Article tracking system and method

An article tracking method comprising the steps of:

• a. associating a beacon with an article, the beacon emitting a plurality of short-range radio signals, each short-range radio signal including a beacon identifier and a beacon transmission power;
• b. detecting the short-range radio signals at a plurality of relaying devices, calculating a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) for each detected short-range radio signal, converting each short-range radio signal to a relay signal at a plurality of relaying devices having known locations, and transmitting each of the relay signals including a unique relaying device identifier and RSSI information;
• c. attaching a time stamp to each relay signal;
• d. receiving a plurality of relay signals from the relay devices at a tracking device, comparing a characteristic of the received relay signals from each relaying device to determine to which of the plurality of relaying devices the beacon is closest, and storing the time stamp, beacon identifier and unique relaying device identifier of the determined closest relaying device;
• and
• e. repeating step d thereby to determine multiple locations of the article over time.