Product category:
Antennas and Feeders
News Release from: Sarantel
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 26 February 2004
Antennas win slot in location devices
Antenna specialist Sarantel has been awarded a contract to supply its Geohelix miniature antenna to My-Bodyguard, a Netherlands-based product innovation group.
Antenna specialist Sarantel has been awarded a contract to supply its Geohelix miniature antenna to My-Bodyguard, a Netherlands-based product innovation group that is launching stand-alone personal location products for use in the growing care market and for personal protection devices The new My-Bodyguard and My-SOS products use a combination of global positioning (GPS) and cellular communications technologies to produce a discrete, easy to use, personal alarm that can calculate the user's location to within just 5m
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 27 Jun 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Omnidirectional bonus for miniature GPS antenna
Antenna specialist Sarantel has announced the PowerHelix GPS-P, a miniature GPS antenna which is omnidirectional and therefore tolerant of the orientation of the GPS receiver.
Novel GPS antenna picks up more satellites
The GeoHelix-H is a new-technology high-gain active antenna for portable GPS receivers which enables more satellites to be acquired than conventional patch devices.
The units communicate using any available GSM cellular phone network.
Edwin Siemerink, My-Bodyguard's business development director said: "Our device is worn on the belt or in the clothing of the user so a major issue for us was the selection of a GPS antenna which would operate in close proximity to human tissue.
A good beamwidth is also critical and during many live tests we couldn't get anywhere close to the performance of the Sarantel antenna with any of the alternatives we tested".
Further reading
GPS antenna slides into CompactFlash designs
In the last four months four companies have designed the Sarantel ultra-small GeoHelix GPS antenna into CompactFlash GPS modules in current production.
GPS antenna connects cellphone addon
Sarantel has acheived a significant design win for its advanced GeoHelix GPS (global positioning system) antenna which is to feature in the new GPS addon for the Ericsson T60c cellphone.
The tough, lightweight My-Bodyguard and My-SOS devices roam on to any GSM network to transmit the user's location.
In certain applications, live sound is also transmitted to allow the user to describe the threat or assistance required, or the operator to simply listen-in to the situation.
Potential users include handicapped and elderly people, children, lone workers and VIPs.
Barrie Foley, Sarantel's CEO said: "We very pleased to have been selected for this demanding application.
The potential for GPS in personal location health, safety and personal wellbeing is enormous but it is only through innovative application of technology that the benefits will be widely felt by users.
My-SOS and My-Bodyguard are prime examples and we wish the company every success as they move their focus beyond the Netherlands during 2004".
The Sarantel Geohelix antenna has a very small near-field which allows it to function close to RF transmitters (like the GSM transmitter inside the My- units) or signal absorbing bodies such as living tissue, metal structures or buildings with no negative impact on performance.
"The antennas ability to work upside-down was also nice", commented Rob Kuipers, My-Bodyguard's Technical Director, "being able to get accurate GPS locations when the user has fallen down or is in a difficult situation makes our products more attractive and has the potential to save lives".
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