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Follow that cellphone

Since cellphones are starting to have GPS, add navigate to cell phone as an option
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(+3, -1)
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Many car navigation systems have a "Navigate to Phone Number" feature -- mine does. This presumably improves the ability to get directions to a specific business, especially if like me, you're in a suburban area and various Route addresses are impossible to enter into the car system.

Very Convenient, if the phone# happens to be in their database.

Now, since many new cellphones have GPS built in, and are therefore locatable, I'm proposing to add the "Navigate to Cell Phone#" feature to the car systems. This feature would of course adjust for the cellphone moving, and therefore the "Follow that cellphone" title, as in "Follow that cab"

theircompetitor, Jan 03 2004

(?) cell gps http://www.gadgeteer.org/
A sample cell/gps site [theircompetitor, Oct 17 2004]

(?) Bell announces new software to limit tracking of cellphone users http://www.cnn.com/...ation.ap/index.html
[theircompetitor, Oct 17 2004]

[link]






       i think they should make trackable cellphones. so that you can find out where your significant other is really calling from. or so police can locate a wreck more easily.
Space-Pope, Jan 03 2004
  

       I'm sure we have done this before.
They are trackable and there is a system just starting in the UK for parents to see where their kids are calling from. ie " I'm playing a kerplunk at Steves" Parent looks at a map of where the phonecall is from and see the phonecall is from a dodgy pub where their little angel is getting pissed on cheap alcopops.
I'm not sure how precise it is at the moment but it is here.
sufc, Jan 03 2004
  

       sure -- but I want the feature in the car navigation system, and to dynamically adjust to cell phone changing location.
theircompetitor, Jan 04 2004
  

       I've been realizing that I'm too short on my descriptions. Will strive to do better, thx
theircompetitor, Jan 04 2004
  

       humanbean -- the privacy issues here are of course overwhelming. We'll fix all of those by implanting a chip at birth :)
theircompetitor, Jan 04 2004
  

       of course, Jutta -- but it's not as much fun as writing "Follow that cellphone"
theircompetitor, Jan 04 2004
  

       Didn't I read somewhere a suggestion that dating service compatibility modules be running on cellphones so you can identify soulmates in a crowded bar?
theircompetitor, Jan 04 2004
  

       im sure i could find my soulmate from 10 lines a of text...
Space-Pope, Jan 04 2004
  

       "The car's radio receiver picks out its packet from the general stream because it's the only one it can decrypt..."
How does the car know which packet belongs to it? Or are you suggesting every receiver attempts to decrypt every packet?
  

       I wonder how long it would take before someone looped a brute-force broadcast to all possible license places. I guess the public key wouldn't be too public.   

       I can't think of any good uses for this other than parent-child (and the child needn't be where the cell phone is) and police work (but savvy crook could put all cellphones in a lead box). Maybe the odd harrier game, but how long would that last?
phoenix, Jan 04 2004
  

       phoenix: have you ever followed someone's car to a destinatio because you don't know how to get there, and you lost them?   

       Also, when you're in a car and someone calls you and says "can you pick me up, I'm at the corner of Degrassi and 23rd" and you're not sure how Degrassi is spelled but you just got this person phone# on caller id   

       Just some examples.   

       I'll grant you it's not a cure for cancer.
theircompetitor, Jan 04 2004
  

       "...have you ever followed someone's car to a destinatio because you don't know how to get there, and you lost them?"
Yes, but are you suggesting that every cell phone can be tracked, without intervention of the owner?
  

       "...and you're not sure how Degrassi is spelled but you just got this person phone# on caller id."
Why would you need to know how to spell Degrassi in order to find it? Are you going to drive around town reading all the street signs? I think not. If you don't know where pick this person up, you're probably going to tell them to call someone else or get directions while you're on the phone.
  

       I'm not saying there are no applications for this idea, I just can't think of any good ones.
phoenix, Jan 04 2004
  

       phoenix: sorry, I live and die by the navigation system in my car. Said navigation system is very particular about spellings, and more to the point, does not have a touch screen, and finally, does not let you enter stuff while driving.   

       So you have to stop, and enter a 5 line street address, or a phone number.   

       Very useful to me.
theircompetitor, Jan 04 2004
  

       hey we're actually using this right now here in the philippines, it's pretty accurate. regarding the privacy issue, you are required to have the 2 celphones confirm to each other that you are allowing the other celphone to track you down. location is sent thru text message by the way
ismaelc, Jan 04 2004
  

       A system like this would aid convoy driving, provided that it could distiguish hight differences i.e. going under the main road at an intersection.
engineer1, Mar 04 2004
  

       U can get them.   

       In England there is a new network out called 3 on it the are several services including a-b map
brightspark, Aug 01 2004
  
      
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