GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (GPS) technology has been around for quite some time now but in the Philippines it remains to be one of those “high tech” gadgetry with limited practical applications. This is partly because we still do not have a sophisticated and updated online mapping system. GPS also is still a very expensive technology which only few businesses can afford.
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technology, on the other hand, has gone mainstream long time ago. With more than 50 million cellphone users in the Philippines as of December 2007, it is easy to understand the explosion of mobile applications particularly SMS or texting.
For a while there were attempts to make GSM do what GPS is designed for, that is, to pinpoint a location, by a crude but useful navigational technique called triangulation. It is a “poor man’s GPS” in a way and it has some limited practical applications. But it is not precise and will never be as precise as GPS. GSM may pinpoint an object within approximately a hundred meters, GPS within one to two.
I am starting to see an interesting development between these two technologies. A convergence.
I’ve seen a number of articles about GPS-GSM convergence in CIO.com and other technology magazines.
Last week I’ve actually laid my hands on an actual device that makes use of both GPS and GSM. It’s called Tramigo, a nifty device which is yet to be introduced into the local market. I managed to procure a unit from the local distributor even before the product is publicly announced. My team in Delbros is now prepping it for a number of pilot applications that our CEO wants us to experiment on. Tramigo is not cheap yet but at least it is no longer prohibitively expensive.
I believe this marriage will give birth to new killer applications which will bring GSM to a new level and make GPS within reach, at least to businesses. The practical applications are many and we are just starting to ponder on its possibilities.
Practical applications need not be limited to business. Tramigo looks like an ideal spy gadget for monitoring movements of certain target objects.
For instance a woman who suspects her man to be fooling around may invest on a Tramigo unit and have it discreetly installed in her man’s car. She can then have the Tramigo programmed so that it will send her the exact coordinates of the car via SMS every time the car engine is shut off. Tramigo can even be programmed to send the car’s coordinates on pre-set intervals, say every 30 minutes. Longitudes and latitudes are no longer as mystifying as before. All the woman needs to do is type in the coordinates in Google Earth and viola, she is given an aerial view of the exact location, close enough to recognize landmarks and other structures, maybe even some people in the vicinity.
Wait, I think this is a bad example. My male friends may curse me for giving their spouses and girlfriends this crazy idea. #
