Tended’s wearable solution relies on geofencing to drive safety improvements - but what exactly is this? Read our guide to geofencing below to learn what a geofence is, how the technology works, and what it can be used for.
What is a geofence?
Imagine a virtual perimeter but for a real-life geographic area - much like a physical fence but is instead defined by digital coordinates. The virtual lines that join each of these digital coordinates are combined to create a digital representation of a physical boundary. This is what's known as a geofence.
How does geofencing work?
Geofencing is often seen as technology that can only work outdoors using GPS (global positioning system) or RFID (radio frequency identification), but it can work indoors too using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth beacons.
You can create a geofence in any shape or location and there is no limit to how big a geofence can be, making them an incredibly flexible and useful tool for a variety of purposes and industries.
Devices can then be assigned to a geofence. This can be in the form of something like a mobile phone app, vehicle trackers, or a safety wearable. When programmed to do so, devices will be triggered to give out a specific alert or push notification to its user if they enter or exit a geofence. This is commonly referred to as an “if this, then that” command, where technology is programmed to trigger an action based on another action.
Devices can be assigned to geofences and programmed to issue an alert when a user enters or exits a geofence boundary.
What are some examples of geofencing?
Geo-gaming
Perhaps one of the most well-known examples of geofencing is in mobile gaming. The applications played on smartphones use geofencing to trigger in-game events or alert its user of particular game locations.
Drone airspace
When flying drones, geofencing is often used to prevent the endangerment of national airspace and it is also implemented to ‘fence off’ sensitive or restricted areas (such as an airport or a prison) from drones flying over.
Location marketing
Brands have taken advantage of geofencing by sending location-based notifications and adverts. For example, alerts can be sent via an organisation's own app when it detects that a user is close-by to an outlet or store.
Health and safety
Geofencing can be used as a powerful health and safety tool in high-risk industries by allowing users to draw virtual boundaries around hazardous areas, alerting workers when they become too close to those unsafe borders.
Geofencing is transforming the face of worksite safety
While workplace health and safety has improved over the years, there is still a lot of work to be done to make high-risk environments safer places to work. As more and more organisations are looking to strengthen their culture of safety, many are integrating technology to improve the safety and efficiency of their worksites.
Geofencing is one of the latest innovations to help organisations operating in high-risk industries to achieve this.
Tended's wearable uses geofencing to alert workers when they enter an unsafe or restricted area.
Geofencing is a technology that is paving the way for a much more robust culture of safety on worksites, and it can help us prevent avoidable accidents and fatalities.
Its capabilities span across a broad range of high-risk industries:
On the railway; helping to stop workers stray into the path of oncoming trains.
In the utilities sector; to keep workers away from hazards including high-voltage units.
In mining; highlighting restricted and dangerous areas for workers to avoid.
On construction sites; keeping workers away from hazardous onsite activities and unsafe zones.
In warehousing; helping with yard management and keeping workers away from plant movement.
These are just some cases of using geofences to transform safety in high-risk industries, and powerful examples of how Tended is harnessing geofencing technology to prevent worksite accidents and save lives.
Lean more about how we are using geofencing to keep workers safe here.
