GPS Tracking

WOODSTOCK (Wednesday, March 25, 2009) – Wasted trips and wasted time. Few things are as irritating or unnecessary detriments to business; yet they are so easily eliminated with Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking solutions.

Business owners have always had to place a fair amount of trust that their company-owned vehicles, and the employees that drive them, are where they are supposed to be and doing what they are assigned to do. Unauthorized stops cause delayed delivery and service.  Speeding and overlapping routes waste fuel and put wear and tear on a vehicle. Each on their own doesn’t amount to a major error or loss, but collectively, they shave money from the company’s bottom line.
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­­­­­Initial Challenges of GPS Development

Almost immediately after launching, the Global Positioning System faced serious obstacles to continued growth and development. The biggest hurdle was financial. Although GPS technology received support from all branches of the military, it was not a standard weapons system, and its function was not as straightforward and well-defined as other military research opportunities vying for government dollars. In 1979, the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) slashed the program’s budget by about 30 percent. As a result, the satellite design was significantly scaled down, and the plan for a 24-satellite constellation was temporarily reduced to 18. The development of Block IIs, the next generation of modern GPS satellites, was placed on hold. From 1980 to 1982, the program was altogether eliminated until the OSD rallied for its continued survival. The joint program office, a collaboration of the U.S. military branches overseeing GPS research, also argued for the importance of the technology in military applications by emphasizing the advantage of increased bombing accuracy.

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WOODSTOCK (Friday, March 20, 2009) – With the rapid expansion of Global Positioning System (GPS tracking) technologies, comes an often-repeated debate : security versus spying.

The newest gadgets are often compact, discreet and highly-sensitive vehicle tracking devices that – with the help of a constellation of 24 U.S. Department of Defense satellites – can record as many as 300 hours of driving data, including route, speed and duration of stops. Others open a window to that same information in real time, second by second, via the Internet.

But who has the right to ride invisible shotgun on someone’s personal car trips?

As demographics go, parents are one of the biggest groups investing in GPS tracking technologies and their teens are the tracking subjects.
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Cell phones compete in GPS tracking  market

WOODSTOCK (Thursday,March 19, 2009) -  Global Positioning System (GPS tracking ) technology is becoming more sophisticated, making the world around us a little smaller and the distances between us a bit shorter, day by day.

The telecommunications industry has jumped on the GPS bandwagon with fervor in recent years, hoping to become prevalent in a market dominated by manufacturers of GPS vehicle tracking system devices. There are some who predict the GPS cell phone business will soon grow to a $20 billion a year industry.

That might be welcome news to business owners and parents, many who feel they have a responsibility to see that those in their charge  - be they employees or loved ones – are behaving in a safe, responsible and/or efficient manner.  In an increasingly mobile society, GPS tracking choices are expanding and consumers are left to weigh their options to find the best solution for their needs in terms of accuracy, consistency, and convenience.
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Today Global Positioning System technologies have become integrated into our daily lives, whether we know it or not. Dozens of new gadgets flood the market each month boasting GPS capability; they come embedded in cars, boats, airplanes, construction machinery, farm equipment, even your mobile phone and laptop computer. Its functions are simple and necessary: navigation, tracking, surveying, timing – the same basic tasks conducted by civilizations for centuries, only now they have become immensely faster, easier and more precise than ever. As the technology becomes more and more a part of the fabric of our routines, it is easy to overlook the spectacular journey GPS has made from its breeding ground in military applications to today’s high-tech consumer toys.

The infrastructure supporting GPS technology is surprisingly simple, yet also technically complex in its precision and ingenuity. Since 1994, all GPS capabilities have been supported by a constellation of at least 24 satellites, each measuring about 17 feet across and weighing approximately one ton, that are part of a global navigation satellite system. Powered primarily by solar energy, they circle the earth at an altitude of more than 12,000 miles and speeds of around 7,000 miles an hour, completing two orbits in less than 24 hours. The satellites emit microwaves that allow GPS receivers to determine their exact location, speed, direction, and time through triangulation of the signals. Officially named NAVSTAR, the GPS constellation took the government more than $12 billion to build and costs roughly $750 million a year to maintain, a price tag that includes satellite replacement and research and development. In the last decade, the number of actively broadcasting satellites has grown from 24 to 31, arranged in a nonuniform pattern, which provides redundant measurements and improve reliability and availability of the system.

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A 2nd degree murder conviction was quickly handed down from the Chenango County judge in a landmark case where a GPS tracking device known as the Tracking Key provided pivotal evidence.

Data retrieved from a LandAirSea  GPS Tracking Key, a GPS tracking system used to monitor a vehicle’s activity, revealed concrete evidence that George Ford’s statements regarding his role in the death of his 12 year-old babysitter were less than accurate. With no eye-witnesses to confirm or deny Ford’s story, the GPS tracking system became vital to the prosecution’s claim that the incident was not an accident, but intentional. The GPS tracking system’s data supported the prosecution’s claim and a murder trial commenced.

GPS Tracking Prank- A man places a GPS Tracking Key on his colleagues vehicle. When the colleague leaves for a lunch break and returns, claiming he simply went to his home to eat a salad for lunch, it is discovered that his salad story is less than accurate!

Concerned parents place a vehicle tracking system on there son’s truck and find shocking results. When Donna and Glen decided that they would place a GPS tracking system on there 16 year-old son’s truck they did not know what to expect. Feeling that today’s world was much more dangerous then the one they grew up in, Donna and Glen placed a GPS Tracking Key, a GPS tracking system that monitors speed and stops, on there typical teen’s car and then reviewed the historical data together. With less than 72 hours worth of data, they discovered that there son not only went to a unsupervised drinking party, but he also drove at dangerous speeds close to 100mph!

Keeping your family safe special: How a GPS tracking system designed to help keep your teenager safe is becoming more popular with everyday parents.