{"id":1018,"date":"2012-06-05T14:00:52","date_gmt":"2012-06-05T22:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveviewgps.com\/blog\/?p=1018"},"modified":"2025-09-17T10:58:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T17:58:17","slug":"curious-unconventional-applications-gps-tracking-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liveviewgps.com\/blog\/curious-unconventional-applications-gps-tracking-systems\/","title":{"rendered":"Curious and Unconventional Applications of GPS Tracking Systems"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Odd

Thieves Caught Stealing Hay With GPS Tracker<\/p><\/div>\n

Companies like ours sell GPS vehicle tracker systems to, well, track personal cars and fleet vehicles.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, people are inventive, and it\u2019s not surprising to discover them using GPS tracking systems in creative and unusual ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

GPS riding art<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Michael \u201cWally\u201d Wallace is a middle school science teacher. His hobby is using GPS vehicle tracking to transform maps of the city into art. The city streets of Baltimore is his canvas, his mountain bike and GPS technology are his brushes, and Google Maps is his template.<\/span><\/p>\n

Think of his art as a giant Etch-A-Sketch as Wally bicycles up and down streets \u201cdrawing\u201d objects such as a boot, a gun and a hammer. Lately he\u2019s evolved into more complex \u201cdrawings\u201d such as the Jellyfish Invasion and Tee It golfer.<\/span><\/p>\n

His art can only be seen from a bird\u2019s-eye view, of course, but fortunately that\u2019s no problem with a GPS system. Wally\u2019s vehicle tracker continuously sends location data to a satellite, which relays it to a GPS server that stores and records the data. The route data is then superimposed on Google Maps to reveal his \u201cdrawing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Wally\u2019s art has been featured in various media around the world. You can see a showcase of his work by visiting his online gallery at WallGPX.com.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who knows? It may lead you to digitally sketching your own masterpieces.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like finding a GPS in a haystack<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Each month the county Sheriff\u2019s Department in Tillman County, Oklahoma was receiving calls from farmers complaining their hay bales were stolen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stealing hay is no minor problem in the county. Extreme drought has forced farmers to use more hay than normal, driving up prices and making hay very attractive to thieves. Another plus for thieves: hay is impossible to trace. Well, almost impossible.<\/span><\/p>\n

When one farmer complained that more than 30 bales of his hay were stolen, Sheriff Whittington swung into action. He planted a portable GPS vehicle tracker in one of the farmer\u2019s bales and waited for the thieves to strike again. They did.<\/span><\/p>\n

Using a satellite tracking system, the sheriff was able to follow a dot representing the thieves\u2019 truck on his smartphone. When he pulled the thieves over, they naturally claimed the hay was theirs; they were on their way to feed their cattle. When the sheriff showed them the GPS hidden in a bale, they asked if they could simply return the hay and forget the whole incident.<\/span><\/p>\n

They went to jail.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then hay thefts have dropped dramatically in Tillman County, Oklahoma.<\/span><\/p>\n

Solving a mystery of the seas<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Manta rays are facing extinction.<\/span><\/p>\n

These graceful 25-foot fish are one of the ocean\u2019s largest and least-known species. Almost nothing is known about their movements, their habits or their ecological needs. Answers to these questions are urgently needed because manta rays are now listed as \u201cvulnerable\u201d by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

Manta rays have the highest brain-to-body ratio of all rays and sharks. And because they don\u2019t have dangerous stingers like stingrays, they\u2019re harmless to humans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, humans aren\u2019t harmless to manta rays. They chop the rays for shark chum, use them for traditional Chinese medicine and run over them with ships. If marine biologists hoped to improve the long-term survival of manta rays, they desperately needed more data.<\/span><\/p>\n

Initial data came via GPS trackers, which scientists placed on six manta rays and monitored them for 64 days before the units fell off. Results of the tracking program were published in a study by scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Mexican government and the University of Exeter. Among their findings they discovered manta rays:<\/span><\/p>\n