Sep
1
2010

GPS in Shoes!

If you are really worried about your loved one as they suffer from Alzheimer’s or direction disorientation disorder, GPS shoes are going to solve your problem. GPS shoes are equipped with a GPS tracking device which enables you to track their location and find out their whereabouts. A new GPS shoe uses a small trans-receiver through which location of shoes wearer can be tracked using cellular network. These shoes are called Ambulator shoes and you can even set a geo- perimeter for the person. This means that as soon the person moves out of the perimeter the set is set on.

Another new generation of GPS shoes called blue GPS shoes are enabled with Bluetooth connectivity which can interact with Bluetooth enabled devices, like the GPS in phone and automatically sends emergency message to pre-fed mobile numbers of concerned people on pushing a button by the wearer.

Application for these shoes are not only limited to the above mentioned. Parents are using them for their children who can push the button and inform them in case of emergencies.

The most interesting application of GPS shoes is that it can be used for social networking. Your friends can track your current location online by just logging in the website.

Source:- http://www.brighthub.com/electronics/gps/articles/52119.aspx

Aug
23
2010

GPS Tracking Can Cut Down Fuel Cost

Car GPS
Are you in charge of your Company’s vehicle fleet? Are you an employer bothered by the weekly fuel bills of your Company’s vehicles? In today’s world, when every company is strapped for cash and when fuel prices are rising with no chance of them coming down in the coming years; are you looking at a quick fix solution to closely monitor and check the amount of money your company spends on the fuel for your vehicles? So how do you do this?

Apart from choosing the right type and make of the vehicles and keeping them in top form in terms of periodic maintenance, you need to know exactly what your vehicles are doing on a particular day. Are they being driven correctly by your employees? Are they being misused? Are they being kept in the idling mode for considerable amount of time?

Every vehicle has an ideal cruising speed. Most of the vehicles on road today are fitted with internal combustion engines. These engines have an RPM rating at which the engine works most efficiently. The transmission system is designed to maintain a reasonable vehicle speed range when the engine is rotating at or around this ideal RPM. If the vehicle speeds are above or below this range, it results in higher fuel consumption. The deviation in speed of even one mile per hour from the ideal speed can result in 1.5% increase in fuel consumption. With a GPS tracking system installed in your vehicles, you will know at what speeds the vehicle are being driven and if there is a large amount of idling. You can then bring about a reorientation in the driving habits of your employees to save considerably on fuel costs.

Also, a lot depends on which routes the vehicles take in reaching from point A to B. Is it the shortest and the most efficient? Are the vehicles able to avoid traffic snarls? A GPS based tracking system can be the best guide here. GPS tracking can also signal any misuse in the vehicle usage. If they are deviating from the expected route or taking unanticipated amount of time at any particular point; you are privy to that bit of information to take remedial action. All these result in saving fuel costs.

So opt for a GPS tracking system for your vehicle fleet and sit back and see the dollars being added to your Company’s bottom line.

Aug
9
2010

Parental Concern vs. Child’s Right to Privacy

Right to their privacy is important to teenagers, but so is the assurance
of teenagers’ safety to their parents. Losing track of a child can really be a stressful experience.

In the present environment of growing insecurity, parents like to take best protective
measures concerning their child’s security. This is the cell phone age. Most kids
own a cell phone especially those who have to travel to and fro from tuition , co-
curricular activities and schools.

GPS enabled tracker is one tool which you can install on your child’s mobile phone
to keep track of their movements and ensure their safety. If used judiciously by
parents, it is very useful device that can bring them enough mental peace about
their teenagers’ well being. In fact, such applications can also help boost self-
confidence of your pre-teens. They are aware that you can easily find them in case of
an emergency.

I remember an incident when tracker installed in a child’s mobile helped the parents
trace the child when Mumbai was awash with rains and water logging. The child was
so terrified that he did not call his parents.

SatTracx is one application that can be set up with the child’s knowledge and
permission (yes permission). Believe me reasoned logically the child never cribs.

Jul
27
2010

SatGuide Story Contest First Prize

Due to navigational problem on unknown road, I was abstained for a long drive. But recently when I had a SatGuide device, I have decided to drive to my native in Kerala via Mumbai. I started from Surat Hazira to Mumbai with SatGuide device on with necessary inputs.

Really I was surprised to note that every street has been shown on the map and my car was absolutely on the road. The device uses nearest route to reach the destination and speaks whenever there is a turning, 2 km before, then 1 km before , then 500 mts and 200 mts and finally on turning. When I change the route it used to recalculate the route immediate within 1 minute and let us know the nearest route. If I don’t care for a U turn told by the device I was forced to comeback after some time. When I was nearing Mumbai thane I was little bit confused then I asked my 10 years old son to hold the device and look in to it. The device guided us very accurately turn by turn. And very easily we reached Vashi without anybody’s help.

Then I started to CBD with my device and drive through the road and the device really guided me through the road to CBD. From CBD next morning we started for Hubli with this device. By then my son was familiar with the device and he use to show the route.

When I reached Hubli I did not go by the route and a shopkeeper told me to go back to reach the bus stand as the device was showing the correct route. Then I had been to Udupi Krishna’s temple, the device shown me till the car parking area just behind the temple. Then we had been to Kasaragod via Mangalore. It was really a memorable journey with this device on the car.

Jul
1
2010

My SatGuide C 230 Experience

Car GPS NavigationFar and wide it’s known that the summer sun of India can be a cruel and evil thing. Last summer I found myself stranded in the most horrible of places, with the sun scorching down on me. To make matters worse, I had my family with me and they too were very worried. That was when my friend’s SatGuide truly saved us. Come; let me narrate the entire tale.

My name’s Brijesh Kriplani. Last summer, I hatched a plan of driving down to Rajasthan with my family. I’d just bought a new car, and it would be quite a fun trip for the family. My friend and colleague Rajesh decided that it was a wonderful idea. I asked him, why not he tag along with his family. So, one fine Saturday morning, our two cars left the bustling city for a peaceful trip.

I’d done a lot of planning before the trip- bought route maps, planned pit stops, looked for dhabas restaurants and hotels on the way, etc. However, despite all the planning I found myself at seemingly endless stretch of deserted road, with no one around me I must have had taken a wrong turn somewhere. I tried back to the highway, but ended up going around in circles. To make matters worse, the sun was beating down so hard that it made it difficult for one to think straight. The kids were exhausted and fell asleep. My wife was trying to call Rajesh on the cell phone but we were so far out that there was no network.

Just as I gave up all hopes of finding my way back, I heard the honk of Rajesh’s Maruti behind me. Oh, how I jumped with joy !I asked him how he found me and he told me that as he was following, he saw me go off track in the distance. So he came looking for me to take me back to the main road. How do we do that?!, I asked him. He laughed and pointed to the Satguide C 230 on his dashboard.

I read up on this marvelous device later. The device, Maruti Navigator C230 from SatGuide offers a touch screen interface with simple intuitive software. It is one the most advanced personal navigation systems available in the market today. This device has sophisticated navigation functions with clear maps, turn-by-turn guidance and voice instructions. USB charging facility coupled with both a car charger and a room charger ensures that the unit will never run out of power. Plus it comes built in with a photo viewer and MP3 player.

Needless to say, I wasted no time in getting myself one of these wonderful little devices, and my trips have never been the same!

Apr
28
2010

Four Reasons Why Car Navigation GPS is Preferable Over Mobile GPS

  1. Cell phones are primarily for communications. You cannot communicate and at the same time enjoy the turn to turn guidance.
  2. Cell phones invariably have shorter display area and map reading skills are directly proportional to bigger displays & dedicated devices. With the bigger display, we can appreciate the information and relative context shown in a map.
  3. Maps invariably have huge databases, needs to either reside in mobile phone / or access through GPRS (additional VAS costs and will be slow unless it’s a 3G service). Mobile processing speeds will be low in Mobiles and its processing resources are premium. Expends the precious battery life as the battery has to seek GPS signals, and then process huge map database.
  4. User Interfaces in the mobile navigation are cramped and is challenging to use. Requires higher learning curve. Not that easy to use for a novice.

So, it’s better to choose Car Navigation GPS rather than Mobile GPS.

Feb
21
2010

GPS and LCU

Logical Extensions of Technology into Our Lives

How many times have you got wrong directions while travelling? We get lost in our own cities; what if you are in a different part of India? Are you losing precious minutes asking for directions to a particular place? Have you missed your flight or train because the route that you took was crowded and blocked and you had no alternative?

If your answers to these questions are yes, then you need to add technology to your lives. Technology has been making our lives easy from history, so why are you resisting the change now?

Get a GPS device. Finding the right directions is a child’s play with these devices. They give turn by turn directions along with the landmarks. Natives are usually considered to be well acquainted with different locations and sites but it is not always the case. Sometimes, people intentionally misguide people with wrong direction for fun. Rather than getting lost with incorrect directions, you can now use GPS services. Whether you want to travel to a different state for paying a visit to your friend or want to find out the nearest store or locator in a new city, just use effective GPS services. Relying on strangers for directions is passé; with GPS maps and devices all set to assist you round the clock, travelling will be complete fun for you.

GPS technology has been given a makeover with LCU (Locate? Call Us) services for assisting different people with preferred locations. All you have to do is make a call to the live agents at the call centres and give your details for getting help with directions. Getting lost in a new city is no more a subject of worry with these capable services.

LCU services offer a great blend of directory and yellow pages services. This upcoming service in India is proving to be very useful for people from all walks of life. The best part is that the clients can also get prepaid voucher schemes with toll free numbers that can be dialled for getting connected to a professional agent. Affordability, convenience and flexibility are all at your fingertips with LCU services. These services are highly beneficial for people travelling in India as India is one place that not only highly populated but also has a plethora of roads that are unnamed. LCU services have taken GPS navigation to a whole new and level all together.

Indian cities we all know are not planned. They are a part of history continuing into present and will be the same in future. Mapping such cities and determining locations is a uphill task. In-spite of these challenges there are technologies to tackle these issues. So let’s simplify our lives. Lets use the GPS and the LCU.

Feb
15
2010

Are Indians Adept at giving directions?

Travelling then (12 years earlier) and now

Around 12 years back we took a really adventurous trip to Kerala driving our way through the state- its rainforests and coasts. We had no GPS and relied on a hand held paper map of the roads. Our map was highly accurate, but our navigator was not (especially without his reading glasses) and we lost directions several times. 

Each time we got down and asked for directions we received plenty of indications and hand gestures (we did not know Malayalam -their local language). At times they would oblige by drawing directions on the dusty roadsides. They were certainly a helpful lot but we never arrived at our destination without losing ourselves again. After some instances someone in our group observed that a single Malayalam word would always predominate verbal discussions. It was “nere”. Excited at the find we opened the Malayalam-English dictionary that we carried and there was the meaning. ‘Nere’ meant straight. 

Well I know you haven’t a straight face

Another time we were driving through Rajasthan. They are used to folks driving through their roads. At turns we asked for directions, they said ‘seedhe’ which again means straight. Of course we would lose directions again until our son observed that though they said ‘seedhe’ (straight), their hand was pointing in another direction!

So much for directions!

Our trips throughout 2008 and 2009 were completely different. We had equipped ourselves with the “Never Get Lost” GPS device SatGuide. And we truly never got lost. 

The members of our group were ecstatic at its performance. I was not. Why?
I missed getting down at those small villages, photographing the locals and sampling truly local cuisine. 

However, beginning 2010 I was in for a surprise. We took off to Himachal and we took the longest and winding routes through small villages where we got down and interacted with locals, ate with them and even slept in their houses. We never lost our way even once. I began to marvel at the technology of SatGuide and its accuracy.

This is was great technology does. It allows you to choose. For me the choices that SatGuide gave me were impressive. That a GPS would make directions easy was understood. But by giving mapping minute details it allowed us to plan something unique. That made a lot of difference.

Thank You SatGuide.

Feb
11
2010

Wanted: Brand Ambassadors for GPS in India

Dear All,

Enclosed are some interesting articles on GPS usage worldwide. GPS Navigation is hugely useful and successful, but also use it with common sense, don’t expect it to be perfect as map development is a constantly evolving cycle. These are from countries which have ‘perfect maps’ from global players. Point is, we need to understand that technology is here to stay, can save us time, give security and peace of mind to loved ones, but identifying one wrong road or turning and trying to say this is not useful or that market / product is not ready as yet, is not the right way of evaluating the products that exist in Indian market today.

Let’s embrace GPS in the country and start spreading good word about what it can do for us. This market needs to grow to next level and needs brand ambassadors to make that happen. If competing companies think that they can grow by bad mouthing each other, or by just picking up one area in a competitors map which they know is not recently updated, they should realize that they will only be shooting themselves in the foot as the market pie wont grow due to these misinformation campaigns. Let’s be smarter, not let this market go the way GPS Tracking has gone in India, like no one trusts it! Help consumers benefit from this amazing technology.

 
Regards,
Amit
 
Let the errors of others show the right way

Jan 03, 2010 (Herald-Times – McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) — Old wives tell us that the burned hand teaches best. I’ve learned plenty from my own mistakes, but it’s even smarter to learn from those of other people. The ounce of prevention to be found in the occasional cautionary tale can make lighter trips for all of us.

A Nevada couple has a fresh appreciation for the sometimes two-edged sword of technology after spending their Christmas weekend stuck in the snow in the middle of Oregon. The GPS navigation unit in their SUV had directed them to turn off of a state road and onto a forest maintenance road. They apparently drove for some time before becoming lodged in the snow.

I’ve heard plenty of humorous stories of mishaps or embarrassment caused by GPS navigation gone wrong. Many a delivery driver has called my house in confusion because the two leading online map providers show a course to the road I live on that simply does not exist. The technology is neither perfect nor foolproof.

This sort of incident is only possible with the assumption that our devices know better than we do. I have to imagine that at some point while bumping down a gravel trail it occurred to this couple to wonder about the route they were taking. A decision had to be made to trust the navigation device and press on. This decision could only be made by a person who did not know where they were going without the device.

I have a great respect for gizmos; I recently upgraded to a pocket computer that happens to also make phone calls. I like it a lot, and the available GPS doodads are great. I can download maps or have it trace the path I’m walking and look at it online later. One problem I’ve noticed, though, is that since GPS relies on line-of-sight between the device and multiple GPS satellites, your location cannot accurately be determined if the device can’t see enough satellites.

Power is also a concern for electronic devices. I can’t exactly slap a couple of fresh double As into my phone, and the more I use the GPS functions, the faster the battery is drained. Power conservation is something to keep in mind if you’re ever lost with a GPS-enabled phone; the GPS may help you navigate to somewhere you can get a call signal, but you need enough juice to use it when you find it.

It’s worth noting that our cautionary couple was located by the GPS signals from their cell phones when they were eventually able to call. These signals allowed rescuers to find them and tow them out of the snow unharmed.

The odd part of this tale is that these folks were otherwise well prepared for winter travel. The food, water and warm clothing they had with them helped to keep them alive until the weather cleared enough for their cell phones to operate. A winter emergency kit is especially important on long journeys, but even around town, it’s a good idea to have a first aid kit, flashlight and blanket available at need. A gallon or two of water and some candy bars will make a long stay much more tolerable.

Staying put is another thing our heroes got right. To stay or to go is one of the most important questions in any survival situation. The key to surviving in winter is to stay as warm and dry as possible. An automobile provides great shelter; even if it won’t run, it’s out of the wind.

Everyone makes mistakes. What separates the tragic from the cautionary is preparation.

Lee Hadley is an outdoor enthusiast who has lived in Bloomington since 1993.

 
GPS is my co-pilot, so pray for us

By Glynn Moore
Columnist
Monday, Jan. 4, 2010

Before Christmas, I told my wife that I suspected the kids were planning to give me a GPS navigation system for my car. It was only a matter of time, I reasoned, because they all know that I have the sense of direction of a blindfolded, drunken airline pilot.

As it turned out, the kids didn’t give me a GPS; my wife did. She apparently wanted to keep me from getting lost in the driveway and agonizing over the best route to take to my office — although I work five days a week.

My lame sense of direction is not my fault. It has nothing to do with intelligence or paying attention. I had long heard that it is a matter of having the right amount of iron in our noses, but nothing seems to support that theory.

Finally, a few weeks ago, I read an article in The Week magazine saying that a part of the brain called the hippocampus determines our ability to sense location. The increased use of GPS lets us turn off the hippocampus, eventually making it even more difficult to judge our surroundings. Use it or lose it.

I’m not worried; I can’t lose what I never had. I’ve always wandered around in circles, wondering which way I’m going and unsure whether the road runs north-south or east-west.

That’s why I stay out of places that rhyme with “Atlanta.” It’s why I rarely go to out-of-town ball games or concerts unless someone else is driving. It’s why I panic whenever a tourist asks for directions — in my own town.

One night in high school, I took out a girl on a first date to the movies in a city I rarely visited because, well, you know. It was a long night, though it was a short date: We never found the theater, and she never went out with me again.

A few years ago, my wife and I took the scenic route from Baton Rouge, La., through Natchez, Miss. We drove for miles on a country highway without seeing the first road sign. It was midday, so the sun offered no help. Though I had begun in the right direction, we somehow drove many miles the wrong way before finding a marked road and comparing it to a map.

On Christmas Day, my son-in-law Dennis (who admits that his sense of direction is no better than mine) and I took my navigation unit for a recommended test spin to the nearest drugstore. I typed in the street address.

This much I’ve learned over the years: If you turn right from my subdivision, you will reach the drugstore. The infernal machine had other ideas.

“Turn left,” its sweet feminine voice advised. Dennis and I looked at each other.

“Left isn’t right,” I said. “Left will take us far, far away.”

We thought about obeying the voice, but my fuel light was aglow, and I didn’t want to run out of gas while following a sweet voice all around the county. I turned right.

“Turn around as soon as you can!” the voice immediately admonished.

Instead, I pulled over and reprogrammed the unit to find the crossroads nearest the drugstore. It took us right there.

One out of two isn’t bad, I suppose. It’s better than my unaided efforts have been over the years.

I didn’t feel so bad a few days later when I read a story in our paper about a couple who disappeared in Oregon on Christmas after their GPS unit guided them to a remote forest road on their drive home to Nevada. They were lost in the snow for three days.

Moreover, another group of travelers got lost a few days later on the same road because their GPS also misquoted the truth.

So, where does that leave me? I’ve decided that from now on I’ll do what the sweet voice tells me, even if I think it’s wrong. After all, I know my record, so it’s about time to let someone else do the driving.

Reach Glynn Moore at (706) 823-3419 or glynn.moore@augustachronicle.com.

Feb
8
2010

Encourage your Children to use Address Locators Services

Times have changed. It was a norm to ask people locations or addresses. Not now. Safety has become a big issue especially where children are concerned.

Time was when mothers or relatives could escort kids to their friends place or to their tuitions. However, with both spouses working this is no longer a feasible option. In fact the child may have to locate the address by their own.

You can solve this concern through technology. Encourage your children to use the locator services by SatTracx. An impersonal call center is much better way to tell the location than an over friendly rickshaw puller or teashop owner. Your child just has to call. The call center will locate your child through the phone and direct them to the right location.

Children grasp and use technology faster and better than adults.

In fact it will be a good idea to equip your child’s mobile with a GPS too. Then getting to a location will certainly be a child’s play.

You can download the free Address Locator.

You can also download GPS navigation maps at SatGuide