Tracking and Interviewing Individuals with GPS and GSM Technology on Mobile Electronic Devices

The paper explains how either the parallel use of GPS and GSM tracking technology at the same time or the use of GSM tracking technology only, combined with a historic GPS/GSM tracking database can produce rliable tracking results. Based on the parallel use of GPS and GSM tracking the knowledge of the individuall´s location can be used for adapted user response and thus reduce user burden. Portable electronic devices equipped with GPS/GSM can be used to interview the respondents in real time respectively on site. The knowledge of the location will be used to reduce the amount and the complexity of questions asked. Questions about origin/route/destination or transportation mode will be asked only if tracking data are unclear and thus need to be specified. First test drives provided promising results regarding the combination of GPS and GSM tracking. Based on this tracking some strategies for adapted user response are developed and first dialogues for adapted electronic questionnaires are designed