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Track a Soda Can with GPS?
I am Kobayashi writes "According to the Indianapolis Star Online, next summer Coca-cola will feature a promotion in which winners will be located by satellites tracking GPS devices implanted in the winning cans.... Hopefully they track you fast before you throw-away (or recycle) your winning can...." And in another bit of Coke news, they've got a new high-tech billboard: jhkoh writes "Reuters/Yahoo is reporting that Coca-Cola has unveiled an 'intelligent' billboard in London's Piccadilly Circus -- at 99 feet wide, the world's biggest -- that supposedly will respond to weather, movement, and SMS text messages. The billboard itself is 52 square meters of LED display. How soon before someone hacks it?"
Wow!
All this while assinating union leaders in developing nations.
Those cola loving fellows are hard workers.
Ciaran O'Riordan
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I didn't read the article, but, generally speaking, GPS receivers don't transmit, and GPS satellites don't track.
What on earth could Coca-Cola possibly be thinking of using for receivers? Any transmitter is going to have to be small enough to fit inside of a can of Coke, which means it's going to have a pretty darn small range. (There's a reason that Iridium phones are so bloody big.) That'd mean that receivers would have to be essentially ubiquitous. The only thing I can think of that might come close to fitting the bill would be cell towers.
Add to that the fact that both the receiving and transmitting circuitry as well as the battery would have to fit inside a small metal can, and you're not looking at much power or battery life. Also, to get a GPS signal, you pretty much have to be outside or next to a window. In short, I have no idea how this could work, and given the restrictions above, this seems like a vaporware ad campaign.
up here in canada maybe in the usa, coors light did the same thing were they had a gps unit inside a beer bottle and they tracked the person to his house and he won a bunch of stuff, stereo system, etc.
There are several aspects of the sport that make it fun and interesting.
1. It takes you to places you didn't know existed. I went out after one with my brother a month back and we had no idea where it was. Turns out it was at an old, practically adbandoned, city park. It appears to still be maintained, but in the several times I have gone back down there I haven't seen another soul.
2. It is not as easy as it seems. GPS gets you close, sometimes very close. But it can still be several yards or more off on a good day. You may get to a point where your GPS is reading the exact coordinates, but it is still 10 feet away. You have to look and find it. Some people are very creative when they hide things so it is a challenge.
3. Meeting new people with common interests. I have run into fellow cachers several times when out seeking a cache. In my area, there are even large meetings that are held, which usually end up in a day-long event.
4. Practice using GPS and navigational skills. Many people have a GPS, hoping to use it to get them out of a sticky situation when hunting, camping, or some other outdoor activity. What better way to practice than to use it to find something? In the real world, it isn't always "walk in a straight line from point A to point B" so practice is nice to have when the need arises to stray from the line.
It is basically hide and seek for big kids. It is still exciting to find one, especially if it is one you have been back to a few times trying to find and have been skunked each previous time.
I'm sure others will have some other reasons they participate as well, but those are the primary reason I do it, other than it is a good way to get outdoors and still be a geek at the same time.
Jeremy
Uh... tracking someone with GPS?!? Not likely. GPS is a system that provides satellites in earth orbit, sending out time-stamped signals. A receiver picks up those signals from 3 or more satellites (even 4 or 5) and calculates the position from the time differences. Other sources of information, like wireless network base stations (GSM etc.) enhance accuracy. [end of very rough description]
Bottom line: GPS does not work within buildings. You need to see the sky - or to be more exact, you need a line of sight to at least 3 satellites.
Now, even if you assume that everyone is running around outside holding their cans high up over their head... the coke can would be able to find out its own position (and I'm not even convinced that there are GPS receiver small enough to fit inside a can...) That does not mean that Coca Cola will know the position of the can, because how will the can transmit it's position back to the company? Are they going to fit a cell phone into the can, too??
No, I honestly don't believe the story right now, I need to see that can first.
My cats ate my karma. They also wrote this comment.
That article too, is light on details, but it claims that Coors Light was able to use a GPS based device in a bottle to locate winners and give them their prize.
Does anyone have any more details on how this system works? Does it only work if I decide to drink my Coke/Coors outside in an area with a good cell phone signal, and then only if I don't move for a minute after activating the GPS receiver?
-- It is too late for the pebbles to vote, the avalanche has already started.
Here's a simular Coca-Cola promotion that went horribly wrong:
The idea was called "Magic Can", you'd open up your Coca-Cola can and real spendable US dollars just might pop out. Of course, the cans with the money in them wouldn't have cola, but instead a device powered by chlorinated water that would propel the bill.
However, the device often got damaged in shipping, and this lead to several cases where a "winner" didn't look before they drank, and ended up digesting the chlorinated water before realizing that their can didn't really have any cola. Their $100 bill would end up getting spent in the emergency room...
Coca-Cola found itself reduced to putting out ads that instructed "winners" how to safely extract the bill in the event of a failed device....
Not only is GPS a passive technology, meaning it is a receiver not a tranmitter that requires an omni directional 1.575ghz antenna, it also does not work indoors. The whole system would also need a battery and additional transmitter to report position information. While it is possible to fit all this within a coke can, there would be little room for soda and it is unlikely that it would function inside an aluminum container.
Yup it's true....
Here is how they do it.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
For the upcoming Rugby Worldcup 2003 in Australia, Coca Cola has this system already in use for their current competition (one could win in total about 50'000 AUS Dollar (10'000 Visa, Peugeot 206 XTR and VIP Final tickets) if he has the right bottle).
Quoted from the http://www.dpie.com/news/gpscan.html website that Lumpy cited