Vehicle Tracking System[java/j2ee]

Question

I am interested in building a vehicle tracking system using GPRS. However, I have some questions for anyone who has done this before:

• Is GPRS the best technology to use? Any problems people are aware of?
• I am planning on using Java/J2EE - is there any better technologies?
• If someone has built this before - do you have some examples of what to see for system requirements?
• What are some good web resources you've found working on this?
• Is there a step-by-step guide anywhere to getting started?

Answer 1

If you're just doing it for fun/personal use and Amateur Radio licenses are available where you are, look into APRS.

Answer 2

You can use a phone with a GPS receiver (internal or otherwise). External receivers are easier to use because they are addressed by an older Java JSR (http://www.jsr82.com/) and thus better supported in Java ME.

On the client side (phone), you can write midlets in Java (see JaveME) to access the GPS location of the device and then use the phone's data connection (GPRS or 3G) to make a HTTP request to a server that will track the location of the device. The only alternate I see to GPRS/3G is SMS but that makes things more complicated on the server side (you will need access to an SMS gateway with an GSM operator).

For the APIs required to build Java midlets, register with Nokia - they have a developer site that offers all the information you need. Of course, if you use another type of phone Nokia's stuff is not of much help.

There are some existing solutions for the client side - google for TrekBuddy - that can probably be used for a proof-of-concept.

On the server side you can write a servlet that tracks a device by device id and records the coordinates as sent by the phone.