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Fast Global Satellite Link Tracks Cars, Monitors Pipelines

18 May 2000

    NEW YORK and HAIFA, Israel - A new satellite communication device that can 
track a stolen car in near real time -- even before the owner finds out the 
car is gone -- is about to hit the market.

    The new technology, which allows direct and almost instantaneous
communication between a central monitoring station and remote assets such as
cars, power lines, and vending machines, was developed by SatSmart Ltd., a
start-up at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology business incubator
company. SatSmart developed a compact unit that creates a global, two-way
communication pipeline that bypasses the Internet or other phone lines
currently used with standard satellite-based monitoring systems, eliminating
the resulting delays of minutes or hours in receiving messages.

    Compared to competing anti-auto theft devices, for example, SatSmart does
not require the owner to report the theft, avoiding delays, and allows the car
to be tracked anywhere, instead of only within an urban response area. In
addition to tracking stolen cars and power lines, the two-way data
transmission opens a wide range of applications including monitoring pipelines
in remote locations, providing instant leak alerts; supervising far-flung
cargo; monitoring vending machines; monitoring power lines, signaling
electrical failure; finding lost trekkers or sea craft; and residential and
commercial security.

    "With organizations operating globally, with branches and equipment spread
out over continents, there's a growing need for instantaneous, low cost
monitoring," says Zvi David, SatSmart chief executive officer. "This is
especially true in outlying areas where equipment such as pipelines, pumps and
electricity transformers may be located far from roads and transportation
networks."

    While satellite communication is mainly valued for its ability to transmit
large streams of information for telephone, radio and television (broadband
uses), satellites are also increasingly needed for transmitting small -- but
critical -- data streams from remote locations (narrowband uses).  In contrast
to broadband applications that require large antennae and complex signal
processing equipment, narrowband applications can use extremely compact
antennae and small receiving units. But the downside of existing narrowband
systems is that they funnel data from a satellite to a central gateway and
thence through the Internet or other phone line to a monitoring station,
slowing the process down considerably, in some cases by hours. The SatSmart
modem eliminates these delays with a small unit that currently sends data
through the gateway but will soon allow direct communication from remote sites
to the satellite and from the satellite directly to the customer's monitoring
station, allowing messages to be delivered in seconds. The signals travel from
the modem to one of the low-orbit satellite communication providers, which
then relays it to the intended recipient modem. The Smart 2000 unit, which
according to SatSmart costs less than existing satellite modems, combines a
small internal antenna with data processing and storage and is fully
programmable. The technology involved is patent pending.

    The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is the country's premier
scientific and technological center for applied research and education. It
commands a worldwide reputation for its pioneering work in communications,
electronics, computer science, biotechnology, water-resource management,
materials engineering, aerospace and medicine, among others.

    The American Technion Society (ATS) supports the Technion. Based in New
York City, it is the leading American organization supporting higher education
in Israel, with more than 20,000 supporters and 17 offices around the country.