IT201600110784A1 - METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE VALIDATION OF THE GEOLOCALIZATION OF TRACEABILITY DATA THROUGH AEROSPACE DATA OF FREE ACCESS - Google Patents

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE VALIDATION OF THE GEOLOCALIZATION OF TRACEABILITY DATA THROUGH AEROSPACE DATA OF FREE ACCESS,

Description

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for the traceability of goods, people or events, which introduces a position validation function (geo-localization of traceability data) in order to increase the confidence of the traceability data themselves and identify, and discard, possible malfunctions, voluntary tampering and fraud on location data (geographical location and date / time).

Currently the wide diffusion of satellite trackers, in mobile devices, tablets, cars and smartphones, makes the exchange of geo-localized data simple and immediate with a simple click or even making your device traceable by a third party (for example a mobile phone of a transporter is easily traceable as a location by his employer through services and applications that are now widespread and assuming that there is an agreement between the parties).

This dissemination of geo-localized data and their use is however subject to malfunctions, degradation of performance and fraud through the manipulation of the data. Today it is in fact possible to use specific Apps on your mobile phone that alter the geographical position, at the operating system level, ignoring and replacing the position of the receiver integrated on the phone itself, at will, which allows you to simulate different positions from the real ones.

This ease of simulating positions different from the real ones makes the use of commercial devices, equipped with satellite receivers, useless, or at least vulnerable, whenever the "real" position, used for traceability, is considered important and decisive for contractual factors, commercial, security and for any need to guarantee the veracity of geo-localized data.

From this consideration, and from the need to create reliable and guaranteed traceability services, the idea was born of introducing a method, and an apparatus for its implementation, capable of providing a potential commercial service, for the validation of the position of the data traceability of things, people and events in different activities and professions.

The innovative idea consists in integrating in the same localization terminal two widely used technologies, such as GNSS and ADS-B, where, while the first provides the position of the traceability data, the second, by means of auxiliary data, is used to guarantee the authenticity of the position itself.

GNSS is the acronym for Global Navigation Satellite System, global satellite navigation systems, capable of receiving not only GPS (USA), but also the Russian and European GALILEO GLONASS satellites as well as the other systems being completed).

ADS-B is the acronym for Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast, a cooperative air traffic control (ATC) technique particularly useful for the identification of aircraft and vehicles on the airport grounds with a view to managing traffic at the airport and to avoid any collisions in the absence of visibility or traffic congestion.

A simple analysis of the two technologies allows to highlight the advantages of this integration.

It is known that for a certain place on the earth's surface, and for a certain date / time, it is possible to receive, by means of a common commercial standard GNSS receiver, the signals transmitted in real time by the GNSS satellites in visibility for this place (open signals on the L in the case of a mono-frequency receiver), resulting in these satellites arranged in the vault of the sky in a very precise and predictable position (for example represented by the Azimuth and Elevation angles with respect to the observer) through the ephemeris available publicly for each single satellite of the various GNSS constellations.

It is also known that using a common standard ADS-B receiver it is possible, for the same place on the earth's surface, and for the same date / time, to receive the signals transmitted in real time by the aircraft (on the 1090 MHz frequency, which adhere to the ICAO (International Civic Aviation Organization) and European SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) regulations, within a variable radius around the receiver itself that reaches a radius of up to 400 km in the best conditions of visibility of the sky by the antenna used. The latest data on aircraft are also available on various websites (internet) through various free services that make it possible to obtain in real time all the information on the aircraft currently visible for a certain geographical area of interest.

It should be noted that while the position data of the satellites in the sky are predictable through ephemeris and specific calculations, on the contrary, the position data of the aircraft are subject to unpredictable dynamics (delays, advances, trajectories in the sky that are not always identical, different speeds, different altitudes) and therefore represent a sort of "signature" of a certain instant (data such as speed and altitude of each individual aircraft) and of a certain place (their visibility from the place of observation) certainly not predictable, using formulas and algorithms, in advance of the real event.

Therefore, the object of the present invention is a method that provides for the real-time verification, by a service center, of the data supplied to it by a remote terminal, fixed or in motion, associated with it, which by means of two GNSS receivers and ADS-B, captures both satellite signals and aircraft signals, providing a geometric configuration with respect to the observation point that changes continuously and which represents a snapshot or "signature" ("snapshot of aerospace signals") in real time impossible to predict first.

Through this "signature" it is possible to validate the position (geographical place and time) of the same remote terminal by checking the collection of its data observed in real time (GNSS and ADS-B) and comparing them with those collected as historical data on the sites related to the data ASD-B, to confirm their numerical coincidence for each aircraft in sight by comparing the data transmitted at that time and those actually collected through the official ADS-B data sites.

For example, if the remote terminal is located in Florence and observes a signal transmitted by the aircraft flying from Rome to Paris and which at that moment flies over Florence, or its vicinity within a radius of several kilometers, it will be able to receive its position every second. using the data available from the receiver itself associated with this aircraft, namely: latitude and longitude of the overflight point, aircraft altitude, speed, code assigned by ICAO and flight number. Note that these numerical values of position, speed and altitude change significantly every second due to the speed of the aircraft themselves and above all their exact values are not predictable and will always be different every time the same airliner flies over Florence for the same Rome-Paris flight.

These data can therefore be considered as "proof" of the presence of the terminal in a certain place at a certain time. By comparing the data provided by the terminal and the "official" data collected by the various Web services on the ADS-B system, it is possible to have confirmation that the data are real and actually collected "in the field" at a given time and place.

The use of the GNSS receiver, installed on the terminal, therefore has the task of giving the position of the terminal itself, a position that is subject to validation by the proposed system.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, the same GNSS receiver is expected to provide the observed data of all the satellites in sight and not only those used for the calculation of the position (fixing) - at least four as known -, which are usually a subset selected by the receiver itself according to the optimization of the DOP (Dilution of Precision). This data is expected to be extracted from the NMEA sentences available in all GNSS receivers on the market.

We remind you that NMEA is a data communication standard used above all in boating and in the communication of GPS satellite data with the aim of identifying common standards for the exchange of information between marine devices, even if its diffusion has made it suitable for also use in other types of applications. The entity that manages and develops the protocol is the National Marine Electronics Association which owns the copyright. This protocol is based on the principle that the source, called talker, can only send data (sentences) and the receiver, called listener, can only receive them.

A further object of the invention is an ad-hoc terminal made by integrating hardware and technologies currently existing and available on the market and capable of combining and using said technologies in an appropriate way to implement the purpose of the invention, which is to validate the position provided by a localization terminal to the service center.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, each terminal according to the invention, for indicative but not limitative purposes only, provides the following elements, all available on the market:

a processing unit (mini computer, such as “arduino” or “raspberry Pi 3”, but also other types of mini computers), preferably of small size and low price;

a GNSS receiver integrated on the processing unit motherboard or simply as an external receiver and connection via USB port;

an ADS-B receiver with relative antenna and connection with USB port;

a GSM / GPRS card for mobile communication or alternatively a Wi-FI connection to access the Internet;

a memory for recording temporary data (SD card type); And

an external power supply or battery.

According to the type of use and traceability area, said terminal can be applied directly to the place subject to traceability which can be both fixed and mobile, i.e. a place of production, packaging and sale of a product or a vehicle for transporting said product. , and can be further integrated with other sensors such as: temperature sensor, pressure sensor, digital compass, motion and shock sensors, mini camera for photos and videos. This will make it possible to associate specific data, deemed of interest, inherent to the events themselves, to the events to be tracked (for example in the cold chain, or in the transport of a work of art or even in the collection of fruit and vegetables directly from the field where have been grown), with the aim of verifying that these events do not involve parameters outside the norms for the conservation or quality of a product during its preparation or transport.

Further advantages and features of the invention will become evident from the detailed description that follows, referring to the attached drawings which represent, by way of non-limiting example only, a preferred embodiment.

In the tables:

Fig. 1 is a general scheme of the method for validating the position of identification data for guaranteed traceability exchanged through a communication channel to a service center;

Fig. 2 shows the structure of a data string called "snapshot of aerospace signals";

Fig. 3 is a flow chart showing the different steps of the validation method according to the invention.

With reference to the figures, the proposed method therefore provides for the use of one or more remote terminals, fixed or mobile, and a function of validating their position according to the diagram in fig. 1, where 1 indicates as a whole a remote terminal, connected via the internet with a service center 2 which implements a validation function 10.

Each terminal 1 integrates a GNSS satellite navigation receiver 3 with an ADS-B receiver 4, of commercial origin and is equipped with a processing unit 5 so as to be able to simultaneously receive the signals available from the 6 GNSS satellite navigation satellites in sight ( of the various constellations GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BEIDOUE depending on the type of receiver used) and the data relating to the aircraft 7 which are visible from the terminal itself in the position in which it is located and for a certain specific date and time. The remote terminal 1 is therefore also equipped with two antennas 8,9 respectively associated with the GNSS and ADS-B.

The processing unit 5 of terminal 1 has the task of collecting in real time the data observed by the two integrated receivers 4 and 5 (navigation satellite and ADS-B), synchronizing them temporally based on the universal time provided by the same satellite signal of navigation (GPS time for example), decode and format them in coherent data packets 11 called "snapshot of aerospace signals" or ISA, and transmit them, via the communication channel, (for example Internet) to the service center 2 to request validation 10 associated position of terminal 1.

The following steps are followed in the process of verifying and validating the location of a generic remote terminal 1:

1. the remote terminal 1, when deemed necessary, records a position (automatically or at the request of an operator or at the request of the service center 2) and collects satellite and aircraft data with the two integrated receivers (GNSS and ADS-B), 3 and 4 respectively;

2. the same remote terminal 1 interprets the data collected by the two receivers 3 and 4, synchronizes them with the UTC time (Coordinated Universal Time) provided by the satellite receiver 3 (for example GPS time) and prepares a string of data 11 called "snapshot of aerospace signals ", or ISA and sends it to the validation function 10 of the service center 2 with the information content illustrated in fig. 2 and specified below:

to. a first part of the string, called "Identification Header", (IH), which contains the unique identifier of the remote terminal 1 that allows the service center 2 to recognize the single terminal. Other associated identification data can be included in this first part of the data string (eg identification of the customer who uses this terminal and / or status information of the terminal itself); b. a second part of the string, called "Position data set", (PDS), which contains the position calculated by the satellite receiver 3 of the remote terminal 1 and which will be checked (position which is represented by the following fields: date / time of the measurement performed, Latitude, Longitude, height above sea level). These data are available through, for example, the NMEA sentence called, for GPS, $ GPRMC “Recommended minimum specific GPS / transit data”;

c. a third part of the string, called “Position input data”, (PID), which contains the data associated with the navigation satellites 6 visible at the time of the “fixing” of the position by the receiver itself. These data are available through, for example, the NMEA $ GPGSV sentence “GPS Satellite in view”;

d. a fourth and last part, called "Flights data", (FD) which contains the data associated with the aircraft 7 visible by the ADS-B receiver 4 integrated in the terminal 1, at the same instant in which the position was calculated, and which includes each aircraft 7 in view of the following six numerical or alphanumeric parameters:

the. latitude of the overflight point; ii. longitude of the overflight point; iii. current flight altitude (in meters or miles);

iv. current flight speed (in Km / h or in miles / h)

v. aircraft identification code (flight code);

you. international SQUOCK code (ICAO standard).

At this point the service center 2 implements the validation function as illustrated in fig. 3:

1. ISA Consistency Check: the service center 2 implements the validation function 10 which performs a first Consistency Check on the "snapshots of aerospace signals" or ISA received from a single terminal 1 using in particular the first two parts of the string "Identification Header", or IH, and "Position data set", PDS, by performing the following checks:

1.1). Identity check on the IH set: verifies that the terminal 1 that sent the data is registered in the database of the service center 2 by reading the unique identifier of the terminal, contained in the "Identification Header", IH, and its presence in the service center database 2;

1.2). Position check: verifies that the position of terminal 1, provided in the "Position data set", PDS, is identical to that envisaged and assigned a priori to this same terminal, in the case of fixed terminals (example installed at a mozzarella factory in buffalo) or congruent with a predetermined journey and within predetermined limits in the case of mobile terminals (eg transport of products from a point A to a geographical point B and within certain pre-established time limits). Furthermore, the "speed" data of the remote terminal, part of the "Position data set", PDS, is checked, in the case of fixed installation, by verifying that it is zero unless there are measurement errors (immobile object) while for the use of terminals furniture will be verified that its value remains within predetermined ranges depending on the type.

If the Position Verification gives a negative result, the service center 2 returns to the remote terminal 1 that transmitted the ISA, the negative response with related messages 13 explaining the refusal of validation.

If, on the contrary, the outcome of the position verification is positive, the service center 2 performs the following function in succession:

2. Validation of the position: Validation can be performed only using the data contained in the Flights data or FD, or alternatively through the joint use of aircraft and satellite data. Let's look at the two possible procedures:

2.1) Validation using only "Flights data": this function validates the position of terminal 1 on the basis of the content of the "Flights data" FD, verifying that the aircraft 7 observed by the remote terminal, in real time, are exactly those flying over the position given at that precise moment in that place. This verification is carried out by comparison, aircraft by aircraft, with the data available on public internet sites where it is possible to obtain information with “ftp” functions. (file transfert protocol). This function then queries through a request (arrow 14 in fig. 1) one of the websites that provide ADS-B data by providing as input the presumed position of terminal 1 (see "Position data set") and a radius in Km ( for example 100-200 Km) within which to obtain all the data relating to the aircraft 7 that are actually in transit at a precise moment. The validation function compares the "Flights data", FD, with the 15 data obtained in response from the ADS-B data website and preferably for the first four aircraft closest to the terminal and using predefined error thresholds to keep account of minimal fluctuations in the position data of aircraft which have great dynamics and which also change significantly in the interval of a few seconds.

If the comparison provides the same data, within the errors predefined by the system, then the position of the remote terminal 1 is definitively considered credible and therefore validated. In this case a message 13 confirming the validation is sent to the remote terminal 1.

In the event of a negative result, a message of failed validation is sent, with relative message 13 explaining the reason.

Optionally, as can be seen in the flow diagram of fig. 3, the validation of the position obtained by using only the data contained in the "Flights data" data set, can be followed by a further validation step, in order to further increase the reliability of the validation function itself, consisting of: 2.2). Validation of the "Position data set": this function validates the data of the NMEA $ GPGSV sentence by verifying that the same satellites (identified by their PRN code - called pseudo random noise) are the same visible simultaneously from a reference terminal 12, twin of those used remotely and installed at the service center 2, (see fig. 1), after calculating the difference in azimuth and elevation due to the difference in geographical position between said remote terminal 1 and said reference terminal 12, (note that within 4,000 / 5,000 km of distance two satellite receivers share the same set of satellites in sight). This calculation is done with spherical trigonometry formulas in spherical earth approximation that are believed to be sufficiently accurate for data comparison.

If the position validation is successful (the coordinates of the first four satellites 6 in view, with greater elevation angle, are the same as those observed by the reference terminal 12 of the service center 2 suitably transformed due to the relative difference in latitude and longitude ), then the validation function is considered definitively positive, and a confirmation message 13 of the validation is sent to the remote terminal 1, otherwise a non-validation message is returned to the remote terminal 1 with relative explanatory message 13. EXAMPLE of "Snapshot of aerospace signals ". Below is an example of a possible formatting and data / information content of an ISA relating to:

a remote terminal, whose location is:

Latitude <414635.2 => 41 degrees, 46 minutes and 35.2 seconds North

Longitude 0122238.81 = 12 degrees, 22 minutes and 38.81 seconds East

<·> Relative to date and time: <2016-10-29 17:30:02,>

including the position of 12 satellites (from SAT_DATA_1 to SAT_DATA_12),

with the following data for each satellite:

(Example SAT_DATA_1) = <07 | 79 | 121 | 28 |>

Satellite PRN = 07, Elevation angle = 79 degrees, Azimuth angle = 121 degrees, Ratio <signal to noise = 28.>

and following the position of 7 aircraft positions (from GFLIGHT_DATA_1 to FIGHT_DATA_7), with the following data for each aircraft:

(Example FLIGHT_DATA_1) = 4CA58A | 414 149.63 | 0121235.17 | 1691 | 2016-

10-29 17: 30: 03 | 125 | RYR56DX |

Aircraft code, overflight latitude, overflight longitude, altitude in miles, date and time corresponding to the data, speed in miles per hour, flight code

Based on this data, the ISA string results as follows:

TERMINAL_DATA | 414635.2 | 0122238.81 | 0 | 2016-10-29 17: 30: 02 | 17 | SAT_DATA_1 | 07 | 79 | 121 | 28 | SAT_DATA_2 | 09 | 54 | 060 | 18 | SAT_DATA_3 | 30 | 54 | 199 | 43 | SAT_DATA_4 | 49 | 41 | 191 | 0000 | SAT_DATA_5 | 02 | 37 | 272 | 43 | SAT_DATA_6 | 06 | 35 | 223 | 39 | SAT_DATA_7 | 33 | 34 | 218 | 40 | SAT_DATA_8 | 05 | 24 | 310 | 0000 | SAT_DATA_9 | 23 | 22 | 076 | 21 | SAT_DATA_10 | 04 | 20 | 268 | 47 | SAT_DATA_11 | 16 | 12 | 040 | 25 | SAT_DATA_12 | 13 | 00 | 262 | 0000 | FLIGHT_DATA_1 | 4CA58A | 414 149.63 | 0121235.17 | 1691 | 2016-10-29 17: 30: 03 | 125 | RYR56DX | FLIGHT_DATA_2 | 4B1618 | 402617.05 | 0121235.96 | 10675 | 2016-10-29 17: 30: 04 | 239 | SWR2510 | FLIGHT_DATA_3 | 392AE9 | 414751.29 | 0121039.79 | 601 | 2016-10-29 17: 30: 05 | 103 | AFR405N | FLIGHT_DATA_4 | 4A0825 | 413446.02 | 0121111.69 | 2529 | 2016-10-29 17: 30: 06 | 166 | BMS1216 | FLIGHT_DATA_5 | 4CA719 | 415 417.89 | 0121119.79 | 487 | 2016-10-29 17: 30: 18 | 90 | AZA549 | FLIGHT_DATA_6 | 4CA666 | 415 625.76 | 0120 540.34 | 2453 | 2016-10-29 17: 30: 34 | 151 | AZA6GU | FLIGHT_DATA_7 | 471EA8 | 413338.27 | 0112924.36 | 11277 | 2016-10-29 17: 30: 51 | 235 | 00000000 |

Some preferred embodiments of the invention have been described here, by way of non-limiting example only. It is also clear that numerous variations and modifications can be made by experts in the field, without departing from the scope of protection of the invention, as defined by the following claims.

Claims (11)

CLAIMS 1) Method for validating the position (geolocation by place and a date / time) in real time of the data provided to a service center by each collaborative remote terminal of a plurality of fixed and / or mobile collaborative terminals, associated with it, characterized by the fact that it involves the following steps: Have in a specific place or observation point on the earth's surface a terminal equipped with two GNSS and ADS-B receivers, the first capable of capturing the signals transmitted by the GNSS satellites in visibility for that place, and the second of receiving for same date / time and for the same place the signals transmitted by the aircraft in flight within a variable reception radius around the ADS-B receiver of said terminal, providing a set of observed data that identifies a geometric configuration with respect to said place or point of observation that changes continuously and that represents a snapshot or "signature" ("snapshots of aerospace signals") in real time impossible to predict a priori; Transmitting, from said remote terminal upon request or on a periodic basis, said set of observed data to said service center, through a predetermined communication channel; · Collect and store in said service center as historical data the data on aircraft visible at that time for a certain geographical area which includes said specific place where said remote terminal is located, which are available on the internet in free access databases; Consult the collection of data received in real time from the GNSS and ADS-B receivers of said remote terminal and compare said data with those collected and stored as historical data by the various WEB services on the ADS-B system, in order to verify whether or not the data received from the remote terminal are real and actually collected in the field at a given time and place; and validating, only in the first case, the real-time position of the collaborative remote terminal and of the data referable to it and coming from it. 2) Method as in claim 1 characterized by the fact that the remote terminal collects in real time the data observed by the two integrated GNSS and ADS-B receivers, synchronizes them temporally based on the universal time provided by the same navigation satellite signal (GPS time for example), decodes them and formats them in a string of coherent data called "Snapshot of aerospace signals" or ISA and sends said string, through said communication channel, to the service center to request the validation of the associated position. 3) Method as per the previous claim characterized in that said data string has the following information content: a first part of the string, called "Identification Header", (IH), which contains the unique identifier of the remote terminal that allows the service center to recognize the single terminal; a second part of the string, called "Position data set", (PDS), which contains the position calculated by the GNSS satellite receiver of the remote terminal and which is the object of verification, position which is represented by the following fields: date / time of the measurement performed , Latitude, Longitude, height above sea level; a third part of the string, called "Position input data", (PID), which contains the data associated with the navigation satellites visible at the time of "fixing" the position, to the satellite receiver of the terminal, data that are available through NMEA sentences ; a fourth and last part, called "Flights data", (FD) which contains the data associated with the aircraft visible to the ADS-B receiver integrated in the remote terminal and received by the same, at the same instant in which the position was calculated, and which includes for each aircraft in sight the following six numerical or alphanumeric parameters: the. latitude of the overflight point; ii. longitude of the overflight point; iii. current flight altitude (in meters or miles); iv. current flight speed (in Km / h or in miles / h) v. aircraft identification code (flight code); you. international SQUOCK code. 4) Method as in claim 1 characterized by the fact that the Service Center implements the validation function that performs a first Consistency Check on the ISA "Aerospace Signal Snapshots" received from a single remote terminal using in particular the first two parts of the string " Identification Header ", IH and" Position data set ", PDS, performing the following checks: to. Identity check: verifies that the remote terminal that sent the data is registered in the database of the service itself by reading the unique identification of the terminal, contained in the "Identification Header", IH and its presence in the database of the service center ; b. Consistency check: verifies that the position of the remote terminal, provided in the "Position data set", PDS is identical to that foreseen and assigned a priori to this same terminal, in the case of fixed terminals, or congruent with a predetermined path and within limits pre-established in the case of mobile terminals e checks that the speed data of the remote terminal, provided by the "Position data set", in the case of fixed installation is zero, unless there are measurement errors (immobile object) while for the use of mobile terminals its value remains within ranges pre-established according to the type of use of the terminal itself. 5. Method as in the previous claim characterized by the fact that: if the Consistency Check gives a negative result, the Service Center returns a negative response to the remote terminal with the related explanatory message of the refusal of validation, while on the contrary, if the Consistency Check is successful, the Service Center performs the subsequent Position Validation function. 6) Method as per the previous claim characterized by the fact that said Position Validation function provides for a validation algorithm which has the purpose of confirming the truthfulness of the remote terminal position on the basis of the content of the "Flights data" FD only, verifying that the aircraft observed by the remote terminal, in real time, are exactly those flying over the position given at that precise moment in that place, where this verification is performed by comparison, aircraft by aircraft, with the data available on public internet sites where it is possible obtain information with “ftp” functions. 7) Method as per the previous claim characterized by the fact that this Validation function using Flights data: queries one of the websites that provide ADS-B data providing as input the presumed position of the remote terminal (see "Position data set") and a radius in Km (for example 100-200 Km) within which to obtain the data relating to all aircraft that are actually in transit at a precise moment; compares the "Flights data" data with the data obtained from the ADS-B data website and for the first four aircraft closest to the remote terminal, using predefined error thresholds to account for minimal fluctuations in aircraft position data which have great dynamics and which also change significantly in the interval of a few seconds; if the comparison provides the same data, within the errors predefined by the system, then the position of the remote terminal is definitively considered credible and therefore validated, and in this case a message confirming the validation is sent to the remote terminal; while in the event of a negative result, a failed validation message is sent with the related message explaining the reason. 8) Method as in the previous claim characterized by the fact that, optionally, if the position validation through "Flights data" is successful, the system passes to a subsequent "Position data set" validation function which validates the data, for example, of the NMEA $ GPGSV sentences, verifying that the coordinates of the first four satellites in view, with greater elevation angle, are the same as those observed by a reference terminal, twin of those used in remote mode, suitably transformed due to the difference relative latitude and longitude, otherwise a non-validation message is returned to the remote terminal with relative explanatory message. 9) Apparatus for the validation of the geolocation of traceability data through aerospace data of free access characterized by the fact that it includes: a service center equipped with processing means suitable for verifying in real time the data provided by at least one localization terminal associated with it, fixed or mobile, remotely; said locating terminal comprising: a processing unit; a GNSS receiver integrated on the processing unit motherboard or simply as an external receiver and connection with USB port; an ADS-B receiver with relative antenna and connection with USB port; a GSM / GPRS card for mobile communication or alternatively a Wi-FI connection to access the Internet; a memory for recording temporary data (SD card type); an external power supply or battery, and where a reference terminal twin to the one used remotely is installed at said service center to check whether the coordinates of the satellites visible at the same time by the remote terminal are the same as those observed by said reference terminal, suitably transformed due to the relative difference in latitude and longitude. 10) Apparatus as per claim 9 characterized by the fact that said terminal, depending on the type of use and traceability scope, can be applied directly to a place of production, packaging and sale of a given product or to a vehicle for transporting said product. 11) Apparatus according to each of the claims from 9 onwards, characterized by the fact that said remote terminal is further integrated with other sensors such as: temperature sensor, pressure sensor, digital compass, motion and shock sensors, mini camera for photos and video, in order to associate specific data relating to the events to the events to be traced.