Road map for safety

Tech- savvy women of today are exerting their prowess in every field, including managing the safety and security of their family.

Jayalakshmi Sengupta reports on the usage of the global positioning system by modern women for daily use

Women empowerment has meant so many things to so many women in the last one decade, yet ever so often, we have been distressed by our inability to achieve a simple task like laying a road map and following it. You may own your hatch back and still be severely directionally challenged (like so many others who are from Venus), forever looking for someone to drive you safely to your destination.
What if a small black magic box changed all that and granted you a dozen more boons?

This device, called a 'Mobile Eye'- an innovation in the vehicle tracking system, has at least put Tanushree Chatterjee's life back on track.

At 43, this single mom from Bangalore had to take some tough decisions when she had to relocate to Navi Mumbai, a place she hardly knew, along with her 19 year old son and 77 year old father. To make things worse, her new job took her to Pune more than once a week and that was another world yet to be discovered.

Safety was of foremost concern. Safety of her 19 year old driving a brand new Honda City, safety of her father going out to pay the bills, and not the least, safety of the car itself to insure against theft. She delved and researched before she took the challenge of being one of the first to experiment with a GPS (Global Positioning System) enabled tracking system to make her life easier.

This sort of a tracking system is popular with transportation business as fleet owners can keep track of the movement of their heavy vehicles. Companies like Castrol BP have made the Mobile Eye a staple part of their road safety programme, using it to evaluate drivers and regulate their risk behaviour at the wheel. Upgraded versions even allow the drivers to receive warning alerts at different speed limits set for zones depending on the part of the highway he is traversing.

While this may only be partly applicable to Tanushree, she feels awed by the features she does use. 'When I explored its functional utility for me, 18,000 rupees didn't seem like a huge sum to cough up,' she affirms. 'In the long run, it's really worth it to monitor the safety of your loved ones,' she adds.

And what might these utilities be?

First, today Tanushree is able to receive specific information about the overall mileage, the vehicle's current location and its previous locations, even when someone else is driving her car – be it the driver, her son , her father or for that matter, a car thief. This information is available to her on the net, real time: ' like watching a reality show'. She can even remotely control the vehicle's door locks, lights, horn, and various other electronic devices, if need be, in an eventuality when it is stolen, or meets with an accident. 'Imagine! I can trap a thief and then inform the police of the exact location for them to pick him up,' she says gleefully.

More importantly she can track her teenage son's movements and 'the speed at which he's driving.' The Mobile Eye alerts if the vehicle exceeds the legal speed limit, also informs about teen driving habits– and about the various stops the vehicle makes.

Additionally, other options alert her about the battery status, whether it is getting low, and about whether the oil needs to be changed, which she is so 'forgetful' about. She can also send an email and have a two- way communication with her father or her son while they are driving - so can they too, informing her about the routes to be taken without any waste of time.

However, by far the most important task that the Mobile Eye genie does, according to Tanushree, is its incredible life saving functions. She discovered its utility when recently her father fell asleep on the wheels. The car sent an immediate alert message to her on her cell phone. 'My Mobile Eye is also wired to inform the local ambulance in an emergency.' An SOS can be received by more than one party making it easy for Tanushree to mobilise a support system during an emergency without batting an eyelid.

The GPS is also useful for sending emergency signals, indicating your exact location just in case you are stranded in an accident, lost, or seriously injured. In a life and death situation this can be of great advantage. 'You can programme the mobile eye to send calls to your cell phone, Blackberry, and other communication devices,' informs Vikram S. Puri, CEO of Transworld, makers of the Mobile Eye.

It is essential to understand that in the case of the technology in cell phones, GPS tracking is available all over the world. So is a tachograph as a separate unit that performs various other functions like record accident data as well as sudden acceleration, sudden braking and over-speed. The mobile eye is an ingenuous innovation that combines all these functions in one unit in customised programs.

Today the GPS systems have gone beyond just serving the army, air force or the navy. Anyone, from couriers, fire fighters , mobile caregivers , law enforcement who wishes to ensure the safety and well being of their drivers, vehicles and cargoes make use of the GPS technology , 'But it is still to catch up with the civilian population in India,' says Puri. He reveals that the company is exploring the home use and domestic security aspect of the market and plans to produce an even more cost effective solution 'limited to those features needed.'

Tanushree may not be still very good at reading a map herself but for million other women she may be the first of her kind to lay a road map towards living a more self- reliant life both for herself and her loved ones.

BOX: Mobile Eye: India-based Transworld is the maker of The Mobile Eye, an online, real-time GPS tracking device for vehicles, boats and ships. The Mobile Eye uses satellites in the global positioning system (GPS) to locate the position of its host vehicle and enables monitoring of speed, stoppages, unscheduled diversions and activities. The Mobile Eye acquires and sends information to its input/output ports and peripheral devices. It uses GSM as a carrier for data. A communication panel allows automatic transmission of panic messages as well as 2-way voice in the event of an accident or hijack. Transworld's Fleetview Software allows real-time tracking of assets equipped with the Mobile Eye, while receiving data and updating positions on GIS maps in real time. With both versions, an on-line web based 'pay as you go' solution, as well as a desktop based system; a company can track its goods and vehicles in real time.