We certainly understand the benefits of GPS tracking devices that are both compact and lightweight. But, do you think it’s possible to build a GPS tracker that’s small enough and light enough to be carried on the back of a bumble bee? Funded by a $500-thousand dollar grant from the Department of Agriculture, Oregon State University is working on the development of GPS trackers to track the movements of bumblebees with the goal of better understanding the dramatic decline of bee populations in recent years. The development of the GPS tracking device for bees will take 1-2 years. Without bee pollination, it is estimated that one-third of the world’s food supply would not exist. Read the full article about GPS tracking and bees.
As we have mentioned before, the GPS tracking industry continues to grow rapidly. We just found a new CBS report that profiles some of the ways individuals and businesses are using tracking devices and GPS tracking software to their advantage. Here are just a few mentioned in the article, plus some of our own:
- GPS tracking for teachers in school emergencies
- Devices which allow police officers to deploy a GPS tracking device that affixes to a fleeing vehicle to avoid dangerous pursuits.
- GPS trackers “built-in” to school uniforms
- GPS shoes
- Tracking devices for school buses
- GPS tracking for playing golf
- GPS trackers in the NFL
- Tracking technology for environmental causes
Read the entire CBS report on GPS tracking.
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Where did you come from and where are you going? That’s what Napa County officials want to know, and why they plan to use GPS tracking data to analyze the area’s traffic patterns in hopes of improving congested traffic areas. According to a recent report, the GPS tracking information will be obtained through a private firm specializing in collecting anonymous GPS cell phone data. The study will also utilize photographic images of license plates, and corresponding home addresses which will be obtained through the BMV. Additional components of the study will include traffic counters at the entrances of area wineries, a major tourist attraction in the area, and surveys distributed through the public school system.
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According to a recent CBS news report, a California senate bill, SB57, requires sex offenders who remove or tamper with their GPS tracking devices to spend a mandatory 6-months in jail. The bill comes in response to the increase in monitoring of the state’s offenders via GPS due to a law passed two years ago to relieve prison overpopulation, which was designed to send offenders to jail instead of prison. But, due to overcrowding in jails as well, some offenders spend little or no time behind bars, and instead are released to home and monitored via GPS tracking bracelets.
According to a recent report, a North Carolina State University study recently monitored, via GPS tracking, the activity of six free-range cheetahs residing in a wildlife park in Africa to study if high speed is the only factor in the animals’ ability to successfully hunt prey. It turns out that, while cheetahs have the ability to outrun their prey, successful hunting is a savvy combination of speed, maneuvering skills, and positioning. The report compared the cheetahs’ behavior, monitored by GPS tracking collars, to the movements of a race car, or an initial burst of speed followed by stealthy movements and navigating turns.
A Connecticut program designed to provide early warning to domestic violence victims when their assailants get too close may be expanding. Currently available in the cities of Hartford, Danielson, and Bridgeport, victims receive automated alerts via GPS tracking software and a GPS tracking ankle bracelet when an assailant comes within 5,000 to 2,500 feet. The program costs $22 per day per offender, which adds up to $2 million per year. Approximately one-third of Connecticut court cases are tied to domestic violence. Read more on this story.
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Have you ever tried driving a 12-foot box truck under an 11-foot bridge? If you have, then you know that it doesn’t work and that it can also create huge, expensive messes, not to mention injuries. According the Boston Herald, officials are sending heads up notifications to GPS tracking companies such as Garmin and TomTom to update GPS tracking software to include warnings for low bridges and overpasses.
The effort is to prevent accidents among new Boston drivers, especially college students and their parents, who will likely be heavily relying on their GPS tracking systems to make it to campus neighborhoods. As one might imagine, the problems created include damage to bridges, traffic delays, and possible injuries.
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A New Jersey man who installed a GPS jammer on his vehicle in hopes of outsmarting his bosses has instead been fined $32,000. Turns out his GPS jamming device also interfered with the testing of GPS tracking systems on planes at an airport near his location. GPS jammers (illegal in the United States) are devices which block GPS signals from being sent to or from a vehicle.
Here’s a link to a previous post on GPS tracking for employees.
Here’s another bit of GPS tracking news…after police suspected a pair of Michigan men of breaking into homes and stealing valuables, they obtained a search warrant to place a covert tracking device on the suspect vehicle. Some time later, the vehicle was determined to have been at another home which had also been burglarized. Utilizing the vehicle tracking device and GPS tracking software, authorities were able to apprehend the suspects (after one fled), who later confessed to a string of burglaries. Both men have since been sentenced to prison.
Source: http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2013/07/gps_tracker_leads_to_prison_ti.html
Scientists may soon be using GPS tracking technology to monitor and track hurricanes, according to a recent report published in Radio Journal. By utilizing a GPS tracking receiver in hurricane hunter aircrafts to measure disruptions in the sea and then comparing the data to that which is received from GPS tracking satellites, scientists can determine the strength of a storm, including wind speeds accurate within 11 mph. Using GPS tracking systems to track hurricanes may also be more cost effective than dropsondes, tubes containing scientific measuring devices dropped from planes directly into hurricanes, which cost more than $700 dollars each. However, GPS tracking for hurricanes is only effective for hurricanes at sea, not those which have already made landfall, and is somewhat less accurate than current methods.
