Patent ID: 8035560

Claim:
A GPS tracking apparatus, comprising: a belt configured to releasably attach to a person or an animal; a transceiver enclosure integrally formed with the belt, the enclosure comprising at least one flexible hinge on at least an interior surface of the enclosure for enhancing flexion of the enclosure; and a GPS transceiver for transmitting the GPS position of the belt to, and for receiving at least one signal from, at least one of a plurality of remote devices, the transceiver comprising a control module having a CPU for processing GPS-acquired position data, the control module including nonvolatile memory for storing the position data; a GPS antenna electrically yet flexibly connected to the control module for receiving the position data from a GPS satellite network; a communications module electrically yet flexibly connected to the control module for wirelessly transmitting the position data to at least one of the plurality of remote devices; and a portable power source electrically yet flexibly connected to the control module for electrically powering the transceiver, wherein the transceiver automatically selects one of a plurality of pathways for transmitting the position data to at least one of the plurality of remote devices depending on a signal strength of each of the plurality of pathways.