NorthStar launches school bus tracking app on Android

Magnasoft, a Bangalore based GIS company lunched Northstar apps. Magnasoft founded in 2000. The company is funded by Global Technology Ventures, part of the Sivan Securities Group, which also comprises of Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company (Coffee Day).

Northstar is a tracking service which can be installed in school buses for administrators and parents to monitor the safety of the children. Parents can track their children via text, where they get messages telling them the estimated time of arrival of the bus at the designated stop.

Called the NorthStar Child Safety Monitor, the application will give details about the School bus, location of their child, estimated arrival time and many more.

A parent needs to have GPRS phone, and after the app gets installed on the phone, parents can login by entering their mobile number. If a parent is registered with NorthStar through their child’s school, the parent is allowed to view her child’s bus’ location and time of arrival. After successfully logging in, parents can see her child’s bus’ location and time of arrival and can get updates to that information on demand.

Magnasoft claims that it has deployed NorthStar device for around 75 schools, in Chandigarh, Delhi, Haryana and South India.

Northstar has also launched a mobile application on the Android platform so that parents can see exactly where their children are, upto an accuracy of around 10 metres. The parent can see the child’s bus location and the estimated time of arrival to an accuracy of a few minutes.

The main features of the application are:

• Simple login using number
• Permission based access to child’s bus location and estimated time of arrival
• Map view showing street level detail, if available
• If the user doesn’t have an Android application, bus number and estimated time of arrival are sent as text alerts over SMS.
• Web-based tracking, monitoring, alerting and reporting
• A school bus black box which tells the administrator if there are tampering attempts
• A manned “Command Center” that monitors school buses and children during schools hours
• Instant alerts of times of arrival, delays, accidents, breakdowns over 5-second SMSs
• Automatic voice call alerts of times of arrival
• Live video of the inside of school buses to monitor children and drivers
• Automatic attendance RFID swipe check both inside the bus and at school gates
• Integration with third party school management systems