Abstract
Vehicle tracking systems have been in the market for a few years. With the era of mobile phones, it has become easier to use phones to locate the vehicles of different owners in real time. Android platform can be used to create a system that will give out the location of any vehicle in question. There are various technologies associated with the optimal performance of this system that include the use of GSM, i.e., Global System for Mobile Communication. Mehta, Parmar and Agarwal (2010) review the study on the use of GPS technology in vehicle tracking. Internet technology is used to keep track of the information. The Global System for Mobile Communication enables the mobile phone to track the movement of any vehicle and determine its exact location. The information from the gadgets is transmitted using web servers to determine whether the vehicle is in motion.
Introduction
Vehicle tracking systems are a “hot cake” among the car owners due to the increased need to have valued and timely information. Lee (2014) stated that certain applications may be created to suit the needs of people, especially in mobile tracking. Mobile phone applications have filled this gap by providing users with the apps that allow to track the locations of their vehicles. Any abnormal incident is detected and appropriate action can be taken. Vehicle Mobile System is a system that will be providing information on the speed, location and state of the vehicle.
Information will be transmitted by means of the internet communications using a virtual private network. Since people are surrounded by data but with different knowledge, Vehicle will bridge the necessary calls that are usually made by courier companies while transporting monies and other valuable items.
Statement of the Problem
There has always been a challenge in determining the location and condition of both private and corporate vehicles, which raises the need to devise a method that can prevent possible theft or vandalism. Information systems have been integrated to provide the required statistics to the concerned stakeholders.
Purpose of the study
The study will help in creating an open framework to help mobile phone users to locate their vehicles and be aware of their states which is made possible through the use of signals that will be emitted by the Global Packet System embedded to the vehicles.
Previous research has been greatly attributed to the development of monitoring sessions and the well-being of the vehicles. This research will explore a direct approach that will enable one to keep track of the vehicles. For example, a fifty minute stop on the road may be a sign that the vehicle is damaged or has a puncture.
Limitations of the study
Vehicle mobile software development is experiencing the difficulties in getting all the necessary software needed to model it. The use of Vehicle mobile is limited to only those people who own smartphones that can surf at high internet speeds in order to receive the information in real time.
The information being given is also dependent on the mutual performance of the GPS gadget in the vehicle. Any malfunction of the tracking device will make the Vehicle mobile software to be useless.
A review of the Literature
Movement of people and materials have necessitated a change in behavior and increased need for tracking our property using GPS and mobile technologies. Elgethun was the first person to test the way that a customized GPS data operated in order to know the location of children.
Mobile application development has been used mostly with the Titanium Mobile development environment. Other tools used include MVC frameworks and other Application Programming Interfaces.
Mobile tracking devices have been used earlier especially the iPhone and Android frameworks. The users only need to fix MX2 into their vehicles. Many users downloaded the Matrix Smartphone tracking software from Tracking & Personal Safety Services.
Discussion
The results of developing Vehicle mobile system will lead to a new paradigm in technology and improved efficiency in operations. There will be no need to keep calling the drivers of various vehicles. It is worth noting that Vehicle mobile will help in providing information that is of high quality. At times, the drivers may lie about their exact locations which may cost corporate companies a lot of money.
Google maps is another application that is provided freely for smartphones and is used as a guiding tool for locating the signals of the GPRS as written by Fuller & Koutsoukos (2009). The signal is seen as a dot on the interface of the smartphone. If need be, the owner can zoom and locate a vehicle to a certain extent.
The usage of this application will be high due to its increased functionalities as described earlier. The mobile application system will detect the exact time when the vehicle was in a particular place.
Security of the information transfer in a network is very important. The owner will have to subscribe a small fee while using the virtual private networks. This network will be directly connected to the owner through a mobile phone subscriber service and the General Packet Service (GPS) as reviewed by Fuller & Koutsoukos (2009). Security is a key concept that will prevent other people from gaining access to monitor the movement of vehicles.
The owner will be able to track the starting point of the fleet in the trip. He can also know the end point of the trip which will be useful in determining the mileage covered and help in statistical analysis (Murphy, n.d.). In most cases, the costs expected may tend to vary depending on the journeys.
The person using Vehicle mobile system will be able to determine his/her relative position with respect to the exact location of the vehicle. Mobile positioning and identification can be achieved by using tracking devices (Figueiras & Frattasi, 2010). Vehicle mobile system helps in determining the distance covered if any use of the vehicle is needed.
In case of any theft or a suspicious activity, the application will lock doors of the vehicle automatically and keep the owner informed of its state.
Conclusion
Information on the location and movement of the vehicle is very crucial in managing operations and security. Therefore, Vehicle mobile software will provide all the functionalities and help in saving time when using vehicles (Fuller, 2009).
Vehicle mobile software will help to determine the speed limits by providing the owner with the information in real time.
Support is also provided by the Vehicle software in case the vehicle is stolen which will help in determining the location of the vehicle. The vehicle can be traced even when the engine was stopped.
Recommendations
I would recommend the following tasks to be included in future research in management of the information system when using mobile phones to track vehicles.
- The owner should have a separate profile that should include different profiles and conditions of the vehicles in case the owner is managing a group of vehicles.
- The mobile application should be created with controls so that the owner can receive the information without the need to refresh the system.
- In order to improve security, the mobile system should be updated after a period to reduce any compromise to the information in the database of the owner.
References
Figueiras, J., & Frattasi, S. (2010). Mobile Positioning and Tracking: From Conventional to Cooperative Techniques. UK: John Wiley and Sons.
Fuller, R, & Koutsoukos, X. Mobile Entity Localization and Tracking in GPS- less Environments: Second International Workshop, MELT 2009, Orlando, FL, USA, 2009, Proceedings. Springer Science & Business Media.
Lee, W-M. (2014). Beginning Android 4 Application Development. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing.Inc.
Mehta, K., Agarwal, A., & Parmar, K. (2010). GSM based vehicle tracking system. ;In Proceedings of ICWET.
Murphy, M. (n.d.). The Busy Coder’s Guide to Android Development 8th ed. USA: CommonsWare, LLC. Tracking & Personal Safety Services. Web.