GPS Trackers 2.0

PocketFinder, Mongoose, Wonlex, SpyGuy, Amcrest, Yepzon, Trax, Spot, MotoSafety. Many companies propose GPS tracker solutions these days. Indeed, such products become more and more popular as they provide relief on a domain which is directly tight to our own human nature: security. GPS Tracker solutions help us to:

• track our kids when they leave home alone
• track our elder ones when they lose their autonomy
• track our vehicles if they get stolen
• track our pets if they get lost

All these solutions are geo-intelligent, as they allow to bring location intelligence to our daily lives. Such intelligence is essentially point-to-point, as the solutions are presented in a way where two devices are coupled between them:

•  a WRITER device (the GPS tracker itself) is in the possession of the party which needs to be controlled (the kid, the elder person, the vehicle or the pet)
• a READER device (often in the form of a mobile app) is in the possession of the controlling party (the parents, the heathcarers, the owners)

The coupling of the two devices together is made via a unique Identifier such as the IMEI of a mobile phone, for example. As such, READER devices can only access to the location of a specific pre-determined WRITER device or, in the best case, the location of a set of devices.

The success of these solutions is simple to understand:

• They propose a clear value, which is both appreciated and easy to understand
• Their implementation is simple and affordable 

Or, the Security market is so massive and the number of players so important that a short term evolution in this marketplace can be foreseen. An evolution which, most likely, should bring up new functionalities on top of the basic ones forementioned.

Several future evolutions for these devices can be already brainstormed:

• the ability for the writer devices to discover relief points by themselves (police stations, fire houses, pharmacies, food dispensaries)
• the ability for devices to discover other devices depending on device categories (other cyclists, other hikers, other pets)

Such abilities could trigger new imaginable actions such as:

• smart guiding people in possession of a device to safe places proactively without the active intervention of its own coupled controlling party
• smart controlling populations of devices geographically

Or, any of the above would require for all these solutions to fill in a technology gap they have not filled in yet: the ability for devices to discover other devices at proximity which are distinct to their own controlling party devices. That is, the ability to engage in communications with other proximity devices or entities outside their point-to-point preconfigured channels.

A child to discover and engage a one-click direct call with the closest police station.

An old lady to discover and engage a one-click direct call with the closest assistance service.

A hiker to request help from a hiker at proximity.

The implementation of such abilities could potentially boost the reach of these devices, extending their scopes from their point-to-point specific use cases today to enriched spiderweb-shaped set of services.

As Kitewalk geo-intelligence is not 1-to-1 (point-to-point) but rather distance based, it is perfectly suited to fill in the necessary technology gap required to address these new challenges. Easily integratable via a 2-way Restful API, Kitewalk geo-intelligent servicesd can help any device to discover and enter in direct communication with any other device or entity at proximity in real time and real place without the prerequirement of being coupled with the targetted device in advance.

My personal bet is: the first GPS Tracker player who will anticipate all these GPS Tracker 2.0 needs first and who will invest on a geo-intelligent distance-based escalable technology such as Kitewalk's will have a long way won with respect to competing alternatives.