The most interesting ways to use GLONASS/GPS

Audit of taxi drivers

In New York, an analysis of the GPS logs of official taxis helped uncover the superannuation of drivers they received by deceiving passengers. According to local publications, the city commission on taxis and limousines analyzed GPS data from all taxi cars for 26 months and found out that more than 36 thousand drivers received $8.3 million in additional income by twisting the meter. The authorities decided to equip all city taxis with GPS in 2007. Taxi drivers staged a two-day strike in protest against such a move.

Combating absenteeism

In some schools in California, Texas and Kentucky (USA), GPS is used as a means of combating absenteeism. Students prone to absenteeism are forced to wear a GPS sensor on their hand, which allows them to track their location in real time. To do this, use the "Attendance Improvement Management Program" developed by the Texas company AIM Truancy Solutions. The pilot project of such "surveillance" was implemented in Texas back in 2006.

According to the developer, in the fall semester of 2010, their program was used in more than 100 schools in three states. The average attendance rate of students equipped with GPS sensors was 97%. After the sensors were removed, by the spring of 2011, their attendance rate remained at 93%. Also, GPS bracelets in the United States and some countries Europe are widely used to control convicts sentenced to house arrest.

Supervision of students

In 2007, Montclair State University in the United States made it mandatory to purchase a GPS phone for all students living on the university campus during their studies. For the supply of such phones, the university signed a contract with one of the local companies, while the device was to be purchased regardless of whether the student already has a phone with GPS or not.

The university explained the mandatory purchase of the phone with concern for the safety of students: if something goes wrong, the student will be able to promptly notify the university police about it, and she, in turn, will be able to track the student's location and take measures.

Using the phone costs the student $420 a year. This price includes 50 minutes of conversation per month, unlimited number of text messages and tracking service. At the same time, the latter requires activation by the student. If the student does not activate this feature, the police will not "forcibly" track his location.

Shadowing of FBI

USA FBI In uses GPS beacons to secretly monitor individuals who seem suspicious to agents. So, recently, a native of, Egypt currently studying at an American college, sued the FBI for the fact that the special services installed a GPS beacon on his car without a corresponding warrant. A tracking device attached by magnets between the right rear wheel and the exhaust pipe accidentally discovered a mechanic changing oil in the car. Two days after the student Internet posted a beacon in the photo to identify him, FBI agents demanded that he return the device.

Study of the behavior of citizens

The American company Sense Networks uses GPS, Wi-Fi and cell towers to collect coordinates of various user devices. Using the collected data, you can observe the movement of people, determine where their largest clusters occur at a certain time, or where a person dined before going to a jazz music concert. The information obtained is offered to commercial companies so that they can better study the behavior of consumers or, for example, choose the most suitable place to open a store or restaurant.

smartphones Sense Networks offers users a so-called social navigation application that allows you to track the distribution of human mass in the city in real time, pointing to the most popular establishments at the moment or, conversely, the most calm places. For ordinary users, the company has also developed an application for CabSense iPhone and smartphones on, Android using GPS data to find the place closest to the user in New York City which taxis can be caught at the moment.

What's in Russia?

In Russia, the use of navigation is only gaining momentum. The main part of the projects on the introduction of navigation technologies for civilian applications falls on vehicles, follows from the reports of development firms. However, the Russians also find navigators an original application.

Bus drivers catch hijackers

So, in November 2010, M2M Telematics organized an experiment in Tambov to attract bus drivers to search for stolen cars. The duty unit of the city police department transferred the number and signs of cars to the central dispatch service of the Passenger Transportation IAU, and from there to all vehicles equipped with M2M-Cyber GLX subscriber terminals with GLONASS support. The obtained information was displayed on an LCD display installed in the driver's cab, which, in case of detection of a stolen car, transmitted its coordinates to the dispatcher and to the duty unit.

According to representatives of M2M Telematics, such a scheme for catching hijackers is being used in Tambov now, however, in order to put it on stream, it is necessary to finalize some software algorithms, which the company is now doing.

Another experiment that was conducted in Tambov was to equip 14 low-floor trolleybuses with GLONASS equipment. Using the online service, people with disabilities can track the exact time of their arrival at the stop.

Watching Putin's leopard

Another area that is developing in Russia was the use of navigation to monitor rare and endangered wildlife in programs to protect them. For this, satellite collars are used. The other day, for example, a section appeared on the website of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, which has a map of the movements of one of the snow leopards listed in the Red Book. For animal surveillance, GPS and the Argos system are used (a satellite database and aggregate data system established under an agreement between France and the United States to study and protect the environment).

According to CNews Alexander Salman, general director of ES-PAS, which represents the interests of the French operator of the system in Russia Argos and provides the production of satellite collars, the number of animals monitored in this way has been actively growing in Russia for the past two years. According to Salman, his company is not opposed to using two-system receivers/in GLONASSGPS its collars, but at the moment the navigation receivers of this type presented on the market are too high in power consumption.

"As the taxpayer on whose money the GLONASS system is created, I am interested in using Russian technology. As soon as two-system solutions that are comparable in power consumption and price with GPS receivers appear on the market, we will use them to produce satellite collars, "says the head of ES-PAS. According to him, the life of the battery in the collar now averages 1.5-2 years.

Track employee movements

Following the United States, the use of navigation equipment to monitor personnel movements is also gaining momentum in Russia. For these purposes, as a rule, personal trackers are used. Natalya Degtyareva, Marketing Director of Russian Navigation Technologies, told CNews that they have oil and gas and service companies that track bypasses of various facilities.

The personal tracker records the employee's route and location, informs the dispatcher if the employee went outside the territory where he is supposed to be at a certain time or did not get in touch at the prescribed time. At the same time, the device provides feedback to the dispatcher, for example, it allows an alarm signal to be sent in case of emergency situations or to transmit information about the state of the object.

In addition to the oil and gas industry, such devices are used to monitor visits to retail outlets by agents, merchandisers, and regional representatives.

The development of navigation satellite constellations opens up new opportunities for mankind. States acquire applications related to security, business increases efficiency, ordinary citizens receive services that provide a new level of comfort. The era of navigation technologies is at the very initial stage of its development, so in the coming years we should expect the appearance of GLONASS/GPS applications in completely new areas of life.

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