GPS Tracking - Big Brother Or Life Saver?

GPS technology has been around for a while now, and we are seeing the GPS devices getting smaller and smaller each year. Mention GPS to some, and they instantly think of electronic mapping, and in car units such as TomTom and Garmin.

But there is much more to GPS technology as you are about to find out. GPS tracking allows the monitoring of a person, or object, and can be done from anywhere in the world, even from the comfort of your own home.

By using satellites maintained by the government, the unit is able to pinpoint the exact location of a car, a child or even a pet and relay the information back to mapping software on a computer or via the GPRS network to a mobile phone.

Hand held radios, such as the Motorola Mototrbo digital radio contain built in GPS tracking devices which easily allow the tracking of the unit and the employee using it.

As you may have read, there are three types of GPS tracking devices. Data loggers, data pushers and data pullers.

Data Loggers

Data loggers, believe it or not, keep a log of the position of the tracker using the devices internal memory. These are very popular in the outdoor sporting industry such as hiking and mountaineering. Enthusiasts can plug their device into their computer when they return home to overlay an online map with their journey and calculate the distance of their trip.

Data pushers

As the name suggests, data pushers send information about the position of a tracker, usually at regular intervals to a central device or server. An ideal use for this could be a courier or haulage fleet.

An ideal use for data pushers is also on the elderly or those that suffer conditions such as Alzheimer's. The device can help monitor the movements of patients to ensure that they don't move too far away from the home or hospitals. Another use for data pushers could be for pet tracking. How many times has your cat disappeared for days on end. With a data pusher you could keep track of the animals movements and ease those days of worry!

Data pullers

A data puller will remain with a person or on an object so that it can be queried at any time. These types of devices using mobile phone technology. Usually a message or SMS is sent to the device and it will reply with the co-ordinates of its location.