[OSM-talk] putting GPS units in taxis

[Joe Richards]

> That would be my personal recommendation. I once made a small research on the availability of
> GPRS enabled devices (out f personal interest) and came to the conclusion that they tend to be very expensive
> for what they do.
> 
> So I would suggest:
> 
> Buy some good quality gpx trackers, that allow for programming that swiches tracking of, if the device
> doesn't move (so if the taxi sits in the parking lot for a night, it doesn't collect loads of random points) and
> has a good battery life. Then just get the tracks every couple of days.

I was thinking more of a device that can be installed in some sort of roaming vehicle (taxi, courier, tuktuk) and left for a year or two to collect data and send it in without intervention.  I imagined something along the lines of one of the older Windows Mobile devices made by HTC (with GPRS and Wifi), connected to a GPS with an antenna, and hooked up to the car battery either via the cigarette lighter or (more intrusively) wired in especially.

Some of the older HTC devices are only about £60 these days - and can have Linux installed, which would be significantly more stable and more predictable than WM, and could be pre-configured to detect and connect to known wifi hotspots, such as those at Petrol stations.  A subscription to these (e.g. via Boingo.com) is very cheap.

The software could have a threshold, whereby after a period of no Wifi connectivity (say more than X mb of GPX trails stored), it can upload via GPRS instead.  Many pay-as-you-go SIM cards in places like Thailand have an 'unlimited internet for one day' option which would be well-suited to this type of burst upload.

I guess all you'd need on top of that is something that detects the charge state of the device and saves and powers down if the charge is off for more than 10 minutes (since many taxis in places like Bangkok switch off their engines at traffic lights).

On the social-engineering side, I imagine having a local Thai explain what it was for, and offer something like 500THB (£10) a month would be more than enough incentive to leave the thing running....



      
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