Location based services for mobiles

steve — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:49:53 +0000

Location based services have been around for a number of years in the research community. They were always fun to build and excellent research vehicles but needed something to change before hitting the streets. Well, now we’re beginning to carry GPS enabled devices these services have hit the mainstream. I regularly use Yelp and Around Me on the iPhone to find local restaurants, gas stations, and coffee shops. The integration with the maps application is a fantastic coupling. Now Google have released their search services with the “Near me now” service (iPhone and Andriod in US only).

Location data for these applications is usually derived from GPS readings but it is not limited to that. You can use wifi spotting, video capture, parse user calendars or discover location by inference (I am near Alice and Alice knows where she is so I can find where I am). But in practice are these other inputs really required? Or are they all part of a larger model of the real world?

Location based services are a manifestation of pervasive computing in the real world. Next will come more complex context aware services with social aspects and recommendations. I’ve oft heard the question “who will pay for the infrastructure for pervasive computing?”. I think the answer is still “we will” but now you can add “and already are”.

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Augmented reality steps closer

steve — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:54:05 +0000

BBC tech News is reporting on mobile phone handsets with augmented reality. The article says that this is the first time AR has been available on handsets which is not strictly true. In CIS at Strathclyde University we had MSc students developing prototype map assistants on handsets with AR back in 2003, and I’m sure we were not the first. Maybe the BBC mean this is the first time AR handsets have hit the mainstream.

If you read the article bear in mind that the cyborg theme is erroneous and misleading. Yet another UK media attempt to glamorize a story and attract attention. Regardless, the technology is very cool. Sign me up.

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www.steveneely.org » mobile phones

Location based services for mobiles

Augmented reality steps closer