Location Aware Technology Watch

Placebase - a rival to Google maps, at a price

2006-04-24T10:04:00.000+01:00

Placebase have a released a near identical version of Google maps but are offering support and other things which professional developers often require. They say the API is similar and the mapping looks uncannily similar. Downside - it costs money, naturally. More here.

Tracking children with GPS - good or bad?

2006-04-20T12:44:00.000+01:00

The BBC has an article here debating the issue of GPS tracking of people (in particular children/teenagers). This technology is being pushed heavily in America and is already popular in Japan. It's a difficult one...

Google maps v2 and wifi tracking

2006-04-12T12:37:00.000+01:00

Google's world domination of the geospatial world continues apace although one thing is raising concern. On the plus side they've officially released version 2 of the Google Local maps api which looks neat and comes with some nice enhancements like an overview map. On the downside (to privacy groups anyway) their efforts to create wi-fi coverage through San Fransico looks set to be funded by location aware advertising. It'll send "relevant" adverts based on the location of whatever wireless access point someone is using. The accuracy is "about 100ft".

This has been on the cards for ages but it takes a large company to bring the privacy issues et.al. to the fore. People have to make money on this somehow - it will be interesting to see how the public reacts when using it for real. I wonder if it will be push advertising or pull advertising (like adwords)?

Trimble launch thumbnail size GPS receiver

2006-03-02T17:18:00.000Z

Wow - this is small. Trimble have announced a GPS receiver measuring 19mm x 19mm x 2.5mm. Called Copernicus it's not standalone and would need to be integrated into other hardware (phones?). Also, it's only 12 channels so is not a real Sirf Star III contender. It's still a step towards the GPS in everything utopia.

Simcom E-GPS smartphone

2006-02-17T12:53:00.000Z

Simcom have released the world's first "multimedia" handset (it's a Windows smartphone as far as I can tell) utilising Cambridge Positioning Systems E-GPS technology I mentioned a while back. LBSZone have the lowdown here. Where's that purchase requistion form...

Google maps to use SVG?

2006-02-13T13:00:00.000Z

The great/annoying thing about the Web is you look at one news story/link and it opens up eight zillion related ones! Well, further to my previous post it looks like Google Maps might start using SVG (to display driving directions). AJAX + SVG - now we're talking. Naturally there are few browser compatibility issues to address but support from Google could give SVG the kick up the backside it needs. Now, if only they'd make it support the OGC web mapping interface in the spirit of interoperability.

SVG is dead - long live SVG?

2006-02-13T12:45:00.000Z

I'm a big fan of SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) and use it a lot at work for creating interactive mapping interfaces. SVG is basically an open version of Flash based on XML. Sure it can be slow at times and it's not as cutting edge as it used to be (what with the current AJAX revolution) but it's easy to develop for and Adobe do a neat free plug-in. Also the latest versions of Firefox have native (albeit limited) support.

Well, although it hasn't really taken off a company called evolGrafix (find them at http://gosvg.net) is allegedly creating a new plug-in which runs on IE, FF et.al. as well as Pocket PCs and Symbian phones. Sounds too good to be true? Well, they're been promising an alpha for a while now but it still hasn't materialised. If/when it does it should be great. Heres hoping...

Hospital tracking

2006-02-13T12:38:00.000Z

Interesting article from the BBC about how organised criminals are pinching expensive medical equipment from hospitals ("to order").

Ekahau amongst others have equipment monitor software using wi-fi as seen here in this collaboration with Emergin. Still keen to do this myself - cheaper, better, etc.

u-Blox - more A-GPS news

2006-02-06T08:44:00.000Z

u-Blox follow hot on the heels of Sirf to announce a new Assisted-GPS service for their range of products. They provide some results of tests they conducted in various indoor environments and they look pretty good. It uses WLAN/GPRS to transmit the data.

Don't click it, point it!

2006-01-31T19:08:00.000Z

Geocomm report on a new technology which allows a user with a mobile phone (well, a few high-end ones I'm guessing) to literally point at buildings, adverts etc to get more info. It basically combines a Point of Interest database with a gyroscope/compass thing - quite neat though - not sure how well it works in the real world. It's currently limited to Japan.

Sirf offer a solution for GPS fix time-delay

2006-01-31T18:53:00.000Z

Sirf (the people who make arguably the finest GPS chips) have released a new solution to reduce the admittedly annoying delay you get when trying to get a GPS fix from scratch. It's imaginitively called SiRFInstantFix and works by predicting the position of satellites, eliminating the need to wait for them to send out their current position (which only occurs every 30 seconds or so). Only thing is it requires weekly synchronisation with a server - not sure how that will work in reality.

Galileo to Earth - can you hear me? Yes we can.

2006-01-14T16:45:00.000Z

BBC News reports that Galileo, the European equivalent of GPS, has successfully transmitted a signal to Earth (Hampshire, in fact). Boffins are currently analysing the content to make sure it's not gobbledygook. This is important otherwise it will lose its "ownership" of the particular frequencies it plans to use. The article says that navigation for navigation's sake won't push forward the industry but value-added services - funky ideas anyone?

Flash Earth - very cool

2006-01-13T14:52:00.000Z

GIS Geoblog posted on a cool site - Flash Earth - which combines Yahoo and Google map data in a nice Flash interface - you can even rotate the map! Like a lot of mapping products, there's the "so what" factor but t's an excellent interface all the same. It's interesting to see the difference between the differnet mapping data. Google has more detailed imaging for the UK but nothing like GetMapping's aerial photographs.

Tele Atlas and Skyhook join forces

2006-01-13T14:29:00.000Z

LBS Zone also report on Tele Atlas and Skyhook joining their detailed geographical information with a Wi-fi Positioning System (WPS). It makes the usual claim that WPS can reach parts of the urban jungle that GPS can't reach - no word on accuracy though.

It seems to be aimed at the emergency services market. I think the claim that

"The combination of Skyhook's WPS solutions and Tele Atlas street navigation and
geocoding data means mobile consumers of all stripes and emergency services
personnel can, without interruption, locate any place, product, or person."

needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.

Patient tracking

2006-01-13T14:21:00.000Z

One of the main players in RTLS is Ekahau who recently trialled their wi-fi tracking system at a hospital in Nagoya, Japan under the guise of emergency management. It says during the trial they were able to track patients and equipment with 3-5m accuracy - pretty impressive. I wonder how long it took to train/calibrate the system though and how many access points they used? Asset tracking seems to be the main use of RTLS - perhaps because there are definite cost-savings to be made.

Always On GPS...now Navizon

2006-01-08T09:32:00.000Z

A while back a new company called "Always On GPS" were pushing their wi-fi tracking solution which supplements GPS in dense urban areas. Basically, when you have a GPS signal it listens for wi-fi networks in range, and when you get a signal back compares where it thinks you are (triangulation from signal strength?) to where you actully area. Then when there is no signal in the future it can estimate your position. It's only as good as its database but was certainly an interesting idea.

Well it's now called Navizon and says it's the

"first Peer-to-Peer Wireless Positioning System that successfully blends GPS + WiFi + Cellular signals together into one accurate and powerful Mobile Geo-Location System"

Sounds good. Even better - the software is free for personal use (but in the spirit of community you have to upload your location information to the Navizon server to enhance the database). Also, it says that it works seamlessly with existing software that use GPS (maybe detecting when there is no signal and hijacking the serial port?)

I'm certainly going to give it a try and will report on my experiences. If the reality lives up to the hype this could be an excellent addition to practical geo-locating. It's good to see that it uses mobile phone cell IDs as well as wi-fi networks (unlike the original Always On GPS) and there's a version for the Symbian OS (dominant in the mobile phone market). Watch this space...

Matrix - the ultimate location technology?

2006-01-08T08:59:00.000Z

Cambridge Positioning Technologies (CPS) have been working on their Matrix technology for a while now and make some pretty grand claims. People, they say, need four things:

1) accuracy: consistent sub-100m accuracy

2) coverage: everywhere people use their phones, and that means indoors and dense urban areas fast

3) "time-to-fix": sub-three seconds or service users move on

4) low cost: flexible cost structures that can only be delivered by software-only solutions

I agree with 2 and to a large extent 3 (waiting for a GPS fix from "cold" is very annoying, getting no signal is even more annoying). It does need to be low cost (4) but I don't think it has to be software only (a decent GPS chip in a phone would be just as useful). My biggest issue is point 1 - certainly people require consistent sub-100m accuracy. But for many LBS applications they need consistent sub-10m accuracy (especially for indoor location). For asset tracking 100m is probably fine but imagine if Sat Nav had that accuracy. Interestingly CPS say Matrix achieves sub-100m accuracy but don't say what the "best" accuracy is.

To address these issues CPS also produce an E-GPS service which combines the benefits of GPS with the benefits of Matrix - I'd love to see this work in practice. However, it is reliant on handset/service providers installing E-GPS which not many have yet. Still, getting even an approximate fix in all the places where GPS can't has got to be a good thing. It's not the ultimate location technology but it's a step in the right direction.

My experience with Sat Nav

2006-01-06T13:06:00.000Z

I've got an i-Mate Jam smartphone/PDA with TomTom Navigator 5 (which comes with a Bluetooth GPS receiver). On the whole it's excellent. The Sirf III chip is quite sensitive so you eventually get a fix in most places. However it can get a little dodgy in dense built-up areas and doesn't work reliably indoors - we had an interesting trip to the centre of Birmingham when TomTom started going crazy (the location jumped all over the place). Frustratingly it's flaky where I work too, especially so when I'm trying to develop LBS (I blame the radar work which goes on!). Another problem is that some of the road data is wrong - my street is incorrect for starters and on the same trip to Birmingham it kept on sending us down "Bus only" roads!

Still, it's alot better than printing out a map from the Internet. They always looks so straightforward on paper but I invariably get lost as the reality "on the ground" is very different. One issue is road naming as they often have a local name and numerical name e.g. the "A123" might also be "Gammon Lane". Audio directions are the most useful but it is often handy to see the 3D view as well, especially when roads are close together.

All in all, Sat Nav is a good thing and GPS is excellent. Hopefully GPS+Galileo will be even better (only 5 years to wait...)

A good site for all things GPS/mobile devices is Pocket GPS.

Is mapping now a commodity?

2006-01-06T09:18:00.000Z

The likes of Google Maps, Google Earth, Yahoo Maps and Microsoft MapPoint and Windows Local Live have certainly opened up easy to use web-mapping to the masses. Not forgetting the "original" mappers like Multimap and MapQuest. A lot of people treat geodata as a commodity, though it is not (every time someone views a map, someone, somewhere pays). The big players have deep pockets but without some kind of advertising revenue it isn't a sustainable business model. The bottom line is that people expect "things" which aren't physical "objects" to be free. Not many people wouldn't expect to get a loaf of bread, DVD player or car for free. But they don't expect to pay for information, including online mapping.

It's easy to think that one day we'll have access to a digital globe boasting detailed mapping of every country. But that's a long way off. I live in the UK and we're very lucky in one sense (the quality of data is excellent) but unlucky in another (unlike the US government, Ordnance Survey charge way too much, whatever way you cut it). The likes of Google Maps (using Navteq and Tele Atlas data) is fuelling the case for more open geodata and the Mapping Hacks team are leading the call. The problem is that non OS data is basically roads and points of interest and isn't really suitable for people navigating when they're not in a car (you can forget using TomTom for your next hike up a mountain).

Also, many many people don't have the luxury of detailed, accessible mapping, in fact any mapping at all. This situation will improve over time but no time soon.

Here's the crux of the matter - locating things is a key human requirement. It requires good data. Good data costs money to collect and maintain. But, making it "free" fuels innovation and drives the economy. Any ideas?

City wide Wi-Fi access

2005-12-04T18:53:00.000Z

Using the position of known wireless access points is one way of providing location awareness. This has been used both indoors and outdoors. The former, often using signal strength to triangulate position is difficult to do but the outside it's more a case of "if this wi-fi network is in range, I must be close to point X,Y".

In the US, there's a battle going on in Philadelphia about providing free/cheap city-wide wif-fi access. Ignoring the political rights and wrongs, location based advertising could be the one of the lures for service providers...

From this article from BBC News:

In Philadelphia the login page belongs to Philadelphia Cloud.
"They get to see everything around them, so they get presented with information from hotels nearby, from the museums, coffee shops and restaurants," said Bailey White of Philadelphia Cloud.

"We are actually finding that several people are saying 'you know what, this is great. I didn't know about those things and I'm really happy to be here and take advantage of those activities'."

It will be interesting to see whether Google do something similar when they create their wi-fi network in Mountain View California.

Location Aware Technology Watch - first post

2005-12-02T18:13:00.000Z

Hi,

This blog is all about location aware technology - technology that knows where you are and the basis for "Location Based Services". Most people have heard of GPS but that doesn't really work indoors (contrary to what Hollywood would have you believe). A new generation of technology is here or being developed to solve this issue.

I'll also post about Geographical Information Informations (GIS) in general, Pervasive Computing and all things spatial.

Why? I love maps and anything to do with maps and my job is currently researching location aware technologies for a number of different applications. I'll start in earnest some time soon.