MalaysiaGIS.com

Source: New Sunday Times

With numerous navigation satellites operated by the US Defense Department, informational signals such as longitude, latitude, time, date, ground speed and direction of moving objects are transmitted to users with a GPS receiver or any other related hardware.

With the data provided by the GPS satellite, it will automatically create an ideal solution for users with a GPS receiver to compile and process these data for applications like the Automatic Vehicle Locations (AVL) system.

Costing between RM2,500 and RM3,500 per vehicle, depending on the features, the Posse 2 vehicle satellite tracking system is a one-step, cost effective and reliable AVL system which is specially designed and caters for the security of car owners.

"The Posse 2 system is based on the GPS and global systems for mobile communication network and all information gathered from the system will be transmitted back to the Command Centre," Audiovox Communications (M) Sdn Bhd Corporate Services operations manager Doreen Liew said,

She said the centre operates 24 hours a day throughout the year. Six staff man the centre, which was set up last May, during the day and three after 6pm. The midnight shift sees two people on duty.

"We have not had a situation just yet. Most people have simply tested the effectiveness of the system," she said.

Should such a situation arise, the company's trained staff will contact the owner of the lost vehicle and a team will be sent to the site to verify the information.

"We leave it to the owner to contact the police."

The system is quite simple. A tracking device will be installed and hidden in the vehicle.

This device, using 12 to 24 volts of battery power, has three components - a GPS computer chip that generates information on the latitude, longitude, time and speed of the vehicle, a computer processor that calculates the data and a modem that tranmits the data via an antenna.

Once the vehicles, installed with this system, are on the road, a GPS satellite will detect the vehicles and generate fleet data like the latitude, time and speed of each of the vehicles.

Transmission from the GPS satellite is free as the US Government opened its usage to the public from its once exclusive use by the military.

This data is then relayed to the command centre in Taman Shamelin Perkasa via the modems in the tracking devices.

The relaying of the data is done either through satellite transmission or GSM network.

The fleet data received at the command centre will be mapped on digital maps. The maps will show the whereabouts of the vehicle. This particular information will be relayed to the client.