Following the introduction of the GeoConcept Internet Server geographic information system as the core mapping technology behind the Seven Eye vehicle and asset tracking system, the company is progressively adding a range of new features to add value for users.
Already, with the help of some development work by GeoConcept supplier MapMechanics, a London Congestion Charge alerting system has been introduced. The company is also adding the ability to identify tolled roads, and is developing a system to show the location of low bridges.
All vehicle tracking systems need underlying mapping technology to show customers the positions of their vehicles on screen. Previously Seven Eye was using MapPoint as its mapping engine, but general manager Rob Hart says GeoConcept has given the company more flexibility to develop new features.
“With GeoConcept, we can tailor the product more precisely to our customers’ requirements,” he says. “We can use whatever type of mapping is most appropriate to the task, and produce a range of features to reflect customer requirements and stay ahead of market demand.”
To take maximum advantage of this ability to configure its tracking products, Seven Eye has also introduced a range of digital mapping products supplied by MapMechanics, including NAVTEQ Premium street -level map data of Great Britain . This includes features such as address ranges, driving restrictions and other navigational detail.
Additionally, Seven Eye has taken an add-on GeoConcept module called SmartLabel, which ensures that street names and other annotations are presented intelligently on maps as they are created, regardless of scale, avoiding visual clashes that could make them unreadable.
GeoConcept can also work with international map datasets for cross-border mapping – ideal for Seven Eye, which offers a Europe-wide vehicle tracking service.
The Congestion Charge service introduced by Seven Eye uses the GPS unit in each tracked vehicle to register any instance when a vehicle enters the London charging area. This automatically triggers an email to the operator, ensuring that someone back at base knows there is a charge to pay, and can remit the payment that day and avoid the fine that would otherwise result.
“From a mapping point of view the Congestion Charge covers a very irregular area,” says Rob Hart. “The MapMechanics team created a function that automatically identifies the exact borders of the area, so that we could set up a geofence system that would recognise when a vehicle crosses them.”
As an example of the tailoring service made possible with GeoConcept, Rob Hart points to a system developed for a customer in the electrical supply business. “They wanted to be able to monitor visits to unmanned substations, which are often in the middle of nowhere. MapMechanics supplied Ordnance Survey Code-Point data, which allows us to work out an approximate grid reference automatically for any location that has a postcode.”
Seven Eye, a subsidiary of Ipswich-based Seven Asset Management, supplies both vehicle and trailer tracking systems, offering a choice of GSM or GPRS communications, and presenting data to customers on screen, by email and through text messaging. So far over a thousand of its systems have been installed.
The company has recently created wide interest with the launch of a tracking product for skeletal trailers. These are notoriously difficult to track, since there are limited ways to mount the on-board GPS and transmission unit discreetly. Seven Eye’s system unit and antenna draw power from a long-life battery, and polling can be done at user-defined intervals (or daily when the trailer is not connected to a tractor unit).
Seven Eye also specialises in remote temperature monitoring, presenting customers with tailored reports that can include the location of each unit on a map.
GeoConcept, one of the world’s leading digital mapping and geographic information systems, is used widely in telematics and tracking applications. It is fast and highly configurable, and can deliver mapping over the Internet seamlessly as part of a broader asset management system such as Seven Eye’s.
Special licensing terms are offered by MapMechanics on a variety of its map datasets to ensure that customers are able to use them affordably in applications which involve delivery over the Internet. |
