dailywireless.org » GPS Tracking: In a Shoe, On a Bike

GPS Tracking: In a Shoe, On a Bike

Operator: “What number are you calling?”
Smart: “I’m calling Control, Operator.”
Operator: “You have dialed incorrectly. Give me your name and address and your dime will be refunded.”
Smart: “Operator, I’m calling from my shoe!”
Operator: “What is the number of your shoe?”
Smart: “It’s an unlisted shoe, Operator!”
– Get Smart

GTX Corp. says they’ve got the world’s first GPS system in a shoe (tech specs and graphic).

The GPS device and GPS locator software is designed to meld seamlessly into your lifestyle, while monitoring the whereabouts of “loved ones”.

GTX says it’s the smallest, lightest, and most durablel electronics package on the market today. The interchangeable, waterproof and shock-proof modules, can be moved from one shoe to the next and use an enfora Enabler II GSM/GPRS radio.

A “Geofence” using GPS2SMS, can instantly alert your cell phone or Blackberry. Assisted GPS provides maximum accuracy and indoor capabilities. GPS2SMS is used to indicate the transfer of Gps-coordinates by means of SMS text messages.

Connectivity is through Cingular Wireless and real-time mapping can use Google Earth.

Qualcomm’s gpsOne has provided the AGPS (Assisted GPS) hardware in their handsets all along. By the end of 2008, 25% of the WCDMA handsets are expected to have GPS, too. Many application developers create Location-based services for cellular carriers.

Nike’s Mapit (FAQ) lets you draw, describe and share routes you run. You can track your progress running the same route over time. The Google Maps Pedometer and Walk Jog Run tools are also useful.

Meanwhile, Ekahau announced their T301-A Wi-Fi tag today. Ekahau’s third generation active Wi-Fi tag can locate assets in real time using standard 802.11b/g infrastructure.

Ekahau says it’s most suitable for tracking equipment, personnel or high value assets in hospitals, manufacturing plants or in any other type of facility where knowledge of the actual and up-to-date location improves efficiency and safety.

It features a battery life up to 5 years, an intelligent motion sensor that activates the tag only when the tracked object is moving and Works in any standard 802.11 b/g wireless network infrastructure.

AeroScout, the leading provider of Wi-Fi-based Active RFID solutions, has launched the AeroScout T3 Tag, a feature-rich tag for asset and people tracking with real-time location solutions. Pango’s Active RFID Tracking also transmits ID and telemetry reports to ordinary 802.11 Wi-Fi access points.

In related news, Directions Magazine has an interesting article on Google’s KML Search. Geospatial mapping creators need only place their KML/KMZ on a publicly accessible web site and their geospatial data will be universally discoverable with a Google search. The launch of Google KML Search initiates this Google Earth Search capability for all of the world’s spatially organizable data.

In the Amgen Bike Tour of California, Computer Sciences Corporation will outfit seven bikers with specially designed tracking devices. The eight-day, 700-mile race runs February 18-25th, and travels through the California redwoods, wine country and the Pacific Coast.

Information about the riders’ locations and relative positions in the race will be available as a Google Earth map mashup (Video and Gallery) during each of the tour’s eight daylong stages.

Garmin has supplied all race participants with an Edge 305 GPS-enabled cycle computer that will help them monitor their performance with heart rate and a self-calibrating, wireless speed/cadence sensor.

Tagged riders will carry the 90-gram GPS trackers communicating over the T-Mobile GSM network. The accuracy of the system will be twice that of standard GPS through the addition of WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System), which adds 29 WAAS reference stations, to correct satellite information.

CSC is a sponsor and has a biking team. They are hoping that the new technology will give cycling’s fan base a more immersive view of the sport. “This is more than just GPS,” says CSC’s Identity Labs chief technologist Dan Munyan. “This is object field tracking.

We want to be able to focus on a field of objects in motion, looking not only at where they are on the route, but also where they are relative to each other.

The Space segment of the WAAS signal consists of multiple geosynchronous communication satellites which broadcast the messages generated by the Wide-area Master Stations for reception by the User segment.

Carol Ellison notes at the Wireless Fleet 2007 Conference, in Miami, Florida this week, a new telematics platform by Ezurio called WITS - the Wireless Intelligent Telematics System was introduced. It combines inexpensive, intelligent vehicle data logging with a cellular-free (Wi-Fi) connection. Ezurio says until the development of WITS, every telematics system has been built upon proprietary hardware and middleware, generally relying on an expensive cellular link. “WITS changes this paradigm by providing a standard hardware unit that populates an SQL database.”

MySQL, developer of the world’s most popular open source database, has formed a new Telecom business unit. The MySQL Cluster Carrier Grade Edition, “can scale better and has higher performance and availability than legacy proprietary technology — yet costs 90 percent less,” said Joe Morrissey, senior director of worldwide sales for MySQL.

The Telematics Journal covers the field.