US 6,100,806 · Granted 2000-08-08
The 2000 Patent That Invented GPS Tracking for People and Cars
Imagine a small device you wear that uses GPS satellites and cell phone signals to constantly broadcast where you are to a central station. This patent covers that entire system—the wearable tracker, the data it collects (location, temperature, motion), and the receiving station that displays it all in real time.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a complete tracking apparatus with wearable remote units equipped with GPS receivers and cellular transmitters, designed to continuously monitor and report the position and condition (temperature, motion, audio, system integrity) of a person or object back to a central monitoring station. What's protected is both the hardware configuration—the sensors and transmitters worn on the subject—and the method of collecting, transmitting, and processing that location and environmental data via satellite and cellular networks.
Why it matters
This patent, granted in 2000, sits at the intersection of GPS accessibility and cellular infrastructure at a moment when both were becoming mainstream consumer technologies. It describes the foundational architecture for modern location tracking systems used in fleet management, parental monitoring, and asset recovery—categories that barely existed in widespread form before smartphones and affordable GPS. The patent's breadth covers monitoring in hazardous environments and inanimate objects, making it relevant to industrial safety and vehicle tracking applications that have since become multi-billion-dollar markets.
Real-world use
Every time a delivery company tracks a truck in real time or a parent monitors a teenager's phone location, that system is doing exactly what this patent describes: collecting GPS coordinates and transmitting them continuously to a central station.
Original USPTO abstract
An apparatus and method of monitoring mobile objects or persons utilizes the Global Positioning System satellites and cellular telephone communications. The apparatus may include first and second remote units adapted to be worn on the monitored person or object. These remote units would comprise the position and data sensors as well as the transmitter device to transmit the information back to a central tracking station. The remote units may be operative to monitor many data items such as system integrity, motion, temperature, audio, and the like in addition to position. This data would then be transmitted back to a central monitoring station operative to process and display the information. The system is also adapted to monitor persons in hazardous environments such as radioactivity or poisonous gases or even to monitor inanimate objects such as automobiles.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 6,100,806
- Filing date
- 1998-07-07
- Grant date
- 2000-08-08
- Assignee
- Advanced Business Sciences, Inc.
- Inventor(s)
- GAUKEL; JOHN J.
- CPC class
- G08B21/0211
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