Cyclops anti-theft system means motorists can keep an eye on their cars
ACCORDING to Royal Hongkong Police statistics, about 7,000 private cars were stolen last year, representing three per cent of the total number of private cars on the territory's roads.
To help combat this alarming rate of theft and help reduce the hefty surcharges being levied by insurance companies, a Western Australian company has introduced a sophisticated anti-theft system to Hongkong. Local dealer BMW Concessionaires has already ordered 400 units and the Hongkong Automobile Association is looking at it closely.
Designed by Mr Ivor Metlitzky, director of Dynamco Ltd, the Cyclops system dispenses with the need for a battery-powered remote control and is claimed to be secure against code scanners.
To de-activate the Cyclops system and gain access to a car, a driver carries a small transponder on his key ring. When brought near the car, the transponder draws a minute amount of power from an electronic eye mounted on the inside of the windscreen andtransmits an individual 32-bit code.
The transmitted code must be synchronised with the receiver to within a millionth of a second. This is repeated five times and the whole process is completed in under half a second.
If the Cyclops alarm is triggered, the engine is automatically immobilised, a 120 decibel siren is sounded and the indicator lights flash. To protect against false alarms, the system will only respond to the frequency spectrum of breaking glass.
In the event that a thief cuts the car's battery leads, the Cyclops sirens are fitted with re-chargeable power packs, which will last for up to an hour. As a further security measure, Cyclops offers the option of an ultrasonic sensing device.
Effective as it is, Cyclops like any other system is not 100 per cent foolproof, but, according to Mr Metlitzky, it will buy you time.
During a familiarisation course run for the Royal Automobile Club in Australia, it took a competent mechanic two hours to restart a car once the system had been set off.
The Cyclops alarm can only be turned off with an over-ride key supplied to each owner. According to Mr Metlitzky, of the almost 30,000 systems sold and fitted to vehicles in Australia, only three cars have been lost - two of which subsequently proved to be frauds on the part of the owners. In the third case the system had not been switched on. JONATHAN CLARKE
