Every animal wearing its own RFID ear tag is one thing, but who has to scan these tags, when and where? At Kansas State University tests are done with automatic animal scanning at the time that cattle is loaded on or off a truck.
It is with transportation that one can loose track of animals. In the tests cattle hauling trucks are equipped with an RFID reader that reads the tags when the animals pass over the chute. A GPS receiver in the truck automatically identifies the location of where animals are loaded or unloaded.
This information, together with each animal's 15-digit identification code is stored in a handheld computer in the truck and automatically transferred to a central database via a cellular network.
If all animals had RFID ear tags and all cattle hauling trucks would be equipped with these technologies, not one single animal would get lost, not even once.
It will take years to realize a complete system, but there are incentives. McDonalds already pays premium for U.S. beef it purchases from suppliers who can provide birth-to-slaughter traceability. Some packers also are paying premiums and Japan demands source and age verification, once it will lift the U.S. beef ban that has been in place since the mad cow scare in December 2003.
One day we will be informed with more details about the steak we are eating.
A GPS tracker is a combination of a GPS receiver and a cellular modem. With these two tiny devices incorporated in every vehicle's engine computer, lots of services will become available for every driver.
Every driver can enjoy a GPS navigation system at a relatively low cost. Only software needs to be added. This will result in many more relaxed drivers who drive calmer and do not waste time and gas. They choose the exact right roads to travel. This will result in a safer and less fuel consuming daily traffic.
This does not exclude traffic accidents, but when they occur, rescue services can be alerted automatically with the exact location of where the accident took place, like GM's Onstar does.
The onboard computer can gather all kinds of information about the physical condition of the car and the engine and send it directly to the automobile dealer, where it is diagnosed. If some condition needs an inspection by a service technician, your dealer can send you a message, asking you to pass by. Urgently or at your best convenience, dependent on the seriousness of the diagnosis. This will result in better serviced cars that will be safer and more efficient with gas.
In case a car is stolen, it will be much easier to recover it. Once you communicate your car's identity to the police, they can track it down to within a couple of meters.
And once the system knows where you drive, when and at which speed, it will be easy to determine your insurance premium in function of the calculated risk. Norwich Union in the UK has already introduced their pay-as-you-drive car insurance, aimed at young drivers. The insurer offers those aged 18 to 23 the chance to pay insurance according to when and where they drive. For journeys between 6am and 11pm they pay only 6p a mile, but that rockets to £1 after 11pm, when most accidents involving inexperienced drivers occur.
All those drivers who drive at the wrong place at the wrong time, causing huge traffic jams, can be stimulated to search for alternative solutions by letting them pay some serious money when they wish to continue causing lots of troubles and lots of air pollution. It simply is not logic that someone who drives 5,000 miles a year on quiet roads during the quiet moments of the day and the week, must pay the same amount of road tax as someone who drives 150,000 miles a year during the most impossible hours on the most congested roads. With a GPS tracker everyone can be billed for the amount of problems and pollution that he contributes to society.
At the same time all toll stations can be eliminated. Another major cause of congestion, caused by cars that have to stop at those stations, will no longer exist.
Lots of tourists already take their GPS Street Routing solution with them for a holiday in a foreign country or opt for a rental car with GPS Navigation. This is especially useful if you know where you want to go or have to search for fixed addresses. Problem is that for most countries on this globe there are no electronic street maps available and these systems will not help at all.
Tourist paper maps are available for almost all tourist destinations. Together with an ordinary non-mapping GPS receiver they are a very useful means to help you find your way and not get lost.
Another step further is scanning these maps, geo-code (calibrate) them for use with a program like OziExplorer for the pocketPC. This will work in any region of the world for which you can find paper tourist maps. For those who like to explore, this is a very nice solution. And if a separate GPS receiver and a pocketPC, with the wiring, is too much of a hassle, you can always opt for a Garmin iQue, a Navman PiN or a Mio, which are PDAs with an incorporated GPS receiver.
But what about detailed information for your destination?
You will have to find it out yourself by means of books, internet, travel guides and brochures, BEFORE you leave your home for a holiday. For many, us included, this is the most exciting part of a holiday in strange territory. But this is rather limited in usefulness, especially if you do not want to plan in detail and never know where you will end up during a vacation.
GPS and clever software will come to help
Tourists worldwide always ask driving and walking directions at hotel concierge desks. Early September 2005 Rosewood Hotels announced that it will offer a high-tech option for finding local attractions: the NaviGuide program. Guests can obtain a Garmin iQue M3 that has street-level map data and specific points of interest in the Dallas and New York areas. Users can request a route for walking or driving, and choose between a 3D view of what is ahead or a 2D overhead view. They can choose from a list of the most popular destinations, or type in a desired address. A customer-made version of the software can contain much more information about a limited area around the hotel than what clients can find on their own devices with a general map of a whole country or region.
GPS Multi-Media Inc. has released "CityShow", a handheld, GPS-based Tour Guide System for New York City, available to the public by rental. Consisting of a hand-held PDA computer, a GPS receiver and a pair of headphones, CityShow delivers location-based tourist information to New York City visitors. As people wander the streets of Manhattan, CityShow tells them where they are, what they are near, and delivers appropriate history, stories, music, photos and other information and provides the locations of the nearest subway stations and public restrooms.
In San Francisco the company Electric Time has a fleet of 27 brightly colored mini electric cars with in-built GPS receiver. The system guides tourists on a route where they pass all the main sights of the city. Voice turning instructions and a narration of facts about all interesting sights come through the car's loudspeaker.
GoCar in San Francisco uses three-wheel bright yellow mini cars with an old-fashioned motor that takes patrol. Also linked up to GPS for sightseeing information and directions, the 2m long cars travel about 45km/h. GoCar bills its vehicles as "storytelling" cars.
The electric-car tourist company Blobject SL in the Spanish town of Córdoba uses battery-powered GEMs, or Global Electric Motorcars, equipped with GPS technology that provides passengers with location information. The GPS system is connected to a touch-screen computer mounted in the dash. A memory card inserted into a USB (Universal Service Bus) port provides information in English, French and Spanish on more than 150 attractions in Córdoba, one of Spain's most famous cities. When passengers pass within 100 meters of an attraction, its name appears on the 8-inch touch-screen, which they can press to access additional information in the form of text and pictures, as well as video and audio.
Unlike a static map, ViewRanger from Augmentra provides a 3D panoramic view of your location - where all the main landscape features are identified and 'tagged'. Hills are named, woodlands and lakes identified, and villages, towns, and prominent landmarks are shown. ViewRanger is ideal for tourists, walkers, cyclists, mountain bikers, river boaters - in fact anyone who enjoys the outdoors. Next time you are out and wonder "Which hill is that over there?" or "What town is that on the horizon?" then ViewRanger can provide the answer.
ViewRanger uses your actual location (calculated with GPS) and licensed data from the Ordnance Survey to calculate an accurate three dimensional panorama view of the ground terrain surrounding your location. ViewRanger then creates ViewTags on this panorama to indicate the main points-of-interest in your field of view. These ViewTags enable you to identify thousands of features within your horizon, including hills, towns, and woodland. You can even add photographs and comments to any point-of-interest, sharing information with friends, colleagues and other ViewRanger users. This makes ViewRanger great for holiday photo's, recording sightings of flora or wildlife, and for sharing information on your favourite places.
ViewRanger works on Series60 mobile handsets in conjunction with a NMEA Bluethooth GPS receiver. MapPaks are available for the UK National Parks. To access information associated with points-of-interest and to access the ViewRanger server, you need a GPRS or 3G internet subscription (such as Orange World Access) from your mobile network provider.
The iPointer system from Intelligent Spatial Technologies, Inc. (iST) empowers users to explore a predefined area, pointing and learning at will. Users select items of interest and the iPointer delivers multimedia information based on the user's geographic location and orientation. Unlike current proximity-dependent self-guided tour technology, the iPointer system is comprised of global positioning system (GPS) and digital compass technology integrated into a mobile device, a wireless network, and iST's geospatial database. This combination of technologies gives iPointer users unprecedented freedom to explore an area, selecting what and when to be informed.
When users wish to identify a landmark, they point the hand-held device and press a button. The iPointer device receives coordinate signals from GPS satellites and orientation information from the digital magnetic compass to identify the user's location and device's pointing angle. These coordinates are then sent over the wireless network to the database. iST's geospatial database's selection algorithms identify the selected landmark and sends information back over the wireless network to be displayed in text, visuals and audio on the user's device.
iST is developing initial applications for installations on corporate and college campuses, historic areas and theme parks in the US.
The Node Explorer from location based media company Node in Usk, South Wales is a robust location aware media player - a small hand held computer with stereo headphones, which downloads relevant information from a server, guiding the user, via GPS (Global Positioning System), as they walk around their environment. The Explorer's integrated location sensors and hidden wireless technology are able to pinpoint the exact location of its user, triggering high quality images and broadcast quality sound and video, in the form most suitable, such as language, age group, and particular interest or special needs.
The unique and hard wearing Explorer will appeal to people of all ages. It has been designed by Node for public hire use in indoor and outdoor environments; it has a rugged, shock resistant, waterproof casing making it suitable in all weathers. In fact, it is water proof to 1 meter, meaning it can be recovered from puddles and ponds! It has a non-reflective touch screen, and full day battery life. It is easy to grip and hold onto with a neck strap making it easy to carry. It is simple to clean and sterilize and easy to charge - a full charge takes around 3 hours.
The Explorer provides the ultimate platform for location aware, interactive experiences in open spaces, such as city parks, urban thoroughfares and country estates.
