Jenny Levine: GPS

Fri, 17 Jan 2003 01:54:29 GMT

Eric riffs on Steven Johnson's Discover article and adds a couple more examples in Surfing the 3-dimensional Web:

"I just finished reading Steven Johnson's debut column over at Discover.com on the subject of GeoSurfing. I saw mention of the article on his blog last night, but could access it 'til tonight....

The 'story-telling' vision (i.e. AnnotateSpace.com) seems especially viable. But, I'd like to see this go beyond GPS location (just like Doug) and move into objects as well. Jenny comments recently on the ZDNet Are Spy Chips Set to Go Commercial? article which provides the means to the tag objects. Combine the two and you've got William Gibson's matrix data structures right here in the meatspace.

Sounds a bit like SmartTags right? Yeah...I guess a little. But with the right combination of open standards and intelligent filters, I don't think it's too hard to imagine us 'grabbing' at meta-data on objects as well as locations. GeoCachers and BookCrossing users already have something of a jump on this concept with the ability to track an object's geographic journey. Other sites create a similar experience tracking the stories of dollar bills (WheresGeorge.com), disposable cameras (PhotoTag.org) and now add bloggers GeoURL as well." [...useless miscellany]

Thu, 16 Jan 2003 07:18:33 GMT

Pssst! This Note's for You

"Geo-caching is fun, but the most intriguing new applications of GPS may end up transforming everyone's sense of physical space. What if you think of GPS as a kind of 3-D version of the Internet, a hypertext Web spun out in real-world geography?

GPS is based on the fundamental geometric principle of trilateration: If you know your distance from three distinct points, then you know your exact position on a map. (If you're interested in altitude as well, you need four points.) GPS receivers coordinate with a system of 24 satellites maintained by the Department of Defense. Because these satellites follow predictable orbits, their exact location at any given time is easy to determine. A GPS receiver in your car or on your personal digital assistant (PDA) receives radio signals from satellites overhead and gauges its distance from each satellite by calculating how long it takes the signals to arrive. Before 2000, the military deliberately scrambled GPS signals for consumer use to limit the precision of location readings. However, today the accuracy range of ordinary receivers is typically 30 feet. (Some high-end models, using several frequencies, can generate accurate location readings to within a foot.)...

The great breakthrough on the GPS horizon lies in thinking of those geographic coordinates as a real-world URL. In other words, think of those digits not simply as a description of a point in space but as a place to store information. Today you can create a Web address and publish pages and pages of anything you want there. But soon you'll be able to take a GPS location—say, 40°43.833' N, 073°59.814' W, the coordinates for Washington Square Park in New York—and publish material there as well. Anyone walking through the park would then be able to browse through the data you've uploaded. Some of this information might be targeted at a general audience and include recommendations for nearby restaurants, or a public bulletin board for discussing improvements to the park itself. But the messages stored might also be more personal, such as diary entries stored at the very place where the events described in the diary occurred, a kind of first-person geo-cache. There might even be bits of text targeted at a specific person, like an e-mail message floating in space, waiting for its recipient to come into range and receive it.

IBM researcher J. C. Spohrer, who helped concoct an early prototype for a GPS-based hypertext called WorldBoard, describes this kind of system as a 'planetary chalkboard.' I prefer to think of it as a kind of graffiti that makes an environment more habitable and socially connected....

The planetary chalkboard will become interesting only when ordinary people can pick up a piece of chalk and write something.

'Instead of having just tourist information, the system would be open,' says Swedish researcher Fredrik Espinoza, cocreator of an experimental tool called GeoNotes. "There would be much more social activity." Espinoza's vision includes a filtering system for retrieving GeoNotes that have been posted by friends or other trusted sources, like the buddy list of Instant Messaging. Imagine, for instance, that you stumble across a beautiful side street in a historic district, the sort of urban discovery you might tell your friends about the next time you meet them for coffee. With GPS-based hypertext, you could leave a virtual note hanging near the street, addressed to your 30 closest friends. The next time they happened to stumble through the area, the text would pop up on their PDA screens: 'Hey, come check this out...'

William Gibson, the sci-fi writer who coined the term cyberspace, once wrote: 'The street finds its own uses for things, uses the manufacturers never imagined.' His words are inevitably rolled out when describing some unlikely new grassroots application of an existing tool, like geo-caching. But software such as GeoNotes or WorldBoard suggests a further twist: The street finds new uses for the street itself. Simply strolling down the sidewalk can become a hypertextual exploration, a journey into a new information space layered over the real one. Suddenly the surrounding air is full of information—some of it created for you by your closest friends, some of it created by total strangers. The streets are alive with data." [Discover, via stevenberlinjohnson.com]

But What About The Dogs' Rights To Privacy?

Tue, 15 Oct 2002 03:23:25 GMT

Finding Fido (scroll down on the Wired News page)

"Finns are using global positioning system gadgets to track their hunting dogs.

One Finnish reader had this to say about a Wired News story about a GPS product for tracking kids:

'It was interesting to see how priorities vary in different parts of the world,' the reader wrote. 'Americans are worried about their kids and Finns are more worried about their hunting dogs.'

At least two Finnish companies, Pointer Solutions and Benefon, offer GPS products that run on Europe's wireless global system for mobile communications and can track pointer dogs' whereabouts. " [Wired News]

Of course, the Finns also use their cell phones to start their saunas on their drive home, so somehow I feel we are really behind the curve here.

GPS Set To Invade Devices

Tue, 24 Sep 2002 05:22:12 GMT

Motorola: New Chip Will Bring GPS to All

"The company is unveiling a global positioning system chip it says is the first GPS device small enough and cheap enough for practical use in gadgets such as cell phones and notebooks....

'All of a sudden, starting 10 or 15 years ago, every electronics device had a clock,' said Tim McCarthy, business director for GPS at Motorola's Automotive Group's Telematics Division. "I see position awareness going down that same path. It's just a question of how long it takes."

Cellular phones with Enhanced 911 will likely be the first devices to adopt the Instant GPS chip, which Motorola is set to announce Tuesday. The chip could also be built into PDAs or laptop computers to aid in reading maps, and it could be used in walkie-talkies to provide an extra margin of safety for outdoor activities such as skiing." [CNET News.com]

This reminds me of a quote I once read from someone at GM, an executive of some sort within the company. He said, "Don't worry about On-Star. You'll be On-Star."

Hacking Taxi Cab Billboards

Wed, 31 Jul 2002 15:34:20 GMT

The Sizzle: What's Up In Digital Marketing and Advertising

"A new technology developed by Vert, a small company based in Somerville, Mass., transforms ads on top of taxicabs into real-time, animated electronic billboards. Vert's software, first tested in the Boston area, lets advertising messages change according to ZIP codes, neighborhoods, even city blocks, enabling marketers to target audiences in a way never before possible with outdoor transit advertising.

With Vert, a Webserver, built into taxi-top screens, communicates with a global positioning system. The GPS determines the taxi's location. In turn, a wireless modem, which keeps in touch with Vert's central server, delivers the relevant ads for a particular area. So, a cab passing through a city's financial district can display stock quotes. Another traveling in a Latino neighborhood can relay ad messages in Spanish. Or a taxi at an airport can beam temperatures of major cities to travelers. The messages appear in color on the taxi screens-10 times brighter than televisions-in a format similar to Web banner ads....

One company test-driving the technology is Lycos. 'We thought it was perfect for Lycos because you can target by city blocks or areas of the city,' says Kim Patrick, vice president of Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, the Boston agency handling a $20 million year-long campaign for Lycos. The Vert-enabled cabs are part of a $1.2 million effort within the larger campaign to attract 18- to 34-year-olds in 'unexpected places.'

By year's end, roughly 200 Vert-enabled cabs will be deployed in Boston and in New York...." [Business 2.0, via Andy Rhinehart]

Sounds like something out of Minority Report (how long before they're talking directly to you). It's definite eye candy for pedestrians, but won't it be distracting for other drivers? As Andy says, "some heavy information shifting" going on here in terms of moving targeted advertising to where people are.

Another example in the news today is Sony Ericsson's upcoming 60-day PR campaign to plant actors in tourist attractions and clubs to get people to notice and interact with their new T68i cell phone (which can also be used as a digital camera or for videoconferencing). I'll admit that if I was at a bar and I saw someone videoconferencing with the T68i, I'd go up and talk to them, but then I'd do that almost anywhere with any cool gadget.

Slick New Kyocera Cell Phone

Tue, 25 Jun 2002 06:30:17 GMT

Got Handhelds? HP, Sony, Kyocera Do

"The device makers announced the latest additions to their handheld product lines one day before the official kickoff of the TechXNY trade show in New York City. Kyocera announced a new smartphone, the 7135; Sony added the PEG-T665C to its Clie line of handhelds; and, as expected, HP announced two new additions to its iPaq handheld family....

The Kyocera 7135 is a clamshell-style smartphone that features voice capabilities but can also access high-speed cellular data networks for its PDA functions, according to Kyocera Wireless spokesman Rick Goetter. The 7135 will run on next-generation CDMA 1xRTT networks when they're released nationwide this summer. The 7135 will be available in the fourth quarter and will cost around $500.

'Voice is still the killer application, and our device has been tailored for voice first,' Goetter said. The gadget's design is more like that of a phone than a PDA. It's foldable and has a keypad, and its size is phonelike too. It measures 3.97 inches by 2.43 inches by 1.17 inches and weighs 6.6 ounces....
The 7135 features a color screen, Global Positioning System technology, a Secure Digital expansion slot with input and output capabilities, and a built-in digital audio player. The device comes with 16MB of memory and runs version 4.1 of Palm's operating system." [CNET News.com]

The Kyocera is by far the most interesting of the four devices announced today. I'm intrigued by the addition of GPS, although I want to know what exactly they mean by that. And does it synch with Outlook? If only it had Bluetooth for easy synchronization in the future.

Addendum: Wired News has more on this story.

"The smartphone also features a GPS chip enabling emergency dispatchers to pinpoint the location of callers who dial 911. This feature opens the door to other location-based services like on-the-spot maps, but Ro doesn't expect to see these services for another two years."

With GPS, World Is Your Canvas

Sat, 22 Jun 2002 17:57:37 GMT

" 'Let's drive down the elephant this evening....'

Jeremy Wood and Hugh Pryor are part of a new breed of artists crisscrossing the planet, creating artwork on a par with the ancient Nazca line drawings of Peru. With the help of GPS, these artists have discovered a fish in Wallingford, an elephant in Brighton, not to mention a huge spider lurking in Oxford.
Employing satellite technology for a colossal connect-the-dots puzzle, their virtual drawings are created by using the GPS receiver like a geodesic pencil to map out their journeys across roads, bridges and streets.

'GPS drawing is about recording lines using one's journey as a mark-making medium,' says Wood. 'Most GPS receivers record your whereabouts as a track, like a dot-to-dot or a digital 'breadcrumb trail.' This is often displayed on liquid crystal display on the device, and the track is updated as you move about. When the line is viewed on its own, you have a GPS drawing.'

With the help of software created by Pryor, the raw logistical data spanning miles of road is sized down into a smaller digital image that can be shown on a screen-size canvas. Most of their drawings can be seen online at their website where they also welcome contributions from GPS artists the world over....

The duo will soon be presenting the world's biggest 'If' -- a journey from Ifley in Oxford to Ifold in West Sussex. Approximately 460 kilometers long, the drawing is being completed in two stages. And their next drawing after 'If'? 'What do you think?' asks Pryor with a grin, but -- 'Only.' "[Wired News]

Another Reason Libraries Should Become WiFi Hotspots

Fri, 21 Jun 2002 06:52:42 GMT

Ben Hammersley on Setting Up a Open Wireless Node

"Ben Hammersley writes about setting up his public WiFi node in his Guardian column. Ben's experience is a little unusual -- within a day of setting up his access point, Doc Searls (who was 9000 miles from home), stumbled upon it (and Ben). Later, at a group dinner with a bunch of British geeks, Matt Jones suggested chalking 'WiFi hobo-runes' on the sidewalk marking discovered wireless service, so that other netstumblers and war-walkers may connect to it." [Boing Boing]

From the article itself:

"...As a writer, with no need to be anywhere but at the end of an internet connection, an email address and a mobile phone number, it's a revolutionary step.

But the wondrous convenience of writing in a place designed to bring me regular blasts of caffeine is really nothing compared to the serendipitous meetings it has created: for as the network I set up is free for all to use, and somewhat advertised on the web, this cafe has seen a steady stream of like-minded technology enthusiasts, bloggers, and geared-up layabouts united in the joyous realisation that they never need go to the office again. A correctly enabled laptop, and a coffee addiction later, your first delivery of email over a community wireless network seems to come with angelic music and a parting of the clouds....

Since then, he and many others have used the spare bandwidth on my internet connection, and I've drunk plenty of coffee. In fact, with the caffeine, the only thing wired around here is me."

Ryan Greene pushes back with the following idea:

"Tie this in with Autodesk's location suite (original report) and you can be alterted every time that you are in a location that you can get wireless access, which gives you the hobo runes mentioned above in a universal (and geeky) format."

Free Literary Map

Thu, 20 Jun 2002 05:50:38 GMT

"Free Literary Map Literary Landmark Locator. Sure, all those public restroom databases are great, but wouldn't a map like this be cool on your PDA? Maybe add library locations?" [Library Techlog]

Especially if you had a GPS-enabled PDA....

Tue, 18 Jun 2002 06:51:24 GMT

The GPS friendly fire incident: design versus training

"On Saturday I mentioned Alan Cooper's anecdote about a design flaw in a military GPS device. An email correspondent, Jim Hanna, who I'm quoting with permission, clarifies the story:

I have followed this story closely, from an interest in GPS and an interest in failure modes of technical infrastructure. I read an account shortly after the incident that included much more detail than you usually see in reporting on these things. It was from the web version of some newspaper, but I haven't been able to find the link. Anyway, this account differs in a small but significant way from the one you cite. It said that the guy with the GPS had the target coordinates in the device and was about to perform some transformation on them before transmitting them (via a separate communication channel, which I believe was voice radio communication. He lost battery power, and inserted new batteries. When the GPS powered up, it displayed it's own position first. That's what all GPS units I've seen normally do. The problem was that the guy had a very short time to get the coordinates to the aircraft which was enroute and nearing the target zone. So in his haste, he forgot that the coordinate displayed was not the coordinate he was working on when the device powered off, so he did the transformation on the coordinates he saw (his present position) and radioed them to the aircraft.

This is consistent with my experience from using similar devices and suggests the problem is as much one of training as one of design.

Jim cites this URL, which quotes Stephen Cole writing for The Strategy Page, as his probable source.

Cooper would doubtless argue that design and training are inverse sides of the same coin. For example, Cole's account shows that the "design" of the entire system was such that a transform from Navy to Air Force coordinates was evidently needed:

A few minutes before the deadly mistake, he used his PLGPS to determine the target's location in degrees, minutes, and seconds so it could be attacked by Navy F-18s. Then, he recalculated the position in "decimal fractions of a degree" which is the way that the Air Force wants it.

These tales of non-interoperability used to be funnier than they seem now." [Jon's Radio]

GPS-based Library Services

Wed, 12 Jun 2002 14:17:34 GMT

GPS for Sport

"It's funny Jenny mentions this. I had a similar thought when I saw a feature on geochaching on the Home & Liesure Channel (name?). I was thinking more in terms of tying the 'sport' into local history possibly myself.

You could easily do this with a spare PC and some creative thinking in terms of peripherals. Like IR ports for beaming info to and from customer handhelds, a printer for output and why'll were at it - why not loan a few GPS units to as well.

After more coinsidertation, the idea seemed geared more toward visitors to our community as opposed to local library customers, but I suppose that there is plenty of room for overlap here." [LibTech Weblog]

Eric riffs on yesterday's post about geocaching. Some great ideas there, especially the local history angle....

Creepy or Cool? You Make the Call

Wed, 12 Jun 2002 04:10:02 GMT

Stalker Tech

"Do you know where your boyfriend is? If he attends the University of California at San Diego, finding him may be as easy as turning on a PDA.

The university is equipping hundreds of students with personal digital assistants that allow them to track each other's location from parking lot to lecture hall to cafeteria. The technology is sophisticated enough to pinpoint where a person is in a building -- say, a dorm -- within a margin of error of one floor.

No one is forcing students to use the $549 Hewlett-Packard Jordana PDAs, which are provided for free, or requiring them to allow their buddies to watch them wander across campus on a zoomable map. But students still worry about protecting themselves from stalkers, university administrators, FBI agents and nosy parkers....

The official goal of the PDA project is to test whether location trackers will encourage students to find each other more easily on a sprawling and rapidly growing campus. 'What used to feel like a small town is starting to feel like a big city,' said William Griswold, a computer science professor who is overseeing the project.

The PDAs detect each other through the university's Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) network, the same radio wave-based system that allows lap-toppers to go online from coffeehouses and airports.

The location-tracking software itself, developed by a 15-year-old student at the university, draws upon triangulation technology used by global positioning system (GPS) devices. The PDAs figure out their locations by comparing the strength levels of signals traveling from the devices to various Wi-Fi antennas.

The software only allows a person to track the location of another user if both agree. If Shapiro doesn't want his best friend to track him, he can leave him off his PDA's equivalent of an America Online 'buddy list.' According to Griswold, the location data is protected by the standard SSL Internet encryption technology....

Hackers don't even need to be on the campus to invade the PDA location tracker system. Students can log in to a Web site from anywhere and check where their friends are. The system offers both a zoomable map of the campus -- with moving dots representing their friends -- and a text list of where people are. If students program their PDAs properly, their buddies can also track their locations around the world whenever they log into a Wi-Fi network.

System administrators can gain access to the locations of students or employees equipped with the PDAs, although designers hope to eventually make that impossible. Law enforcement officers could also conceivably try to track someone without their knowledge, but 'it's not our intention to be a party to activities like that,' Griswold says." [Salon.com]

The article focuses on use by students, but does this apply to faculty, too?

GPS for Sport

Tue, 11 Jun 2002 20:50:52 GMT

Have Geocache, Will Travel

" 'N 40Â° 47.920 W 073Â° 57.384' marks the spot.

Actually, those coordinates mark just one of the thousands of special spots in a high-tech worldwide scavenger hunt known as geocaching.

The rules of the game are simple: Someone creates and hides a cache -- usually a weatherproof container holding a stash of inexpensive goodies -- and then posts coded clues and the cache's latitude and longitude coordinates on one of the many websites devoted to the sport.

Anyone can then attempt to find the cache.

"It's a game where you are the search engine," explained Jeremy Irish, who maintains a popular geocaching website.

In January 2001 there were just a few hundred caches in the world. There are now around 25,000 caches in 122 countries. Some are easy to find: Just plug the location coordinates into a global positioning system device and follow the trail.
But locating others requires a major investment of thought and physical effort....

Stone enjoys brain-busting caches like one he designed called "Graveyard Grumble." The navigational clues are birth and death dates on tombstones at the cemetery where the cache is hidden.

Player Nick Gerald, a website designer from New York, likes caches that lead him directly to the person who hid them." [Wired News]

Where has Wired been? I've been including geocaching in my presentations since 2000 (mostly to make the point that if you're a librarian sitting at a reference desk and you think you're going to just sit there and wait for people to come in to your building to ask you questions, then you haven't checked in with reality lately).

My favorite geocache trend is easily the traveling cache, in which an item (such as a Mr. Potato Head) travels across the country from cache to cache.

On a tangentially-related side note, ZDNet Anchordesk notes the use of kiosks for maps-on-demand printing:

"National Geographic has set up map kiosks in outdoor retailers like REI, where you can have customized maps printed onto waterproof paper in full color. This is a boon to people who don't like laminating the standard USGS topo maps or who happen to need an area that spans several maps. The special paper is also available for sale, allowing you to print maps (or other documents) at home."

It would be a stretch to call this book-publishing-on-demand, but maybe it's a baby step towards that end. I wonder how much it would cost to put one of these in a public library?

GPS Continues to Shine

Fri, 31 May 2002 05:52:49 GMT

Tracking Technology Helps WTC Cleanup

"PowerLOC Technologies, a Toronto-based company that makes 'L-Biz' tracking technology, has been credited with dramatically improving the recovery process by organizing the flow of cleanup operations.

Using Global Positioning System (GPS) technology and wireless devices, PowerLOC was able to coordinate and track the scores of dump trucks used in the recovery, track the dump loads for billing purposes, and prevent traffic jams. At one point, over 120 trucks were fitted with tracking devices that communicated with 24 satellites circling the earth, sending the vehicle's exact location to a central dispatcher.

The efficiencies allowed the city to go from using over 120 trucks at a time to less than 50, according to Yoram Shalmon, the company's director of product management. The trucks also went from hauling four loads a day to hauling 10 loads a day, he said. The scope of the destruction was still amazing, Shalmon said....

Initially it was estimated that it would take $7 billion and a year's worth of work to remove the 1.8 million tons of debris. The work was completed in just eight-and-a-half months and cost just $750 million, according to state and federal officials....

PowerLoc's customers include a bakery that ensures fresh delivery of its bread by monitoring trucks, but Shalmon said the World Trade Center job showed it could be used by government agencies to track anything from city meter readers and garbage trucks to vehicles hauling hazardous material.
'We can make sure a truck headed for the border isn't taken over or filled with contraband,' he said, citing the system's ability to monitor minute details like the opening and closing of doors, the state of an engine, and even turn off an engine remotely." [CNET News.com]

The Future Is All Around Us

Tue, 28 May 2002 20:44:36 GMT

The Future Sneaks Up—in Tuscany

"First impressions count when it comes to new technology—and even technology aficionados are often too quick to write off promising innovations. Recently I recognized this prejudice in myself, while altogether lost on a narrow cobblestone street in Florence, Italy....

I figured the rented Nissan’s satellite system couldn’t get me any more lost than I would myself. So I programmed it for English, entered the address of the little hotel, and let it calculate the route. A Japanese car navigation system giving directions in the middle of Italy, I thought: this is going to be rich.

In moments, a cool, calm woman’s voice with a British accent started to speak, as she would for the next three hours....

In the heart of Florence I gave up second-guessing Linda entirely: I was too busy dodging pedestrians, Fiats and Vespas....

Then she calmly uttered, 'Your destination is in one hundred fifty meters.' But there was no hotel in sight. Finally the street narrowed even further and I pulled to the curb. We were hosed: Hertz would have to bring in a chopper to airlift this car out. At that moment Linda spoke up: 'You have reached your destination.' Scanning the buildings, I suddenly realized that we were parked directly in front of our extremely discrete and understated hotel.

So Linda became our new best friend for the rest of the trip. But the lesson I learned was much broader. When we see the first iterations of technology, it’s easy to write them off as flaky and not for us. That’s because we underestimate the power of persistent engineering to whittle away the problems, gradually eroding difficulties. And then 'suddenly' we notice that what had been awkward, expensive and unworkable has become a part of everyday life.

Consider the Internet today. In the wake of the dotcom crash, there’s lots of second-guessing about just how important the Web really will be. Readers complain that sites are too slow and reading onscreen is uncomfortable; merchants and customers worry that security seems like an unsolvable problem; marketers don’t think that Internet advertising works. But then we’re only about eight years into the Internet’s commercial existence. And literally millions of minds worldwide are working on everything from high-speed access to better reading devices. In another few years, the Web will be an essential element of daily life, in ways we can’t even imagine today. Just as it did for me that morning in Tuscany, the future will sneak up on us, before we even notice." [MSNBC]

Not a particularly new observation, but one that bears repeating. I'm already at the point where I will never again own a car that doesn't have a GPS system in it. The technology has proven itself to me, and it works well for me. Far better than the heated seats in my current vehicle. Now we wish we'd put a DVD player in the minivan, rather than a video cassette player. Live and learn, I guess.

These days, I hear librarians who hated the thought of implementing and learning CD-ROM databases bemoaning the loss of them in the brave new world of online databases. The same has been true with MP3s and will be true with DVRS (digital video recorders). If you look carefully, over your shoulder, you can see them sneaking up on you now. They're easy enough to spot in the wild, but soon they'll be on display in the zoo, where everyone can see and appreciate them.

Navigating Telematics in Cars

Fri, 17 May 2002 07:10:17 GMT

"CNET: Dashed hopes for dashboard electronics.

The 'Telematics' vision was destined for failure, everything that they're offering are things that consumers do not perceive a need for.

These are the automotive electronics that consumers can be sold on:

Cellular handsfree systems. Bluetooth is going to make it practical to build handsfree systems into every new car. The system in the BMW 5-Series in the one to emulate, it has steering-wheel controls and directory navigation is integrated with the in-dash display.
MP3 players. Ideally disk-based with a large display, able to rip CDs directly and bulk-transfer over Wi-Fi. The Rio Car is a fine starting point.
Back-seat babysitters, aka video entertainment systems.
Navigation systems. Seems like everyone I know with a new $35k+ car has a navigation system. I don't get lost often enough to need one, but it seems that many consumers do (or perceive that they do)."

[Bryce's Radio Experiments]

I'd like numbers one through three this year, but number 4 is definitely me already. When I bought a new car last fall, I knew I wanted a GPS system from the get-go. I used to be really good at navigating, and even when I got lost I had a knack for getting back on track.

Then I moved to Chicago. I have a theory about Chicago. I think if you're born here, you have an internal compass that is automatically oriented to the east. No matter where you are or what you are doing, you know which direction is east. You could be standing on your head, wearing a blindfold, spinning around in circles, and still know which way to head to get to Lake Michigan. It's in-bred, and I think it must have something to do with a magnetic shift of the Earth's axis underneath Chicago. That or the ozone layer above it.

Whatever it is, it screws up the natural geographic orientation of the rest of us. Ever since I've moved here, I inevitably choose the wrong direction when I don't know where I'm going (sometimes, even when I do know where I'm going!). I don't perceive I'm getting lost - I am! So I decided it was time to fight back with technology, and I had an after-market GPS system installed in my car when I bought it.

It's been a wonderful friend and toy, and I haven't regretted it once. Everyone that sees it loves it, and now Sheree even switches cars with me when she has to go somewhere new. Like my ReplayTV and wireless network, I'd never want to be without one again!

GPS Drawing

Mon, 13 May 2002 13:13:12 GMT

"Many political boundaries are based on natural features of the land. A river, mountain range, or canyon will often act as a logical dividing line. City streets are laid out to reflect contour and natural features as well. Other patterns are sometimes hidden in the streets of a town and when the designs are aided by natural features it makes finding them even more fun. If you go for that sort of thing. Sit down with a pencil and a map of anytown. Next, draw the outline of an animal or other shape. Having fun so far?
To make things more enjoyable, take your map and draw a starting point, then mark stops on a path that will ultimately help you actually trace the figure at ground level. Bring along the GPS unit, write down the coordinates at each stop on your drawing. Finish your trek and round up your maps, drawings and readings. Visit GPS Drawing - The Global Positioning System drawing project. Key your data into the GPS-o-graph and stand back as your drawing comes to life. Having access to a GPS receiver isn't necessary to visit GPS Drawing - The Global Positioning System drawing project, but the two will provide hours of entertainment together." [via Site du Jour of the Day]

And I thought Geocaching an interesting application of GPS! There's even a link to GPS artists and to a New York Times article that I somehow missed titled Drawing (and Doodling) With Countryside as Canvas.

A Satellite Baby-Sitting Service

Thu, 02 May 2002 13:27:52 GMT

"Two companies have announced plans to launch personal GPS 'location devices' this year, which will act as a kind of LoJack for everyone from meandering children to nervous executives in kidnap-prone countries.

One is a bracelet, which parents can lock on their kids' wrists to track their location and movements over the Internet, that is made by Wherify.

Another -- and the most sci-fi application by far -- an implantable GPS device that Applied Digital Solutions of Florida plans to develop within the next eight months....

Like a pacemaker, the device would be implanted in the upper clavicle area, he said. It would be powered by a lithium ion battery that can be recharged through the skin and use a proprietary antenna capable of transmitting signals through flesh and muscle....

Wherify, of Redwood Shores, California, has developed a bracelet that combines GPS and wireless technologies to allow parents to plot their kid's location and movement on a map over the Internet.

The device, which costs $400 plus a monthly $25 service fee, can be locked onto the child's wrist.

The company plans to launch the product by summer's end and is developing similar GPS location devices for adults, said Wherify president Timothy Neher.

'This technology is going to change the way people feel about stealing kids and raping women on bike paths,' he said. 'It's really going to help people feel safer.' " [Wired News]

I understand people who voluntarily want to be tracked in foreign countries, but I'm not sure I agree with forcing this on kids. Sure, as a parent I'm concerned, but I don't think I could implant a chip in my kids that removes all of their privacy. Putting GPS in a scooter so that you can find it when a kid loses it is one thing, but this is totally different. I'll be surprised if this gains general acceptance.

Wed, 24 Apr 2002 13:36:43 GMT

"Flash + Pocket PC + GPS
= location based rich media content - Phillip Torrone is hacking together the future of flash on mobile devices and it's got some great potential. If you want a reason why webservices are the future then look no further than mobile applications like this - they're the perfect solution to retrieving content based on location." [Flash Blog]

This could tie in with m-learning, too.

Mon, 22 Apr 2002 15:09:20 GMT

This Phone Knows Where You Are ... and How to Help

"Carrying a mobile phone with you for emergencies is a smart idea. If you run into trouble you can call for help. But what happens if you run into trouble - and for whatever reason you don’t know where you are, or where to call for help? There’s a new cellular phone being marketed that might be able to help.

Co-workers here at MSNBC are always interested to know what I’m testing — but at no time in recent memory did any one particular item generate so much interest. I’m talking about the Magnavox MobilePal + GPS phone marketed by Remote MDX, Inc. Everyone marveled at the phone saying they knew someone for whom this would be the perfect gift.

The idea behind the phone is simple. It’s a cellular phone that can pinpoint your location if you need assistance — and can do so at the push of one red button. As a matter of fact there is no dial - just the aforementioned red button emblazoned with the word CALL.

When you push the red button the phone automatically calls the Secure Alert help desk — where a live personal assistant is there to help you anytime you need, 24 hours a day, seven days a week....

The Magnavox flip-phone itself is pretty nifty too. First of all it’s been made to run on four AAA batteries. No rechargeable cells or cords to lug around or worry about. In my testing, the batteries lasted for months and months in the standby state. The company says the batteries will last up to a year in that mode. The phone operates on the U.S. cellular phone network. That means you’re likely to find a cell nearly everywhere you go....

The phone automatically turns into a speakerphone so you don’t have to hold it to your head. I told her I was testing the phone and asked if she could tell me where I was standing. She asked me to hold, and about 90 seconds later came back on the line and told me my address and what she would have done for me if this had been a real emergency....

The MobilePal + GPS handset is currently selling for $199 — not an outrageous price for a specialized item such as this. I think the monthly service fees are actually quite reasonable for what is offered." [MSNBC]

Although the movement has already started, we'll see a lot more location-based devices and services hit the market this year. Good - more focused information that you want and even need. Bad - major privacy issues. At least you can turn this phone off.

Sun, 21 Apr 2002 05:08:39 GMT

Future Battle: Financial Services vs. Wireless Operators

"As the wheels of my plane touch down on the runway in Denver, my cell-phone announces my arrival, signaling a message to the valet parking attendant to retrieve my car and bring it kerb-side. As I walk through the terminal, I find a Coke machine and point my phone at it. Typing in the number of the vending machine, I order a Coke, the price of which is added to my monthly statement. About that time, a slew of additional messages are also triggered, notifying my online calendar to place me back in Denver, and sending a text message to my wife that I've landed safely....

As I approach my car, my cell phone and the car agree to unlock the doors and allow me entry, recognizing who I am, it sets my seat and radio station for me, along with my desired temperature.

On the way home, I take the express lane through the toll booths; again, it’s my cell phone that allows me to pass through the fast lanes without stopping to drop $.50 in the receptacle.

The concept that my cell phone represents not just a personal communications device, but a ‘communicating’ personal identity utility, capable of helping me actually use my identity with other identities is not a far-off concept. In fact, nearly everything described above is already being done in Europe and Japan using a combination of cellular and location based wireless services.

So where does this leave the financial services industry with their non-communicating credit cards and smart cards? What if the concept of a smart-card that requires physical interaction with smart-card readers represents just enough inconvenience that consumers leap-frog them if favor of their cellular/Bluetooth enabled devices, siphoning ecommerce transactions and cash micro-payment transactions to the wireless operator?" [Digital ID World, via kuro5hin.org]

I love this kind of extrapolation, and I'm one of those that can't wait for the benefits of this kind of technology. Of course, for any of this to really work, wireless carriers are going to have to accept phone number portability, rather than fight it. Of course, by then I'll probably be an IP address anyway, so that's the number I would be more concerned about keeping.

Duck - here comes an aside!

This is the first time I've visited Digital ID World, but you can be sure I'll be back (or better yet, that'll I'll try to create a feed for my aggregator). Lots of interesting articles here, including the following:

Tue, 02 Apr 2002 17:03:30 GMT

Chart Topper

"Walking down a city street, your mobile phone rings with a warning. You are getting too close to a high-crime area, as a quick glance at the mugging rate on the screen's 3D city map reveals, and the automated system offers better directions to where you want to go. But if you need to summon a taxi or call for more urgent help, rest assured the location data will be sent automatically. The emergency services will know exactly where to find you.

This is the near future according to LBS, or location-based services, on phones, palmtop computers and in-car navigation systems with an alphabet soup of fancy features. These could include voice communications (GSM), always-on internet connections (GPRS) and the ability to get a fix from the network of global positioning satellites (GPS). But what really helps turn these raw technologies into useful services is the GIS (geographical information system) running in the background. In other words, a very smart map....

Being able to put different data sets on the same map allows all sorts of possibilities, especially if you have maps of things like crime incidents, road accidents, house prices and supermarket purchases. British police forces may not want to make detailed maps of crime patterns publicly available, with animations to show changes by time of day and things like school holidays, but it will happen in parts of the US, if it hasn't already....

Guillaume Dordes, vice president of marketing for Alcatel's Nextenso, explains: 3G 'allows for a new business model' where the phone becomes a marketing medium, like television. 'The current operator model is based on paying services, but with 3G, you can either have a free service with advertisements, or else you pay.'
So if you don't pay for directions, or whatever, you may find that every shop within three streets will want to buzz your smart phone with virtual flyers and money-off coupons. And if you are ever involved in an accident, its colourful little screen could become a prime site for wireless adverts for ambulance services, private hospitals, and special offers on insurance policies. I'm sure you are looking forward to that." [Guardian Unlimited, via Lockergnome Bytes]

An interesting article with a U.K. perspective that also explores business applications of this technology and the hurdles the whole process still has to jump (standards, implementation, etc.).

With all of the local community information libraries collect, it'd be nice if we could sneak in under the radar and provide location-based services for folks. For example, I was involved in administering NorthStarNet for a while, and this network of community sites run by public libraries pulls together a lot of information that a new resident, visitor, or even a long-time resident might want to know.

With many libraries already aggregating and organizing this kind of information (especially online), we'd be extending our services if we could get that information to nearby people knowing they are in our town right now. Plus, we could notify them about events at the library, and maybe even let them search Zagat's and other commercial databases for relevant restaurant reviews, etc. Most regionally-based portals have failed miserably because the business model just isn't there (at least, not yet), but we're all about freely disseminating it.

It's interesting to think about the different class of databases libraries might want to pursue in a pervasive-internet world.

Wed, 27 Mar 2002 14:58:16 GMT

GPS Enters the Mainstream

" 'It’s stunning,' Enge said. “In the beginning, the expected marketplace was 40,000 receivers — total — for military use. Today, we build 100,000 receivers a month, and most of it isn’t for the military....'

Soon, Pulse Data HumanWare will sell a portable GPS navigation system that tells sight-impaired users how to get to more than 15 million “points of interest,” such as museums and amusement parks.

Five years ago, SiRF Technology Inc., the leading GPS chip supplier, produced a chipset the size of a playing card. Today, it’s as small as a thumbnail....

Companies such as Enuvis Inc. are working to improve GPS so receivers could work indoors and in so-called urban canyons — downtown areas with tall buildings that have long acted as barriers for GPS signals.

'We imagine a world one day where you’ll never lose anything and nothing will ever be lost,' said Michael Kim, president of Enuvis." [MSNBC Technology]

I'm already addicted to the Visteon GPS navigation unit in my car, so I can understand why this technology is becoming so popular. While I would love to embed a GPS chip in my car keys and ReplayTV remote, I'd like the ability to toggle it on and off for privacy reasons.

Wed, 27 Mar 2002 05:54:45 GMT

Garmin Rino-GPS Show and Tell

"jspectre writes: "Garmin, makers of fine GPS products, has a sneak peek of their upcoming Rino (Radios Integrated with Navigation for the Outdoors). A new handheld combination of GPS and 2-way Radio using the common FRS spectrum. In addition to downloadable maps, trip planning, weighing 8.5oz and being waterproof you can "beam" your location to other Rino users while you talk to them. Your location will show up on their GPS display allowing you to navigate to each other. Expected availability, June 2002. Great fun for geocaching parties I'd think." [Slashdot]

Mon, 04 Mar 2002 15:21:52 GMT

Camworld: "Hmmm, would it be useful to be able to use your cell phone to scan bar-codes? I think so. A few years back when I was working at Borders.com we were pushing hard for the management to accept the idea of letting customers in the stores use portable bar-code scanners to build a "digital library" (by walking around the store and scanning books, movies and music) that they could then upload to their Borders.com user profile at one of the Internet-enabled kiosks that were being installed into the stores. Needless to say the management looked at us like we were insane but it's still a good idea and as technology like this becomes more an more integrated into everything we do, we'll probably start to see more retail stores adapt technology like this to provide cool differentiating services or their customers."

This is truly an excellent idea, and I'm surprised Borders didn't go for it (and still hasn't apparently). When I go there, I take my Palm and make a list of what I've found, but then I take that data with me and often I order from Amazon or Ingram using it. If Borders let me scan the ISBNs and UPC codes, they could be part of that loop and help me create and maintain my Amazon-like wish list on their site.

It's also an excellent idea for libraries. Everybody derided the CueCats, but I saw potential for libraries. If you could scan the code for any book, CD, movie, etc. and have that search the online catalog or create a wish list within the catalog, that could have been helpful for patrons. We could then help them find relevant links and items based on those items. We could also made the process for requesting an item or putting a hold on an item that much easier.

In the scenario in the article Cam points to, it would be interesting to keep libraries in that loop so that you could scan a product's barcode and then read the review, whether it's from Consumer Reports in the library's database offerings, a book review, a music review, or a company history. Or search the library's catalog and "check out" the digital file on loan for two weeks (ebooks, MP3s, digital video, etc.). With GPS required in cell phones for future E-911 services, it would be relatively easy to zero in on your local library's services.