February 8, 2012
GymPact: A New Incentive for Exercise
EmailGPS tracking is a useful tool for exercise routines and GymPact is cashing in. Runners, walkers and cyclists have enjoyed GPS apps and watches, which help them better assess their workouts. The precise GPS tracking technology in most smartphones allow athletes to see their pace and routes in real time. Apps have even been developed that act as virtual trainers; telling a new runner when to break while collecting GPS data, revealing pace and distance. GymPact is an innovative application designed to help people exercise in a bold new way.
GymPact’s slogan is “Incentivize Your Exercise” and was founded by two Harvard students in their dorms. The program works by challenging people to put something real on the line when it comes to committing to their workout routine. The importance of physical fitness is undeniable, which is why New Year’s Day is also known as National Unrealistic Fitness and Diet Goals Day. Even those who make it as far as joining a gym will often drop out a few weeks after joining.
Creating a weekly goal is required upon sign up, and is called a Pact. Users have to commit to a minimum of one workout per week. A workout must be at least a 30 minute session. Workouts are registered by checking in to gyms. The application uses the iPhone’s built-in GPS tracking ability to confirm that the user is at the gym for at least 30 minutes. Here is where things get interesting: a credit card is also required to sign up, but there’s no fee for the service.
GymPact doesn’t charge anything to use, but it does fine users for breaking their pact. The user can customize the pact on a weekly basis for maximum flexibility. The key idea is that there is an immediate consequence for not meeting your workout goals. There is a minimum commitment required of $5 per missed day, and users can freeze their account in the event they want to take a break or are sick and don’t want to be charged. All of the money that is earned from the users that broke their pacts is divided and distributed as prizes and cash among the 90% who were able to meet their commitments.
LightSquared Calls Foul Play in GPS Interference Testing
LightSquared has been fighting a losing battle with the GPS tracking industry. The company has owned a wireless spectrum of space since 1989, with plans to provide a powerful wireless internet service. The problem is that the spectrum is too close for comfort to the spectrum used by GPS satellites. The FCC will only allow LightSquared’s development to move forward if they can prove that their satellites will not interfere with GPS tracking devices. After months of testing, the FCC is still denying LightSquared permission, due to signal interference issues. Now, LightSquared claims that the tests were rigged.
“The test parameters were chosen for failure,” said Ed Thomas, a paid consultant and former chief engineer at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). “They used an arbitrary figure to determine failure, which has no effect on performance. And they were allowed to select their own devices to test, some of which are not even sold commercially. The whole thing looks like a college student conducting an experiment for school who draws the curve in before making measurements.”
“When I worked at the FCC, the GPS industry did the exact same thing to ultra-wideband,” Thomas continues. “They misrepresent everything, saying that planes would fall out of the sky. The fundamental difference between then and now is that the government wanted to use ultra-wideband. So they had an interest to get it approved.”
According to the FCC, the basic problem lies with the sensitivity of GPS tracking devices. GPS signals are significantly less powerful than the broadband signals, disrupting the GPS receivers. GPS technology has permeated our modern culture in so many ways. Signal interference could even mean life or death, if it affects an emergency response team. As much as LightSquared might want to dismiss the FCC’s concerns, it is not something that should be taken lightly.
Supreme Court Decides Warrants Needed for GPS Tracking
In a historical case, the highest courts in the land, the U.S. Supreme Court, ruled that law enforcement are required to obtain a warrant before monitoring a suspect with a GPS tracking device. Since the technology was developed, countless innovations have been developed for GPS tracking. One of the most controversial uses of the technology has been police surveillance. Courts across the United States have been split on the constitutionality of warrantless GPS tracking. The issue was recently heard before the Supreme Court, in the historical United States v. Jones case.
The court’s decision is a “landmark ruling in applying the Fourth Amendment’s protections to advances in surveillance technology,” said Andrew Pincus, a Washington lawyer, in a brief filed on Jones’ behalf. The case in question involved Antoine Jones, a D.C. nightclub owner who received a life sentence after police found a large stash of drugs in his vehicle. The sentence was overturned by the D.C. Court of Appeals, due to the fact that much of the evidence obtained was provided by information gathered from the GPS device illegally attached to Jones’ vehicle.
This high-profile case was the latest in a string of similar cases receiving mixed rulings across the country, and caught the Obama Administration’s attention. The Administration asked that the high courts reinforce the original conviction. The primary argument for Jones’ sentencing is that GPS tracking is no different than other means of surveillance, which do not require a search warrant.
The Supreme Court Judges unanimously disagreed, setting an important precedent for tracking technology and privacy rights. “We hold that the government’s installation of a GPS device on a target’s vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle’s movements, constitutes a ‘search,’” wrote Justice Antonin Scalia. Ironically, the officers on Jones’ case did obtain a warrant before attaching the tracking device to his vehicle. They only had ten days to attach the device, and waiting until that period had expired before using it, violating the warrant.
Dramatic Increase in GPS Tracker Sales
The owners of Baldwin Electronics in Odessa, Texas report a dramatic increase in GPS tracker sales–at double the rate they experienced last year, in fact. The customers range from families hoping to improve car use accountability to businesses looking for a way to reduce wasteful habits on the part of employees driving company cars.
Why the sudden interest in this piece of advanced technology? The primary factor appears to be a significant price reduction since its invention. Whereas a tracker would have cost a customer at least five hundred dollars in past years, it is now available for just a hundred. The combination of GPS technology with smartphone applications has also eliminated the need for a separate receiving device, lowering equipment expenses even further. Parents and supervisors can now pull up the location of any fitted vehicle instantly with the touch of a button using a device they already own.
GPS trackers still carry a certain amount of controversy related to privacy issues. Children may simply resent their parents’ close control, but employees have legal privacy rights that can easily be violated by employers who track them via GPS. One current hot-button issue, for example, is whether employers must inform employees when they are tracking them. Businesses keep a close eye on court cases and lawsuits to get an idea of when, how, and for what purposes they will be allowed to track their workers.
As one of the fastest-moving fields in technology advancement, GPS offers powerful supervision capability and cost savings, at a price that most small businesses and even concerned parents can afford. In an economy that does not allow most customers to indulge in many of the high-end products sold at small electronics, the proprietors of Baldwin Electronics are thankful to have at least one highly desirable, low-cost device on their shelves.
GPS Tracking Program in Santa Fe for Repeat Burglary Cases
The Problem
Studies have found that burglars tend to go right back to their crimes once released from prison. Almost like an addiction, repeat incarcerations seem to have little effect, and it costs the taxpayer thousands of dollars every year. The fact of the matter is that police often note spikes in burglary type crimes whenever a burglar is released from jail. In an ABC News report, Santa Fe Police Captain Eric Wheeler said that the use of GPS technology is an alternative to re-incarceration that he hopes will prove effective in reducing the number of burglaries.
The Program
According to Chief Deputy District Attorney Doug Couler of Santa Fe, the program will focus on those convicted burglars who have long sentences, multiple convictions, or a history of juvenile burglary. District prosecutors and police will work with a defendant’s attorney to determine whether the individual qualifies for the program. In light of the current case before the Supreme Court in regards to GPS tracking and Fourth Amendment rights, the full cooperation of the defendant must be obtained to maintain the Constitutionality of the program. The individual must waive his right to privacy since the police will have unrestricted access to the data collected from the GPS-enabled tracking device put on the defendant’s person. Those enrolled in the program must also agree to obtain a job in order to be a contributing member of society.
The Procedure
The tracking devices have both passive and real-time tracking capabilities. Those enrolled in the program will be monitored only passively unless there is a rash of burglaries in the area where the defendant lives or if the crimes seem to reflect a particular individual’s modus operandi. In that case, police will contact the GPS tracking company to obtain the real-time data that can either place the individual at the scene of the crime or clear him of wrongdoing.
Since longer jail times and repeat incarcerations do not seem to be effective, authorities in Santa Fe hope that GPS technology and the knowledge that someone is watching will be enough to deter these otherwise harmless criminals from committing more burglaries.
GPS Help for Alzheimer’s Patients
GTX Corp recently delivered its first shipment of these advanced tracking shoes to Aetrex, a shoe company that first came up with the idea of shoes imbedded with a tracking device after Elizabeth Smart went missing from her home in 2002. Originally designed to help missing children, many have seen the shoe’s potential in helping those suffering from Alzheimer’s dementia, a disease characterized by a tendency to wander and a desire to return to a childhood home.
Approximately 5 million Americans have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and the worldwide cost for caring for dementia patients is $604 billion. These are overwhelming statistics that can burden the caregivers trying to protect and nurture their loved ones. Certified by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), the GPS tracking system used in these shoes may help bring peace of mind to those caring for someone with dementia; more importantly, the shoes can help authorities locate a wanderer more quickly. Studies have shown that almost half of critical wanderers not found within 24 hours die.
In light of the alarming statistics and their anticipated growth rate with the aging population, $300 a pair seems a small price to pay for the safety of these patients who, through no fault of their own, are no longer able to care for themselves. The buyer is able to put the system in the heel of any pair of shoes and then set up the monitoring perimeters and an alert system so that when the wearer leaves a designated area, the caregiver is immediately notified and able to locate the person in a timely fashion. The shoes are probably most crucial to those in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, those who still live at home somewhat independently but are beginning to wander or get lost on routine errands; however, even those living in a long-term care facility are known to wander and escape.
The benefits of Aetrex’s GPS enabled shoes for Alzheimer’s patients are clearly seen, and the potential for recovering missing children cannot be underestimated. Some even advocate the use of such technology for prostitutes. In this day and age, it would be hard to comprehend anyone who could not benefit from the technology of GPS tracking.
The Battle Continues Between LightSquared and the GPS Industry
In the continuing war between the GPS industry, attempting to sell GPS tracking devices, and LightSquared, trying to make the task of building a 4G LTE network a little easier, a special committee has decided they see “no practical solutions or mitigations” that will keep both parties happy.
LightSquared is attempting to save the cost of building a network from scratch, asking the FCC to use part of the spectrum that is currently designated for satellite communications, and just outside of the spectrum granted to GPS devices of all kinds. It will save LightSquared a boatload of money when all is said and done, but the GPS industry is up in arms as numerous tests have determined implementing the network will cause interference with GPS tracking devices. The different devices, in order to work, search not only their own designated spectrum, but nearby spectrums as well. LightSquared says this is the fault of GPS device manufacturers, designing systems which pinpoint GPS coordinates in an inefficient manner.
The National Space-Based Positioning Navigation and Timing Committee reviewed the case and decided there is really no way to make this work. In testing conducted in December 2011, it was discovered the proposed 4G LTE network caused 75 percent of GPS tracking devices to fail due to interference. After testing, a report was released stating “LightSquared signals caused harmful interference to majority of GPS receivers tested. No additional testing is required to confirm harmful interference exists.”
To counter this, LightSquared offered up numerous solutions, including lowering the strength of their signal in the hopes the GPS devices won’t pick up on it as easily and an add-on filter provided by Javad GNSS. This filter is designed to put an end to the interference problems caused by LightSquared’s network, but comes with a slight problem: the device must have the filter retrofitted first. LightSquared is claiming the simple, inexpensive filter will not cause the costs of GPS units to rise, but what about the devices already out there in consumers’ hands? Won’t it be a hassle, having to install this filter to their device? Will they have to buy new devices altogether?
The committee’s report has been handed to the FCC who is tasked with deciding whether or not to grant LightSquared permission to build their network. With the release of this report things don’t look good, but only time will tell. We’ll be sure to keep you informed here at RMT as decisions are made and reports are released pertaining to this case.
GPS Involved In Leopard Killing Controversy
This was the method in use during a program to study a population of about 500 extremely rare, critically endangered leopards in South Africa. About 23 of the leopards now wear GPS trackers, and there are also infrared cameras hidden in their habitat to provide even more detailed information on their activity. The program, led by a conservation group called the Landmark Foundation, gets assistance from a government organization, CapeNature. Under normal circumstances, the partnership works well.
In September 2011, however, an official with CapeNature ordered that one of the tracker-fitted leopards be shot after it killed two calves belonging to a local farmer. Judging that the predator’s presence in the area posed an unacceptable threat to local cattle farmers, the official gave the order and the leopard was killed.
Conflict between farmers and endangered predators is not a new or local problem. Further north on the African continent, lions and humans are in constant tension in many areas, struggling to balance habitat preservation with the safety of both farm animals and humans. In some cases, a single problem animal can be transferred to another area, but a South African leopard expert says that relocation does not usually work with leopards.
Obviously, this situation has created a rift between the Landmark Foundation and CapeNature. The Landmark Foundation is indignant over what it labels an illegal killing of an extremely rare animal, while CapeNature insists the killing was the only possible solution to the problem. This disagreement places the entire study in danger, as cooperation between the two groups is necessary for success. It appears that there may be additional problems with communication, as the Landmark Foundation says that it would have been willing to pay for protection for the farmer’s cattle in the form of an electric fence and even guard animals. They say the leopard was so valuable to the species’ recovery that any expense would have been acceptable in order to keep it alive.
Lockheed Announces Two New GPS III Satellites
Lockheed Martin has announced they have begun building two GPS III satellites; the third and fourth satellites out of the 10 promised by the company in a contract with the US Air Force, who hopes to build a total of 32 GPS III satellites. These satellites will bring Lockheed Martin $238 million.
The contract was designed to expand the GPS system in order to keep up with technological changes and advances, and promises users greater accuracy and anti-jamming features. A second civilian-use signal will be added which will greatly improve the speed with which a GPS device locks on to a position. A new military signal will also be introduced, helping these lines remain secure and offering reliability against jamming.
According to Col. Bernie Gruber, director of the US Air Force’s Global Positioning Systems Directorate, “GPS is a global gold standard, providing accurate, reliable, continuous, free worldwide positioning, navigation, and timing services…and we are focused on delivering world-class space-based PNT capabilities to our users around the world. As the need for more capability increases, GPS III will allow us to affordably sustain and modernize the constellation by providing increased capabilities incrementally to better meet current and future needs.”
Mark Valerio, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s Surveillance and Navigation Systems said, “The government has mapped an extremely sensible acquisition strategy for GPS III and we are focusing on executing the program to deliver these much needed capabilities to billions of users around the world. As we produce more GPS III satellites, we aim to continually reduce the cost and cycle time of each space vehicle to ensure we deliver the greatest value to the Air Force.” They have proven themselves to be perfect for the task with current satellites already in the constellation. The existing GPS IIR and IIR-M models have a 99.9 percent reliability record after over 18 years in orbit.
The two new GPS III satellites are being built in concert with one another to make the manufacturing process more efficient, according to Lockheed. The system is set for first launch in 2014.
GPS Used To Count Pheasants
Pheasants are one of the most popular game birds in the country, and traditionally officers have counted them by listening for the calls of male birds. They have continued that method this year, and have used their findings to determine that the pheasant population is remaining stable as compared with past years’ counts. However, a newer counting procedure has the Fish & Game department hoping to gain a more accurate and geographically definite picture of the pheasant population.
Hunting dogs naturally have a fantastic ability to seek out roosting birds, and can be trained to flush them out. While this ability is usually harnessed to help hunters, Fish & Game officers are using it to help them count birds. By fitting the collars of dogs with GPS tracking devices and then releasing them into specific wooded areas, they can pinpoint the exact location of the birds that the dogs flush out. This method makes it easy for officers to quickly gain an accurate count and also get a better understanding of what types of habitat the pheasants prefer.
While the GPS-equipped dog system is a great counting method, it does not appear that the Fish & Game administration intends to replace their previous method of gauging population levels by listening for calling cock pheasants. Rather, they will compare the results of the two different counts to determine how they can use the calling pheasant counts to accurately predict the total number of pheasants. Using dogs to disrupt pheasants is a far more invasive method than simply listening to birds without interacting with them, so it may not be a favorable long term solution. However, it does give officers an opportunity to compare their counts against the “real” number of birds in an area.
It is important to note that while GPS technology is very helpful in establishing the populations of game birds, using it while actually hunting is illegal in most cases. The sport of hunting puts a high priority on the “fair chase,” and using GPS tracking to locate animals or notify other hunters of animals’ locations is considered unfair.
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