Manasa N R and Pravigna S, guided by their lecturer Ravi Kurapati, have designed a ‘Superphonic Tracker’ to provide the location of an ordinary mobile phone on Google Maps.
Explaining the functioning of their software to Deccan Herald, Manasa said the Superphonic Tracker allows tracking of a mobile phone using the signal provided by the cell phone towers. “For example, each school bus driver can be given a mobile phone. Using the Superphonic Tracker software, the location of the mobile phone can be requested from a cell phone tower. When the bus moves from the present location, the cell phone towers will also change giving away its next location,” the students explained.
By using a high-speed internet connection and Google Maps, the bus route can be marked online dynamically.
Free web services
Lecturer Kurapati pointed out that they were not using any GPS devices which would cost nearly Rs 15,000. Instead, they were using only free web services for getting location based data. “This way we can reduce the cost of developing and maintaining a tracking system in a real world scenario,” he added.
He said although some software and hardware vendors have already started using ‘Cell ID Tracking’, they are either expensive or do not provide all the features that their Superphonic Trackers provides such as constant e-mail facility, which can be monitored anywhere. If you are using an ordinary phone, then the location can be sent through SMS. He believes that in the near future, almost every software, be it for mobile, laptop, desktop or tablets will be have to be “location aware.”
Explaining their next steps, Pravigna said they will be working on it further to make the tracking even more accurate by trying to access multiple cell phone towers instead of one. She said the Superphonic Tracker can be used to track auto rickshaws, KSRTC buses and even criminals!