hmmm.....how can I do this?
 

right. imagine that there were two people that were going to drive the same route. they both had to start at point A, visit point B and end up at point C. how can they verify their start and finish times to me and how can they verify that they visited point B on the way? and also, how can they verify that they did the drive in their car and NOT a bike? and how can i verify the date that they did the drive on?
The solution needs to be cheap and acurate. I can visit point B before the people drive to it, to place items at the location for them to verify when they reach point B, but I can't think of anything other than the people sending me a multimedia message of the car at the location with whatever I left previously in the picture too.

I know all of this makes close to no sense whatsoever but please bear with me, I just need some help with the solution to the problem at the moment! I can tell you more later!

Thanks for your mindpower,


Andy

Are there people at points A, B, and C? Or any stores?

Your drivers can check in with someone or you can have them purchase a specific cheap item and present you with the register receipt which should give store name, date and time.

no people at points a b or c. thats what is making it such a problem. I have just found a system thats on the market soon that uses a dedicated gps box that will go in each vehicle and will record and then map the journey of the vehicle. the biggest issue that i can see is how the poeple can verify that their vehicle was at points A B and C


Any Ideas?
I was perhaps thinking of setting up a remote webcam at points A, B and C that they have to drive up to in order to make themselves and their car visible and in doing so verify that they were at that point at that time/date. problem with that is A. cost (although probably not too much) and location of cams. (big problem!) I really want to try and get to a point where the validation side of things is pretty much fully automated and does not rely on any third parties.


hmmmm........

Andy

Andy,

It would really help if you told us what you are up to.

Are you trying to set up an employee/vendor tracking system?

Some sort of security system?

A rally or easter egg hunt?

In my old building the security gaurds had to "authenticate" their rounds.

Placed about the building where small encoded discs, about the size of a coin, they were glued to walls, door frames etc...

Each disc had a unique code, the gaurd had a small hand held device that they placed against the discs and it registered the day and time that this happened.

So you could basically follow the route the gaurd took around the building. You just read the output of the device and corellated it with the location of the discs.

Unfortunately you won't know if your drivers used a car or bike.

Id like to tell you more about what I'm planning but I really can't!
you may be able to sus out the basics of it but I'm not allowed to say! (not just yet anyway).
An ideal situation would be that these people contact me, I give them a GPS box that tracks and verifies their route (so that I can verify that they started at point A, visited B and ended up at C, and it took them however long it took) and they somehow prove to me that they used a car for that journey. If i could sus out how to do that, I would be sorted.
The real key to the whole thing is for it to be nice and simple and pretty anonymous so that the people don't need to do much to verify themselves, but at the same time it needs to be accurate so that the same people are happy that there is no room for error and that the whole system is fair.


Andy

One way would be to know the exact mileage between a, b and c. Of course accuracy of odometers varies.

Hi Hugh, there isn't any set route between a b and c so that would be tricky.


Andy

OK so you are doing a Canon Ball Rally thing. But not everyone will be "starting" at the same time or possibly on the same date.

You need to make sure they are not cheating.

You need to look into lorry tracking solutions.

http://www.vericomtech.com/main/index.php

Hmmmm. What if they were equipped with cell phones? They call you once they arrive at point X. They can answer a question only if they're at the location (scenery, object, tree, color of house, etc.). If they have a camera/cell phone, they can also validate their mode of transportation.

Obviously, this requires some interaction.

Hope this helps,
Sherwood

cell phone for each driver. they call you, and you tell them to take a picture of themselves with the car. but you tell them what to do to prove they are on the phone at the right place. for instance:

"i'm here!"
"ok, take a picture of yourself holding three fingers up, oh, and stand next to the oaktree, and call me from point C."

whatever unique. pinch your nose with left hand, whatever. a dated newspaper would help too.

Have 2 large (cant be carried on bike) locked suitcases at B, each containing half a moblie phone number (hidden).
At C are:
(1) the keys to the cases
(2) the location within the suitcase of the first half of the phone number
(3) the other half of the phone number.

First to call you wins.

Just get them to take a picture with a mobile phone of their car with something specific in the background (a building/ bilboard/ park bench etc). they can then show you the pic on their return and you can see the date/time stamp of the picture on the file.

follow them with black helicopters.

Dantilla, you've cracked it.

911MOT, i like the idea of the large items being carried in the vehicle. perhaps a large item with the GPS unit fixed to it/inside it? like a 3ftx2ft piece of MDF with the GPS bolted to it! that aint gonna be easy to strap to a bike!


Andy

With this:

http://www.vehicle-tracking.com/products/3100.html

Jim,

thats the sort of tech that I want to use for the GPS tracking. my real problem seems to be a way of ensuring that the people use a car for the route and not a bike.

Any Ideas?


Andy

mmm, sounds like the makings of a fun race... what's the prize?

The prize? Apparently, a large item in your car.

hmmm, even big girls need lovin' right? :D

You indicated cheap and accurate...

Have the drivers weigh in at a commercial scale. You'll have time, date, location, and weight (bike v. car), all on one ticket.

http://www.catscale.com/locator.shtml

A buddy of mine weighed his 911 free of charge. Broke up their monotony during the off peak I guess.

Good luck!

edit: Oops, I see you are in U.K. Nevermind the link, but the concept should work.