The battery-powered devices, about the size of a videocassette, use Global Positioning System technology to report where a trailer is (Orbital Sciences also owns Magellan, the largest producer of GPS receivers).

FORBES: Iridium for truck trailers

Already ahead in ITS, Portland's 850 "smart buses" are equipped with Global Positioning System and Automated Vehicle Location technology.

CNN: Oregon offers real-time bus stop data

Earlier this year Keiser put out a bullish report on location technologies: mapp Close ing database firms TeleAtlas and Navteq, dashboard navigation device makers such as TomTom and Garmin, and global positioning system chip firms like Sirf Technology Holdings.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Earlier this year Keiser put out a bullish report on location technologies: mapp Close ing database firms TeleAtlas and Navteq (nyse: NVT - news - people ), dashboard navigation device makers such as TomTom and Garmin (nasdaq: GRMN - news - people ), and global positioning system chip firms like Sirf Technology Holdings.

FORBES: Greenhouse Stocks

But what starts out as government or military technology often ends up in commercial applications, as packet-switched networks and the global-positioning system demonstrate.

ECONOMIST: MONITOR