Monday March 26, 11:30 am Eastern Time
Forbes.com
Tracking People And Products
By Arik Hesseldahl
LAS VEGAS - In comic books and cartoons, superheroes often track down villains by sneaking a small radio transmitter into the bad guy's
car or pocket. Invariably, the signal leads the hero to the criminal's secret hideout.
In a case of fiction meeting fact, a new company called Locate Networks has a similar service. When you need to know exactly where
someone--or something--is in real time, you'll soon be able to find out, using a service that this Kirkland, Wash.-based startup is
developing.
One of several companies working in a nascent wireless niche known as location-based information, Locate's service combines several
technologies--pagers, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and the Internet--with an interesting result.
At the company's booth at last week's CTIA Wireless 2001 show in Las Vegas, a demonstration showed exactly how the service works.
For instance, a manager of a taxi company who wants to keep tabs on drivers as they move around town could track them in real time.
First, the manager sends a message through Locate's Web service, which in turn sends out a message to a tracking device over a
two-way paging network. That message prompts the tracking device to record its current location using signals from the U.S.
Government's network of GPS satellites. The desired location is then sent back to a server, which can convert the GPS coordinates into a
map showing exactly where the driver is.
While it may seem a bit intrusive for an employer to keep tabs on the location of its employees, valid reasons for doing so can differ. An
unconscious police officer can't say where he is on a radio. Utility workers often spend their days running from place to place, as do
couriers and sales people. Sometimes you just have to track them down.
Indeed, the federal government has already mandated that mobile phones have some sort of so-called E911 capability, which allows the
location of a mobile phone to be tracked to within 100 meters when a caller dials 911. Of course, that capability hasn't played well with
privacy advocates concerned about the potential for abusive surveillance. They'll probably also take offense at the idea of workers being
monitored while on the job.
Locate's service is based on technology developed by Snaptrack, a company which wireless chip giant Qualcomm (NasdaqNM:QCOM -
news) acquired last year for $1 billion. It will not be offered directly to consumers, but rather through wireless phone services or pager
companies.
Locate President Michael Crowson says the technology allows users to set permissions on who can locate them and when. If you don't
want the boss to be able to find you after business hours, you would be able to set that up as a personal preference on Locate's Web site.
And different sets of people--say co-workers, golfing buddies and family members--can have different sets of permissions for different
times of the day. You can even choose to drop out entirely when you want to disappear.
Locate has other plans for the technology as well. Companies that ship their goods around the world would pay to track products down if
they're lost or stolen. Goods stolen during shipment cost insurance companies billions of dollars in claims each year. Location chips could
also be built into laptop PCs, which are a favorite target of thieves everywhere.
Glenayre (NasdaqNM:GEMS - news) is building devices that work with Locate's service. Among them is an insert that works with Handspring 's (NasdaqNM:HAND - news)
Visor handheld computer that will be locatable, and will also be able to handle two-way messaging.
The company expects to launch its products in June, depriving superheroes everywhere of one of their exclusive perks. |
