In 2005, three scientists came together with an ambitious goal: Develop a device to utilize mobile phone networks to track Golden Eagles with GPS. Several prototypes later, in 2007, a new company was formed: Cellular Tracking Technologies. On November 4, 2007, our first production unit was released on a Golden Eagle. The data collected was absolutely astonishing — and still impressive to this day — with a GPS position every 30 seconds. Over 10 years later, we are still innovating. Our collaboration with our clients has resulted in incredible new products. Our unique perspective has resulted in the CTT® Internet of Wildlife™.
The CTT Internet of Wildlife means you have far greater opportunities to design studies that are enormous in vision, yet start with less than $1,000US. Only CTT delivers your data over multiple, simultaneous data networks, including satellite, GSM, Motus and our own terrestrial radio receivers. Only CTT helps you expand the scale of your research by providing an infrastructure that can support multiple researchers with different species.
Our Evolution Series 400 line is our latest line of cellular GSM wildlife tracking devices. In addition to high speed connectivity to over 400 cellular GSM networks around the world, the ES-400 brings a wide suite of sensors, including GPS/GNSS, accelerometer, 9 degrees of freedom IMU (Acceleration, Gyro, and Magnetometer), altimeter, temperature, Activity Index, and more. CTT LifeTag and CTT PowerTag devices can be detected and transmitted by our larger transmitters, allowing larger animals to also detect CTT tags on smaller species, and transmit that data with their own. All data is viewable in our CTT Data Portal. Our cellular GSM products have options for CTT SmartVHF.
World First: We now offer hybrid Cellular GSM and Satellite products, allowing daily data transmission from anywhere in the world. Our hybrid products contain the same, rich cellular feature set. With Argos satellite connectivity, you will always know critical information, both inside and outside of GSM coverage. Data can be viewed from both networks inside our CTT Data Portal. Our hybrid products have options for SmartVHF as well as LifeTag detection capability.
For animals that will not likely venture into GSM service areas, you can depend on our Argos Doppler and Argos-GPS/GNSS products. Available at an affordable price, both tags transmit data over the Argos network, directly to our CTT Data Portal. Our Argos/GNSS product also has options for SmartVHF.
Our line of Ultra Long Range (ULR) products feature a groundbreaking, long range, spread spectrum radio technology. The CTT ULR system has a similar range to cellular networks, allowing for deployment of receiving networks in remote areas. The ULR tags contain all of the same, great features our cellular tags have, including GPS/GNSS, accelerometer, Activity Index and more. ULR Base Stations completely automate telemetry. They can log to SD cards, send data over the Argos network, or use cellular service, sending data directly to our CTT Data Portal. Options such as Argos connectivity, SmartVHF, and LifeTag network capability are also available.
We now offer a line of extremely low weight digital radio tag products, with weights as low as 0.4g. Each tag contains a unique, digital ID, allowing for extremely accurate detection and automated data collection using our base station technology. Field location is accomplished with the CTT Locator. LifeTag and PowerTag are detectable by the Motus network.
There are two variants of radio tags: CTT LifeTag and CTT PowerTag.
LifeTag transmits a unique digital ID every 2 seconds, and requires no battery. LifeTag is designed to last for many years, allowing the researcher to study the entire life of the animal.
PowerTag transmits a unique digital ID as often as every 2 seconds to every 15 seconds, allowing the researcher to optimize between transmission frequency and battery life. Our smallest battery tags have a lifetime of approximately 9 months, while our larger battery tags can operate for years.
Base stations automate the data collection in the field. Base stations collect data 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and can either operate on battery+solar or on AC power for indefinite periods of time. These base stations log the digital ID, signal strength, and time of reception and feature up to 12 different radio channels. CTT Base Stations consolidate LifeTag/PowerTag detections made by the CTT Nodes. Base stations can either store data locally to an SD card or transmit data over cellular networks. Base Station health and status data can also be transmitted over cellular or satellite, notifying staff of any maintenance needs as well as SD card status.
Unlike anything else, CTT Nodes can be used to provide extremely precise, near GPS level accuracy of our smallest 0.4g tags. Nodes listen on the LifeTag frequency, recording time, signal strength, and digital ID, and transmit detections to CTT Base Stations. By plotting signal strengths across a grid of Nodes, very accurate positioning can be resolved. With high transmission frequency, accurate tracks of very small animals can be collected over many months or years.
For field operations and localization of the animal studied, another option is available: the CTT Locator.
The CTT Locator works in conjunction with your smart phone to help you locate tags in the field. This completely digital system not only shows you what tags are in range, but a precise signal strength is also provided. This allows researchers to enter the field, locate animals, and log the entire session right in their smart phone. The CTT Locator contains a mobile web application that works with nearly every smartphone.
We now offer a recoverable GPS data logger: The Evolution Series 50. The ES-50 features our top of the line GPS/GNSS positioning receiver, accelerometer, large storage capacity, and sensors such as ActivityIndex, temperature and altitude. The ES-50 also has options for SmartVHF as well as compatibility with LifeTag base stations.