The new Active Asset 4.0 GUI can show a text list of all tagged assets, whether people or equipment, and then populate a floor plan with labeled icons for, say, "IV pump" or "heart monitor." Mousing over an icon will pop up data such as its current location. Clicking the icon will bring up more details, including for the first time a 30-day trace of an asset's movements.

With a new hierarchical arrangement, Active Asset now lets an administrator filter and view tracked assets by groups, by types, by keyword, or by location on a specific floor or building. A hospital staffer can see the real-time location of all emergency "crash carts" on a given floor, for example.

Specific administration tasks and views now can be subdivided among named administrators. A security guard, for example, can log in to Active Asset and see only tagged visitors or patients, not equipment assets. A set of APIs enables Active Asset to make use of WLAN access points from other vendors, such as Cisco, 3Com, Enterasys and others.

The Active Asset 4.0 application is available by the end of April, with a starting price of about US$15,000 for managing up to 50 tags.