Here at Ublip, we are big fans of  mashup applications which are applications that combine data from multiple sources. We have just released our first feature to help allow their creation. The most recent location of a device is now available as a secure GeoRSS feed. If you look above the upper right corner of the map on the All Readings report, there is now a GeoRSS icon that is linked to this feed, see the image below:

In the near future, we will be adding additional feeds for multiple devices, geofence violations, stops, etc. If you have any suggestions for feeds or other kinds of API access, contact us.

One of our developers has written a blog post about integrating Ublip feeds with Yahoo Pipes.

I wrote a post a little while ago about using GPS for locating elders suffering Alzheimer’s or Dementia. Since then I have already seen 3 more Silver Alerts on the highway signs and in every case the missing elder was driving a vehicle, so in every case a GPS system on the vehicle would have probably ended the crisis. In these cases, there was no need for inconvenient GPS ankle bracelets or other wearable systems that have been proposed by some.  Not that a system like that wouldn’t have a place as well, but I can say that regardless of his condition, I doubt I could ever get my father to wear a GPS tracker, but I might be able to get him to install a system in his vehicle.

You may also notice that avoided the term “GPS tracking system” for this application and instead used the term “locating.” I think this is appropriate because unlike a fleet management application, the purpose is not to monitor a vehicles activities, but simply to be able to locate it when a crisis has occurred.

As I was driving into the office this morning I noticed a message on the electronic highway signs, “Missing Elderly…Red Ford F150 TX license number XXX XXX…call police”. This was a Silver Alert, a recent extension of the Amber Alert program to cover missing elderly people suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s. I thought about how horrible an experience it must be for this person and his family. Then I thought about the fact that we now have the technology to make many of these alerts unnecessary. What if, instead of initiating a massive search, the family could simply log onto a website and see the exact location of their elderly family member’s vehicle. They would have a very good chance then of simply being able to go to this location and find their loved one.

Coincidentally,  I was also listening to a podcast of BioTech Nation on my commute and I heard a very scary statistic. Apparently, just a little under 50% of people living past 85 years of age are now expected to develop Alzheimer’s. When you consider that in light of current demographic trends, we are going to be seeing a lot more incidents like this in coming years. Hopefully, through the use of GPS technology, many of these incidents can become dinner conversations and not tragedies.

I just read a great story about a musician who left his beloved guitar in the trunk of a taxi cab. In this and most cases, passengers don’t remember the number of the cab they used. However, in this case, they were able to quickly figure that out because the cab was tracked using GPS and the story has a happy ending. While there are many obvious benefits that come from tracking vehicles and other assets using GPS, there are many other unanticipated benefits to knowing exactly where things are.

Lots of equipment is stolen from constriction sites all the time. GPS asset tracking is a good way to help reduce these losses. Here is a recent story about an incident where the stolen goods were recovered because they had a GPS device on them. In this case, it was stolen appliances, but a bigger problem would be portable equipment like generators, concrete pumps, trailers, etc. Ublip provides tracking services for this sort of equipment. When the equipment is placed in an area where it should stay for awhile, you can set-up a geofence around it. A geofence is simply an imaginary boundary. When a tracked asset crosses a geofence, an alert is sent out. You may not be able to stop the thief from leaving with the equipment, but your chances of recovering it are much higher. This also guards against unauthorized use of the equipment as well as actual theft.