Thursday, February 11. 2010

Cell Tracking Hearing on Friday

On Friday, a federal appeals court will hear arguments in a case that could establish new standards for locating wireless devices like cell phones. The government will argue that citizens enjoy no "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their device's location. In short "a customer's Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when the phone company reveals to the government its own records" related to phone location. The ACLU and EFF will argue on the other side.

- C|net

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Tracking at 07:25 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0) |

Wednesday, February 3. 2010

DMTV#4: Will Your Personal GPS Protect You from Litigation?

It seems that eventually everyone will be carrying a GPS device. If so, will you ever need your location-aware mobile device to prove your whereabouts if you are the focus of litigation? From capturing the location of a car accident to something more sinister like being accused of a crime, information to prove your location may become more important and technology may be called upon to prove innocence or guilt. Editor in chief Joe Francica ponders the possibility and provides advice from a legal expert familiar with geospatial technology.

Posted by Joe Francica in Tracking, LBS, GPS, Routing, Tracking, Logistics, Crime, DMTV at 06:03 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Wednesday, January 27. 2010

It's Saturday Night; Do You Know Where Your Semi Is?

According to an article in InformationWeek, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) is about to launch CargoNet, an nationwide database for truck theft information. "Once it's switched on this weekend, CargoNet will collect up to 257 fields of data detailing everything from destination, plate number and carrier to the time, data and location of the theft, to serial numbers and other identifying detail on the stolen goods. Refreshed several times per day, CargoNet is expected to track more than 10,000 events per year, driving both a national alerting system and a corresponding truck stop watch program." Most truck thefts occur on weekends and the hot spots are Los Angeles, Dallas, Memphis, and south Florida.

Posted by Joe Francica in Tracking at 08:02 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0) |

Wednesday, November 25. 2009

My Black Friday Shopping Map

Yesterday, I took a look at the Walmart maps being offered to shoppers for Black Friday by the Massachusetts store cited in our APB post today. Looking like every other Walmart floor plan that the retailer stamps into the landscape around the country, I got to thinking about how I'd want my "shopping map" to look like. If I were to be lured to the 4:00 a.m. low, low prices, obsequious to the will of the mega-retailers on that fateful day after Thanksgiving, this is how I would want to start my hunt for the ultimate door-busting bargains.

First, I'd want my car navigation system (let's go with a Garmin...I'm partial to their PNDs) equipped with the locations of every retailer and their hours of operation on BF (yes, Black Friday).

Next, I'd map out the route to each store allowing just enough time to scarf-up the best sale items at each.

However, this is predicated by having a map of each floor plan for each retailer loaded onto my Blackberry (sorry, I'm a business guy...don't do iPhone schtick). Perhaps we could get the good folks at uLocate to work on this for the Where application.

Next, the retailers would have to allow the floor plans to be tagged with the location of the best sale items. This might be similar to what the rather crude Walmart map provides, but please, we are a bit more sophisticated in our geospatial awareness these days, so let's have better precision, right? I'm thinking that there should be some RFID device for each item and a shopping cart that synch's via Bluetooth to my Blackberry to navigate around the store. Whenever the cart passes along the isle with the most sought-after gadgets, my Blackberry provides the alert and I'm directed appropriately.

Having snagged the item from the shelf, I'm then provided with a traffic map of the store floor, whisking my buggy to route around the bulging crowds to the nearest cash register with the fewest in line. This is micro-geography at its finest.

My items are scanned as I zoom past the counter, swipe my credit card, and I'm out the door...on to the next BF adventure.

I'm headed to the parking lot where I'm met with a swarm of hungry, sleep-deprived shoppers, goodness knows where I parked my car. But in the perfect geospatial world, I am directly by voice commands by my PND to the location of my space and my car is automatically unlocked as I approach with a cart-load of gifts, recognizing of course that my bio sensor-equipped vehicle knows my proximal location.

Safely inside, I rev the engine and I'm off to the next store, real-time traffic and weather guiding my every move. And because I've integrated my PND with geo-located Twitter feeds, I'm getting updates on new bargains in the vicinity. I'm re-routed as necessary...my Christmas shopping list consulted and advised.

In a perfect world...Have a great Thanksgiving.

Posted by Joe Francica in RFID, Tracking, LBS, Sensors, Real-Time/Dynamic Data, Traffic, Satellite Navigation, Routing, Tracking, Logistics at 09:03 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0) |

Monday, November 16. 2009

Dutch to Tax Drivers Based on Driving Distance, Road Time using GPS

According to the Associated Press, the Netherlands will levy a tax based on the time spent driving in order to reduce congested highways. When the plan takes effect in 2012, a GPS monitoring system will track the distance, time, and place of drivers who will pay a few cents per kilometer. The tax replaces an annual road tax that amounts to approximately $900 per year for a mid-size car.

Posted by Joe Francica in Tracking, LBS, GPS, Sensors, Navigation, Routing, Tracking, Logistics at 01:17 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Friday, September 18. 2009

Mass Supreme Judicial Court: Installing GPS with Warrant OK

The highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts upheld the right of police to install GPS tracking device to track suspects so long as a judge grants a warrant. The court ruled, unanimously, that such action "does not violate the ban on unreasonable search and seizure in the state’s Declaration of Rights."

But, there are some stipulations: The officers, must of course convince a judge a warrant is appropriate and the "devices can be installed for up to 15 days before police must show why the devices need to remain in place."

- The Boston Globe

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Tracking, GPS at 07:37 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |