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Track a Soda Can with GPS?

Posted by michael on Tue Sep 30, 2003 03:21 PM
from the drink-pepsi dept.
Privacy Technology
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?"
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  • winners will be located by satellites tracking GPS devices implanted in the winning cans....

    Is this where my 1.25 goes each time I buy a 20oz. Coke? Funding expensive marketing ploys? How about the old way? Why can't that be the way we do contests?

    "Excuse me ma'am, I see you are holding a Coke, you won the contest, now come with me into this dark alley to claim your prize." - that scares me, there ARE people out there that would do that...

    Well, as a Coke lover, it looks like I am not going to be drin
    • Last night after smoking a lil pot I stopped in the local mini-mart and bought a coke. As I was sipping it on the drive home I noticed a van with two guys trying to get me to pull over! They were pointing at my can of coke and yelling at me, motioning for me to pull over ...I stepped on the gas and tore away as fast as I could running a red light and nearly causing a multi-car pile up ...I wonder if I might have been a winner and not the victim of road rage like I thought.
          • Well, either the unit is built into the can, or it is in the beverage itself. If it is in the can, you don't have to worry (once you wipe down the can). If it is in the beverage, then they've got you.
  • As if RFID tags weren't enough, now I can be found just out of pure thirst...

  • Geocaching (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Davak (526912) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @03:24PM (#7097310) Homepage

    What an odd bastardization of Geocaching!
    Geocaching [geocaching.com] is exploring for objects other people have hidden using GPS. It's a blast and very addictive.

    However, GPS does not send signals... it only receives... How are they going to track people?

    Davak
    • If you start glowing green, people call in and report your location via the GPS units in their cell phones.
      • Yes, they give you the exact co-ordinates. However, they don't tell you how to get to those co-ordinates. That's the challenging part. Maybe it's hidden downtown, on the fifteenth floor of some office building. Maybe it's hidden on the other side of a small mountain range that you have to either climb over, or drive around. Maybe it's hidden deep in some cave. Maybe it's hidden in your backyard ... you never know.

        Getting to the co-ordinates is where the fun is.
  • Tracking my Coke is one thing, but please don't track my beer

  • GPS Reception (Score:5, Insightful)

    by c_oflynn (649487) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @03:25PM (#7097321)
    Hmm... GPS reception inside aluminum cans? Seems a bit sketchy if you ask me.

    AND it will have to transmit as well, thats going to be a nice piece of technology.

    But seems you could possibly cheat - there are devices to detect semiconductor material (used to detect "bugs"), so with a bit of tweaking you could possibly figure out which can has something inside.

    • Re:GPS Reception (Score:4, Insightful)

      by burtonator (70115) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @03:49PM (#7097607)
      Cheating was the first thing I thought of actually.

      Lets call this warcoking :)

      If they want to track you that means they have transmit which means I can potentially receive the signal.

      An easy way to game this would be to hang outside a Coke distribution center with antenna and a decent laptop.

      You just sit in your car and try to find coke machines that are leaving the facility and are transmiting.

      Then you follow the truck until it stops its xmit and you found your store. Then you go in and scan the shelves with the laptop until you find the right can.

      Bingo...

      What would be really funny to do is the money from the contest to buy another GPS ;)

      ha

      Kevin

    • Re:GPS Reception (Score:4, Funny)

      by PD (9577) * <slashdotlinux@pdrap.org> on Tuesday September 30 2003, @04:28PM (#7097999) Homepage Journal
      If I found a can with a GPS in it, I'd take it to Hippie Hollow (a local nude beach in Austin), open it, and wait for them naked.

      No problem signing the piece of paper typical in such contests giving them authorization to use my image in their promotional materials.

    • Re:GPS Reception (Score:4, Informative)

      by Lumpy (12016) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @06:53PM (#7099352) Homepage
      Yup it's true....

      Here [dpie.com] is how they do it.

  • Ugh. (Score:5, Funny)

    by CGP314 (672613) <<CGP> <at> <ColinGregoryPalmer.net>> on Tuesday September 30 2003, @03:25PM (#7097322) Homepage
    "When it's raining, big drops will appear on the screen and when it's breezy, the Coke sign can ripple as if it's being blown by the wind," a spokeswoman for the company said.

    Well, it sure is good to see technology used for the benefit of humanity, and not just a stupid gimmick.

    • Re:Ugh. (Score:5, Funny)

      by Em Ellel (523581) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @03:40PM (#7097517)
      "When it's raining, big drops will appear on the screen and when it's breezy, the Coke sign can ripple as if it's being blown by the wind," a spokeswoman for the company said.

      Take my geek membership away, but would not a plain cloth sign do the same?

      -Em

      • Re:Ugh. (Score:5, Funny)

        by uberdave (526529) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @04:29PM (#7098008) Homepage
        I saw a special weather string on my recent trip to the caribbean. The device is mounted so that the weather string hangs vertically. If the string is wet, that means it's raining. If the string is hanging on an angle, that means it's windy. If the string is horizontal, that means it's really windy. If the string is gone, that means it's a hurricane.
  • Not to stereotype, but if a coder is staying up all night in front of the computer, there's a fifty-fifty chance that he does NOT want a camera crew bursting in to film him.
  • Uh, you can't track anything though just a GPS receiver, you also need some sort of transmitter! So we not just walk through the warehouse with an RF spectrum analyzer and see which can is transmitting?

  • So... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by glenrm (640773) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @03:26PM (#7097353) Homepage Journal
    Coca-Cola and the Howard Dean campaign are new slashdot advertisers?
  • ...and puts a 52 square meter picture of the goatse guy there.

    yeah, that'll certainly grab a lot of attention.

  • Hackage! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dark Lord Seth (584963) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @03:27PM (#7097360) Journal
    The billboard itself is 52 square meters of LED display. How soon before someone hacks it?

    Mmm, 52 square meters of full goatse glory! Remind me to avoid London...

  • Not long. (Score:3, Funny)

    by rrkap (634128) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @03:27PM (#7097364) Homepage

    How long till someone hacks it

    Well, since it was supposed to be a Pepsi billboard, I'd say not long at all

    ha, ha me make funny

  • If it displays random SMS messages, why bother hacking it?

    Unless constantly flooding it with references to RANDOM CRAP(tm) is considered hacking...
  • winners will be located by satellites tracking GPS devices

    Why? Because when people opened their old cokes and it said "you win a car!", they were too lazy to go to the redemption office?

  • Time to hack (Score:4, Funny)

    by jandrese (485) * <kensama@vt.edu> on Tuesday September 30 2003, @03:30PM (#7097395) Homepage Journal
    Does this mean that the first person who hacks the transmitter's signal to track down the winning can gets to claim the prize? I don't think this will ever work because most cans are stored in places that don't get good GPS reception (buildings, steel machines, trucks, etc...) and the transmit out (presumably a cell connection?) is another matter entirely.

    plus it's a little creepy having Coke track down the winners like that. What's next? A tiny transmitter in the cola itself that the "winner" swallows so Coke can track them even if they put the can down?
    • Creepy would be having coke tracking all the losers of the contest. If they want to give me those prizes as far as I'm concerned they could stick a GPS unit up my ass :)
  • Why do I see something on the horizon in the vein of Prof. Farnsworth's F-Ray that was used to detect the winning Slurm can on Futurama?

    Will it give people cancer/make them sterile too?
  • track me with the new federally mandated Patriot GPS insert. Remember, bend over and don't clench and it won't hurt as much.

    Also keep in mind that attempting to interfere with the insert, or thinking about interfering with the insert, or questioning the "Constitutionality" of having a tracking device inserted into you so that your every move may be monitored by John Ashcroft personally if it amuses him, means that the terrorists have won. This is being done to protect your freedom. Stop spoiling things by

  • Oh no (Score:5, Funny)

    by dr_dank (472072) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @03:32PM (#7097424) Homepage Journal
    Now I'll need to buy some more tin foil. A lot more.

  • NOT GPS!!! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Number of time "GPS" appears in this story: ZERO!!! Not all satelite tracking uses the US Government's GPS system!


    ATLANTA -- Here's a way to really target a consumer.

    Next summer, Coca-Cola plans to use satellites to find U.S. buyers who happen to purchase special cans of Coke products.

    They will be winners in a giveaway that will feature Hummer H2 sport-utility vehicles. The giant vehicles will be presented in person, using satellites to locate the recipients. And in a promotion tied to the Summer Olym

    • Re:NOT GPS!!! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by stratjakt (596332) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @03:40PM (#7097518) Journal
      The oddity of Coke's promotion revolves around how winners will get their prizes. The cans used will be equipped with Global Positioning System transponders

      Don't feel bad, I'm sure you didn't know what GPS stood for, thinking it was just another hip sounding acronymn you saw on slashdot.

    • I have had this argument many times, and am still very skeptical about GPS transponders.

      GPS (if that's being used, which is likely) is a one-way system, which means a passive device receives timing signals from a constellation of visible satellites, and uses the timing differences to estimate location and speed of the receiver.

      The critical question is what happens next to that data. It can't be transmitted back to the GPS satellites, since they are only able to receive control signals from their operator
  • These cans will have to transmit their position to Coca-cola. The article does not say how they do this. I assume that GPS enabled cell phones use the cellular network to transmit their positions. Will the cans use the cell phone network? Some other radio transmission?

    Also, for info on how GPS works, click [howstuffworks.com].

  • Making a killing (Score:4, Informative)

    by ciaran_o_riordan (662132) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @03:36PM (#7097470) Homepage
    Wow!
    All this while assinating union leaders in developing nations [colombiaso...ity.org.uk].

    Those cola loving fellows are hard workers.

    Ciaran O'Riordan

  • Something not quite right here... (Score:5, Informative)

    by WeirdKid (260577) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @03:38PM (#7097487)
    I didn't read the article, but, generally speaking, GPS receivers don't transmit, and GPS satellites don't track.

  • i have the answer (Score:5, Funny)

    by kurosawdust (654754) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @03:39PM (#7097508)
    How soon before someone hacks it?"

    Approximately 30 seconds before "Breaking News: Tony is GAY" appears on the screen and the entire high school soccer team falls over laughing.

  • I wonder how they will get around the legal issues (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hchaos (683337) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @03:43PM (#7097551)
    In general, in the US, it is illegal to have a sweepstakes-style contest that requires a purchase for entry (because it is technically gambling).

  • Meters vs. feet (Score:5, Funny)

    by micromoog (206608) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @03:48PM (#7097598)
    The billboard itself is 52 square meters of LED display.

    Once again, the English system proves superior. 560 square feet sounds way more impressive than a mere 52 square meters.

  • This begs the question... (Score:5, Funny)

    by travdaddy (527149) <travo.linuxmail@org> on Tuesday September 30 2003, @03:56PM (#7097676)
    Hopefully they track you fast before you throw-away (or recycle) your winning can....

    Maybe they would just award the prize to the trash can. But, how would a trash can spend a million dollars?

    I'd imagine he would just waste it.

  • GPS technology? (Score:4, Informative)

    by neglige (641101) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @04:08PM (#7097784)
    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.

  • Let's not forget the fiasco of the Magic Can... (Score:5, Informative)

    by LostCluster (625375) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @04:36PM (#7098099) Homepage
    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....

  • The homeless guy down the street from me... (Score:3, Funny)

    by dgulbran (141477) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @04:41PM (#7098146) Homepage
    ... will be *overjoyed* when Coke pulls up in an H2 with $1M in gold to give him in exchange for a Coke can in the pile in his shopping cart...

  • Several problems with this (Score:3, Insightful)

    by retro128 (318602) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @05:45PM (#7098797)
    This is probably something the marketing boys came up with and released before they figured out it was not feasible. Here's why:

    1. The GPS satellites don't tell you where you are. A GPS receiver figures out where it is by triangulating its position by measuring how far it is away from each satellite. This takes some pretty advanced electronics which would barely fit in a soda can.

    2. GPS does not track. Nothing is beamed back to the satellites, and even if it were, it would not reach them without a lot of power and a high gain antenna. The most common ways to get realtime tracking information on a GPS receiver is to couple it with ground-based radio or cell network. This would have to go in the soda can along with the rest...

    3. GPS (generally) only works outside. The signals that GPS uses are very high frequency, weak, and thus very prone to attenuation due to obstacles. They COULD use the can itself as an antenna, but even that probably wouldn't give you enough gain to get the signal indoors.

    4. Power source. None of this stuff works without power. How are they going to propose to keep this thing powered while they have this thing stored in the back of a warehouse for god knows how long before it gets put on a shelf and bought? Even if you didn't have it activate until you, say, opened it, there's still a pretty good chance you will not be in a location where GPS signals can be acquired.

    Pepsi, please stick with the damned instant win cards.
    Oh, and you are planning on going though with this, it may not be a good idea to fill the can. :)

  • Already ongoing in Australia (Score:3, Informative)

    by spacefight (577141) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @07:45PM (#7099682) Homepage
    For the upcoming Rugby Worldcup 2003 [rugby2003.com.au] 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).

  • Think it's crazy? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Transcendent (204992) on Tuesday September 30 2003, @10:31PM (#7100606)
    Coca-cola will feature a promotion in which winners will be located by satellites tracking GPS devices implanted in the winning cans....

    You'll never look at the guy picking pop cans out of the trash the same way ever again...

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