Rocky Mountain Tracking

Daily GPS News

India to Implement GPS in State School Buses

June 17th, 2013

In India, and thanks to a positive trial run in a single bus, the Government Model, Senior Secondary School, Sector 16 will be installing GPS tracking devices on all of its school buses.

The contractor of ten of the Sector 16 school’s buses, Tarlochan Singh, performed a trial run with a GPS unit installed onto one of the buses. Due to the positive results of his trial run, Singh made the decision to install GPS tracking units on other buses within the school’s system as well.

GPS tracking devices have been a fast growing trend in public transit as of recent months, and more recently the technology was discovered to be very practically useful when used in public school buses. Installation of the device offers parents the opportunity to check the route, arrival time, and departure time of their children’s bus. Late pick up times and drop offs can be easily explained through this service.

Here’s how the service operates: The GPS device links up with a web site online, and parents can go to that web site to check the schedules and routes of the school’s buses. Parents can also sign up to receive SMS text messaging updates directly to their phone when their child’s bus leaves the school, is travelling en route, and has arrived to drop the child or children off at home.

India has found GPS technology to be useful not only in their school bus systems, but also in their public transportation systems. GPS units on public transit buses allow company officials to monitor their drivers more closely, fostering greater honesty and integrity from workers who will give reports which can be weighed against GPS data. These tracking units also allow for true gasoline miles per gallon (mpg) or kilometers per gallon (kmpg) measurement, nearly eliminating the chance of gasoline theft.

Just as with the school buses, the public transit buses that are equipped with GPS tracking devices give passengers opportunity to learn of delays or route changes, arrival and departure times, and other pertinent scheduling information.

What a wealth of technology we have. With our navigation units and mobile apps, tracing and tracking software; it would seem that GPS tracking devices, in all of their applications, are quickly becoming irreplaceable in the world today.

GPS to Help End Parents’ Questioning, “Where’s the Bus?”

June 16th, 2013

There is a new trend in school and city transit systems. GPS tracking is opening new doors in bus and driver monitoring, not only for transit system officials, but also for parents of schoolchildren.

The day is rainy, the winds are gusting, and the school bus is late in dropping the kids home; many a parent knows the feeling of anxiety that goes with this and similar scenarios. These same parents must often wonder within themselves, “Why is the bus taking so long today?”, or, “If only someone would think of a way to track the bus so we could know where the kids are…”

Well, GPS experts have had the same thoughts, and they have come up with a means of accomplishing just that. Various schools across the country are now beginning to utilize GPS tracking systems on their buses.

How the system works is simple: a GPS device with a link to an online website is installed on a school bus or public transit bus, allowing parents to check the status of their children’s school bus, or general passengers to get updates on the bus schedule.

The purpose of these programs is to give transit systems in towns the ability to keep a close eye on their drivers, and also to give parents a more accurate idea of the whereabouts of their children’s school buses. Delays can be checked out by parents and explained to them through an online tracking website. Route changes can be made as circumstances alter due to weather or road conditions and data can be updated online as necessary.

School Bus Fleet magazine reported earlier this year that the use of GPS technology is growing among schools. More and more schools are finding the monitoring of their buses to be useful not only for communication between bus drivers and parents, but for efficiency and survey purposes as well. The magazine also reported that 38% of schools throughout the nation have installed GPS tracking units on their buses.

Feedback on the usage of the technology is mostly positive, with parents praising the idea for its practicality in both everyday and emergency situations. Because the school and public transit GPS tracking systems are still very new to the market, there is no set price range for the costs of such a service as of yet, though the expectation that parents and not the school will pay for the systems’ installation has been iterated multiple times.

Law Enforcement’s Use of Drones Raises Privacy Questions

June 16th, 2013

Law enforcement’s use of GPS tracking technology in drones gives rise to many questions regarding issues such as regulation, privacy and usefulness. A Medina County, Ohio sheriff’s office has two such unmanned aerial systems and is exploring answers to these questions. The state of Ohio itself will probably propose legislation this year to address issues on both sides.

Unmanned Aerial Systems

Drones cost about $25,000, have a camera and are infrared- and GPS-equipped. Weighing about 2 pounds, drones must have permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to be flown (though FAA restrictions have not been finalized). The Medina County Sheriff’s office received theirs at no cost from a manufacturing company hoping to break into the market; it also has two deputies licensed to fly them.

Possible Positive Uses for Drones

The sheriff’s department sees many advantages to using the equipment the public calls drones. For example, drone units are much less expensive to fly than a helicopter and can retrieve the same information with an added safety factor: the drone is unmanned. In fact, very few local law enforcement agencies have ready access to helicopters or planes, which can cost up to $600 per hour. Drones could be used to locate missing persons, to track a renegade suspect, to safely obtain landscape images involving a fire or hazardous materials spill, or in situations involving SWAT or a standoff, to name a few.

Privacy Concerns Give Rise to Drone Regulation

Privacy, of course, is an important issue when it comes to the use of drones. The ACLU raised the argument that drones can unintentionally capture images of people, places and things during the course of law enforcement duties. The ACLU advocates the obtainment of a search warrant each time a drone is used, and that all irrelevant data and images be destroyed within 24 hours. It also wants guidelines to be set into law to protect both law enforcement and citizens. Such laws have been passed in Virginia, Florida and Idaho, and 39 other states are considering legislation requiring the use of search warrants.

Because unmanned aerial systems, thanks to GPS navigation and tracking, have the ability to follow and record paths of suspect flight, they also have the potential to invade the privacy of law-abiding citizens. Such concerns were addressed in April at the first Unmanned Aerial Systems Conference held in Dayton, OH. In general, law enforcement agencies want the liberty to perform their duties more efficiently through the use of GPS technology, but they must reach a balance with the public’s right to privacy.

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.

How to Catch a Thief: There’s an App for That

June 14th, 2013

Citizens in many cities are beginning to take crime stopping into their own hands, quite literally. Victims of theft have started tracking down their assailants by using GPS-enabled devices, such as smart phones, to follow the route the mugger took.

For several years, GPS has been used in car navigation and handheld navigation units for hunters and hikers. But with the popularity of smart phones, GPS has become an ubiquitous part of modern culture. Many new phones come pre-installed with GPS devices that can be activated using the provider’s services. Smart phone online stores also offer downloadable apps to trace the location of the phone and its users.

Apps to Protect

Security measures for smart phones involve methods such as locking down the system, emitting alarms, and even deleting all information upon command.

But beyond these security measures, GPS technology gives the best chance of tracking down the stolen phone. A GPS satellite pinpoints the signal, and the app broadcasts the cell phone’s coordinates. Users of GPS-enabled phones can find their stolen items in several ways:

Apps can text the owner the location of the phone as it travels.
Apps can display the approximate location of the phone by using cell phone network towers and GPS.
Finally, some apps also integrate with traditional auto GPS systems, thereby allowing users to use current car systems to do the tracking.

Many muggers do not realize the power of the products they are stealing. When they steal the device, the signal continues to be emitted by the GPS. Police can use this information to follow the route of the robber in real time and then apprehend him on the spot. This saves time in searching for the crook and chasing him on foot through alleys and intersections.

Problems of GPS Use

Lost phone tracking can present problems for police. To follow the GPS navigation route, the phone may still need to be turned on and connected online. However, wi-fi connections may be weak or transmitted for distances larger than the actual location of the perpetrator and the phone.

Also, although the public has the tools to track perpetrators, that does not mean they should track down a thief by themselves. Police discourage GPS users from pursuing an assailant themselves, since confrontation between victims and attackers can turn violent.

Potential of GPS Use

Law enforcement is beginning to use GPS in other tasks too: tracking stolen money from banks, following pill pushers with hidden GPS in narcotics bottles, and tracking kidnappers through childrens’ ID tags. GPS paves the way to reclaiming stolen property. Citizens can help fight crime with just their fingers and a smartphone GPS. Police can trace criminals with the same technology on a larger and a more precise scale. GPS is making the streets safer for everyone.

GPS Industry Backs Enhancement of GPS Constellation for Civilian Use

June 12th, 2013

We’ve covered the GPS III program extensively here at RMT, and explained the reasoning behind it as well. In a nutshell, the program was started to upgrade aging GPS satellites as well as improve the overall experience of using a GPS device for a variety of users. Obviously, the main purpose is to help the military and government more accurately obtain location data, but there is another group who serve to benefit from the upgrades: civilians.

The GPS Innovation Alliance, in a letter to commander of the US Air Force Space Command Gen. William L. Shelton, voiced their support for the proposed enhancements to the GPS constellation. More specifically, the Alliance agrees with the decision to activate the Civilian Navigation (CNAV) message on two GPS signals in order to provide users a stronger GPS infrastructure.

The Alliance deemed GPS “one of our most critical and valuable national assets,” and stated the changes to the GPS constellation will bring added value to civilians by making it more accurate, thereby more reliable, outfitting GPS devices with dual frequencies.

“We believe that GPS users will experience benefits from activation of the full CNAV message on the GPS L2C and L5 signals,” wrote the Alliance. “A fully redundant signal capability greatly improves GPS robustness by providing frequency diversity and mitigates deliberate and accidental interference [jamming].”

They went on to say activation of the full CNAV message on the dual signal will “reinforce the nation’s pre-eminent technological position” in GNSS and will also serve as a crucial milestone to enhance the US’ role as a leader in GPS technology.

Many people contributed to the letter: F. Michael swiek, executive director of the GPS Innovation Alliance; Steven K. Wilson, manager for advanced engineering of Intelligent Solutions Group, Deere & Company; Andrew Etkind, vice president and general counsel of Garmin; James A. Kirkland, vice president and general counsel of Trimble; and Joseph Brabec, chief technology officer at Topcon Positioning Systems.

The GPS Innovation Alliance is made up of those in the GPS navigation industry who wish to push the importance of GPS and GNSS technologies worldwide, and is highly focused on advances in GPS innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity.

UK: Study Relies on GPS Device to Track Dementia Patients

June 11th, 2013

It doesn’t matter where you live: dementia and Alzheimer’s is a global issue. It’s tough watching the one you love being overcome by such a horrible disease, where they don’t know who you are, and forget what they are doing so frequently. It can be quite dangerous, with cases in every country of wandering dementia patients.

If you rely on GPS technology, you can rest easier knowing your loved ones can easily be located. In Surrey, England, a GPS tracking watch is being tested to locate dementia patients for concerned caregivers or family members. The data gathered by the watch is accessible by Internet or smartphone, helping the confused patient find their way home again.

The GPS Tracking Watch

It not only brings peace of mind to concerned family, but gives the wearer the power to continue living life they way they want, with independence and freedom.

To track their loved one, a family member simply heads to the Internet. There, they can view a map with a marker indicating where that person is at any moment, as well as set geofences, predetermined boundaries that loved one should remain in. If they cross these boundaries, an alert is issued from the monitoring center that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

If an emergency occurs, the person wearing the watch can press the emergency button which also sends an alert to the monitoring center. Help will be dispatched to the GPS location of the person wearing the watch.

Testing

In order to see how well they work, Surrey County Council has handed out the GPS tracking watches to five people, one of whom is a bicycle-loving father who is in the early stages of dementia. Now, if he uses the watch while cycling, he can be found if trouble arises or he doesn’t come home when expected. Another person to receive a watch: a wheelchair-bound man with disabilities.

Finding the Perfect Solution

Melanie Bussicott of Surrey County Council, in charge of the trial, said, “The council is always willing to embrace innovation and when we heard about a watch that gives people with dementia more independence in their daily lives, we had to give it a trial…Our readiness to harness technology to improve care looks to be paying off. A passionate cyclist is getting the freedom to keep on pedalling, while giving his family the peace of mind that his dementia is not going to mean he ends up getting lost.”

Earlier this year, the council tested a similar device in order to determine which option could be relied upon as a permanent service. However, there is a chance that more than one solution will be selected. The other device, a small, egg-shaped device that one can put in their pocket, was also tested.

Lubbock, TX: Burglars Nabbed Thanks To Tablets’ GPS

June 9th, 2013

Yet again, we feature the story of a criminal who obviously does not understand the technology he has stolen, ultimately leading to his capture. Three Dallas men were captured on numerous charges of burglary in April after the GPS device built into tablets led Lubbock police right to them.

“They stole the tablets at the first business they broke into. The tablets had GPS, and that led us to them,” Sgt. Jonathan Stewart, Lubbock police spokesman, said.

According to Stewart, investigators searching through bank bags and other stolen items they had upon their arrest near a liquor store on US 87 connected them to five separate business burglaries. The tablets with GPS technology were discovered among the stolen goods. Investigation is still underway.

The men (Quinton Quontrail Brown, 27; Kendrick Raynard Johnson, 28; and Kendrick D. Lawton, 28) were taken to the Lubbock County Detention Center and booked. Each of the men were charged with five felony counts of burglary of a building, one count of third-degree felony organized crime, and one count of fleeing on foot, a misdemeanor. Bail has not yet been set.

Their string of crime began at 7:04am on April 7, with the report of an alarm triggered at a business in the 5800 block of 50th Street. The men were eventually captured following a foot chase. The chase ensued after they had broken into Pinkie’s liquor store on the southeast side of the city.

Each of the men have prior convictions on their record. Brown was charged with burglary of a building a total of eight times between 2005 and 2011, and has pleaded guilty to charges of theft of a firearm, as well as possession of a firearm by a felon. Johnson has plea agreements for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle as well as theft, and Lawton’s record features evading arrest and interfering with a public servant.

Although one would like to think these criminals would learn a lesson from all this, it’s doubtful. At the very least, they might have learned to leave tablets, or any device featuring built-in GPS device, alone.

Delta PDR for GPS III Deemed A Success by Lockheed Martin

June 8th, 2013

Delta Preliminary Design Review (dPDR) was successfully completed for the next group of GPS III satellites, according to Lockheed Martin. The GPS satellites are part of the US Air Force’s GPS III program to replace aging satellites and help those who rely on the GPS system more effectively.

The GPS III satellites feature eight times the anti-jamming signal power and are three times more accurate than our current system. The design life of the satellites is also improved, and a new civil signal will be added which works alongside international GNSS.

Lockheed Martin was awarded the contract to produce the first four GPS III satellites, and was granted advanced procurement funding for components of the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth GPS III satellite vehicles. The dPDR covers mutually agreed upon modifications to the satellite’s design, offering new capabilities for GPS III Space Vehicle (SV09) and after. The modifications include a search and rescue satellite payload and a Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA). New navigation signals can be added after launch thanks to a new waveform generator, allowing them to upgrade the constellation without requiring them to launch new satellites.

“We have worked very closely with the Air Force and GPS technology community to make GPS III the most affordable and lowest risk solution for bringing new capabilities to the GPS constellation. The design modifications from the dPDR address ways to further reduce Air Force launch costs by $50 million per satellite through dual launch of two GPS III space vehicles on a single booster,” said Lockheed Martin’s GPS III capability and affordability insertion manager John Frye. “This successful dPDR milestone sets the stage to proceed with SV09 maturation.”

Since the beginning of the program, Lockheed Martin has paid careful attention to affordability while at the same time ensuring the new GPS system is able to evolve with the world’s demand for GPS navigation and timing needs over the next 30 years. The GPS Non-Flight Satellite Testbed (GNST) was developed in order to lower both cost and risk, serving as the ground pathfinder and vehicle demonstrator for the very first satellite. All of the GPS III satellites developed will utilize the GNST in order to provide early verification of ground support and test equipment, space vehicle design level validation, and early confirmation and test of transportation operations.

GPS on Buses Trending Globally

June 6th, 2013

With many thanks to recent developments in technology, public transit systems around the world are finding it beneficial and profitable to install GPS tracking devices on their buses.

These devices have a fairly simple purpose, though it manifests itself in multiple facets. After a GPS tracking device is installed upon a bus or other public transit vehicle, the device links up to an online website which keeps updated track of the vehicle. Passengers can then find updates on bus schedules and route changes online. Some of the tracking sites even offer the feature of SMS text updates to be sent to passengers’ mobile phones.

Many countries have begun to implement the GPS tracking systems on their public transit vehicles and most of these have had very positive and profitable results. Schedule changes and route re-workings are not nearly so irritating to passengers who have the available option of going online to check the route and schedule of their bus of choice. Drivers are held more tightly accountable to their duties and responsibilities by monitoring and tracking. The listed benefits are obviously laudable.

Multiple cities in the United States have begun to utilize GPS tracking devices in their public transit systems. Cities in Louisiana, Oklahoma, California, Ohio, and other states have installed these GPS systems and found the results to be quite excellent.

Canada and the United Kingdom have also had good experiences with their first runs of transit GPS tracking devices. With systems being used on buses in Ottawa and London, passengers in both countries have had time to give the system a good trial run. Talks are still ongoing as to whether more transit systems in other cities should have GPS tracking devices installed on their vehicles.

Of all the countries to try this new application of GPS technology, India has felt the benefit from its installation perhaps most acutely. Using the technology not only to give passengers more accurate route updates and arrival and departure times, Indian transit systems have found applications for the technology in monitoring potential thieves and other persons who would harass tourists or regular passengers on their buses. Ensuring the safety of their passengers is top priority.

Whether it be for scheduling accuracy, route updates, driver or unruly pedestrian monitoring, GPS tracking technology may soon be commonplace throughout public transportation, here at home and around the globe.