Subject: [NEXTEL-1] GPS cell phones have many interesting uses

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 08 Dec 2002 16:37:27 -0500

Innovators in phone technology
By Baidura Ahmad

12/08/02

LEAVE it to the Finns; they went to the dogs when the mobile phone
market for humans got saturated. In August, Finnish forests rang
with the sound of rifles as well as the strange crackle of hunters
giving commands to their dogs by mobile phone. The hunters are
hoping to track game better by strapping cell phones with tracking
devices onto the backs of their dogs as they hunt for bears and
ducks.

A dog's bark can help them determine what sort of animal it has
tracked from hundreds, if not thousands of kilometres away and
hunters will be able to give orders on the two-way mobile system.

The mobile phone, equipped with a Global System of Mobile Phone
technology, GSM, widely used in Europe, and a Global Positioning
System, or GPS, was developed by the Benefon mobile phone company
and Pointer, a company in northern Finland that makes dog tracking
devices.

Benefon Oyj president Jorma Niemen recalls when Pointer came to
the company, one of the pioneering names in mobile phones, with
the request to make a tracking device for hunting.

"After it heard of our new GSM and GPS phones, Pointer came to us
with some rough ideas for a tracking device and together we came
up with the end product, which is proving to be very popular in
Finland," said Niemen in an interview during a recent stopover in
Kuala Lumpur.

According to Niemen, the application of the new technology can be
varied as determined by the particular needs of a client. Often,
its local partners in over 50 countries around the world come up
with ideas for applications.

In Germany, together with its local partner Vitaphone GmbH which
specialises in heart-related services and products, a "heart
mobile phone" was recently introduced.

The phone, which is a regular mobile phone, is equipped with a
heart beat tracker that a user can put next to his heart beat if
he fears that he is having a heart attack. By pushing an emergency
button on the phone and without having to say a word, the heart
beat readings can be read by his doctor using a phone with the
same technology. The doctor can then make quick assessment of the
situation for the medical team on the ground.

In Malaysia, Benefon's local partner, Finnova Corp Sdn Bhd,
recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the
Taxi-Limousine and Rented Cars' Drivers and Operators Association
of Malaysia (Petekma) to provide a new service for local taxis.

By the middle of next year, about 1,500 taxi drivers will be
equipped with Benefon handphones with GPS. They will be given one
of the two types of Benefon handphones - the Benefon ESC or
Benefon Track Pro.

Petekma staff will know exactly where each taxi is by monitoring
their movements, which can be read by the different colour codes
that appear in the monitoring room.

A red dot will indicate that a taxi has passengers, yellow means
the taxi is on the way to pick passengers up, green when the cab
is empty and blue when the driver is taking a break.

The system will help reduce the amount of time spent waiting for a
taxi. When someone calls for a taxi, the control room can
immediately dispatch the one nearest to the caller.

Niemen says others who have indicated their interest in the GSM
and GPS phones are those who work alone covering a large area,
like security guards.

An Australian security guard owes his life to one such phone. He
was doing his lone rounds in a large industrial area when he was
shot by a gunman. He managed to push the emergency button and
almost immediately, the police managed to track his exact location
and save precious time, as the injury could have been fatal.

In a town in France, the local police force are trying out the
Track Pro phones - they are used by lone policemen patrolling far
from the police station. There are also suggestions to use the
same tracking device on the hunting dogs on a cargo in a ship.
This will enable the cargo owner to track the cargo as it goes
from one port to another, from the port through customs inspection
and to its final destination.

Even a lone social worker, visiting the homes of her charges, can
be tracked using the Track Pro. Or a lone field man working in a
large forest.

"We are open to ideas as to the application," says Niemen.

Industry watchers, who estimate that there are six million GPS
phone units currently in use, expect the number to reach 250
million in 10 years.

Benefon, founded in 1988 by Niemen and two other former employees
of Finnish technology group Nokia, first made its mark in the
mobile phone market with analogue phones.

It is also the phone company that put Tetris in its phones to
attract fans of the game.

http://www.emedia.com.my/Current_News/MM/Sunday/National/200212081
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