At the ESRI User's Conference in this month, members of the telecommunications industry gathered for a one-day Location-based Services (LBS) Summit chaired by Jon Spinney of ESRI and a Directions Magazine columnist.The meeting focused on the progress that was made by wireless carriers to offer location-based services, especially in the U.S., and determine a model for promoting these services.The session also addressed mobile computing.There is a definite connection between the two, and there is growing evidence that they are beginning to merge in terms of devices and services.
David Maguire, Director, Products, Solutions and International at ESRI, gave the keynote and he identified some of the things that are driving mobile computing/LBS technologies.
- An increasingly itinerant workforce
- Every device is becoming location-enabled
- The need for "just in time" decision making
- Support for field analysis
But to be really effective, mobile computing/LBS needs to be able to be:
- Accessible to a widely distributed user base
- Accessible in real-time
- Able to access to large volumes of data
- Fast - in terms of wireless access
- Large screens
- Long battery life
- High Resolution screens
- Overall weight of the handset
- High power processors
ESRI gave a demonstration showing ArcPAD embedded to a SmartPhone was moving maps and imagery to a cell phone "on-demand" by the field user. Maguire used his own cell phone to augment the demo.
How is this technology currently used?
In addition to using maps in the field to locate infrastructure or for vehicle routing, new applications were introduced, such as:
- Workforce tracking
- Monitoring of vehicles
- Creating geo-fences to determine if a field entity has strayed out of an assigned area
- Field workers completing or receiving work orders wirelessly
To illustrate this, an example was presented of a repair service that needed to locate the nearest specialist on a particular piece of equipment. With the current incorporation of GPS into cell phones for E911, this functionality allows for the location of workers with specific skill sets.The worker could be located, the nature of the problem sent to him (data) and the timing of his ability to respond given to the end customer.
This type of scenario was repeated for a number of industries, from fishing boats to local pick up and delivery to field workforce management.
Common Services
Common, basic expectations by customers were identified by Nitin Patel, Director of Marketing and Business Development, Telenity, Inc., echoing what others were saying.The term he used was ARPU:
- Anytime, anywhere, any device -- The issue of anytime, anywhere, and on any device highlighted the nature of real time access, the coverage problems, and more importantly, the need for standards (any device) so that the device or the network supplying each service was no longer a factor.
- Reduce costs (for the enterprise using the technology) -- Reducing costs mirrors the current ROI modeling of anything within the enterprise. If it doesn't improve anything or reduce costs, it is a very tough sell.
- Privacy and Personalization -- Privacy is an increasing concern. If your cell phone is on, you can be located.For many people that can be a concern, perhaps making voice mail a must.Security concerning corporate data (i.e.who is working on what for whom) and propriety information, makes security a major issue.Personalization is more than unique ring tones but encompasses the spectrum of application that can be put together for both business and personal use.For the pleasure traveler, for example, airport information, news, flights and custom SMS templates is helpful.For business users, there is a need to have access to forms and other services by field worker which requires some customization.
- User experience and content -- There has to be real value in the user experience, especially with the delivery of targeted content and the ease in which the content can be retrieved.If it is hard to use, the screen size is too small, wireless access is limited or processing power quashes applications, the service will fail.If the devices can't deliver the service, close isn't good enough.
What do the Telecoms have to offer?
Sprint
The Sprint wireless base is 20
million phones and 100 million calls per day.They have raised the intelligence
level of their transmission facilities (for faster and more intelligent
call and data handling), and in 2005 they will move to EV-00, which will
offer data speeds of 300 kps to 500 kps.This will enhance MMS (multi-media
message services), web access and the general movement of data.They do
extensive testing of middleware with their network.All
new Sprint phones have Aided-GPS
(A-GPS) and Sprint partners with other to provide "cool apps" to expand
other services.Sprint works with ESRI's' Web Services to address multi-platforms
and the existing 20 million Sprint cell phones.Sprint is among the fastest
available in the U.S.
Nextel
Nextel approached their offering
in a somewhat different manner. Here is one of the questions they
posed and then answered.
- Offer a Locate service for a $15/mo add-on...
- Offer a Navigate service, in real-time routing with voice updates...
- Offer a Tracking service, for either vehicles or an employee monitoring system
Verizon
Verizon Wireless offers
the service called "GeItNow." Recently, a Directions Magazine staff member
signed up for the the service to obtain traffic updates between Huntsville,
Alabama and South Bend, Indiana.The updates were verbose and understandable
but not very helpful.It was difficult to determine whether the service
could actually determine the location of the recipient, but it is suspected
that the only way it could work is if each cell tower were broadcasting
a traffic alert and when the phone was in proximity to the tower it obtained
the broadcasted message.One of the alerts told of an accident; however
the notice was received about 2 miles before the location was encountered;
more or less a 2 minute warning -- Not enough time to make a change in
driving options.When the staff member got to the location, the accident
had already cleared.
Qualcomm
Qualcomm supports BREW,
a middleware that provides access to 100+ gpsOne-enabled
handsets and 25 million devices (cell phones and others).There are 145
models and there are 27 manufacturers of BREW enabled phones.They also
(via BREW) allow access to ArcWeb Services and GPS-enabled phones.
Qualcomm has just recently changed the name of their location middleware from SnapTrack to QPoint.The QPoint solutions is intended to offer:
- Better Accuracy and Precision for finding locations
- Fewer keystrokes for data input
- Automatic location determination
Bottom Line
There was also a need for clarity in the understanding of the marketplace. While pedestrian navigation will be one of the most common functionalities offered, will it really be profitable? Most of the vendors were looking at business and the movement of data as the area where they would finally make money.
In spite of the current limitations, real and valid solutions to real problems are being developed in cost effective ways.Yet, somehow, there was a sense that the promise was still not fulfilled, and the best was still yet to come.