MOBILE OBJECT LOCATOR

摘要

There is disclosed a method and apparatus for an object locator system (10) for requesting and obtaining information about the location of a mobile object, having attached thereon a lightweight object locator (42), operable in a region served by a two-way paging system (12) and a global positioning satellite system (50). The object locator (42) may be selectively activated to conserve power or enabled to respond only when beyond or within a boundary. Further, the object locator system (10) may provide the location information in several forms including rectangular or polar coordinates referred to a base station (18) or origin, position on a map display, etc. In alternate embodiments the two-way paging system (12) may be substituted by a direct wireless link or a satellite relay communications link; the location information may be translated into human readable form either before or after transmission from the object locator.