Wired magazine features an innovative use of new GPS technology that I thought could be the harbinger of all kinds of opportunities. The system is called “StarChase Pursuit Management System” and it works like this: When a police officer is chasing a suspect’s car, they can launch a laser-sighted homing device with a GPS tracking transmitter from a sort of cannon. The transmitter attaches itself to the fleeing vehicle, and then starts to send real-time location information back to headquarters over a cellular network. The police then automatically know where the car is, and don’t have to engage in those dangerous high speed chases.
The system is being tested now, and the LAPD are going to be adopting it in 2008, they hope.