GPS and Wireless Technologies

This is a news report about everything GPS and Wireless Technologies GPS and Wireless Technologies are more performant when used together. We will inform you about exotic technologies like RFID, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, ZigBee, Flash-OFDM, NFC, UWB, wireless USB etc. More Info...

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July 15, 2005 13:26 - Does this mean that you can be tracked with RFID?

Did you read the news of July 13? I.D. Systems, Inc. announced that its RFID-based equipment tracking system, the Wireless Asset NET, has been enhanced with greater location tracking accuracy. The system can now pinpoint the location of mobile assets to within 20 feet, indoors as well as outdoors.

How does this work?

A Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system consists of two components: the Tranceiver (a transmitter and receiver in one), often called the Reader and Transponders (from transmitter and responder), often called the Tags.

The readers send Radio Frequency signals in regular time intervals. When the tags receive enough energy from these signals, they respond by transmitting the information in their memory. Often this is not more than a unique identification number.

If one does not only want to read these identification numbers, but also wants to know where the tags are situated, the readers must be placed at fixed locations and be linked to a central computer system. They become the reference points in the system. If three or more readers receive the signal from one particular tag, the tag's position can be calculated by triangulation of the signal to the different readers. Each tag's position is calculated in the central computer, not in the tags.

The radio frequency energy that the readers are allowed to send out is limited by international regulations. Only a small fraction of this energy will reach the tags and they at their turn send back a fraction of that fraction of the energy to the readers.

So it will not be a surprise that the range in which readers and tags can communicate with each other is very limited. This varies from 6 feet for low-frequency RFID systems to 90 feet for high-frequency systems. However, the higher the frequency, the more expensive the system will be.

In order to be able to locate a tag on every spot in a warehouse, production plant, outdoor car parking, etc. there must be at least three (needed for triangulation of the signals) readers within, let's say, 50 feet from any place in the facility.

Now we can answer the question from the headline.

Yes, if you have a tag in your hand or in your clothes or even in your shoes, the system can track you, as long as you are within the space with the RFID readers, indoors or outdoors.

And GPS?

In a GPS system the reference points are the GPS satellites high in the sky. As long as a GPS receiver (the tag) has a more or less open view to the sky, it can calculate its position. Here, the position is calculated in the receiver (the tag). GPS does not perform well or even not at all indoors.

A GPS tracking device has also a cell phone modem built-in. It is through this modem that its position is transmitted to the person who wants to track you (or better your device). So with a GPS tracking system you can be tracked everywhere on Earth, on land, at sea or in the air.

More Info...

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July 18, 2005 15:36 - Let's ask for it

In an article by Richard Bloor for SymbianOne, Oskar Lampel, Sony Ericsson's Smartphone Product Manager, answered the following question:

Has this interest in navigation software affected the planning for future devices?

"Today I believe GPS hardware is too bulky to practically add it to smartphones," says Oskar. "There is also the issue of cost. Until we see a significant proportion of users demanding these types of applications the justification for adding GPS to the devices is limited. Separate GPS units give the user flexibility. However I don't think it will be too long before GPS is built in as we are starting to see a desire from operators for better positioning information for their location based applications, as network methods are not very good."

Motorola can do it and in Japan and South Korea it is already common practice.

So, if you are also sick of carrying two separate devices, please ask as often as you can for a Smartphone with GPS incorporated. And they will build it. More Info...

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July 18, 2005 18:49 - Those evil technologies

Read on PersonnelToday.com on July 18, 2005:

QUOTE

Union calls for halt to RFID tracking of workers

The GMB is calling on the European Commission to legislate to outlaw the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) and GPS satellite linked wearable computers to tag and track workers in the workplace. Retailers including Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer and Tesco were faced with the charge of "dehumanising their workforce" in June, after research from the GMB union claimed the use of electronic tagging for staff was on the rise. The report by Michael Blakemore, a professor at Durham University, found that companies - predominately those supplying goods to supermarkets - were increasingly requiring staff to wear devices on their wrists and fingers that tell them which goods to pick in different areas of warehouses. However, the GMB claims the devices also register how long it takes workers to go from one part of the warehouse to another, what breaks the workers require, and how long they need to go to the toilet. "Any deviation from these times is not tolerated," it said.

UNQUOTE

These technologies will be standard in robots, who do not need to go to the toilet. More Info...

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July 22, 2005 00:02 - New member of the Wireless Family: Wi-Mesh

Currently, a wireless Wi-Fi access point, or hotspot, requires its own wired connection to the core network. With a wireless mesh, a single wire connection could handle multiple access points. High-speed wireless Internet communications using a Wi-Fi mesh system would then be bounced from point to point around the mesh until the packets found a connection. Nortel has joined forces with a handful of partners to push a new wireless local area network (WLAN) technology, designed to extend the reach of Wi-Fi networks. The companies have established the Wi-Mesh Alliance (WiMA) to create a standard for "mesh" wireless networks. Mesh networks can increase wireless coverage in large areas, such as cities, a campus, a military base and airports, without the need for multiple wires to connect the wireless access points to the core network. Because mesh networks are self-configuring, any applications running on these networks are automatically integrated with any new access points.

The WiMA proposal is, together with 14 others, under review by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) task group "s" (TGs). The IEEE is expected to select a mesh network standard (802.11s) by May 2006.

Extensions will be proposed to make certain aspects of Wi-Fi, such as 802.11i for security and 802.11e for voice and video Quality of Service (QoS), work seamlessly with 802.11s. That way, not just the link between client and access point would be encrypted, but data would stay secure as it made hops all around the mesh network.

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July 24, 2005 02:24 - How does real-time GPS tracking work?

About GPS tracking the most fantastic stories circulate. Here we will explain how it really works and what is possible and impossible Read more...

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July 26, 2005 01:20 - Is WiFi a substitute for GPS?

In cities it can do a good job in determining your location. Anyway, Microsoft is convinced of the possibilities. It has dispatched cars to drive many city and suburban streets across the US to locate the signals sent out by millions of short-range home and office wireless WiFi networks. They collected the unique identifier, known as a MAC address that every WiFi network broadcasts.

By recording the position of every MAC address on a giant map, they created a positioning system that would make it possible for anyone with a WiFi-enabled laptop computer to identify their location to within 30 meters.

But Microsoft is not the only company that believes in it. The 2003 Boston start-up Skyhook Wireless (formerly known as Quarterscope) has driven all those roads before in order to create a same kind of database with the position of every MAC address. The database can be downloaded to any Windows or Windows Mobile client device, or accessed by the client, via a Web link, on servers maintained by Skyhook. The database is being ported to PalmOS this summer.

As the client software interacts with the database, new access points are identified, and those that have moved can be relocated. This way the database is being continuously updated.

Skyhood calls the system Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS). WPS won't require any additional hardware to turn Wi-FI devices into 802.11-based GPS. It will work just as well indoors and out. The denser the number of Access Points (APs), the better. In most cities there are 8 to 15 APs at any given point of use.

Let's hope that Skyhook has patented their WPS system. After all, it is a software-only solution……

More Info...

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July 26, 2005 23:22 - He just ripped off his GPS bracelet and fled

William Gilbert Lightner, classified as a violent sex offender, cut off his GPS surveillance bracelet and disappeared. The probation officers in District Four only discovered this fact after a day, because the bracelet was a "passive" GPS system. If it had been a "real-time" GPS tracking device, they would have known it within 10 minutes. Read everything about Sex Offender Tracking on our dedicated Offender Tracking page.

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July 30, 2005 16:58 - Not to be confused: GPS and GPRS

GPS stands for Global Positioning System. It is the constellation of about 30 GPS satellites that send the GPS signals to the Earth. GPS receivers pick up these signals and when 4 or more good signals can be captured the device can calculate its position on or around our planet. Ever more people use them for Navigation and Tracking purposes.

GPRS stands for General Packet Radio Service. It is a mobile data service available to users of GSM mobile phones. It is often described as "2.5G", that is, a technology between the second (2G) and third (3G) generations of mobile telephony. It provides moderate speed data transfer, by using unused TDMA channels in the GSM network.

BUT…a real-time GPS tracking device has to send its location in narrow time intervals to a server, where these positions can be plotted on a map. These data signals are sent via GPRS on a GSM mobile phone network. This is often called an 'always on connection'. GPS and GPRS are used in the same device, but are two totally different technologies.

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July 31, 2005 00:43 - GSM Coverage Maps and Roaming Information

We are often asked for information about worldwide GSM Coverage and Roaming possibilities. All that information can be found on the following section of the GSM World website.

This section provides detailed information about network operators worldwide that offer services from the GSM family of Wireless Communications. Specific details included within this section are network, roaming, services and coverage information for over 650 networks in 210 countries/areas of the world.

The information found within this section is supplied by and approved by the GSM Association and its members.

GSM World web site

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