locale comprising spatial locations associated with a structural feature of the indoor site;

a topology module comprising spatial locations mapped to the structural features of the indoor site, whereby the locales are defined by their spatial locations and stored, 3-D spatial locations of the FLIs and the NCEs are stored, and false-association threshold times for locales and object-types are stored;

a location determining module (LDM) comprising an object location module (OLM) and an object association module (OAM), the LDM is configured to determine a location of the object from the data identifying the object, wherein the location of the object is a point in space defined by the 3-D spatial coordinates of the real-time bi-directional object identifier device;

the object location module (OLM) is configured to calculate a 3-D spatial location origin of a signal from the at least one real-time bi-directional object identifier device comprising;

known positions of the at least one FLI and the at least one NCE receiving the signal,

historical recorded positions of the object,

characteristics of the receivers receiving the signal,

strength of the received signal,

type of the signal, and

whether the signal was repeated;

the object association module (OAM) is configured to prevent false associations comprising an object type, a first locale (L1), a second locale (L2), a time spent in the first locale (tL1), and a time spent in the second locale (tL2), wherein if the tL1 is greater than or equal to a false association threshold time between L1 and L2 (tFALSE L1-L2) and the tL2 is less than the tFALSE L1-L2, association with L2 is prevented and only an association with L1 is made for the object having the specified object type, whereby a false association determination is prevented;

an association determining module configured to determine an association between the at least one object and at least one of a locale, a role, and 3-D location based on the current 3-D location of the at least one object and its time duration there;

an activity determining module comprising an activity detection sub-module and an activity information sub-module , the activity determining module configured to determine the activity involving the object based on the 3-D location of the object and activity information associated with predetermined activities;

the activity detection sub-module comprising a pattern recognition application, the activity detection sub-module configured to detect an activity using a current location and a current locale based on correspondences of mapped contextual information, providing the detected activity to the activity determining module

wherein the activity detection sub-module performs mappings of contextual information comprising

mapping activities with minimum durations,

mapping object identifiers with roles,

mapping object identifiers with identities,

mapping locales with activities,

mapping current locales with activities,

mapping a primary mean location with activities;

mapping a primary mean locale with activities;

mapping a primary mode location with activities;

mapping a primary mode locale with activities;

mapping roles with activities,

mapping identities with activities,

mapping associations with activities,

mapping association types with minimum durations,

mapping matched historical sets of locations with a set of current locations;

mapping matched historical sets of locales with a set of current locales; and

mapping combinations of current locale, role, identity, and association with activity,

the pattern recognition application is configured to match the set of current locations with the historical set of locations and to match the set of current locales with the historical set of locales;

the activity information determining sub-module comprising a mean/mode determiner, the activity information determining sub-module configured to determine items of information about an activity detected by the activity detection sub-module to provide to the activity determining module;

the mean/mode determiner configured to determine the arithmetic mean and the mode of 3-D spatial locations of the object and the mean and the mode of locales of the object based on the present and historic values, wherein the arithmetic mean equals a sum of the present values and the historic values divided by the number of values, and wherein the mode equals the value most frequently occurring of the present and historic values,

wherein the primary mean location is the arithmetic mean of 3-D spatial locations;

wherein the primary mean locale is a the arithmetic mean of locales;

wherein the primary mode location is the mode of 3-D spatial locations;

wherein the primary mode locale is a the mode of locales;

wherein the mean/mode determiner provides the primary mean location, the primary mean locale, the primary mode location, and the primary mode locale as items of information to the activity information sub-module;

wherein the object identifier broadcasts the signal from the at least one real-time bi-directional object identifier device to the at least one FLI and the at least one NCE;

the NCE sends data broadcast in the object identifier signal with a timestamp to the location determining module

the location determining module determines a current location of the object in relation to known structural features of the site

the location determining module determines a current locale associated with the current location of the object from the mappings in the topology module

the association determining module determines the association between the at least one object and at least one of a locale, a role, and 3-D location based on the current 3-D location of the at least one object and its time duration there; and

the activity determining module determines the activity involving the object based on the 3-D location of the object and activity information associated with predetermined activities.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the activity determining module displays records of the detected activities and information associated with the detected activities on a display device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the items of information comprise an identity of the object,

a role of the object, an association between the object and

a second object, or

a series of historical locations.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the location comprises at least one locale, the locale being any one of an area, site, location, point of interest, patient room, emergency room, operating room, intensive care room, quarantine room, laboratory, and equipment room, the locale comprising the spatial location defined within the stored topology of the site in which the activity involving the object occurs.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the real-time object identifier device comprises one or more of:

a transmitter configured to transmit a signal including the data identifying the object,

a receiver configured to receive a signal requesting the data identifying the object, and

a processor to control the transmitter and the receiver of the real-time object identifier device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the location determining module comprises:

a receiver to receive a signal from the real-time object identifier device providing the data identifying the object, and

a transmitter to transmit a request for data identifying the object.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a network, wherein the location determining module and the activity determining module are coupled to the network,

the network connected element including at least one signaling component capable of transmitting or receiving signals, wherein the network connected element is configured to receive the data identifying the object provided by the real-time object identifier device and transmit a signal containing the data to the location determining module.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a second real-time object identifier device linked with a locale for providing data identifying the locale, the location determining module using the data identifying the locale to determine a location of the locale.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the association determining module is configured to:

use the location of the object and the locale of the object to determine if the object is in proximity to the locale for a time period greater than or equal to a threshold time, wherein if the time period that the object is in proximity to the locale is greater than or equal to a locale threshold time, determine the association between the object and the locale.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one location is defined by a real-time object identifier device linked with the location by placement at that location in space.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the activity determining module determines an activity from a role transmitted from the real-time object identifier device, wherein the identity is unknown, whereby the object remains anonymous.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the historical set of locations corresponding to an historical activity are determined by recording consecutive locations of the object by the system while the object was previously performing the historical activity.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the activity detection sub-module is configured to:

determine a time duration for which the object is located at the location, and

detect the activity of the object only if the object is located at the location for at least a predetermined time duration corresponding to stored location-activity-time durations

whereby false activity determinations are prevented.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the activity detection sub-module is configured to:

receive a series of historical locations of the object, the series of historical locations corresponding to a historical activity involving the object,

compare the series of locations of the object with the series of historical locations of the object, and

detect that the object is involved in the historical activity if the series of current locations matches the series of historical locations.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the pattern recognition application comprises pattern recognition implemented by a Conformational Likeness algorithm operating on characters of names of locations and locales to determine the activity involving the object.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the

activity information determining sub-module transmits a first request to the LDM to track locations of objects involved in a detected activity at the detected activity'"'"'s start time and transmits a second request to the LDM to stop transmitting the object locations when the detected activity ends.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the activity detection sub-module further comprises an activity template whereby activities are matched with events and respective events are initiated upon positive matching.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the information associated with the activity of the object comprises a type of activity, a time of the activity, and a duration of the activity.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the activity determining module detects the activity based on at least one primary location of the object, the role of the object, and an association between the object role and the at least one primary location, wherein the activity is any one of

a surgical procedure activity comprising the roles of surgeon, patient, and nurse, and the primary location is an operating room;

a nurse rounds activity comprising the roles of nurse and a plurality of patients, and the primary location is a plurality of patient rooms;

a cleaning rounds activity comprising the role of janitor, and the primary location is a plurality of patient rooms;

an x-ray scanning activity comprising the roles of x-ray technician, patient, and x-ray machine, and the primary location is a patient room; and

a blood testing activity comprising the roles of phlebotomist and patient, and the primary location is a patient room.

20. A system for determining an activity involving at least one object, the system comprising:

a real-time object identifier bi-directional transceiver device linked with each of the at least one objects to provide data identifying the at least one object,

at least one fixed location identifier (FLI) providing data to determine a 3-D spatial location of the at least one object;

at least one network connected element (NCE) providing data to determine the 3-D spatial location of the at least one object;

at least one locale comprising spatial locations associated with a structural feature of the site

a topology module comprising spatial locations mapped to the structural features of the site, whereby the locales are defined by their spatial locations and stored, 3-D spatial locations of the FLIs and the NCEs are stored, and false-association threshold times for locales and object-types are stored;

a location determining module (LDM) comprising an object location module (OLM) and an object association module (OAM), the LDM is configured to determine a location of the object from the data identifying the object, wherein the location of the object is a point in space defined by the 3-D spatial coordinates of the real-time bi-directional object identifier device;

the object location module (OLM) is configured to calculate a 3-D spatial location origin of a signal from the at least one real-time bi-directional object identifier device comprising;

known positions of the at least one FLI and the at least one NCE receiving the signal,

historical recorded positions of the object,

characteristics of the receivers receiving the signal,

strength of the received signal,

type of the signal, and

whether the signal was repeated;

the object association module (OAM) is configured to prevent false associations comprising an object type, a first locale (L1), a second locale (L2), a time spent in the first locale (tL1), and a time spent in the second locale (tL2), wherein if the tL1 is greater than or equal to a false association threshold time between L1 and L2 (tFALSE L1-L2) and the tL2 is less than the tFALSE L1-L2, association with L2 is prevented and only an association with L1 is made for the object having the specified object type, whereby a false association determination is prevented;

an association determining module configured to determine an association between the at least one object and at least one of a locale, a role, and 3-D location based on the current 3-D location of the at least one object and its time duration there;

an activity determining module comprising an activity detection sub-module and an activity information sub-module , the activity determining module configured to determine the activity involving the object based on the 3-D location of the object and activity information associated with predetermined activities;

the activity detection sub-module comprising a pattern recognition application, the activity detection sub-module configured to detect an activity using a current location and a current locale based on correspondences of mapped contextual information, providing the detected activity to the activity determining module

wherein the activity detection sub-module performs mappings of contextual information comprising

mapping activities with minimum durations,

mapping object identifiers with roles,

mapping object identifiers with identities,

mapping locales with activities,

mapping current locales with activities,

mapping a primary mean location with activities;

mapping a primary mean locale with activities;

mapping a primary mode location with activities;

mapping a primary mode locale with activities;

mapping roles with activities,

mapping identities with activities,

mapping associations with activities,

mapping association types with minimum durations,

mapping matched historical sets of locations with a set of current locations;

mapping matched historical sets of locales with a set of current locales; and

mapping combinations of current locale, role, identity, and association with activity,

the pattern recognition application is configured to match the set of current locations with the historical set of locations and to match the set of current locales with the historical set of locales;

the activity information determining sub-module comprising a mean/mode determiner, the activity information determining sub-module configured to determine items of information about an activity detected by the activity detection sub-module to provide to the activity determining module;

the mean/mode determiner configured to determine the arithmetic mean and the mode of 3-D spatial locations of the object and the mean and the mode of locales of the object based on the present and historic values, wherein the arithmetic mean equals a sum of the present values and the historic values divided by the number of values, and wherein the mode equals the value most frequently occurring of the present and historic values,

wherein the primary mean location is the arithmetic mean of 3-D spatial locations;

wherein the primary mean locale is a the arithmetic mean of locales;

wherein the primary mode location is the mode of 3-D spatial locations;

wherein the primary mode locale is a the mode of locales;

wherein the mean/mode determiner provides the primary mean location, the primary mean locale, the primary mode location, and the primary mode locale as items of information to the activity information sub-module;

wherein the object identifier broadcasts the signal from the at least one real-time bi-directional object identifier device to the at least one FLI and the at least one NCE;

the NCE sends data broadcast in the object identifier signal with a timestamp to the location determining module

the location determining module determines a current location of the object in relation to known structural features of the site

the location determining module determines a current locale associated with the current location of the object from the mappings in the topology module

the association determining module determines the association between the at least one object and at least one of a locale, a role, and 3-D location based on the current 3-D location of the at least one object and its time duration there; and

the activity determining module determines the activity involving the object based on the 3-D location of the object and activity information associated with predetermined activities.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the items of information comprise an identity of the object,

a role of the object, an association between the object and

a second object, or

a series of historical locations.

22. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

a network, wherein the location determining module and the activity determining module are coupled to the network,

the network connected element including at least one signaling component capable of transmitting or receiving signals, wherein the network connected element is configured to receive the data identifying the object provided by the real-time object identifier device and transmit a signal containing the data to the location determining module.

23. The system of claim 20, wherein the pattern recognition application comprises pattern recognition implemented by a Conformational Likeness algorithm operating on characters of names of locations and locales to determine the activity involving the object.

24. The system of claim 20, wherein the historical set of locations corresponding to an historical activity are determined by recording consecutive locations of the object by the system while the object was previously performing the historical activity.

25. A system for determining an activity involving at least one object at an indoor site, the system comprising:

a plurality of real-time bi-directional object identifier devices for a plurality of objects, each real-time bi-directional object identifier device linked with an object in the plurality of objects to provide data identifying the object,

at least one fixed location identifier (FLI) providing data to determine a 3-D spatial location of the at least one object;

at least one network connected element (NCE) providing data to determine the 3-D spatial location of the at least one object;

at least one locale comprising spatial locations associated with a structural feature of the indoor site

a topology module comprising spatial locations mapped to the structural features of the indoor site, whereby the locales are defined by their spatial locations and stored, 3-D spatial locations of the FLIs and the NCEs are stored, and false-association threshold times for locales and object-types are stored;

a location determining module (LDM) comprising an object location module (OLM) and an object association module (OAM), the LDM is configured to determine a location of the object from the data identifying the object, wherein the location of the object is a point in space defined by the 3-D spatial coordinates of the real-time bi-directional object identifier device;

the object location module (OLM) is configured to calculate a 3-D spatial location origin of a signal from the at least one real-time bi-directional object identifier device comprising;

known positions of the at least one FLI and the at least one NCE receiving the signal,

historical recorded positions of the object,

characteristics of the receivers receiving the signal,

strength of the received signal,

type of the signal, and

whether the signal was repeated;

the object association module (OAM) is configured to prevent false associations comprising an object type, a first locale (L1), a second locale (L2), a time spent in the first locale (tL1), and a time spent in the second locale (tL2), wherein if the tL1 is greater than or equal to a false association threshold time between L1 and L2 (tFALSE L1-L2) and the tL2 is less than the tFALSE L1-L2, association with L2 is prevented and only an association with L1 is made for the object having the specified object type, whereby a false association determination is prevented;

an association determining module configured to determine an association between the at least one object and at least one of a locale, a role, and 3-D location based on the current 3-D location of the at least one object and its time duration there;

an activity determining module comprising an activity detection sub-module and an activity information sub-module , the activity determining module configured to determine the activity involving the object based on the 3-D location of the object and activity information associated with predetermined activities;

the activity detection sub-module comprising a pattern recognition application, the activity detection sub-module configured to detect an activity using a current location and a current locale based on correspondences of mapped contextual information, providing the detected activity to the activity determining module

wherein the activity detection sub-module performs mappings of contextual information comprising

mapping activities with minimum durations,

mapping object identifiers with roles,

mapping object identifiers with identities,

mapping locales with activities,

mapping current locales with activities,

mapping a primary mean location with activities;

mapping a primary mean locale with activities;

mapping a primary mode location with activities;

mapping a primary mode locale with activities;

mapping roles with activities,

mapping identities with activities,

mapping associations with activities,

mapping association types with minimum durations,

mapping matched historical sets of locations with a set of current locations;

mapping matched historical sets of locales with a set of current locales; and

mapping combinations of current locale, role, identity, and association with activity,

the pattern recognition application is configured to match the set of current locations with the historical set of locations and to match the set of current locales with the historical set of locales;

the activity information determining sub-module comprising a mean/mode determiner, the activity information determining sub-module configured to determine items of information about an activity detected by the activity detection sub-module to provide to the activity determining module;

the mean/mode determiner configured to determine the arithmetic mean and the mode of 3-D spatial locations of the object and the mean and the mode of locales of the object based on the present and historic values, wherein the arithmetic mean equals a sum of the present values and the historic values divided by the number of values, and wherein the mode equals the value most frequently occurring of the present and historic values,

wherein the primary mean location is the arithmetic mean of 3-D spatial locations;

wherein the primary mean locale is a the arithmetic mean of locales;

wherein the primary mode location is the mode of 3-D spatial locations;

wherein the primary mode locale is a the mode of locales;

wherein the mean/mode determiner provides the primary mean location, the primary mean locale, the primary mode location, and the primary mode locale as items of information to the activity information sub-module;

wherein the object identifier broadcasts the signal from the at least one real-time bi-directional object identifier device to the at least one FLI and the at least one NCE;

the NCE sends data broadcast in the object identifier signal with a timestamp to the location determining module

the location determining module determines a current location of the object in relation to known structural features of the site

the location determining module determines a current locale associated with the current location of the object from the mappings in the topology module

the association determining module determines the association between the at least one object and at least one of a locale, a role, and 3-D location based on the current 3-D location of the at least one object and its time duration there;

the activity determining module determines the activity involving the object based on the 3-D location of the object and activity information associated with predetermined activities; and

wherein the activity detection sub-module further comprises an activity template whereby activities are matched with events and respective events are initiated upon positive matching.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the activity determining module determines an activity from a role transmitted from the real-time object identifier device, wherein the identity is unknown, whereby the object remains anonymous.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the activity information determining sub-module transmits a first request to the LDM to track locations of objects involved in a detected activity at the detected activity'"'"'s start time and transmits a second request to the LDM to stop transmitting the object locations when the detected activity ends.

28. A method for determining an activity involving at least one object, the method comprising:

providing at least one real-time object identifier device linked with the at least one object for providing data identifying the object,

providing at least one fixed location identifier (FLI) providing data to determine a 3-D spatial location of the at least one object;

providing at least one network connected element (NCE) providing data to determine the 3-D spatial location of the at least one object;

at least one locale comprising spatial locations associated with a structural feature of the site

providing a topology module comprising spatial locations mapped to the structural features of the site, whereby the locales are defined by their spatial locations and stored, 3-D spatial locations of the FLIs and the NCEs are stored, and false-association threshold times for locales and object-types are stored;

providing a location determining module (LDM) comprising an object location module (OLM) and an object association module (OAM), the LDM is configured to determine a location of the object from the data identifying the object, wherein the location of the object is a point in space defined by the 3-D spatial coordinates of the real-time bi-directional object identifier device;

calculating, in the object location module (OLM), a 3-D spatial location origin of a signal from the at least one real-time bi-directional object identifier device comprising;

known positions of the at least one FLI and the at least one NCE receiving the signal,

historical recorded positions of the object,

characteristics of the receivers receiving the signal,

strength of the received signal,

type of the signal, and

whether the signal was repeated;

preventing, in the object association module (OAM), false associations comprising an object type, a first locale (L1), a second locale (L2), a time spent in the first locale (tL1), and a time spent in the second locale (tL2), wherein if the tL1 is greater than or equal to a false association threshold time between L1 and L2 (tFALSE L1-L2) and the tL2 is less than the tFALSE L1-L2, association with L2 is prevented and only an association with L1 is made for the object having the specified object type, whereby a false association determination is prevented;

determining, in an association determining module, an association between the at least one object and at least one of a locale, a role, and 3-D location based on the current 3-D location of the at least one object and its time duration there;

providing an activity determining module comprising an activity detection sub-module and an activity information sub-module;

determining, in the activity determining module, the activity involving the object based on the 3-D location of the object and activity information associated with predetermined activities;

providing in the activity detection sub-module comprising a pattern recognition application;

detecting, in the activity detection sub-module, an activity using a current location and a current locale based on correspondences of mapped contextual information, providing the detected activity to the activity determining module wherein the activity detection sub-module performs mappings of contextual information comprising

mapping activities with minimum durations,

mapping object identifiers with roles,

mapping object identifiers with identities,

mapping locales with activities,

mapping current locales with activities,

mapping a primary mean location with activities;

mapping a primary mean locale with activities;

mapping a primary mode location with activities;

mapping a primary mode locale with activities;

mapping roles with activities,

mapping identities with activities,

mapping associations with activities,

mapping association types with minimum durations,

mapping matched historical sets of locations with a set of current locations;

mapping matched historical sets of locales with a set of current locales; and

mapping combinations of current locale, role, identity, and association with activity,

matching, in the pattern recognition application, the set of current locations with the historical set of locations and matching the set of current locales with the historical set of locales;

providing, in the activity information determining sub-module, a mean/mode determiner;

determining, in the activity information determining sub-module, items of information about an activity detected by the activity detection sub-module to provide to the activity determining module;

determining, in the mean/mode determiner, the arithmetic mean and the mode of 3-D spatial locations of the object and the mean and the mode of locales of the object based on the present and historic values, wherein the arithmetic mean equals a sum of the present values and the historic values divided by the number of values, and wherein the mode equals the value most frequently occurring of the present and historic values,

wherein the primary mean location is the arithmetic mean of 3-D spatial locations;

wherein the primary mean locale is a the arithmetic mean of locales;

wherein the primary mode location is the mode of 3-D spatial locations;

wherein the primary mode locale is a the mode of locales;

wherein the mean/mode determiner provides the primary mean location, the primary mean locale, the primary mode location, and the primary mode locale as items of information to the activity information sub-module;

broadcasting, from the at least one real-time bi-directional object identifier device, to the at least one FLI and the at least one NCE;

sending, from the NCE, data broadcast in the object identifier signal with a timestamp to the location determining module

determining, in the location determining module, a current location of the object in relation to known structural features of the site

determining, in the location determining module, a current locale associated with the current location of the object from the mappings in the topology module

determining, in the association determining module, the association between the at least one object and at least one of a locale, a role, and 3-D location based on the current 3-D location of the at least one object and its time duration there; and

determining, in the activity determining module, the activity involving the object based on the 3-D location of the object and activity information associated with predetermined activities.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the location comprises at least one locale, the locale being any one of an area, site, location, point of interest, patient room, emergency room, operating room, intensive care room, quarantine room, laboratory, and equipment room, the locale comprising the spatial location defined within the stored topology of the site in which the activity involving the object occurs.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the activity determining module displays records of the detected activities and information associated with the detected activities on a display device.

31. The method of claim 28, wherein the items of information comprise an identity of the object,

a role of the object, an association between the object and

a second object, or

a series of historical locations.

32. The method of claim 28, wherein providing the real-time object identifier device further comprises:

transmitting a signal including the data identifying the object,

receiving a signal requesting the data identifying the object, and

controlling the transmitter and the receiver.

33. The method of claim 28, wherein determining the location of the object further comprises:

receiving a signal from the real-time object identifier device providing the data identifying the object, and

transmitting a request for data identifying the object.

34. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

providing a network, wherein the location determining module and the activity determining module are coupled to the network,

the network connected element including at least one signaling component capable of transmitting or receiving signals, wherein the network connected element is configured to receive the data identifying the object provided by the real-time object identifier device and transmit a signal containing the data to the location determining module.

35. The method of claim 28, wherein the association determining module is configured to:

use the location of the object and the locale of the object to determine if the object is in proximity to the locale for a time period greater than or equal to a threshold time, wherein if the time period that the object is in proximity to the locale is greater than or equal to a locale threshold time, determine the association between the object and the locale.

36. The method of claim 28, wherein the activity determining module determines an activity from a role transmitted from the real-time object identifier device, wherein the identity is unknown, whereby the object remains anonymous.

37. The method of claim 28, wherein the step of determining a location comprises at least one locale,

wherein the at least one locale is defined by a real-time object identifier device linked with the locale by placement at that location in space,

the locale being any one of an area, site, location, point of interest, patient room, emergency room, operating room, intensive care room, quarantine room, laboratory, and equipment room, the locale comprising the spatial location defined within a stored topology of a facility in which the activity involving the object occurs.

38. The method of claim 28, wherein determining the activity comprises detecting the activity, wherein detecting the activity further comprises:

determining a time duration for which the object is located at the location, and

detecting the activity only if the object is located at the location for at least a predetermined time duration.

39. The method of claim 28, wherein determining the activity comprises detecting the activity, wherein detecting the activity further comprises:

receiving a series of historical locations or locales of the object, the series of historical locations corresponding to a historical activity involving the object,

comparing the series of locations of the object with the series of historical locations of the object, and

detecting that the object is involved in the historical activity if the series of current locations matches the series of historical locations.

40. The method of claim 28, wherein the historical set of locations corresponding to an historical activity are determined by recording consecutive locations of the object by the system while the object was previously performing the historical activity.

41. The method of claim 28, wherein the activity information determining sub-module transmits a first request to the LDM to track locations of objects involved in a detected activity at the detected activity'"'"'s start time and transmits a second request to the LDM to stop transmitting the object locations when the detected activity ends.

42. The method of claim 28, wherein the activity detection sub-module further comprises an activity template whereby activities are matched with events and respective events are initiated upon positive matching.

43. The method of claim 28, wherein the activity determining module detects the activity based on at least one primary location of the object, the role of the object, and an association between the object role and the at least one primary location, wherein the activity is any one of

a surgical procedure activity comprising the roles of surgeon, patient, and nurse, and the primary location is an operating room;

a nurse rounds activity comprising the roles of nurse and a plurality of patients, and the primary location is a plurality of patient rooms;

a cleaning rounds activity comprising the role of janitor, and the primary location is a plurality of patient rooms;

an x-ray scanning activity comprising the roles of x-ray technician, patient, and x-ray machine, and the primary location is a patient room; and

a blood testing activity comprising the roles of phlebotomist and patient, and the primary location is a patient room.

44. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

using pattern recognition to compare a series of current locations or locales of the object with a series of historical locations or locales of the object, wherein the pattern recognition is implemented by a Conformational Likeness algorithm operating on characters of names of locations and locales to determine the activity involving the object.

45. A method for determining an activity involving at least one object at an indoor site, the method comprising the steps of:

providing at least one real-time object identifier device linked with the at least one object to provide data identifying the object,

providing at least one fixed location identifier (FLI) providing data to determine a 3-D spatial location of the at least one object;

providing at least one network connected element (NCE) providing data to determine the 3-D spatial location of the at least one object;

at least one locale comprising spatial locations associated with a structural feature of the indoor site;

providing a topology module comprising spatial locations mapped to the structural features of the indoor site, whereby the locales are defined by their spatial locations and stored, 3-D spatial locations of the FLIs and the NCEs are stored, and false-association threshold times for locales and object-types are stored;

providing a location determining module (LDM) comprising an object location module (OLM) and an object association module (OAM), the LDM is configured to determine a location of the object from the data identifying the object, wherein the location of the object is a point in space defined by the 3-D spatial coordinates of the real-time bi-directional object identifier device;

calculating, in the object location module (OLM), a 3-D spatial location origin of a signal from the at least one real-time bi-directional object identifier device comprising;

known positions of the at least one FLI and the at least one NCE receiving the signal,

historical recorded positions of the object,

characteristics of the receivers receiving the signal,

strength of the received signal,

type of the signal, and

whether the signal was repeated;

preventing, in the object association module (OAM), false associations comprising an object type, a first locale (L1), a second locale (L2), a time spent in the first locale (tL1), and a time spent in the second locale (tL2), wherein if the tL1 is greater than or equal to a false association threshold time between L1 and L2 (tFALSE L1-L2) and the tL2 is less than the tFALSE L1-L2, association with L2 is prevented and only an association with L1 is made for the object having the specified object type, whereby a false association determination is prevented;

determining, in an association determining module, an association between the at least one object and at least one of a locale, a role, and 3-D location based on the current 3-D location of the at least one object and its time duration there;

providing an activity determining module comprising an activity detection sub-module and an activity information sub-module;

determining, in the activity determining module, the activity involving the object based on the 3-D location of the object and activity information associated with predetermined activities;

providing in the activity detection sub-module, a pattern recognition application;

detecting, in the activity detection sub-module, an activity using a current location and a current locale based on correspondences of mapped contextual information, providing the detected activity to the activity determining module wherein the activity detection sub-module performs mappings of contextual information comprising

mapping activities with minimum durations,

mapping object identifiers with roles,

mapping object identifiers with identities,

mapping locales with activities,

mapping current locales with activities,

mapping a primary mean location with activities;

mapping a primary mean locale with activities;

mapping a primary mode location with activities;

mapping a primary mode locale with activities;

mapping roles with activities,

mapping identities with activities,

mapping associations with activities,

mapping association types with minimum durations,

mapping matched historical sets of locations with a set of current locations;

mapping matched historical sets of locales with a set of current locales; and

mapping combinations of current locale, role, identity, and association with activity,

matching, in the pattern recognition application, the set of current locations with the historical set of locations and matching the set of current locales with the historical set of locales;

providing, in the activity information determining sub-module, a mean/mode determiner;

determining, in the activity information determining sub-module, items of information about an activity detected by the activity detection sub-module to provide to the activity determining module;

determining, in the mean/mode determiner, the arithmetic mean and the mode of 3-D spatial locations of the object and the mean and the mode of locales of the object based on the present and historic values, wherein the arithmetic mean equals a sum of the present values and the historic values divided by the number of values, and wherein the mode equals the value most frequently occurring of the present and historic values,

wherein the primary mean location is the arithmetic mean of 3-D spatial locations;

wherein the primary mean locale is a the arithmetic mean of locales;

wherein the primary mode location is the mode of 3-D spatial locations;

wherein the primary mode locale is a the mode of locales;

wherein the mean/mode determiner provides the primary mean location, the primary mean locale, the primary mode location, and the primary mode locale as items of information to the activity information sub-module;

broadcasting, from the at least one real-time bi-directional object identifier device, to the at least one FLI and the at least one NCE;

sending, from the NCE, data broadcast in the object identifier signal with a timestamp to the location determining module

determining, in the location determining module, a current location of the object in relation to known structural features of the site

determining, in the location determining module, a current locale associated with the current location of the object from the mappings in the topology module

determining, in the association determining module, the association between the at least one object and at least one of a locale, a role, and 3-D location based on the current 3-D location of the at least one object and its time duration there; and

determining, in the activity determining module, the activity involving the object based on the 3-D location of the object and activity information associated with predetermined activities.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein at least one location is defined by a real-time object identifier device linked with the location by placement at that location in space.

47. The method of claim 45, wherein the historical set of indoor locations corresponding to the historical activity is determined by recording the consecutive locations of the object by the system while the object was previously performing the historical activity.

48. The method of claim 45, wherein the information associated with the activity of the object comprises a type of activity, a time of the activity, and a duration of the activity.

49. A method for determining an activity involving at least one object at an indoor site, the method comprising:

providing a plurality of real-time object identifier devices for a plurality of objects, each real-time object identifier device linked with an object in the plurality of objects for providing data identifying the object,

providing at least one fixed location identifier (FLI) providing data to determine a 3-D spatial location of the at least one object;

providing at least one network connected element (NCE) providing data to determine the 3-D spatial location of the at least one object;

at least one locale comprising spatial locations associated with a structural feature of the indoor site

providing a topology module comprising spatial locations mapped to the structural features of the indoor site, whereby the locales are defined by their spatial locations and stored, 3-D spatial locations of the FLIs and the NCEs are stored, and false-association threshold times for locales and object-types are stored;

providing a location determining module (LDM) comprising an object location module (OLM) and an object association module (OAM), the LDM is configured to determine a location of the object from the data identifying the object, wherein the location of the object is a point in space defined by the 3-D spatial coordinates of the real-time bi-directional object identifier device;

calculating, in the object location module (OLM), a 3-D spatial location origin of a signal from the at least one real-time bi-directional object identifier device comprising;

known positions of the at least one FLI and the at least one NCE receiving the signal,

historical recorded positions of the object,

characteristics of the receivers receiving the signal,

strength of the received signal,

type of the signal, and

whether the signal was repeated;

preventing, in the object association module (OAM), false associations comprising an object type, a first locale (L1), a second locale (L2), a time spent in the first locale (tL1), and a time spent in the second locale (tL2), wherein if the tL1 is greater than or equal to a false association threshold time between L1 and L2 (tFALSE L1-L2) and the tL2 is less than the tFALSE L1-L2, association with L2 is prevented and only an association with L1 is made for the object having the specified object type, whereby a false association determination is prevented;

determining, in an association determining module, an association between the at least one object and at least one of a locale, a role, and 3-D location based on the current 3-D location of the at least one object and its time duration there;

providing an activity determining module comprising an activity detection sub-module and an activity information sub-module;

determining, in the activity determining module, the activity involving the object based on the 3-D location of the object and activity information associated with predetermined activities;

providing in the activity detection sub-module, a pattern recognition application;

detecting, in the activity detection sub-module, an activity using a current location and a current locale based on correspondences of mapped contextual information, providing the detected activity to the activity determining module

wherein the activity detection sub-module performs mappings of contextual information comprising

mapping activities with minimum durations,

mapping object identifiers with roles,

mapping object identifiers with identities,

mapping locales with activities,

mapping current locales with activities,

mapping a primary mean location with activities;

mapping a primary mean locale with activities;

mapping a primary mode location with activities;

mapping a primary mode locale with activities;

mapping roles with activities,

mapping identities with activities,

mapping associations with activities,

mapping association types with minimum durations,

mapping matched historical sets of locations with a set of current locations;

mapping matched historical sets of locales with a set of current locales; and

mapping combinations of current locale, role, identity, and association with activity,

matching, in the pattern recognition application, the set of current locations with the historical set of locations and matching the set of current locales with the historical set of locales;

providing, in the activity information determining sub-module, a mean/mode determiner;

determining, in the activity information determining sub-module, items of information about an activity detected by the activity detection sub-module to provide to the activity determining module;

determining, in the mean/mode determiner, the arithmetic mean and the mode of 3-D spatial locations of the object and the mean and the mode of locales of the object based on the present and historic values, wherein the arithmetic mean equals a sum of the present values and the historic values divided by the number of values, and wherein the mode equals the value most frequently occurring of the present and historic values,

wherein the primary mean location is the arithmetic mean of 3-D spatial locations;

wherein the primary mean locale is a the arithmetic mean of locales;

wherein the primary mode location is the mode of 3-D spatial locations;

wherein the primary mode locale is a the mode of locales;

wherein the mean/mode determiner provides the primary mean location, the primary mean locale, the primary mode location, and the primary mode locale as items of information to the activity information sub-module;

broadcasting, from the at least one real-time bi-directional object identifier device, to the at least one FLI and the at least one NCE;

sending, from the NCE, data broadcast in the object identifier signal with a timestamp to the location determining module

determining, in the location determining module, a current location of the object in relation to known structural features of the site

determining, in the location determining module, a current locale associated with the current location of the object from the mappings in the topology module

determining, in the association determining module, the association between the at least one object and at least one of a locale, a role, and 3-D location based on the current 3-D location of the at least one object and its time duration there; and

determining, in the activity determining module, the activity involving the object based on the 3-D location of the object and activity information associated with predetermined activities,

wherein the activity information determining sub-module transmits a first request to the LDM to track locations of objects involved in a detected activity at the detected activity'"'"'s start time and transmits a second request to the LDM to stop transmitting the object locations when the detected activity ends.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein the activity determining module detects the activity based on at least one primary location of the object, a role of the object, and an association between the object and the at least one primary location, wherein the activity is any one of

a surgical procedure activity comprising the roles of surgeon, patient, and nurse, and the primary location is an operating room;

a nurse rounds activity comprising the roles of nurse and a plurality of patients, and the primary location is a plurality of patient rooms;

a cleaning rounds activity comprising the role of janitor, and the primary location is a plurality of patient rooms;

an x-ray scanning activity comprising the roles of x-ray technician, patient, and x-ray machine, and the primary location is a patient room; and

a blood testing activity comprising the roles of phlebotomist and patient, and the primary location is a patient room.