GPS Enabled PDAs Allow Officers To Map Out A Better Plan

Law enforcement officials, security personnel, and soldiers will have the ability to track the movements of their team members in real time with a new hand-held device released this week. The system, called, DragonForce is installed on personal digital assistants (PDA) that are enabled with global positioning system technology. It allows security team members to track one another on a digital map.

The system, by Drakontas, LLC, not only allows each officer in the field to know exactly where his fellow officers are, but it allows a commander to view the same map, and draw instructions in a "whiteboard" mode, much as a football coach might map out a play. The map appears instantly on the officer's PDA screens. "We can quite literally tell them, graphically, exactly where to go and what to do," Drakontas President James Sims said.

The technology was developed at Drexel University, which licensed it to Drakontas. Drexe's public safety department will be the first to use the system. Bernard D. Gollotti, with Drexel told the Portsmith Herald News, "You'’ll be able to look on a screen, and say, ‘I want Officers 1 & 2’ to go there, rather than have every officer on duty swarm to the same spot after hearing about it over police radio."

The U.S. Defense Department is interested in the technology as well. Lockheed Martin will use the technology as part of a project to give soldiers better battlefield intelligence. The military version is scheduled to be deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq in mid-2006.