Hong Kong is developing its first version of Mobile Location Estimation System (MLES), which can help track important assets and persons.

MLES, which is quite similar to the Global Positioning System (GPS), is specially designed for Hong Kong by local researchers, Principal Consultant (Mobile Business Solutions) of Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) Lawrence Cheung said Tuesday.

It is difficult for Hong Kong to resort to GPS to track locations as nearly 40 percent area in the city cannot be reached by it, said Cheung.

After installing the MLES software in the mobile, it works in almost all of the places covered by the mobile network to find out the mobiles' position, and the maximum error in location estimation for MLES is 50 meters, said Cheung.

He said the MLES will benefit many industries, especially the logistics sector and developers of location-based applications, such as fleet and sales force management, and the tracking of important assets and persons. For example, families can find out where the elders are and take them home if they both have the MLESmobiles.

Building on the existing Global Sim Mobile (GSM) infrastructure and the imminent introduction of the 3G mobile networks in Hong Kong, the MLES is more cost-effective and accurate. The technology will go into service as soon as Sept. 2004, said Cheung.

He said it is a joint research project involving Hong Kong Wireless Technology Industry Association, HKPC, Hong Kong Baptist University and Hong Kong Institution of Engineers with funding support from the Innovation and Technology Fund of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.

(Xinhua News Agency October 8, 2003)