By Dan Munyan It’s not often that innovative coverage of sporting events carries over to innovative solutions for business. But that’s what happened in the development of CSC’s Location Object Field Tracking (LOFT), a location intelligence offering which debuted at this year’s Tour de France.

During the last four stages of the 94th Tour, riders and cars for Team CSC carried GPS devices so that fans could follow
the action, in real time, online. The technology went far beyond blips on a map of each stage of the race. For the first time ever, CSC’s solution took the idea of location awareness and made it intelligent.

To display the boundaries of the race, three cars were tagged —one at the front of the entourage, one at the rear and one car traveling with the peloton. Cycling fans got a representational view of the tracker with Google Maps or Google Earth at CSC’s OmniLocation Web site live during the race.

Avatars were displayed for each tracked rider or car, and as a computer cursor hovered near or over the moving avatar, the rider’s name and speed were displayed. In addition, by clicking on the rider’s name on the list, his full profile appeared from the
official Team CSC Web site.

The tracker also changed perspective and orientation to see
the entire race field and elevation while still receiving groundlevel
information on the riders. Tagged riders and cars carried compact 90-gram GPS/GPRS trackers, which communicated data through the Orange GSM network. The data provided virtually the same amount of information someone could receive from being at the actual event.

This wireless GPS object field tracking solution can track multiple objects in close proximity at high speeds, a capability that is applicable to clients requiring a continuous ability to determine the location of workers and other assets in the field. It is particularly useful for government departments or private businesses that inspect and maintain remote infrastructures,
such as water, sewage and electrical systems or oil pipelines and mines where safety and security are a concern. CSC is now using LOFT to provide location intelligence solutions to clients who face such challenges.

Dan Munyan is a chief technologist at CSC’s Global Security Solutions Identity Labs.