A Case Study of an RFID-based System for Pilgrims Identification and Tracking

RFID represents an ideal solution for crowd control and personal identification at Pilgrimage season (Hajj). It provides means to save lives and improve services at an affordable cost. This Chapter describes a developed prototype that uses a passive RFID wristband tag for identification of pilgrims in the holy areas during Hajj. Upon presentation of the tag to a handheld reader all information related to the pilgrim holding the tag will be displayed on the screen of the reader. This way if a pilgrim gets sick, lost, or dies he can be easily identified through the tag on the spot. Officers around the holy area will carry a lightweight handheld reader that can get all information from the tag without the need to burden the already overloaded communication network during the Hajj season. Hajj (Pilgrimage) is undoubtedly the most crowded gathering of Muslims on earth. It has unique characteristics with regard to the people who attend it (pilgrims), the place they meet in, and the kind of rituals they perform. These characteristics result in a set of challenges to the authorities in controlling the crowd, and identifying the personalities. What makes it even more challenging is that the whole crowd makes the same movements at the same times doing essentially the same thing. Muslims are obliged to perform Hajj once in their lifetime. Many of them love to perform it more than once. It is performed on specific days of the year (8th13th of the 12th Hijri month) in designated boundaries around Makkah City in Saudi Arabia. The authorities for Hajj try their best to limit the crowd flooding to the area by assigning quotas for pilgrims from each country. Yet the number of pilgrims exceeds 2.5 millions every year and is in the rise. Additional 4 million visitors who come to the holy areas every year at other than Hajj times may benefit from developed RFID systems as well. It is expected that this number will reach 10 million visitors in the near future. While it is a great spiritual experience for all the pilgrims, at the same time it poses great challenges of all sorts for the authorities responsible for facilitating the Hajj. Despite all that is done to facilitate the Hajj, the following are some of the common difficulties faced by the pilgrims and the authorities alike: • Identification of pilgrims (lost, dead, or injured) • Medical Emergencies • Guiding lost pilgrims to their camps. • Loss of identity documents and money • Crowd control