Chris Barton: Nicked by a text message

By CHRIS BARTON

Last week "Hollywood," a regular on NZGames.com, had his car stolen.

He posted the bad news on the website forum: "All Points Bulletin on a 1995 Mitsubishi Libero GT Stationwagon. Colour: Dark Green. Stolen last night from Albert St across from the Centra Hotel. If seen contact your nearest police station or icq me on 10997344. Thanks for any help in retrieving this car ... "

Believe it or not, the story has a happy ending. The car was found - less a set of mags - thanks to a bit of luck and the keen observation skills of another gamer, Jingo - "Aww, shucks guys ... it were nothing ... "

Great to see a web community fighting crime. But to take luck out of the equation, you would be like the guy who installed a $1200 Chubb Tracknet device in his $120,000 "luxury car." He also forked out the $1 a day to have the GPS (global positioning system) device send its location back to Chubb's control centre.

When the car was nicked by a very professional bunch of thieves one Saturday morning as the poor bloke and his family lay sleeping, the investment paid off.

As Chubb's Karl Harris tells the story, the control centre immediately detected the car's location, told the police who searched the site and found not only the car under a tarpaulin, but also a further three cars and 600 plants of marijuana. Two arrests were made. Believe it or not, one of the offenders owed $30,000 in unpaid fines.

The Tracknet device is a small box concealed in the car containing a GPS antenna and wireless transceiver that connects to the Vodafone network. The GPS does its thing - pinpointing its own location by using a triangulation of signals from three of the system of 24 positioning satellites launched by the US Department of Defence.

The transceiver sends a text message with the GPS data using Vodafone's sms (short messaging service) to the Chubb Control Centre where the data is transferred on to a computerised map.

But that's not all. The device can be hooked up to the car's electronics, meaning Chubb can monitor the car's vital signs such as battery power, lock and unlock doors, sound the horn, even kill a running engine - all from the control centre.

It also means drivers, if they are leaving their car unattended for a few weeks, can advise Chubb to put the car in a "a virtual geo fence."

That means if it leaves its parked location, it will set off an alarm at Chubb that would then warn the owner and/or call the police.

So where's the internet in all this? Good question. It isn't there. Which shows just how versatile sms text messages can be. But the internet is not far away.

The short "bursty" nature of text messages are ideally suited for internet protocol (IP), which sends and receives data in small packets. And mobile phone manufacturers and networks are all moving in the IP direction. Vodafone's long-awaited GPRS (general packer radio service) network, due to go live soon, is very IP-like - it is always on, and charges users not for air time, but for the amount of data and voice they send. It should make life a lot easier for using a mobile to browse websites and to send and receive e-mail. But to get to a fully mobile IP world we need to wait until the so-called 3G networks come on stream.

Like it or not, the number one use of a mobile phone is for voice, and as we've seen by the Chubb example, quite a lot of innovative mobile data stuff can be handled by the humble text message.

But there is significant growth in location-based mobile services. The idea - linking GPS, wireless communication and computerised maps - has been around for a long time. Quite often the data is sent over the internet. Like OnTrack - the fleet tracking system developed by Christchurch-based Telogis.

Great for when businesses want to see where their vehicles are, simply by logging on to a website. Then there's Virtual Spectator, which transformed the way we could watch yachting during the America's Cup by grabbing GPS location data from the yachts using Ericsson gear and Telecom's cellular digital packet data (CDPD) Airdata service, and then transforming that information to animations on an internet screen.

There is also Auckland-based Kruse Productions, which has a CD and player that can be installed in campervans and rental cars to provide a narrative for tourists triggered by GPS locations. Yet another is Worker Systems, which has made computerised moving maps linked to GPS into an art form. Auckland Coastguard boats, Coastguard Air Patrol, the police Eagle helicopter and the WestpacTrust search and rescue helicopters all use this system.

Christchurch-based Trimble has developed GPS technology to deliver accurate data to bulldozer drivers doing complicated earthmoving and landscaping.

All of which indicates the first rule of mobile data applications might very well be location, location, location.

BOOKMARKS


MOST BUSINESSLIKE

Istart

Bzone


Two new sites providing information about the internet and matters "e" to businesses raise a complex philosophical question: are they news and information sites masquerading as businesses or businesses masquerading as news and information sites?

Istart describes itself as an "e-business informational portal combined with an online exhibition centre," which is another way of saying a place for vendors to hawk their wares.

Bzone - a joint initiative between Xtra and Yellow Pages - says it "contains a comprehensive offering of business news, advice and product and service information." Which is another way of saying: "Do you want fries with that information, sir?"

Still, if you can get past the selling bias - and after all that's what makes the business world go round - you will find some useful stuff here.

The best part of Istart is the IT Encyclopaedia - and some of the case studies. Bzone provides more quasi-independent advice and business tips across several areas, including accounting, venture capital, marketing, training, and legal - although sometimes the information borders on the bleeding obvious.

Advisory: vanity publishing reaching new heights.

* chris_barton@nzherald.co.nz


* Peter Sinclair is on leave.

Links


NZGames.com discussion forum

GPS Sentinel Lite

Telogis

Virtual Spectator

Kruse

Worker Systems

Trimble

Istart

Bzone