Re: bike locater cell phone

On Jan 17, 2:07 pm, D_Frumiou...@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Phil W Lee <phil(at)lee-family(dot)me(dot)uk> wrote:





Mike <nos...@xxxxxxxxxx> considered Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:14:57 +0000
the perfect time to write:
On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 04:11:19 +0000 (UTC), D_Frumiou...@xxxxxxxxxxx
wrote:

  Some late-model, high-end cars now come with a GPS unit.  Many of
them can be spotted by the minature "shark fin" antennas on the roof
near the back window.  The feature can be used to locate the car if it's
stolen, or by repo people trying to get a car back from a delinquent
customer.
  So I think the technology exists that could do the same for bicycles.  
The only questions, could it be concealed so that the thief wouldn't be
aware of it, and would it be cost-effective?  Unfortunately, I'm kind of
leaning toward "no" in answer to both questions, at least for now.

They are doing something similar in the UK in high crime areas.  Bait
cars and bait houses are being seeded with high value items like
laptops. They are fitted with GPS tracking which signals its exact
position back to base every few seconds (using mobile phone data
channels)  The police can track the items movement from the point at
which it is stolen to the point at which it is fenced.

If the item will fit in a laptop which are notorious for their very
high packaging density then they should be suitable for bikes, but I
expect the price of them to be somewhat astronomical.

Using off the shelf equipment a typical basic hardware cost of
commercial grade "full size" hardware for both functions is around £40
in the UK ($60) - getting the hardware down to a size suitable for
bike mounting could easily double that.  The off the shelf equipment
(gps rec, gprs transceiver, aerial, battery) will fit in a 1.5" -
1.75" cube.
Easy enough to disguise it as a cycle computer then.

   Little question that such a thing can be done from a technical
standpoint.  The next step would be to make it economically feasible.  
There are dinguses available that you can carry in your shirt pocket,
that will send a distress call and GPS coordinates to a central
location.  Just the thing if you're going out to sea, or into the Brooks
Range, or something, all alone.  Trouble is, they're still up there a
bit.  I think I've seen them priced at $200-400.
   So now some intrepid entrepreneur needs to market one for bikes.  
And/or, some zealous police department needs to start planting "bait"
bikes with such locators in high-theft areas like college campuses.
   The next question would be how long it would take the thieves to
catch on and start disabling the gadgets...

Bill

   __o   | Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain
 _`\(,_  | or freed a human soul in this world--and never will.
(_)/ (_) |                                      --Mark Twain- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

a zelous pd ? really ? where in the world will you find one ? just
one....
.

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