Rocky Mountain Tracking

Daily GPS News

GPS Student Tracking Spreads Around the World

June 15th, 2013

Somewhere in Bahrain, a man has a dream. He has pulled investors in, secured financing, and pitched his wares: He wants to manufacture GPS devices to track schoolchildren in Iran. The gadgets would discourage truancy and increase safety. The move is symbolic of the continued, exponentially increasing ubiquity of global positioning. GPS devices are getting smaller every day. More of them are being manufactured every day. And with the world’s current GPS satellite grid becoming a bit crowded, the impending launch of GPS III promises to make global tracking devices around the world faster, more accurate, and more convenient.

Why Track Kids in School?

Remember how when you were younger you felt like your mother had eyes in the back of her head? Then remember when you became a parent and you wondered what you needed to do to get eyes in the back of your head? Well, GPS technology may provide that in some form as tech evolves. GPS devices on students would prevent them from getting into trouble, plain and simple. They would provide data in case of emergencies. They would prevent kidnappings or other disappearances. They would enable law enforcement to track students perpetrating crimes. And they would certainly help prevent the presence of weapons or drugs on a school campus.

Should Student Tracking Make Us Paranoid?

So many decades later, George Orwell’s great novel “1984″ seems so real, so plausible, so within reach. But while Orwell’s story made the dissolution of the right to privacy a terrible thing, today’s world is almost the inverse: With Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, it’s almost as if the world is embracing the new lack of privacy.

Is it different, however, when it comes to our children? Should parents, whether in Iran or in the United States (where student GPS tracking is already a reality in some areas), be concerned that their child’s location is being monitored by an eye in the sky? Or does that provide a sense of security for the parent?

Cataloguing the Future

Either way, the world is quickly moving toward cataloguing every movement of every human being on earth. Taking the world’s tactile matter and transforming it into data seems to be the end goal of the GPS movement–and it has the potential to make the world a much safer place for students and parents.

GPS and Public Transportation: What’s the Next Step?

June 4th, 2013

The goal of public transportation is to get you where you need to go. That may read like a ludicrously simple definition. It is, however, a goal often lost as the logistics and burdens of providing that transportation overwhelm those who are challenged with bringing it to the people.

Let’s use the city of New York as an example. In terms of public transportation, it is easily the most impressive city in the United States, and likely one of the most impressive in the world. NYC contains a spectacularly intricate array of subways and subway tunnels poring through the city like veins. Those subways are the lifeblood of the city.

Even more impressive is that all New York City subways offer free WiFi. This is an essential for getting around the city easily. In this brave new digital world, maps have gone the way of the dodo, and getting around via GPS is the way to go. But is it possible to create a vast public transportation network that works everywhere, all the time?

Underground GPS Signals?

The biggest problem with Global Positioning Systems is concrete. In New York City subways, there is a lot of it: So much of the train network is underground that GPS signals cannot penetrate. But WiFi can. As smartphones become more prominent, it will be even more important for GPS and WiFi signals to interact seamlessly and successfully, ensuring that commuters and travelers have a seamless experience when using public transportation–whether it’s on the bus or on the subway. In short, if the WiFi works, the GPS should work.

Public Transportation and Smart Phones

For better or worse, the world is getting where it needs to go via cell phone. Google Maps is fantastic if you drive your own car; not so much if you’re on a bus or subway train. While various cities and transport systems like Greyhound have created proprietary apps, no one has gone the extra step of creating an all-encompassing smartphone experience that amalgamates that data with GPS. Shouldn’t your GPS navigation device tell you, for instance, if you’ve gotten on the wrong subway train and are going to the wrong destination? Shouldn’t your phone’s GPS tell you how to switch up your bus route if the bus you’re on is running late? Brilliant programmers and GPS device designers are working through these problems–but a universal solution for public transportation via smart phone has yet to emerge. Whatever results may make GPS an even greater tool for getting where we need to go.

Controversy in OK Over GPS Tracking of Police

June 1st, 2013

In Lowell, Oklahoma, patrolmen and patrolwomen work through a union–and because of that, negotiating can be a tricky process. When a new initiative came about that would add new levels of accountability to Lowell patrolmen, the union raised its eyebrows: That move involved tracking all police officers’ vehicles with GPS devices.

The Burden of Transparency

The use of GPS in law enforcement, for better or worse, is starting to swing both ways. Yes, GPS tracking has become undoubtedly useful during investigations. Tracking a suspect’s vehicle with a GPS device is exponentially more cost-effective than an elaborate tail involving multiple vehicles and perhaps even air support. The thing is, GPS tracking of police officers’ vehicles additionally adds a new level of transparency to the people: Vehicle movements can be monitored to ensure safe driving, conformity to regulations, and proving that police reports are accurate.

Unions and Accountability

When it comes to unions, however, such changes are potentially unwelcome. What if that data is used to build evidence that would lead to a disciplinary act against a police officer and union member? What about the atmosphere of paranoia that ubiquitous police car tracking would provide–the feeling that someone, somewhere is watching all the time? How should a union react to the idea of GPS tracking?

In the case of the Lowell Patrolmen’s Union, the reaction was to negotiate higher pay for officers. In order to guarantee support of the tracking program, officers received a quarter an hour bump in pay.

Benefits of GPS Police Tracking

When it comes to GPS tracking in the police department, the knife cuts both ways: GPS trackers are fantastic law enforcement tools. But they are also quickly becoming essential tools for ensuring that our nation’s law enforcement officers perform their task within the boundaries of the law. At the end of the day, those devices make not only our streets safer, but the officers who drive police vehicles as well. In addition, the simple fleet tracking functions of GPS devices ensure that government-bought police cruiser vehicles are being driven safely, in a manner which maximizes the vehicle’s operational life. GPS tracking is, then, not only a two-edged sword, but a win-win for law enforcement and for citizens.

Windows Phone Gets That Much Better With GPS Apps

May 20th, 2013

It’s rare for Microsoft to be the new kid on the block. In 2001, Microsoft began an extremely expensive foray into the console gaming market with the Xbox. To some, the idea was laughable; the corporation had for decades been known for its productivity software and PC operating systems. Microsoft leader Bill Gates, however, indefatigably marketed the machine, aggressively pursued top-tier game developers in an already competitive marketplace, and turned the Microsoft brand into one of gaming’s “Big Three.” Once again, Microsoft was king of electronic software.

Then Apple game-changed everything again. The iPhone, possibly the most fundamentally market-shifting consumer electronics device since the personal computer, changed the way we interact with computers. It was a handheld computer, no larger than a pack of cigarettes, enabling users to do most of the things people do on their desktop computers. Smart phones changed communication; they changed gaming; they changed the way the Internet is used; they changed the way we interact with the world.

Once again, however, Microsoft’s competitive spirit came out to play. Never content to be in second place, the software juggernaut set its sights on mobile. Released last year, the Windows Phone was designed to compete with Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. Maybe, like Xbox, it wouldn’t be the most original Microsoft product ever invented. It would, however, have a ton of money behind it.

Windows Phone came out to largely “meh” reactions last year. The biggest problem was a lack of software. The phones themselves were fine–but the market was already comfortable with Android and iOS; third party software developers have been slow in getting on the Microsoft train.

That’s about to change, in some small measure, thanks to high-powered GPS tracking apps. We’re not just talking GPS gimmick navigating software like Waze, etc. We’re talking high-powered software designed to replace the full-powered GPS devices installed in automobiles. Software that uses hyper-accurate maps worldwide. Powerful software that automatically reroutes based on up-to-date traffic pattern data. Software that is fully integrated with the most popular search engines, including Google, Yelp!, etc. Software that is, in short, designed to be the ultimate road navigating solution for Windows phones.

Will Microsoft claw its way into the “Big Three” phone operating system providers? While the software giant has had a slow start, Microsoft’s tenacity will no doubt serve it well as it plows forward into the world of mobile. Its efforts will no doubt be helped by many exciting GPS apps.

The Cool Part is the Cane

May 18th, 2013

GPS device developers are raising cain in an effort to protect and serve the world’s elderly. One developer in particular is showing off an experimental cane with a stellar set of applications which might change the way managed care facilities work.

The idea itself is genius: The device is a standard cane with some pretty lights on top. The lights communicate to the cane’s user using icons. They help the user know which way to walk, etc. Let’s say, for instance, that a person, perhaps elderly and losing mental faculties, needs to navigate a managed care facility in order to go to the restroom. The cane itself would provide direction to the person, lighting up with arrows telling the user how to navigate the hallways–and even talking in order to provide direction.

But there’s more to this thing: This super-cane includes Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS tracking technology. The cane would help facilities track every cane user throughout–or even without–a facility. The cane may have a built-in accelerometer to detect falls or other sudden physical actions.

GPS for a Better Tomorrow

What does tomorrow’s world look like thanks to GPS? There’s obviously so much more to the industry now than tracking cargo, telling drivers how and where to navigate. Navigation has become fleet management; cargo tracking has become M2M inventory tracking and management. With GPS devices now almost ubiquitously integrated into smartphones, the devices themselves are hive-mapping areas, updating them; the GPS devices are creating the data, curating it, managing it, and making it more convenient for the end user. GPS gadgets provide hyper-accurate and meticulous measurements of sporting events.

How “Super Canes” Might Affect Consumer GPS

But few devices are designed to give the elderly better quality of life. Could the “super cane” be simply installed on an older person’s smart phone as an app? Yes. But that’s not the point. The idea of the device is creating something new, a user experience that individuals not familiar with computers and smart phone gadgets can understand. It is a well thought, challenging and visionary device, causing software and hardware developers to give pause and really think about how humans communicate with machines.

And that’s what concept products are all about. They may or may not end up on the market; that’s not the point–it’s about thinking and creating machines to build a better world.

When Not to Trust Your GPS

February 9th, 2013

Many months ago, Apple was criticized for their release of a new Apple Maps application that just didn’t function as a map. That app may have been the turning point in the battle of consumer GPS: As Apple was poised to take over the world, the new iPhone would be the last nail in the proprietary GPS’s coffin. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. The app was rapaciously criticized once consumers—and Apple haters—discovered that many Apple Maps destinations were sometimes hundreds of miles off course. This seemed to be true especially in Europe, where British towns were placed in the middle of nowhere. It came at a point in Apple’s trajectory where they could do no wrong… and it symbolized what might snowball into a slow ebb tide for the greatest corporate powerhouse in the history of consumer electronics.

Meanwhile, a Belgian woman was recently, unpleasantly surprised when she hopped in the car for a drive to Brussels and ended up three countries away. She claims that she trusted her GPS rather than… well, reality. The machine’s error? A simple zero. The device told her to stay on the highway for nearly 1500 miles rather than ninety. An hour and a half drive ended up taking two days, and even seemed to include an accident.

Driven to Distraction

The woman claimed simply that she was distracted. While the event is shocking, and it may be hilarious to tritely assume that the woman in question was simply too trusting of computers, it may be indicative of other issues, perhaps health or even mental ones.

However, the incident illustrates, satirically, our continuing over-dependence on electronic gadgets rather than reality. What if all of us started depending on Apple Maps 1.0 to get us where we need to be? Is it at all shocking that the web’s “augmented reality” appears to be replacing our actual reality?

Is it Apple’s Fault?

The cynical reader might simply wonder how soon the family will sue Apple (no one has reported whether the woman in question was trusting an Apple GPS or not). Is it the GPS’s fault for steering the driver in the wrong direction? Is what the GPS system says more important than road signs? Is it possible, in fact, that companies may be liable when their GPS navigation products disseminate false data? While the story is shocking, it does put the onus on GPS manufacturers to make sure that data is correct before beaming it to their products.

Willy Wonka is Watching

October 20th, 2012

In the United Kingdom, there’s a contest put on by Nestle. You know Nestle—they own the Kit Kat Bar, Willy Wonka Candy and all that. The idea behind Nestle’s contest is this: You buy a candy bar. If you’re not a winner, you get to enjoy eating the candy bar. If you are a winner, then the simple act of you opening the candy bar wrapper triggers a GPS tracking device hidden within the candy. The Nestle Company then promises that they’ll find you within twenty-four hours and present you with a check for ten thousand pounds (that’s a little over $16K in United States dollars). It’s a fascinating, innovative contest idea. It also lays a great foundation for a discussion of how modern GPS technology has made all our invasion-of-privacy nightmares come true and, for the most part, how much we seem to enjoy it.

Invasion of Privacy is Fun!

Remember Men in Black? Remember The X-files? Remember The Matrix? It seemed that, during the advent of the Internet, there were a lot of healthy discussions as to how our privacy might soon become extremely limited. All those neat little secrets we used to have–like what restaurant we were at on a given night, which former boyfriends or girlfriends we were still secretly talking to, our location at any given time—might soon be out there for all to see. The thing is, we now live in a world where all that information is out there for us to vomit onto Facebook. The big surprise during this transition of popular culture is that a lot of individuals don’t seem to care whether people know or not.

Does Anyone Care if Their Privacy is Invaded?

Let’s go back to Nestle’s contest, which is called “I Will Find You.” It’s designed to be a play off popular fears (?) that Big Brother is just around the corner watching us. Honestly, it’d probably be really fun to open a candy bar, watch the GPS go off, and wait for the Money People to show up with a check. The concern over this contest is that it makes light of a cultural shift that most of us seem to have gleefully set aside: That we have no privacy, and that for some reason we never seemed to want it in the first place. This is a challenging truth. George Orwell’s apocalyptic paranoia predictions of last year have become the fearless chuckles of today.

United Kingdom Pilots Government-Subsidized, Crowd-Sourced Road Mapping

October 20th, 2012

As it stands right now, just about every square inch of the United Kingdom’s most populated areas are under video surveillance. Fewer nations have instituted such comprehensive security. Why? Does England really need to be monitored 24/7?

If you don’t understand England’s history, it’s easy to write its video surveillance policies off as paranoid. The thing is, few European nations have dealt with terrorism on the same scale as England. The long and violent conflict between the UK and the IRA resulted in a number of terrorist acts; both England and Ireland lived in fear for decades. The renewed worldwide threat of terrorism after the events in New York in September 11, 2001 brought increased fear to the powerful, yet sometimes vulnerable city.

Well, now that all that video surveillance is better, they might as well use it to make life easier, right? The UK has long utilized its closed circuit monitoring of UK highways to communicate road obstacles to drivers on the road. But now the United Kingdom is experimenting with GPS to make road information even more accessible to drivers in England.

So maybe England doesn’t think its roads are monitored enough. However, the nation is piloting a technology which might be on the cutting edge of high-speed highway maintenance.

Advantages of GPS Mapping

Here in the US, drivers depend on easy apps like Waze to quickly communicate road obstacles. Apps like Waze sometimes even provide alternate routes for drivers if obstacles are detected. GPS tracking adds a level of road monitoring that closed circuit video simply can’t. At the end of the day, video monitoring was meant to monitor potential criminal activities. GPS tracking is a proven tool, especially in the fleet management industry, to quickly help drivers circumvent obstacles and get where they’re going more quickly.

Will England’s Road Travelers Volunteer GPS Information?

The government has announced its GPS monitoring program will gather data from cargo fleets, i.e. truckers. In addition, they’ve stated that they’ll take data from private citizens who volunteer their GPS data. The principle is one of crowd-sourcing information in order to make the highways more efficient. Crowd-sourcing data makes it possible for computers to communicate with thousands, even millions of users instantly, for computers to collect, analyze and disseminate data in a way that humans can’t. The result is a safer, faster commute for English drivers.

U.S. Navy One Step Closer to Star Trek-ish Weaponry

October 19th, 2012

Someone in the United States Navy seems to be playing a lot of video games. The Navy announced this past July a cool program called HVP, or Hyper Velocity Projectile. The program aims to make super fast bullets that use GPS guidance systems to maneuver at high speeds. Here’s where the video game part comes in: They’re rail guns, just like those found in video games like Halo.

What’s a Rail Gun?

Okay, so what’s a projectile weapon? It’s a weapon that shoots a projectile. Ideally, that projectile is powerful enough, sharp enough, explosive enough, etc. to kill an enemy. So the difference between most projectile weapons would come down to two essentials: First, how does the weapon cause damage? Second, how is the weapon propelled?

Let’s take a gun, for example. The weapon causes damage because it is a blunt object, a chunk of hot lead shot at high speeds. It is propelled by explosives, compressed gunpowder exploding in a controlled manner to shoot that bullet forward.

Based on those two differentials, here’s what a rail gun is: How does it cause damage? The same way a bullet does: it’s big and heavy and blunt and stupid fast. How is it propelled? Ah, there’s what makes a rail gun cool and different: It’s powered with magnets. Based on awesome, Star Trek-ish scientific principles, they create a magnetic field that can propel a projectile as far as, in some cases, two hundred miles. Because they don’t use explosive propulsion like a bullet or missile, the potential is there for unbelievably accurate targeting.

What Does This Have to Do With GPS?

So here’s where these proposed Navy rail guns get even cooler: The bullets have GPS trackers installed. That means they can adjust their course in mid-air using GPS tracking technology.

How that works exactly is unknown. It seems a little impractical for an object traveling seven times the speed of sound to have to bounce a signal off of a satellite in order to target properly. How can the signal travel more quickly than the projectile itself?

Either way, Naval rail guns sound like a cool invention, one which might transform warfare for generations to come. How quickly these inventions will end up on the warships of the future is unknown.

Planning the Ultimate Outdoor Adventure?

October 19th, 2012

Not ten years ago, the essential computing device in the average American home was an Internet-enabled personal computer. Most of the time, it sat on a desk in the den. Other times, laptops added a level of convenience and portability that users enjoyed. Neato gadgets like the Palm III handheld computer were fun and kind of functional–at the time, they were even seen as game changers–but were still quirky devices, often relegated to executives, gadget freaks, and yuppies who just needed one more device to play Tetris on.

Then the iPhone ushered in the smart phone era. The first truly functional, extremely fun, consumer friendly handheld computer, it raised the bar (to say the least) on handheld computing.

Now smart phones are expected to go everywhere and do everything. Apps utilize GPS tracking for insane tasks, from telling your Facebook friends you’re at a restaurant to hailing a taxicab. Bringing that iPhone or Android on those extreme outdoor adventures, though, has never been this real thanks to a new app called ViewRanger.

Meet ViewRanger

ViewRanger is designed to transform your smart phone into your technological companion for those extreme outdoor adventures, whether it’s a ski trip in Colorado or climbing K-2. It’s a hyper-accurate, in some cases crowd-sourced GPS map of remote adventure locations. Users can connect their phone’s GPS–which often still works, thanks to its satellite connection, when a cellular connection does not–to ViewRanger and enjoy route mapping, GPS location of their friends, etc. Social media features allow you to post your location on Mt. Everest for your Facebook friends. The app promises to add a level of safety to your adventure that a printed map would not.

Can a Smart Phone Really Do It All?

Does the ViewRanger app replace the power and accuracy of a good handheld outdoor GPS? Yes and no. While it’s accurate, the user is limited by their phone. GPS trackers in cell phones are often far less powerful than handheld GPS devices. Phones are designed to make phone calls at the end of the day; often the body design of the phone obscures the GPS signal. In addition, the battery on the smart phone is limiting: There are no smart phone charges on Mount St. Helen’s. however, ViewRanger is a great app for short term hikes and/or outdoor adventures.