GPS and Wireless Technologies

mtrack is a unique wireless GSM/RF-based stolen goods recovery system which is both Thatcham Q-rated and Sold Secure Gold Award recognized in the UK. It currently works in the UK and Ireland only, but coverage is being finalized for Europe with a leading mobile communications corporation.

A small 220g box, that fits in the palm of your hand, it has no wires and no external antenna. You can place it yourself discreetly everywhere on, in or under your car or almost any other valuable asset. With the factory default setting the incorporated battery will last approximately 4 years.

The unit has inbuilt motion sensors and geo-fences can be programmed to alarm if your car is moved without authorization. An additional key fob is available for remote activation to alarm the car manually, allowing the unit to trigger if the vehicle is moved from its defined location.

How does it work?

It uses a combination of mobile phone signals (GSM) and radio frequencies (RF) to give at first a macro location to a 1-mile radius from the unit. By using 'time in advance' function through the GSM and RF signals the operator can eliminate 2 thirds of the search area. RF signals are then used by a national search and recovery team using specialist detectors to pinpoint your unit accurate to 1 meter.

More info on the mtrack website at http://www.mtrackonline.co.uk/

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September 10, 2005 15:07 - AIS is as important as radar and GPS

AIS stands for Automatic Identification System.

AIS is a shipboard transponder system that makes it possible to monitor ships from other ships and from shore based stations. Ships equipped with AIS will continually transmit their position, course, speed and other relevant data via dedicated VHF frequencies. Other AIS equipped ships will receive the vessel's information, anywhere on earth, without shore side interference, and will be able to identify and track it on the electronic navigation chart (ECDIS), radar (ARPA) or voyage data recorder (VDR).

The operation of AIS depends on the Self Organizing Time Division Multiple Access (SOTDMA) data communication technology. It allows for large numbers of transmitters to share one single narrowband radio channel, by synchronizing their data transmission to an exact timing standard. Under SOTDMA each minute of time is divided into 2250 timeslots or 26.67 ms each timeslot. With a transmission speed of 9.6 kbps this translates into 256 Bits/time-slot, sufficient for one AIS report. The exact timing signal of the GPS receiver is essential to synchronize the timeslots of communicating AIS ships, as well as providing the position data for each ship.

AIS has to be fitted aboard ships of 300 gross tonnage and upwards engaged on international voyages, cargo ships of 500 gross tonnage and upwards not engaged on international voyages and all passenger ships irrespective of size.

Really strong points of AIS

AIS can identify targets on the other side of a cape, which is very useful in rocky coastal waters. And it can look around bends on inland waterways. It improves prediction of a target's path by taking into account its rate of turn (ROT). It extends radar's range. The range of the system is the VHF horizon for each AIS-ship, with the ship in the centre of its own communication area. The names of all AIS-ships in this area are plotted on the screen, which is very useful when hailing them on VHF.

Three types of AIS systems

Class A AIS systems

Class A systems are intended for vessels meeting the requirements of IMO AIS carriage requirement. Prices range from $3,500 to $6,000.

Class B AIS systems

Class B systems are nearly identical to Class A systems, but they are less sophisticated and send out less information than Class A systems. They will hit the market by the end of 2005 for prices around $1,000. Class B systems are very suitable for recreational boaters who want to be seen by the big vessels in their vicinity.

Receive-only AIS units

These sets transmit nothing, but they do receive signals from vessels with Class A or Class B systems and the provide ship names, MMSI numbers, course and speed of the other vessels. Some of these units plug directly into a computer with a navigation program that is AIS-ready. It is important to note that not every manufacturer's chart plotter will accept AIS information. Navigation programs from Fugawi, MaxSea, Nobeltec, Transas and The Capn are all AIS-ready.

More Info...

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September 16, 2005 18:09 - SlopeTracker provides a personalized map of your ski day.

SlopeTracker is a 3 oz GPS tracking armband that tracks detailed statistics of every second you are on a mountain. It is available at resort kiosks or guest services.

SlopeTracker gives snowriders the ability to improve and excel in their sport by providing a self-diagnostic tool which tracks:

• Number of Runs
• Vertical Footage
• Distance
• Top Speed
• Steeps (average grades)
• Skill Score
• Hours Resting
• Calories Burned
• Difficulty Rating
• Run Details
• Hours Riding
• Database Comparison

At the end of the day the SlopeTracker participant returns the tracking device to the distribution center, where he/she receives a poster-quality frame ready printout, containing a beautifully rendered 3D map of the mountain that shows the runs skied or snowboarded in sequential order, as well as a tabular representation of the individual's daily statistics.

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September 20, 2005 17:54 - A nice travel companion: the nüvi

The Garmin nüvi combines a GPS navigator with a SiRFstarIII chip, language translator and travel guide capability, a MP3 player, an audio book player, a currency and measurement converter, a world clock, and a digital photo organizer--all in one slim, sleek, and easy-to-use device.

The optional Garmin Language Guide, with data provided by Oxford University Press, contains a multilingual word bank, phrase bank, and five bilingual dictionaries. The multilingual word bank and phrase bank supports nine languages and dialects including American English, British English, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, European Spanish, and Latin American Spanish.

The Language Guide lets travelers look up and translate more than 17,000 words or 20,000 phrases per language. Through the unit's text-to-speech interface, users can get a spoken pronunciation of each entry in the word bank - along with gender and part of speech information. The multilingual phrase bank is categorized by activity for ease of use.

The nüvi also supports the new Garmin Travel Guide SD data cards. With information provided by Marco Polo - one of Europe's leading travel authorities - these guides put in-depth travel information at the user's fingertips - helpful reviews and recommendations for restaurants, hotels, shopping, nightlife, sporting events, and tourist attractions. Both the Garmin Language Guide and Garmin Travel Guide are available separately on SD data cards. Once the Garmin Language Guide is installed, users can remove the card to free up the SD slot for other purposes, such as the Garmin Travel Guide.

Travelers can use the nüvi to navigate to an address or search points of interest (POI's) - places like hotels, restaurants, shopping, and tourist attractions. The nüvi automatically calculates the fastest route and provides voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions along the way. Thanks to the nüvi's text-to-speech functionality*, the unit audibly announces the name of upcoming streets - letting drivers keep their eyes on the road while navigating through busy traffic and tricky roadways. If users stray off course, the device automatically calculates the quickest way to get back on track.

In Europe, customers can purchase one of eight regional map coverage areas (the nüvi 300), or opt for full European mapping (the nüvi 350). North American versions include pre-loaded maps of the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico.

*Text-to-speech functionality is available only on the nüvi 350.

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September 30, 2005 15:26 - Thanks to SUPL, A-GPS can finally take off at large scale

Current A-GPS solutions are based on the so-called "control plane architecture", which requires extensive modifications of the mobile network infrastructure in line with the 3GPP location services standard. This "control plane" approach, while highly reliable, secure and appropriate for emergency services, is costly.

Advantages of this approach are:

• the ability to initiate network-based location queries independent of end-user device intervention
• the ability to locate devices regardless of their in-use or available state
• little-to-no device battery power consumption

The biggest disadvantage is that these proprietary A-GPS systems work only with devices from specific manufacturers.

Thanks to the Open Mobile Alliance's SUPL (Secure User Plane for Location) standard, which just is released or will be released one of these days, mobile devices from different manufacturers will be able to exchange A-GPS data with all mobile communication networks.

A "user plane" solution is an A-GPS system where communication between server and mobile device runs over a normal data connection, for example GPRS. Integrating a user plane solution takes advantage of protocols and interfaces that already exist in the core and radio networks.

In user plane location architectures application intelligence usually resides within the mobile client rather than server-side.

Advantages are:

• the ability to quickly update location locally on the device with minimal network costs
• the ability to use location locally within a smart client application
• inexpensively push location to servers for processing, all possible through IP connections independent of the circuit-switched network

User plane location access methods are very well suited for user-initiated device centric applications such as navigation, gaming, high-frequency location polling for tracking, photomarking, geocaching, and other applications that make use of user-generated content.

Will 2006 finally bring GPS receivers with an incorporated GPRS modem?

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