When Li Mu was reborn, China's Internet industry was at its peak, and the concept of Internet+ was booming, which further gave birth to almost all industries in China at that time being integrated with the Internet as much as possible, and the express delivery industry was the same.

Li Mu remembered that at that time, JD.com could provide users with real-time logistics information and real-time locations. Users could see where their express delivery was, where they were, who was dispatched, and how far away the delivery staff was. This complete customer confidence service relied on real-time communication between GPS and the network.

Li Mu hopes that Taobao Logistics can also have such capabilities in this era. In this way, Taobao Logistics will be at least eight to ten years ahead of logistics companies in the previous life in terms of informationization. Although Li Mu does not know much about hardware, he has sorted out some of the key points himself. He feels that in this era, the hardware should have sufficient foundation to achieve this, but it only requires a brand new product concept to combine these hardware.

That's why he asked Fang Xudong to come over with hardware experts and to suggest some of his own unprofessional but visionary enough to them.

Li Mu told everyone: "I believe that real-time positioning equipment should not be difficult to implement, because the current GPS satellite positioning module and GSM mobile communication module are both ready-made. As long as the two are integrated, the equipment can transmit real-time positioning information of the GPS coordinate position information through the GSM communication module in real time. This should be correct, right?"

As a communications expert, Hu Bo immediately nodded and said, "The most popular mobile communication technologies now are gsm and cdma. They can both realize the real-time data transmission function you just mentioned. Although the GPS module is relatively expensive, it has been popular in many fields, so it should not be difficult to combine the two into one."

Li Mu nodded: "Since both functions can be realized, I will talk about my other ideas."

After a pause, Li Mu said: "The reason why I need to add RF technology support to these two functions is that we hope that in the future, we will install such equipment on every vehicle, every trailer, and every express package, and then install RF technology reading equipment on all logistics nodes to improve our operation efficiency."

"For example, we have loaded ten large packages in the container that the Beijing A555 has been hung. All of these ten large packages have to be sent to the Shanghai Stock Exchange for sorting and transit. When loading the car, these ten packages will be automatically read, recorded and uploaded directly through the radio frequency technology in the car. Then, the vehicle will be on the road, and we can monitor the location of the 'Beijing A555' car through the GPS coordinate data sent by GSM in real time;"

"When the car is still twenty kilometers or ten kilometers away from the Shanghai market distribution center, the system will automatically hang the information of the car to the large screen next to the staff who pick up the car at the distribution center, reminding them that the car is about to enter the site, and the staff can instantly see its cargo information. It loads ten large packages, and these large packages are to go to which business points in the surrounding areas of the Shanghai market. The relevant information is also clear at a glance. In this way, before the car arrives, our workers can prepare. Once the car comes in, the RF reading equipment outside the door can immediately determine the identity of the package and the package in the car, and directly remind our pickup workers that the car has arrived and prepare immediately. Then, when the car arrives, the ten packages can be transported to the loading place that is about to go to their respective destinations. In this way, the overall efficiency should be greatly improved."

Li Mu's hardware idea is basically equivalent to a set of GPS trackers, plus a set of equipment similar to highway etc. However, Li Mu is not sure whether the current hardware basic research and development is realistic.

As a communications expert, Hu Boluo thought about it and said to Li Mu: "Mr. Li, this set of hardware can be realized. Let me take it apart first. Because your idea of ​​these two sets of equipment includes gps and gsm, I will talk about these two pieces first."

After a pause, Hu Bo continued: "We can directly purchase GPS modules and GSM modules, and then purchase a batch of SIM cards that can run data from the operators, and use their network to support it. This involves some communication protocols, but they are not a problem. The protocols are open and the cost is very low. Once integrated with microcontroller technology, it can be easily implemented. The basic structure is GPS chips, GSM chips and microcontrollers."

"As for RF technology, because I am not an expert in this area, I am not very sure. However, I heard before that there is a system that does not stop charging abroad. Although it has not been popular in our country, a small number of countries are already using it abroad. This technology should be consistent with our needs."

"The principle is based on a radio frequency technology called rfid. This technology generally requires two sets of hardware and a system. One set of hardware is placed in the car and the other is placed in the toll station. Users do not need to stop when driving in or out of the highway. When it passes by the toll station, the equipment of the toll station will automatically read the information of the equipment in the car, and then record its starting point in the system. When it reaches its destination and leaves the highway, it has to pass the toll station again and be read again. Once the two data are combined, you can know when the car is on the highway at which point the car is on the highway, and you can also know when the car is off the highway at which point the car is off, then calculate the amount to be paid, and then perform a set of fee calculations. I think the principle of this technology is enough to support what you mentioned before. We only need to integrate this function with the gps and gsm modules to achieve all your needs."

Li Mu nodded in agreement and said with a smile: "It is just that such technology is needed to support it. If all technical problems can be solved, then it should not be that difficult to develop such a hardware product, right?"

Hu Bo said: "It mainly depends on what kind of hardware and solutions are used, and then the integration is carried out, as well as the microcontroller program is required. In addition, industrial design is simple, but it is still troublesome. For example, mobile phones, we have to repeatedly find ways to reduce the size of the motherboard and run in and compromise with the appearance design. After finally getting a final disgust, we will find an OEM factory to start the mold production. However, if we only use it for our own use, industrial design can be so refined, so that our entire process can be much faster."

Li Mu said: "This equipment is mainly installed in truck trailers, trailers, containers, and express parcels, so there is no need for too much cumbersome industrial design, as long as it is reliable and practical."

As he said that, Li Mu said again: "But the courier handheld terminal I just mentioned involves our corporate image, so it should be designed better, with a sense of technology and a high-end feeling."

Hu Bo said: "In addition to the gps and gsm modules you mentioned, the handheld device you mentioned also requires a set of code scanning devices. However, this is not a problem. Our current system of the code scanning device is fully supported. The code scanning gun quickly recognizes the code and uploads it to the server. We have solved this problem long ago. Even if it is replaced with a handheld device, it is not very troublesome. It is to turn data from network cable transmission to GSM mode wireless transmission."

Li Mu nodded: "Theory is indeed the case, but we cannot just develop a blind-like scanning device to our courier. We have to give him a screen and a system so that they can have more operation space. For example, if we add a mobile phone screen to this device, he can choose whether to scan the code by picking up the code, or scan the code before delivery, or scan the code after delivery;"

"At the same time, we also want to make this device a remote business processing terminal. For example, a user in our building places an order online and fills in the address here to send a courier. After our server receives his order needs, we must immediately find the courier who is closest to the surrounding area through the location of the terminal equipment on our courier, and then send him a pickup notice, and at the same time pass the order information to him in the form of a text message."

"Or, we automatically screen the delivery process of the courier by carrying the code of express delivery when the courier leaves. If courier a is still far away from here at this time, but he carries the express delivery of his destination in this building, and has not yet been submitted, we can determine that courier a has delivery service in this building, so he will inevitably come to this building. In this way, we can give him priority to the pickup task, so that our labor waste can be minimized and the entire process becomes more efficient."

Fang Xudong immediately said: "Mr. Li, I will organize a new project team today to solve the hardware equipment you mentioned."

Li Mu nodded: "Communicate with colleagues in the patent department and don't let go of any patents that can be applied for during the research and development process."

"clear."

Li Mu said: "Watch this incident as the first key R&D project of our hardware laboratory. While you are developing the combination of GSM and GPS modules, on the one hand, you must make the compatibility and adaptability of these two modules more powerful. On the other hand, you must think more about the effects they can produce when combined with other devices. GSM, GPS and microcontroller. As long as the three are well integrated, we can connect all possible things to the Internet, which is the future Internet of Things era."

The Internet of Things was just an illusory abstract concept in this era. Even Western countries did not start to develop and develop the Internet of Things. So when Li Mu talked about the Internet of Things, everyone present was confused. Although they had heard of this concept, they had no idea how to implement this concept.

Li Mu said: "The equipment we installed on the vehicle is actually the basic 'Internet of Things'. However, the future of the Internet of Things should not be just one-way transmission of information. It should have more practical intelligence functions. Let me give you an example. If I ask you to develop a new type of bicycle lock, which has no keyhole, but uses the GSM module and the microcontroller module to control a set of micro relays, and then connect it to the GPS module and use a lithium battery as the power supply. In this way, the bicycle equipped with this bicycle lock will be connected to the Internet itself."

Li Mu wanted to use the concept of remote unlocking of shared bicycles as a case of the Internet of Things to popularize several people, but there is a very big problem that there is no smartphone now, and there is no mobile phone scanning code. So Li Mu modified the logic and changed the process of scanning codes on smartphones to sending text messages through GSM on ordinary mobile phones.

Then, Li Mu continued: "I gave this bicycle a unique id, and kept matching information on the server, and then threw the bicycle on the street for our specific users to use freely. The specific logic is: If the id of this car is 6666, then when the user sees this car, he only needs to send the 6666 number to our server by text message. After the server verifies that his mobile phone number is qualified to unlock, it will send a unlocking instruction to the lock on the bicycle through the GSM module. Then the GSM module will pass the received command to the microcontroller, and the microcontroller will control the relay. What do you think will happen?"

Fang Xudong said excitedly: "The microcontroller received the instruction to power the relay and opened the car lock in an instant!"
Chapter completed!