Service Publications Interactive

Technology In-Focus

Personal Geo-Location Services Vendors Exhibit a Stunning Lack of Imagination

Alan Wilensky, Reporting Analyst

Media focus on emotionally charged events often drives new products to market. In many cases, verticalapplications will sometimes be thrust into the consumer sector by a tragic occurrence or series of tragedies. Exam-ples of the former are legion; automotive airbags, weather alert radios, and several types of personal and residen-tial security products are all examples of events driving the birth of new products.This year’s tragic rash of child abductions underscores the need for personal Geo-location services. CommercialGeo-location products serve in a number of industries; many predate the availability of GPS. Some examples of these services include truck and freight tracking, maritime distress signaling, and wildlife management. Many of these services are GPS based, but several started as terrestrial-based systems built on the evolved Pseudo-Doppler radio direction finding method (DDF).The wholesale conversion of practically all geo-location applications to GPS has made tremendous sense, as GPSobviates the need to build out terrestrial locator networks. It is incorrect to assume, however, that GPS is the bestsolution to all Geo-Location problems.This monograph examines the logic of today’s personal location services vendors. These vendors have taken theposition that GPS is the best and only way to serve the needs of families wishing to protect and keep track of their children. The author will illustrate that, in fact, GPS comes off a poor second to the more mature Pseudo-Doppler technology, not only in regard to functionality, but also in terms of affordability - not a small issue in consumer product marketing. Geo-Location is a mature technology. First developed during World War II, HFDF (High-Frequency Direc-tion Finding), was deployed to intercept and locate enemy naval forces. The great innovation of the time involvedthe Pseudo-Doppler principal, which enabled the elimination of antenna rotating mechanisms and allowed near-instantaneous position fixes of multiple targets. This technology was deployed by the military until its ultimate de-mise following the introduction of GPS.Many non-GPS based applications served in the past, and still serve us well. The Maritime Safety and Distresssystem, although now based on GPS, still has an operating counterpart in Doppler based EPRB beacons used bysmaller commercial fishing and pleasure craft. The most popular stolen vehicle location system, Lojack, is not GPSbased - it is a pure distributed pseudo-Doppler system. These aforementioned are two examples of current appli-cations illustrating that GPS, in defined circumstances, confers no particular advantages over the earlier DDF tech-nology.In the consumer realm, GPS has become almost commoditized in personal-portable devices for outdoor orienteer-ing. Automotive applications are now considered almost common, if not ostentatious. Vehicle tracking has borneout two parallel application categories: automotive security products encompassing GPS location services, and lawenforcement applications of vehicle tracking.It is these last two applications that pique this analyst’s interest, as what makes these applications similar in mis-sion makes their employment of GPS a no-brainer. These vehicular applications share an important requirement -the need to return GPS location data to the end-user. This is most often accomplished by common-carrier net-works, such as PCS data or two-way paging systems, or (in the case of deeply remote or seafaring applications)Inmarsat or similar satellite data up-link transmission.

Executive SummaryGeo-Location Technology, a historical perspective

Service Publications Interactive

Technology In-Focus

2The need for data return is, of course, not unique to GPS location services. Even terrestrial Geo-location needsdata back-haul. The difference is, of course, that GPS data is returned from the device, while DDF data is returnedfrom the network. Cost implications are enormous when the influence of GPS licensing fees are combined withwireless common carrier fees. As we shall find a little further on in this paper, when end-user device cost is para-mount, DDF beats GPS handily.The cost of GPS devices for law-enforcement vehicle tracking has dropped significantly from a high of about$9,500/device in the mid 1980’s, to around $1,600/device today. GPS tracking devices that only record vehiclemovement for download after the device is removed can cost up to $500 less than devices with integrated teleme-try. Satellite EPRB Doppler beacons cost as little as $600. Maritime GPS emergency locators may cost from $900for GPS with PCS/Cell telemetry (useful only in coastal areas), to as much as $10,000+ for high-seas MSDS sys-tems with Inmarsat data up-link.In sum, the need to return data from GPS location products is, in no small measure, a contributing factor to the enddevice cost. This is to say nothing of recurring operation costs, subscription fees, and per-use charges. In applica-tions where cost sensitivity is not hypercritical (law enforcement, maritime safety, etc.), GPS chip set licensing fees,network telemetry charges, and per-use charges do not preclude deployment or market viability.However, in consumer markets, where cost is king, the aggregate costs associated with GPS licensing and its at-tendant data telemetry charges, prove GPS to be inferior to DDF.The Whereify Locator for kids is a colorful, large, wrist-worn device the size of a Puritan Manacle. At a cur-rent price of about $400, the device is not inexpensive, and neither are its service charges!. The device relies upontwo-way PCS paging to provide return data to web-based subscriber services. Parents use the web interface for on-demand location interrogation.Service charges range up to $49 per month. Depending on the chosen monthly plan, varying amounts of ‘includes’are provided, but never more than eighty on-demand location queries. In all cases, once the included commandsare exhausted from the plan, per-use charges apply. Theoretically, this could become very expensive for parentswishing frequent location updates on more than one child. Indeed, at a cost of $400/device, plus activation fees of $35/each, a family with three children will run a hefty tab, at the outset and monthly.Forward-looking pricing for this and similar devices does not support reduced projected manufacturing costs;handheld GPS devices for orienteering have bottomed out at average prices of ~$169. It must be emphasized thatthese devices have reached manufacturing quantities of over one million units annually. The hard floor preventingfurther price reductions is due to GPS VLSI licensing fees.Ignoring for a moment the power demands made by the GPS electronics, an integrated PCS paging module, andthe actual size of the device, we must now examine whether the choice of using GPS in this application is the rightchoice - or was it made without the critical thinking necessary for a complex product architecture deployed to theconsumer market?GPS is an obvious choice for any Geo-Location application, right? The answer is not as simple as youmight think. Indeed, GPS was created to provide worldwide navigation and weapons targeting control by obviatingthe need for terrestrial radio location systems. It is interesting to note as an aside that the aviation bureaucracy hasnot completely replaced terrestrial ILS systems with GPS precision approach avionics, although work is furiouslyforging ahead with the FAA’s usual alacrity!

Use Case: The Whereify Wireless Child Locator Why GPS?

Service Publications Interactive

Technology In-Focus

3First, let us put some popular myths to rest. The widely held belief is that GPS provides precision location dataanywhere, at any time. This supposition is not correct, although GPS does provide the best overall probability of acquiring a location fix anywhere on the earth’s surface. Still, certain atmospheric and structural obstacles can in-terfere with GPS location. Professional GPS surveying apparatuses always rely on larger, external antenna masts.The reason for this has to do with the need for multiple satellite acquisition. The GPS terminal device requires aminimum of three satellites to capture for location fix, four for speed and heading, and five for elevation. Thesmaller antennas in handheld GPS devices are the worst suited to reliable capture. When considering even smaller devices, such as the Whereify child locator, the antenna constraints become even more onerous.The greatest myth perpetrated on the consumer market for two-way Geo-location services, such as child and petlocation, is that GPS will operate in any area. The fallacy is that the locator product does not rely solely on GPS toprovide location; the embedded communications which provide return data are integral to the application. If a per-sonal Geo-location device is dependent on network telemetry data, its services are only operational within the net-work coverage area.It therefore follows that since most wireless data services operate within major metropolitan areas and environs,the Geo-location products married to these networks are similarly limited. Rural and medium-sized Midwest metro-politan markets will be ultimately under-served by this product architecture. The lower average income levels foundin these markets further precludes the use of expensive terminal equipment, with their added burdens of carrier fees and per-use charges.So much for GPS being a ubiquitous solution.The current uncritical thinking leading to the conclusion that GPS is the only viable Geo-location platformfor the consumer market is most probably due to a lack of imagination, and mental laziness on the part of the en-trepreneurs bringing these early products to market. Caving into conventional thinking, they have essentiallybrought a device to life that will cost a family with three children $1200 in equipment, $90 in enrollment fees, and upto $150/month to operate. Furthermore, although business models can change, these subscribers will currentlyhave only a handful of demand location commands per device before overage charges apply.A better idea would be to design a product that could be manufactured in sufficient quantities, such that the result-ing economics would allow the device to be provided gratis or very inexpensively (on the order of less than $20).These ‘Doppler Transponders’, are one-way devices which transmit on a fixed schedule, on one of several randomfrequencies. They can be made compact and power efficient. Most important, however, is that in quantities of 100,000 and greater, these simple devices can reach a per unit cost of ~$10.Geo-location of such devices is accomplished with a terrestrial network of compact, non-radiating, Pseudo-Doppler receiving antenna masts; the more the merrier. In flatter, open areas, medium sized towns can be covered with ahalf-dozen masts. The concrete canyons of Boston or New York would require a mast every 2.5 to 5 sq. Miles,similar to PCS roof coverage.The end result is that the location data return costs are shifted to the network. By placing the communications bur-den on low-cost leased facilities, the user population can partake of unlimited location updates without demand andoverages fees. The extrication of such systems from the costly hackles of the PCS paging and voice network willmake these services available at much lower monthly costs, perhaps on the order of $9.95/month.Liberating end-user hardware from the Svengali-like GPS grip provides us with a lightweight, low-cost device thatcan be distributed by schools, volunteer organizations, and local police. Enrollment for services would be on-line for those with computers, or through IVR for those without.