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The GPS Mass Transit Tracker is a system designed to trace the location of city buses and provide real-time information on their position to the system users. Due to various traffic jams, road construction, and accidents, it is next to impossible to provide accurate scheduling on when buses will arrive at their designated stops. This system will allow users to select their desired bus route as well as their location of pickup and they will be provided with the coordinates of the next bus(es) that will be arriving to their location (including their rates of travel). Through the use of mapping software, these coordinates will be translated to a beacon on a map so that users can actually track the bus movements.

The system will be broken into four main categories including:

1. The GPS receiver / RF transceiver

2. The network infrastructure required for data acquisition

3. The database needed for tracking and querying of information

4. The user end device and software to display bus locations

This project will focus mainly on the first three of these items, leaving the end user software and devices to other outfits such as cell phone and PDA companies.

The backbone of the Mass Transit Tracking system lies in the transmission of information from each bus through a network of repeaters to a main receiver that will log the data into a database. Our group will be utilizing Maxstream 9XCite RF transmitters in conjunction with Motorola 68HC12 micro controllers to transmit and relay packets of information. The majority of this projects work will be directed toward interfacing these devices, as well as the protocol used for data transmissions.

Upon completion, the Mass Transit Tracker will offer an innovative product that will be extremely marketable to people who live and work in city/suburban areas. We intend on providing all the information that a third party company requires to develop devices to display bus locations in real time. For demonstration, we will display this information on an LCD screen that will be connected to the micro controller. Another benefit of this system is that it can also be easily integrated into other operations such as cab companies and law enforcement agencies to provide their central locations with information as to where their vehicles are located, allowing more efficient and profitable operation.