Similar to CellSpotting and Place Lab, GSM Location offers an application (Nokia Python, not Symbian native) for Symbian phones and an online database to map GSM fingerprints with GPS traces. The collected data are then used to do GSM-based positioning.
Relation to my thesis: Stumbled on this by chance. Not revolutionary, but provides an easy and open framework to do GSM-based positioning for specific areas.
CNet’s Rafe Needleman reports in “Toronto or San Jose: where am I, anyway?” a nice example of badly inferred geo data at the… Where 2.0 conference.
I’m at the Where 2.0 conference in San Jose. Unfortunately, the Loki location-finding software on my laptop, which I raved about in a previous blog post, thinks I’m in Toronto. Probably the conference team picked up its Wi-Fi access points from an office or event in Toronto and shipped them down here. At any rate, it’s ironic, given the topic of the conference, but more importantly than that, for a few moments, Google thought I was in Canada and sent me to the Canadian version of the site (www.google.ca) when I tried to search. It was no big deal, but it shows you how location data applies to things you don’t always think of as location related. And the potential downsides to poor location data can be serious. Imagine if I had some emergency-response product that thought I was in Toronto instead of San Jose–or if I was on a VoIP phone that was registered to a different location, and then I dialed 911.
He then continues by mentioning the OpenStreetMap project as a potential answer to such issues:
the more people report where they are and where they’ve been, the more accurate maps and location-finding data will be available for everybody.
While the “wisdom of the crowd” can create improved geospatial data, it surely can also create errors and ambiguities.
Finally Suzanne Axtell reveals the source of the problem:
we’ve looked into this some more and found that the Fairmont Hotel IP block is registered in Toronto Canada. All our traffic uses the Fairmont IP.” There it is then.
Note Plazes often takes minutes before updating my location… that’s an example of location timeliness that can be the source of spatial uncertainty.
Relation to my thesis: Bad or irregular location quality is an issue that is not often takled by location-aware applications. These systems often rely on the user to notice the error and act upton it.
Barcelona taxi drivers invest in GPS navigation systems. In my trip from and to the airport, I enjoy doing some very light ethnography on their usage of this technology. I observed and talked with 4 taxi drivers
Adoption
The very experience driver (30 years of experience!) said it he knew his job enough without relying on a system. Besides, he knows the real places of interest that are not part of a navigation system (e.g. private club for lonely businessmen or tourists). In case of real problem he uses maps contained in 2 books with index of the streets
Use coverage
It seems that they mainly used the system outside of the city center, because:
However, the drivers are enthusiast about using the features of their navigation system in the suburbs and villages. “It changed my life” one said. Mainly because:
Uncertainty
Since the drivers switch off the navigation system within the city, they do not experience big problem due to positioning. However, their experience make them overrule the suggested roads. Moreover they mention cases of getting lost because the destination was not on the map. On said “in that case I use my cell phone to call the destination (e.g. hotel, meeting place, training center) and get driving directions. One driver had his system notifying (with a strong thick siren) all the proximate fixed radars. It proved to be really annoying in the city because of the many false alarms generated by radars on proximate streets that are not part of the path. However, the driver seems to create an awareness of the radars: “look on that street (pointing to a parallel street), in that direction (pointing to the reverse direction) there are 3 one after the other… Two is for the speed, another for the belt”.
System configuration
A driver had to stop to program the destination, the same way he would have looked on a map.
System update
One driver relied on his daughter to update his system: “I used to own an Amstrad, now things are going to fast”. Another mentioned p2p as the source of updates: “do you know eMule?”
Relation to my thesis: In the future I should try to focus more on the aspects of uncertainty that GPS navigation system reduced and increased.
Thoughts from my doctoral school course on interactive multimedia systems:
On my work on spatial uncertainty, I should think beyond design strategies for the interface (the interface being only a filter). My work could be more original if I consider how to design systems that inherently take the user into account. The location system may not only express its confidence but act on upon it depending on the user’s expecations. Moreover, a location algorithm or location update protocol could be built on a user representation and fed by dynamic user contextual values.
You Are Here tracks and displays the paths of visitors traveling through a large public space. Its goal is to provides an understanding of surveillance systems’ capabilities and a visual representation of information that is normally only accessible as dry statistics.
The overhead tracking is accomplished with an array of six networked firewire cameras:
Relation to my thesis: Impressive implementation of a real-world camera-based location system. Its precision needs a very controlled environment. I focus more on uncontrolled environments in which no specific infrastructure needs to be setup.
Reportage de Nouvo sur 2 systèmes de géolocalisation pour surveiller les enfants (géocontrôle parental): Le téléphone portable surveille vos enfants.
OOTAY offre une solution basée sur le GSM. On scénario affligeant nous montre un père maladif harcelant sont fils pour vérifier s’il se trouve bien où il devrait être. Le père admet tout de même des problèmes de précision et erreurs… 1 fois sur 2. Un adolescent suggère plutôt naturellemen un system explicite de géolocalisation.
Geogeny va offrir un système de géolocalisation GPS d’urgence pour les parents anxieux. Par contre, les parents devront signer une charte ethique les engageant à respecter la vie privée de l’enfant.
Relation to my thesis: Certaines problématiques des systèmes de géolocalisation apparaissent dans le reportage. Quand offrir et utliser les informations (urgence, activiation, desactivation, explicite, implicite), la qualité de l’information et la manière de la présenter à l’utilisateur (Ootay offre une carte avec un cercle évaluant la précision)
Poster to UbiComp 2006 submitted. It reports on a qualitative study of spatial uncertainty in the context of a pervasive game named CatchBob!
Illustration of the CatchBob! TabletPC interface.
Yesterday, I had a meeting with Narcis Pares, from the Interactive Communication Experimentation Group at the UPF. I know him from Anna Carreras, a PhD student at the UPF interested in educational uses of virtual reality and who worked on MEDIATE.
MEDIATE, a work by Narcis’ group, tries to tend a multi-sensorial bridge to the interaction of autistic children and the world surrounding them.
I presented CatchBob! and my research scope on spatial uncertainty in ubiquitous computing.
I had to define clearly what aspect of uncertainty I focus on. I made the difference between uncertainty due to miscommunications and technological limitations. Then defined the different sources of the spatial uncertainty in location-aware environments.
Narcis went on questioning the potential bias in my data. How much of the uncertainty is coming from the system and how much from the game. According to him, the game lacks of some basic rules. The boundaries of the game are not define in some cases, and the player does not know what to expect. Reactions should be matched with certain rules. That is if there are fuzzy zone, then the player should know about the fuzziness (get an impression of the cold spots). Catchbob! players are like footballers playing on a field without lines. I argumented that the real world is like that (mentioning example of taxi drivers and GPS). One way for him to get better data, would be to setup and experiment in which the uncertainty is controlled.
He told me to think about what is under the control of the system, the user and neither. Giving me the example of one of his experiment in which the system had to support both 3rd person and 1st person interaction. In the third person interaction, the sensors tracked the shadow of user without the user noticing. So the shadow is neither under the control of the system neither the user.
Finally, does CatchBob! provide physical support for a virtual game? (related to the questions on the potential bias)
A la demande de Bruno Marzloff, j’ai eu le plaisir de contribuer au Mobilités : la clé des villes, cahier de tendances dédié à la ville et à la mobilité proposé par JCDecaux.
“Mobilités : la clé des villes” illustre au travers d’exemples et d’expériences glanés partout dans le monde, les innovations de la ville et prend appui sur des témoignages d’experts référents : 14 penseurs et acteurs de la ville. Chercheurs, urbanistes, anthropologues, architectes, mais aussi entrepreneurs et responsables de collectivités locales ; chacun livre ses propres “clés des villes”, des contributions originales articulées autour de sept thématiques essentielles.
Smartspace interviewed Jed Rice, VP and Market Development at Skyhook Wireless. Jed evangelizes, the adoption and acceptance of Wi-Fi positioning. He presents his view on the key principals to make locative services are going to become a reality:
One, build on top of technology platforms that deliver a user’s location to within 20-50 meters 90%+ of the time. There is nothing worse to a user than being put in the middle of a river or lake. Two, develop applications that appeal to a broad user base (Note: Skyhook now provides an API to developers). [...]. Three, develop applications and services that operate on the most number of devices as possible [...]. Finally, develop applications that can – to the greatest extent possible – operate independently of third party constraints (e.g. buying additional hardware, requiring third party distribution/permission from entities like carriers) [...].
Relation to my thesis: I am particularly interested at Skyhook’s aim at creating consistent and accurate location information (principal #1) to support location-aware application. They advertise coverage in term % of time and not % of an area then talk about user’s need of location accuracy of 20-50 meters. Very relevant for their business targeting urban lifestyle (related to Indoors 95.5% of the Time). However, generating consistent and accurate location information might be more complicated than promoting coverage and accuracy values. Providers of location information could present their offer according to the location aware application developers and designers requirements:
I am also interested in the way Skyhook represent the data that come from a muli-modal location-determination. How to support the differences in quality and timeliness of location predicted by several source.
