GPS Trackers Find Novel Applications 185
Pickens writes "Inexpensive GPS devices like the Zoombak (which costs just $200 plus $10 a month) have becomes so prevalent that some people are using them routinely to keep tabs on their most precious possessions. Kathy Besa has a Zoombak attached to the collar of her 5-year-old beagle, Buddy. If Buddy wanders more than 20 feet from the house, she gets a text message on her phone that says, 'Buddy has left the premises.' The small size made possible by chip advances over the last two or three years is enabling many novel uses of GPS tracking. An art collector in New York uses one when he transports million-dollar pieces, a home builder is putting them on expensive appliances to track them if they disappear from construction sites, a drug company is using them after millions of dollars in inventory turned up missing, and a mobile phone company is hiding them in some cellphone boxes to catch thieves."
GPS bug detector? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:GPS bug detector? (Score:5, Informative)
You could (if you are that paranoid) block GPS traffic.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3623 [dealextreme.com]
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.8758 [dealextreme.com]
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http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4355 [dealextreme.com]
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You'll need a fairly sensitive radio to detect it from more than several centimeters, but it's certainly possible.
Re:GPS bug detector? (Score:5, Interesting)
I haven't used a radar detector in a long time, because in my area they were using switched radar units. I had a better chance of visually spotting a speed trap than detecting it first. One thing I had observed though was, some of my radar detectors would have false alarms because of other radar detectors. Some of my friends and I had tested it, where we'd turn our units on and off to see who's would set off false alarms based on who's units. We concluded that yes, some units would make other units beep that there was a radar source present.
The same applied to some home alarms, and automatic doors. I had more false alarms than real detection, which was another good reason to stop using them.
Building a GPS receiver detector would be a bit trickier, because the designs are so varied. I would think the best way to detect one would be a wide radio spectrum analyzer, and a very careful examination of the object you think may have a tracker on it. I believe you'd be looking for the same or similar frequency as the GPS signal is, and you'd always have some signal from the satellites. A very directional antenna may help.
It was my understanding that every cell phone sold in the last few years had GPS capability for e911 service, although they may disable the GPS service for any user interfaces.
I found this page [vzw.com] which says Verizon Wireless has GPS service in all wireless voice devices, to assist 911 operators in finding a victim. I know this isn't exactly true though. My stepson had a medical emergency about a year ago in the car (see my journal). I called 911 from my Verizon Wireless phone. I knew what road I was on, but since I was in the middle of my trip, I wasn't absolutely sure what the last exit I passed was. I gave the road, direction of travel, side of the road I stopped on, and a close reference to the nearby exits. I gave it to them within a couple miles. I was on the side of an interstate, with clear view of the sky in all directions, and there hadn't been any clouds in the sky all day. You can't ask for better reception for GPS.
We waited 15 minutes, with no callback and no emergency vehicles showing up. I gave up, decided he was stable enough to transport, strapped him back in the car, and drove as fast as I could for help. There was one of the radar speed signs on the side of the road, which flashed 99 as I passed it. I was going for help, and would have been satisfied to get pulled over.
I found a deputy with a DUI pulled over, and he helped us. He called for an ambulance, and apparently emergency ops didn't know where we were. No one had been dispatched.
Easy to Block (Score:2)
Re:GPS bug detector? (Score:5, Informative)
Use anything that can detect a nearby cell signal. If you think your car is bugged, take it through a few tunnels or parking structures so it re-connects to a cell tower. (turn off you phone first) You can only detect these either by the GPS Local Oscillator (if you know the frequency) or detect them while they re-connect to a cell tower. Detecting the local oscillator of the GPS isn't easy as it isn't strong and is often well shielded. The cell module on the other hand is designed to transmit a signal to a cell tower, but it isn't on all the time. The trick is to make it turn on so you can find it. Causing a signal loss and then returning to cell tower range is a way to get these to announce to a tower, I am here. That's how you find them.
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I'll take "ridiculously easy questions" for 400, Alex.
$200 + $10/mo!?!? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:$200 + $10/mo!?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
solution: (Score:2)
i am of course joking but i just scared myself thinking about the spy agency/ military bureaucrats who would actually sign off on this concept
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If someone steals that pallet then you're SOL. Even if it does pass near another RFID detector that person won't know immediately that it is yours and full of Widget A.
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At $200+$10/month fee, it's definitely cellular in nature and only worth it for *expensive* items, or at least when you know you have a theft problem and catching a relatively few number of thieves would stop a lot of theft.
Like the appliances at job sites problem - Figure $400-800+ each per applia
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The box listed above is pretty much the minimum you need for a global tracking system for your stuff. A GPS receiver, battery, and one way pager (the one-way in this case is out! Probably is actually a stripped down cell phone sending SMS messages). It also won't work if t
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Besides, each SIM card (each unit has one) represents a phone line which means an open, active cell line. 10 bucks a month honestly seems pretty fair given the current cellular market in the USA.
Inexpensive? (Score:5, Insightful)
$200 + $120/year? Not "inexpensive" enough for me to stick onto my dog!
Re:Inexpensive? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Inexpensive? (Score:5, Insightful)
I had this cat I was very fond of. Disappeared one day, and I never found out what happened to him. That was years ago, and I still miss the dude. That experience makes the Zoombak sound pretty cheap.
Re:Inexpensive? (Score:4, Funny)
http://www.someecards.com/upload/flirting/owning_a_cat_lowers.html [someecards.com]
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It's easy to get attached.
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Plus the fact that I have a chance to reach my pet before they die.
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I'm all for gadgets and whatnot, but getting a text message saying your dog is more than 20ft away from the house isn't going to do much if he runs into the road and gets hit. There's just not enough time to react. Owners *really* need to monitor their pets, and ideally have them on a leash or enclosed in some area when their outside to keep them safe.
Re:Inexpensive? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Inexpensive? (Score:5, Funny)
Dog is traveling north bound on Cedar Street.
Dog crossing st##$#$@@$$%
Dog no longer moving.
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losing altitude (Score:2)
GPS is not designed to provide an accurate measure of altitude. [gpsinformation.net] There are altimeters you could use to see if your animal got under a fence or up a tree, but GPS wouldn't be ideal for that purpose.
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Re:Inexpensive? (Score:4, Funny)
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I'm lucky. One day the gardener left the gate open. When I came home, I found the dog on the front lawn, waiting for me to let him into the house. He could have gone wandering around and gotten lost or hit.
Re:Inexpensive? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seems like a fair comment, but if the dog gets lost, you'll need to figure in the cost of a reward and/or the time and resources required for putting up all those flyers. Then there's those emergency vet bills (if the dog gets into an accident), lawyer and court costs (if the dog bites the good samaritan trying to catch it for you), the loss of mail delivery to your home and cancellation of homeowner's insurance and a lawsuit (if the dog bites the mailman), or, if all goes well and the city finds your dog for you, the animal shelter fees. And this is all assuming it's not your wife's dog, or that you have kids whose questions you need to answer.
Beagles, incidentally, are notorious (bred, actually) for running off to hunt something down they find interesting, and then expecting you to catch up.
GPS sounds like an ideal solution for pet owners.
Re:Inexpensive? (Score:5, Funny)
It's even better when you have a dog like the one I grew up with. He was half beagle and half border collie. He'd run off, track and chase down whatever it was he was after and then herd the damn thing(s) until you got there.
It didn't even seem to matter what it was - cows, chickens, my little cousin...
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Not necessarily a bad thing...
My mom told me that when I was little I'd encourage the dog to dig under the fence. Then I'd use the hole to get out of the fence, at which point the dog would start barking at me. She was perfectly willing to dig for me, but knew we weren't supposed to be out of the yard...
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However, it was absolutely hilarious to watch him herd chickens and the cows just kind of looked at him like "WTF??" as he moved them to where he wanted them.
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Beagles, incidentally, are notorious (bred, actually) for running off to hunt something down they find interesting, and then expecting you to catch up."
yes, and as such the owner should take proper precautions.
The GPS doesn't stop any of those things from happening. Or am I supposed to believe the person that can't secure the pet will be consistently and reliable waiting for an email about said pet?
"GPS sounds like an ideal solution for unprepared pet owners."
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Heck, your house should be properly secured against fire right? So I guess you don't need smoke alarms then.
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Beagles, incidentally, are notorious (bred, actually) for running off to hunt something down they find interesting, and then expecting you to catch up.
Screw the text message to the phone.... ... and hope that the government doesn't reactivate selective availability!
Instead have the thing attached to a shock collar which sounds a tone, then starts zapping the farther from the house it is. You won't even need fences after a while.
Dog: "No, I don't want to go for a walk!"
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Taking it a step further, if you LOST a pet...$10 per month doesn't seem like much to *greatly* increase the chance of getting it back.
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Making a unit such as this water resistant isn't difficult either. There are seperate pool alarms you can get as well, for families that have pools.
For civilians (Score:2, Interesting)
Insurance (Score:2, Interesting)
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Yes, that's what it does. If your car is stolen, it can use satellites to relay the position to the Lo-Jack folks.
It's easy to put the system on a car since you can get the 12V 1A power easily and the smoke-detector-sized transmitter isn't adding much weight to the car.
The devices in TFA are probably pager or cellular tech. You can get smaller satellite transmitters but they would be quite expensive. I built one board that's about the size of a Bic lighter and is suitable for implanting into a duck
Re:Insurance (Score:5, Informative)
They also have an early warning system which I have on one of my cars and it's more annoying than anything. Basically if your car moves without the little box you keep on your key chain being present within the vehicle, you get a phone call / email / or text message (your choice) alerting you. The only problem is you have to change the battery every couple of months or you get false positives.
After having my neighbors truck stolen from right next to my open bedroom window one night, I decided I wanted something more than just a normal alarm (he had an alarm, his truck was locked, we never heard a thing and he never got his truck back) so I went with LoJack.
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This has absolutely... (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft does the same thing (Score:3, Funny)
Better yet, MS should attach them to chairs (Score:3, Funny)
What's Wrong? (Score:4, Funny)
Millions of dollars in inventory turned up missing (Score:4, Funny)
C. J.: What? Okay, back up. How in the hell do you "turn up missing"?
Mahalik: 'Cause nobody knows where you are when they realize you ain't there!
C. J.: So you telling me that you can appear and disappear at the same time.
Mahalik: No, man. You can't appear and disappear at the same time. The bitch ain't David Copperfield!
C. J.: Mmm. No, no. But you can't be gone from one place and show up somewhere else entirely. So when you turn up, you're never missing. And when you're missing, you never turn up.
Mahalik: Unless... you a zombie.
C. J.: Damn! Hey, that's some plausible shit right there. You should blog about that.
Mahalik: I'm gonna put that on MySpace.
C. J.: You do that!
I used to do this stuff (Score:5, Interesting)
I work for what's left of a company that actually managed to go bust developing this stuff.
We faced several challenges with the technology. Power consumption gave us ulcers, as did mobile network coverage. This is a non-issue in the city, but just wait until you're out of town.
GPS wanders around enough from fix to fix, even with WAAS, that it can be tricky to compare fixes to detect movement, or to track movement of less than 50 meters. Oh, and the GPS needs to be able to hear satellite signals. Good luck on that.
Finally, once you have a fix back at your server, you need to make it meaningful to the user. They do not generally want a bare latitude and longitude. They want to know what street their car is on. When the parents want to know if the kids take the car too far from home, they want to enter a street address, not a latitude and longitude. This is harder to get right than it looks.
Favourite application: tracking sub-prime used cars so repo men can find them.
...laura
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It does take bare latitude and longitude coordinates and displays you a map.
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While the rest of us laugh.
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If you ever feel like chatting about things im me and say hi!
From another GPS data slave...
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Check out the demo of how it works. They only give a location to the nearest intersection. This isn't very useful if your kid was abducted and whisked away into a large apartment complex. You know he is around somewhere, but out of sight. These would be much more use
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Actually a good map with the real coordinates is much more useful than just an intersection. Interfacing with Google maps for example can pinpoint the stolen car in that 2 car garage, instead of just letting you know it's at 119th and Maple. Frustrated users who can't tell which backyard their pet is in will de
Re:Demo of raw data use on Google (Score:2)
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=off&q=Finding+lat+lon+on+google+maps&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl [google.com]
Just plug in the coordinates in the map search bar as "44.077967 -121.314898" using format Lat.XXXXXX in decimal and Lon.XXXXXX in decimal. Use a minus for South Latitudes an West Longitudes. The above example is in a golf course in Bend Oregon USA
hiding them in some cellphone boxes? (Score:3, Insightful)
Am I missing something here? Don't mobile phones already have GPS (at least here in the USA)? And unique ID numbers burnt into them? Sure, another always-on GPS device could be handy for as long as the battery lasts (which begs the question of why can the battery last longer in the tiny GPS bug than it lasts in a consumer targeted GPS unit), but it would seem that most mobile phone thefts that could be caught with this GPS bug would be caught and tracked down as soon as the thief or buyer of the stolen property tried to use the phone anyway, and the phone could either be made useless (greatly reducing the incentive for theft) or let working (to help track down whoever has it, just as the GPS bug would do).
This sounds like something that was invented by the Department of Redundancy Department.
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Having a device that you can move between boxes as you ship them might be easier to do.
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1. the GPS trackers are probably "always on" whereas phones in the box are turned off -this allows tracking of things like a case or pallet of cellphones that go missing from a truck or warehouse.....and end up in a flea market somewhere.
2. cellphone 'gps-like location service' is done by tower triangulation and won't work where there is no reception -this is why GPS on cell is still more useful -if you are lost in the backwoods cell triangulation will probably do you no good whereas GPS could save
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Similar to how expensive cars get stolen and can't be easily tracked with things like LoJack. It's very easy to convert a trailer into a mobile Faraday (sp?) cage. Would probably even easier just to use cheap radio t
Re:hiding them in some cellphone boxes? (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, mobile phones (some of them) have GPS. Yes, mobile phones have unique ID numbers. What you are missing is that "mobile phones" are not the same as "mobile phones in boxes" - as the former (generally) have their battery charged and installed and are powered up, while the latter are inert and those fancy functions don't work.
Using the phones built in features allows you to catch a single end user - once the phone has trickled from thief to fence to dealer to end user. Using a GPS bug you can track the phone through the entire chain and catch the guys at the start of the chain rather than catching the guys at the end and working up. From a LEO and a Loss Prevention point of view, this is much more efficient and effective.
Dear Ms. Besa (Score:2, Funny)
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The worst was when he bolted one night during deer hunting season. He chewed through his choker collar that night. part of it was still on his chain. a GPS locater that night would have made us all a bit happier.
W.T.F. ? (Score:5, Funny)
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A.T.M. machines? What are they? Machines that make Automated Teller Machines or something? Not so regular where I come from...
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Any grammar nerds/nazis know how a word stops being an acronym? I've always wondered how S.C.U.B.A became scuba and L.A.S.E.R. became laser.
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APRS leading the way (Score:4, Interesting)
But, I think a lot of people would willingly turn on such a feature (say, on a mobile phone with a GPS chip and a GPRS connection.
Re:APRS leading the way (Score:4, Interesting)
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Sadly, that's the problem. Once 'most people' already use self-tracking, it becomes suspicious not to. I don't have anything to hide (honest), but I want to make sure some people have the option of not being tracked. Some of them want to steal cars. Others want to make political protests. I think it's worth putting up with the former to allow the latter.
It's still a neat gadget t
So it works under cars? (Score:5, Funny)
Anyway, I read the article to our beagle and asked her opinion. She points out that beagles do not run away, they are called away on urgent tracking business. She feels that any human that hangs out with beagles and wants to attach tracking boxes to them is a distrustful person who possibly lacks the right spiritual qualities. She also reminds me that she can detect a beagle treat coming out of the bag across three fields, and that in any case anyone who has trouble with beagles taking off is simply not taking them for sufficiently long walks. She thinks I should notify the ASPCA before relations completely break down between this unfortunate beagle and its lazy, distrustful owner.
Keeping track of photos (Score:2)
Tiny GPS For Cat Tracking? (Score:2)
Does anyone know of a tiny GPS logger that could be used for tracking cats?
I have a co-worker who has a couple of outdoor cats, and one often goes on trips for a day or longer, not coming home. When he comes back she wonders where he has been (and the rest of us are a little curious as this seems to happen relatively often).
I would be great to have a little GPS logger that would just keep track of where he had been so we could try to see what he's been up to. The device mentioned in the article is interes
Cat Cam (Score:2)
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There is a radio-based cat tracker called the CatLocator [thecatlocator.com], but it won't keep a real time log of where your cat has been. It's only good when you need to find the cat...and then you have to walk around like a dork with big attenna and a box that goes "doot...doot...doot... doot doot doot doot"
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Real-time tracking would be even more fun, but these devices tend to be too bulky and/or expensive, like the Garmin Astro or the thing from the article. The GPS logger, as you suggested, is the next step down and I think it could still be ver
Ham radio alternative (Score:4, Interesting)
The advantage of using dumb old radios is that you can operate independent of any fixed infrastructure, so it's usable even where you don't have cell coverage.
Tracking something small like a dog (I've had inquiries about kangaroos, too) introduces the problem of antenna placement, though. APRS is typically used on the 2-meter band, which means a quarter-wave vertical antenna is half a meter long. I did once put a passive data logger on my cat [blogspot.com], and found that she roams a little more widely than I thought, but that doesn't really count.
The advantage of relatively low frequencies and high transmit power is that you can cover a radius of 20 miles from one mountaintop digipeater (equivalent to a cell site), and they're not difficult to make solar powered.
There's a nationwide digipeater network in the US, and most of Europe is covered as well, along with much of New Zealand, Australia, and many other countries. I think there are at least two APRS-capable satellites on orbit too, though PCSAT-1 is dying. Internet gateways are all over the place, so you can map APRS stations online [aprs.fi], and not have to maintain any receive-side hardware of your own.
I'm constantly surprised by the applications people come up with for this stuff. The most recent I heard was someone with a cable TV company who found that he could drive around and transmit at low power every couple of seconds and use a receiver back at the headend to plot ingress leaks in the cable system.
Add to that the fact that you can do two-way text messaging, weather, and telemetry, and it's more than worth the hassle of taking a simple multiple-choice license exam. It's this sort of thing that's going to save ham radio (if anything can) - talking to people around the world just doesn't interest people as much these days, when it's so easy to do on the Internet or the phone.
Zoombak Ad (Score:2)
Considering it's a beagle.. (Score:2)
Not new (Score:2)
Galileo (Score:2)
Another enabling technology - oh boy (Score:2)
But what they've actually developed is a small, inexpensive GPS tracking device. Small enough and cheap enough so that almost anyone can track almost anything. As production ramps up they'll get even smaller and cheaper.
I can imagine all the fun and thrills: track your kids, your spouse, your employees - what fun! This isn't some cheap RFID solution; this little beauty will find them ac
Is there a way to do this for free? (Score:2)
Can I do this without paying someone $10/month?
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Two ways: APRS, as already mentioned, or look for open WiFi and use it.
We tried the latter. It almost worked.
...laura
Poor Buddy... bad cell phone messages... (Score:5, Funny)
"Buddy has left the preferences"
"Buddy is in the neighbor's trash"
"Buddy is running into the street"
"Buddy is in the same position as a Chevy Suburban"
"Buddy is stopped on the street"
"A google satellite photo is attached with a picture of Buddy"
"Google Adwords has selected "Shovel" as something that you might need with Buddy."
"Novel" applications? (Score:2)
I feel a raft of very bad patents coming on...
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Re:Old people (Score:5, Interesting)
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Many nursing homes do that. Instead of the cost of a cell subscription and tracking, and recharging batteries, they typically simply use it for perimeter control. It works like store anti-shoplifting tags. They put them in the shoes, so if the shoes try to cross a mat at the door, the alarm at the door goes of
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Many elderly patients have tender feet and don't make it past the parking lot. Most all always wear shoes. As part of my old tech job service calls was part of the job. I have seen it in action. The patients rarely venture off the carpet or tile without shoes. The hardier patients simply get the tags in other clothing items, walking aids, wheel
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My second was: "Ah, so obvious - they just added a GPS to Netware servers. Now we won't have to trace the ethernet cable to find that 10 year old server that suddenly went down."