GPS technology provides controversial new uses

For many of us, our only daily contact with global positioning system technology may be the high-tech distance finders on the golf course or in a rental car.

In another example of military technology evolving into commercial application, the GPS uses satellites orbiting the Earth to track the movement of objects here on the ground. Equipped with a simple antenna and receiver, a golf cart can be pinpointed from space and the exact distance between the cart and the pin calculated with incredible accuracy.

While this may be the most simple and fun use of GPS, a host of innovative companies recently have combined this existing technology with new age hardware and software to create more user-friendly applications.

While scientists and businesses have spent the past several years investigating ways to commercialize this technology, it has become readily apparent that some of the most attractive uses of the system revolve around wireless networks and handsets.

Despite a nearly endless stream of uses for wireless GPS, most companies have approached this application in the same manner. That is, the companies rely on the GPS satellites to track an object on Earth. In most instances, the company places GPS units throughout a wireless network. The GPS units keep track of the satellites and pass along important information to nearby wireless handsets.

Using highly sophisticated software, these systems are able to use the time difference between when the GPS units and the handsets receive the signal from the satellites, and based on such time difference, calculate where on the planet that handset is.

Some GPS systems are now claiming to be accurate within 15 feet when the handset is outdoors and within 100 feet when the handset is indoors.

Now that's all good, and it's great that we can find anyone with a handset anywhere on the planet, although it sure takes the fun out of hide-and-go-seek. But what good is it for people to be able to track one another? According to a number of new companies that are marketing commercial uses for this technology, the uses are plentiful.

Emergency uses

In an effort to comply with new Federal Communications Commission regulations that went into effect in October 2000 that require all wireless 911 calls to be pinpointed within 411 feet, a number of businesses are developing the technology to work in conjunction with the emergency 911 system.

Prior to this rule, most wireless 911 calls could only be pinpointed within a three to six square mile service area. Handsets that use the GPS tracking system will benefit consumers in several ways. The technology will allow emergency teams to more precisely locate people in need of help. It also will allow 911 calls to be routed more quickly to the appropriate rescue squad. Both benefits will reduce response times for emergency personnel.

Transportation uses

One of the most highly touted uses of this technology comes in the transportation industry. Companies that rely on trucks and other delivery vehicles to transport goods from one place to another are constantly looking for ways to reduce their labor costs and improve their efficiency.

By placing a GPS unit in each vehicle in their fleet, trucking companies can achieve enhanced productivity by closely monitoring all their vehicles. The GPS technology will allow such companies to:

track their trucks and suggest alternative routes on the fly to avoid traffic or other road problems;

know when their trucks have left their route and pulled into areas where they are not supposed to be; and

provide their customers more detailed information on the whereabouts of products or services.

All of these translate into a more efficient fleet and better customer service and, consequently, bigger profits.

Discrete Wireless, a company out of Atlanta, combines the GPS and a wireless network and the Internet to allow transportation companies to track their fleet on a secure Web site. The trucking company has no outlay for the technology, nor does it need a connection with the wireless network. By installing a small GPS transmitter in each truck (a process that takes about 15 minutes per vehicle) the trucking company has access to a password-protected Web site that synthesizes all information collected and provides real-time tracking.

Parental uses

Perhaps one of the more controversial uses of this technology allows parents to track their children around town. Incorporating the GPS technology into cars, cell phones, pagers or other handheld gadgets is turning out to be the latest wave in "virtual parenting."

Using the same setup as Discrete Wireless offers, parents can now use a Web site to track their children's whereabouts without ever leaving the house. Some companies tout this as the best way to make sure your child really spent the night at their friend's house. But parents are only tracking the device that contains the GPS unit. Just because the cell phone is at the friend's house doesn't mean your child is.

And this is where the controversy begins. In addition to the obvious "Big Brother" concerns associated with such tracking, many family psychologists worry that parents may come to rely on these devices and abdicate even more of their parental responsibilities.

This debate has become increasingly relevant in light of the recent rash of child abductions around the country. Parents can fit children with small wireless transmitters that could track their movements.

How far we are willing to go to embrace this technology remains to be seen. It appears that the values and the morals associated with it are developing at the same time the technology is.