From Rankin boardThrough all the hype you will hear about tracking from a GPS company like Triangulum TGM or
EnviroTrac XST or a radio type like LOJN Lojack or a cellular type like Rankin BMG.A or Cell
Loc CLQ, when it comes down to it there is but only one way to track: triangulation. All of these
competeing technologies use triangulation to track. There are however several methods of
triangulation avalable
1) triangulation by use of fixed radio "beacon" tower such that Lo Jack uses (pre 1985 tech)
Lo Jack puts up radio stations around and in a city, installs transponders in vehicle that are activated by a central office after you report that your car is stolen, then uses the reception time at these various stations to compute distance from where the signal is received. They then send a "chase" vehicle into the proximity of the stolen vehicles location to refine the search down to the imeadiate area. If the vehicle moves, difficult process to pin down.
I found some info from Argentina on Lo Jack that indicated that one of the star footballers cars was stolen during sometime during the night and when he discovered it missing, he reported it to the police and LoJack. Lo Jack was able to only give an approximate location because of the movement of the vehicle. Because of the profile of the star player, the police put everyone they could on the street to find this car, and after two hours, about 25 police vehicles and one helicopter, they ran the car off the road and totalled it.
2) triangulation by use of fixed cellular "beacon" tower such that Cell Loc or Rankin uses (1995
tech). Rankin works with the cellular companies, and is dependant on the cell companies permission
to use the facilities. Rankin installs a transponder in the vehicle (in this case a pretty simple cellular transceiver) that like LoJack is actively tracked by a central office only after you report that your car is stolen. The method of triangulation is more complicated than the Lo Jack system, but very similar in process using the reception time at these various stations to compute distance from where the signal is received. They also must then send a "chase" vehicle into the proximity of the stolen vehicle's
location to refine the search down to the imeadiate area. If the vehicle moves, again the difficulty to locate increases.
At Rankin's launch in Vancouver, covered by the press (check it out), they told the story of the
recovery of a staged theft. It took 45 minutes to find the vehicle because a) its proximity to the bay where there were several cell towers across the bay which provided (I am not sure of the president's actual wording on this) false signals and the fact that the vehicle moved when they were trying to locate it.
3) GPS
GPS another form of triangulation is what Triangulum and EnviroTrac use. Triangulum buys units from the US and "integrates" them into a customised software package for the user. EnviroTrac manufaturers a complete unit and authors their own original software in Calgary.
Both units can accomplish the same thing.
What the GPS receiver does is receives signals from radio transponders that happen to be located
on satelites. The signals contain data about the time that the signals were sent from the sats so that the receiver computes how far away from the sats it is instead of the other way around, like the cell or radio systems.
Older GPS receivers required a minimum of three signals to be able to compute the location, but the newer generations can produce an acurate location on as few a one received signal.
Simple comparisons of Rankin/Lo Jack/Cell Loc vs GPS.
- GPS systems designed for security (EnviroTrac) have alarms which can call a monitoring center for
you if your car is stolen, Rankin's or others don't.
- GPS system can operate on several communications systems and are not restricted to cellular
systems, therefore are deployable anywhere. Rankin/Cell Loc are tied to the cellular system and if the operators choose to, they can refuse access to Rankin or Cell Loc.
-GPS systems compute a new location every second, and do not require a "chase" vehicle to locate
the unit.
-GPS systems (that are so equiped) can disable the vehicle on the receipt of the alarm and it makes
recovery fast and less dangerous. I could be wrong, but none of the Rankin, Cell Loc or Lo Jack
have alarm capability or disable capability, maybe they should talk to EnviroTrac.
- Monitored GPS systems can give the location of the stolen vehicle in less than one minute
- GPS systems are higher cost, for both Hardware and service charge
- Apples to Apples: Same senario for both types of systems. Lets say a vehicle is not reported stolen
(and the driver did not activate the GPS alarm)for two hours. It is moved down to the waterfront
and put in a storage container for shipment out of the country.
The owner reports the theft.
The beacon and cell tracking systems claim the can find the unit in the container and the GPS can't,
I beg to differ.
The GPS is connected to the monitoring center by the same cell system that Rankin or Cell Loc is, so we assume that if one can communicate so can the other. The GPS retains and will report the last position of the vehicle outside the container until it sees the sky again for an update or
the battery runs dead. Same thing for the underground parking, warehouse, etc.
In short, if the unit can communicate over the cell system and the container has not been placed in a ship and is now six miles off shore which defeats both systems. The difference? The Rankin system in some circumstances, not by any means all circumstances, can be more acurate in this situation.
Senario two: Same situation with the GPS system having been "armed". Rankins system requires you
report the theft, the GPS system (again if equiped) can call in within a few seconds. The accuracy of the GPS and the ability to monitor speed can allow the monitoring center to control a shut down of a vehicle and eliminate any chase. It also can eliminate much of the damage that occurs after the car has been stolen.
I got loads more info on both technologies, but if I sound a little GPS bias, I am. However, I do
think there is room for both and I personally think Rankin has a good product. We all know
however that the product is not always the driving force behind the stock.
I hope I helped.