Tracking positions of personnel, vehicles, and inanimate objects

An apparatus, comprising:

• a transmitter configured for rotating a magnet about an axis in a way which produces a rotating magnetic dipole field wherein said magnet defines a dipole axis that is orthogonal to the axis about which the magnet is rotated;
• a receiver arranged at a distance D from the transmitter at least approximately in a predetermined positional relationship with the transmitter at least approximately on said axis and in a location through which said dipole axis passes during rotation and configured to periodically sense a set of total flux intensities in three dimensions, of said rotating magnetic dipole field, successively through a plurality of angularly distributed rotation angles of said magnet sufficient to characterize the total flux intensity with rotation of the rotating magnetic dipole field;
• and
• a processor configured to use the set of total flux intensities in conjunction with distance D to determine a dipole strength m of the rotating magnetic dipole field and said processor uses said set of total flux intensities to determine at least one of a minimum flux intensity and a maximum flux intensity for use with D to establish the dipole strength m of the rotating magnetic dipole field using at least one of the expressions
• m=D3Bmin, and
• m=0.5D3Bmax
• where Bmin and Bmax are the minimum and maximum flux intensities, respectively.