Mobile phone location systems don't work, here's why
Mobile phone location systems are:
- too slow,
- hugely inaccurate, and don't work if you want to find someone
Here's our website developer trying out a competitor's service that relies on mobile phone signal triangulation, take a look at this:
We have a better solution that uses live GPS (and video of that below), read on ..
Why is four metre GPS-level accuracy important?
We talk about four metre accuracy, and real-time data, because you need both those things to make an effective tracking system.
If you are to make a good decision about what will work for you, understanding this is crucial.
There are a lot of competing mobile phone location systems on offer. Almost all triangulate the position of the mobile phone using the phone transmitters. That method is very inaccurate.
Additionally, if your target phone is out of signal range, depending on your operator you'll receive a "can't find it" message, or you'll receive a message telling you the location of where the owner last sent a text or made a call. No direction or speed. You'll have no idea where they are now.
Competing mobile phone location systems have a typical accuracy of about 400 metres (equivalent to a line of 100 parked cars) in any direction. It's the size of forty football pitches, or the area of most town centres. It's an awfully long way if you're trying to find someone urgently, and it forms a large area to search. It includes a lot of buildings in a built-up area and a lot of trains in a train station.
If you are using a mobile phone to text to discover someone else's location, you'll have to know your way around. Here's the first output from a system we tried: not worst, just the first (actually our first request resulted in nothing, so second request, first result): "Andrew is within 1607 meters of Riggs Head, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, YO11 2TL". This writer has lived in Scarborough for twelve years and has no clue where Riggs Head is. And a 1.6Km search radius?
Mobile phone location systems simply don't work if you need to find someone.
By contrast, our system uses GPS, the same system as satellite navigation, and it's normally accurate to 4 metres.
Using a system based on GPS, you can tell almost exactly where someone is: which room of their house they are in, which shop counter they are at, or exactly where along the country path they are. Our system takes you straight to the person you want to find.
GPS is the only system that provides this level of accuracy and Blue Tree Services was the first company to design, manufacture and supply a GPS location tracking system in the UK. We continue to innovate and to lead the market.
So what's KoolTrax™ Mobile™
KoolTrax™ Mobile™ is affordable, downloadable software from Blue Tree Services that can turn a Windows Mobile 5+ device with GPS capability (such as the Mio A701) into a tracking device so you can watch its exact location live onscreen (keep reading for video demonstration below).
"Why is 'real-time', live GPS tracking so important"?
We offer real-time tracking. Most alternative systems respond to text messages. We think this doesn't work because when the target phone can't get a signal, your text response will be either "can't find it" or the location of the last call or text made on that phone. In an emergency, that's a problem.
Real time tracking gives us the ability to raise alerts, for instance, we could alert you as soon as your child wanders out of the garden.
Real-time tracking gives you
- help to locate someone even if they are out of mobile signal range (with text based systems you get almost nothing)
- geofence (and if your device has a movement sensor, no-movement) alerts (so you can let the system take the strain)
- a breadcrumb trail for up to a month showing where they've been
- the ability easily to monitor multiple people at once
The problem with text-based systems
We all know from daily experience that sometimes you just can't get a signal on your mobile phone. Perhaps you're out in the middle of nowhere, you're deep inside a shopping centre, car park or nightclub, or you've just left a big event and the network is full.
Mobile phone locators require you to send a text message to request the location of a mobile phone. That request is chargeable (40p to perhaps 16p if you buy bulk).
If the network is busy (eg. after a football match or concert, or at busy times such as New Year's Eve), your text message won't be processed for a while or you won't be able to get a signal to send the text.
Additionally, the mobile you want to locate may not be able to get a signal.
Either way, depending on your mobile operator, you'll receive a message saying the mobile you want to track can't be located. The cost of sending the text message is wasted.
There is no service guarantee for text messaging, so you can't rely on it to be timely. If you've ever sent a 'happy new year' message on New Year's Eve, you'll know it may not arrive at its destination until the following lunchtime. When the network's busy, you may experience delays in response.
After the July 7th tube bombings in London, the authorities effectively cut off public access to mobile phone services in order to give the emergency services priority. Again, in those circumstances if you wanted to track someone who you think might have been passing through, using a mobile phone locator you would probably have to continually send texts requesting the location of your target mobile phone only to receive back that "can't find it" message. You wouldn't know if they were simply shopping, in another part of the underground waiting to reach a station, or been directly affected, and the situation could stay like that for hours.
If you haven't been tracking someone's location, then you request it, and the system comes back with nothing, you could easily receive no information at all. You wouldn't know whether the situation is momentary or will last a while, and you would have no clue where on the planet your person is.
Our real-time system
All our GPS location systems (colloquially known as trackers, either pocketable units or mobile phone upgrades) constantly seek a mobile phone signal and, when they have a signal, send their location to our server. Our KoolTrax™ PC software displays the position of your trackers continuously onscreen along with a comprehensive breadcrumb history trail.
You might be able to tell from that illustration that the journey shown was undertaken in just under two minutes. If you were tracking this person you might infer they are in a car and not on foot.
In the event of a mobile phone signal being unobtainable by one of your trackers, you can see the breadcrumb trail which shows you the last location of the person, the time of that reading, and their direction and speed of travel. You can see if they have entered a poor signal area (a remote location or deep inside a building), and you know they haven't come out of it.
When our system does find a signal again, you see the tracker's location immediately on your screen: no texting and waiting, no extra cost, and no delays. If an incident happens (eg. terrorism or a motorway crash), you can immediately see onscreen whether your person being tracked might be affected. If there's no signal, you can see when they entered that no-signal zone, and you automatically see when they come out, without continually texting. Imagine the relief.
It's because of real-time data that we can store a breadcrumb trail for each tracker. We store, and you can see, up to a month's worth of data. If the person you are tracking covers the same ground regularly and it contains a signal blackspot, you'll be able to see where they usually regain a signal and how long before they do.
When it matters, a mobile device may only momentarily connect to the mobile network. With competing systems, you'd have to be lucky to text right at that moment, and even then what you get back isn't very accurate. In that momentary connection, our system would deliver location information which displays on your screen.
Our system isn't specifically designed or intended for operation in areas where there isn't a mobile phone service but it does happen to perform well in that circumstance. Our system's ability to constantly watch for a signal and connect if possible, however fleetingly, is a particular advantage for those who want to use it in the countryside (eg. runners, horse riders), along the coast (eg. yachting), or in remote locations (eg. hillwalkers and mountaineers) because KoolTrax™ can connect and send in an instant, whereas trying to use a mobile phone in an emergency under such circumstances is very difficult.
Real-time data gives you location-based alerts
Because our system continually delivers location information, we can offer location-based alerts.
For instance, you can easily draw a geographic boundary (a geofence) around a location, a school, your garden or street, a town, and set up the system so you receive an alert (on screen, by email or by text on your mobile phone) when the tracker leaves (or enters) that location.
Alerts make a location system usable. Often our client's goal is to achieve peace of mind. They want to know if their child is safe, if the elderly person in their care wanders off, or if anything unusual happens to their staff. They don't want to have to keep texting to find out. Peace of mind comes from setting alerts and then letting our system take care of things.
That's what we mean by real-time .. our products are constantly connected and always sending location information. Because of that we can help you find people even if they can't get a mobile signal, and you get to set alerts and relax.
Of course, if you are managing a workforce, texting to find each employee's location isn't practical. In that case KoolTrax™ PC, with its ability to show the location of any number of tracking units in real time all at once, is the perfect answer.
Live GPS location data is essential in a personal locator. When you want to know where someone is, you don't want to be told where they were. Live data gives you a breadcrumb trail and alerts that are near essential for usability. You'll wonder how you ever did without it.
Our solution, a demonstration
Here's our website developer again, this time using our KoolTrax™ Ranger product (actually now replaced by KoolTrax™ Lite but the functionality is the same). This shows the accuracy and real-time nature of the system we offer. KoolTrax™ Mobile replaces that KoolTrax™ hardware product with software on your phone, but besides that, everything else is the same.
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How does KoolTrax™ Mobile™ work?
KoolTrax™ Mobile™ is software you can download today and install on a suitable mobile phone, turning it into a GPS location transmitter. It then tells selected people, with your permission, where you are to four metre accuracy.
KoolTrax™ PC is the software you need to install on an Internet connected Windows computer that shows you the location of one or more KoolTrax™ Mobile™ devices. KoolTrax™ PC is free with KoolTrax™ Mobile™ and is licenced for multiple PCs, so you could, for instance, monitor twenty people across three PCs, potentially in different homes, offices or locations.
Using KoolTrax™ PC you can set up either 'in' or 'out' geofences that raise an alarm if the phone either enters or exits an area, and you can set up the response to a panic alarm raised by pressing an on screen button on the phone.
Each alert type for each KoolTrax™ Mobile™ raises an on-screen alert on the KoolTrax™ PC software. In addition, alerts may be delivered by email and/or phone text (SMS).
These alerts may be combined however you wish. For instance, a boundary alarm might be left to alert on screen while the panic alarm might trigger text messages to everyone involved. That's all completely configurable by you onscreen and you can change it as often as you like.
Where professional staff are involved the system may be configured to display their location only when there is an alert state. This leaves staff free to manage their time as before without adversely affecting a supportive relationship with management.
Emergency operation
An emergency might arise if you hear of an accident or, for instance, a terrorist event and you want to make sure someone is safe. You might have set a geographic boundary that they've transgressed. KoolTrax™ Mobile™ provides a software panic button, an alert state arises when that's been pressed. Maybe someone's just gone missing. Or perhaps the phone's been lost or stolen.
In response, you can monitor the location of the KoolTrax™ Lite unit onscreen and perhaps direct someone on the ground, verbally, using a mobile phone.
Our trackers must have a connection to the mobile network in order for any alert method to work. We currently use Orange to provide mobile services, their coverage map is here. The system is designed as a person location device so it's assumed that you will rarely be out of a mobile signal area.
Even in poor weather and bad visibility conditions, our trackers give you an exact GPS position you can provide to emergency services.
How much does KoolTrax™ Mobile™ cost?
KoolTrax™ Mobile™ is a very affordable, downloadable GPS tracking solution for mobile devices (phones and PDAs) using Windows Mobile 5+ and with GPS capability.
You can download KoolTrax™ Mobile™ for £9.99.
If you want to use KoolTrax™ Mobile™ with geographic boundaries, you can receive alerts onscreen and by email free of charge. Alerts sent by SMS mobile text, however, require you to create a credit balance with Blue Tree Services. They are charged at 10p each and may be bought in £10 blocks.
In normal operation KoolTrax™ Mobile™ sends its location information over your mobile's data connection. You would pay your supplier for that under your existing tarif. The amount of data sent is small, but it might be worth checking you still have the best tarif for your needs. You can switch KoolTrax™ Mobile™ off whenever you don't want to be tracked.
Ready to buy? Click here
Does it work outside the UK and Ireland?
It works wherever your phone works, just get roaming enabled on your phone.
How can I cancel?
If you change your mind and wish to cancel a new order, you have a statutory seven days to do so. You must let us know in writing or by email and return the product unopened, uninstalled and at your expense.
Guarantee
We want you to be completely satisfied with purchase, and we are absolutely sure you will be. You're going to love what we offer, so we want to make sure you get the chance to see what we mean, and feel the product working for you. So we offer an iron clad, no-quibble, fourteen day money back guarantee.
So that's that: if, after fourteen days of use, you're not absolutely happy with the KoolTrax™ PC software on your PC or with your chosen tracking unit or with anything at all that we've provided for whatever reason, just return it to us in its original condition, and we'll refund your money in full. No questions asked. No hard feelings. No problem.
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KoolTrax™ Mobile™ requirements
In order to use KoolTrax™ Mobile software to turn your mobile phone or PDA into a personal GPS tracker, your phone needs to be running Windows Mobile 5+ or Nokia's Symbian, have NMEA compliant GPS capability and have a touch screen.
If you don't know whether your phone is running Windows Mobile 5+, there's a screenshot on Wikipedia which shows you what it looks like.
The most common phone operating system is Symbian. If you have a Nokia, Ericsson, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic, Siemens AG, Samsung or BenQ phone it's likely it's running Symbian.
If your phone or PDA is incompatible but you want KoolTrax™ Mobile, here are some options:
- If your phone or PDA doesn't run Windows Mobile 5+ or Nokia Symbian, then you might consider taking the opportunity to get a new phone. If you're doing that, aim for a phone that has inbuilt GPS.
- Alternatively if your phone or PDA supports Java, a Java version of KoolTrax™ Mobile is under development, so you might prefer to wait for that. Sign up to receive notification when KoolTrax™ Mobile Java is launched.
- If you have a Windows Mobile 5+ or Symbian phone that isn't GPS enabled, you can buy GPS devices that connect to your phone using BlueTooth, for instance those provided by Garmin or the Holux GPSlim236 Wireless Bluetooth GPS Receiver.
In addition, to manage the service and display the position of one or more KoolTrax™ Mobile user, you will need an Internet connected Windows PC.
What you are getting
Our service provides
- the ability to track the real position of anyone (assuming they accept being tracked)
- 4 metre positional accuracy
- real-time, live location data
- a breadcrumb trail of where they have been
- the security of knowing you or your child, parent, client or staff member has an alert button that, when pressed, shows you exactly where they are
- control of the setup of any number of geofence boundaries of any shape, that you can switch between at will
- the ability to set up alerts by email and/or text message to any number of people
How to order
Track someone. Make yourself trackable. KoolTrax™ Mobile™ is available for download now.
KoolTrax™ Mobile
Click the 'buy' button below to buy and download KoolTrax™ Mobile through our secure payment pages. If you want more than one, click the button and change the quantity on the next page.
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Download KoolTrax™ MobileGot a Windows Mobile 5+ or Symbian (Nokia) mobile/PDA with GPS? Turn it into a personal GPS tracker for just £55.99 (annual charge). What you get:
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Next step: Enjoy the endless possibilities of location tracking.