It's getting really hard to get lost

location based services

For better or worse, mapping technology creeping into our livesBy Jon VanTribune staff reporterPublished November 26, 2006Soon you'll be able to hail the nearest available taxi, even when you're not sure where you are. Your cell phone will provide your precise location to the taxi driver.In Britain, some insurance companies are already tracking when you use your car and which roads you have taken in calculating rates. Drivers pay as little as a penny a mile on quiet country lanes and far more on busy and dangerous roadways during rush hours.Exercise fanatics can now automatically log jogging routes, distance and speed on their cell phones, so they can measure their performance over time.Scores of such innovations intended to improve our lives are flowing from the convergence of advanced mapping technology, satellite tracking and wireless communication. Industry insiders say that navigational services like MapQuest that tell users how to get from here to there have only scratched the surface of what is possible.'The applications are limitless,' said Jack Dangermond, chief of ESRI, a pioneer in location-based services that utilize global positioning system tracking. 'I can see a day coming when everything that moves will be GPS-recorded--every vehicle, every person, every package.'Well, maybe every package.Businesses are far ahead in embracing the new technologies because companies want to know where their trucks are located, and tracking them doesn't invade employees' privacy.Consumer use of mapping technology is a different story.Privacy concerns rather than technologic limitations now appear to be the biggest hurdle for potential consumer-oriented location-based services, said Martin Dunsby, senior vice president at OpenWave, a consultancy to wireless carriers."Wireless carriers are being extremely cautious over privacy issues," Dunsby said.For instance, a technology platform that enables someone with a cell phone to call the cell phone of an available taxicab nearest to them already exists, Dunsby said. The system would provide the caller's precise location to the driver, even when the caller isn't certain where he is.But the hang-up is over possible invasion of privacy. Transmitting a customer's whereabouts wirelessly to any available taxi driver without using a dispatch system could lead to privacy complaints and possible litigation. "Working out privacy protections for the customer is the only thing holding up the launch of this service," Dunsby said.Meanwhile, even the smallest businesses now tap into sophisticated location-based software, said John Handler of the Chicago-based consultancy Truck Dispatching Innovations Inc."Once just knowing where your people were was enough," Handler said, "but these services go far beyond that."Wireless services can not only locate trucks in a fleet, but can also track employees' skills. This allows businesses to match skills to customers' needs.That's exactly what Glenview-based Abt Electronics began doing last spring when using technology from ESRI, a location software developer, to dispatch technicians doing installations and repairs, said Randy Goldfein, Abt operations manager."We've entered a point system--three points for installing a dishwasher, say--to train the computer to be as smart as a human dispatcher," he said. "A human dispatcher knows that this technician is good at a certain thing, but doesn't send him to do some other thing. The computer is now learning their skill sets."Abt employees visit more than 700 homes daily, Goldfein said, and the increased efficiency of computerized dispatching has enabled the company to boost that total by as many as 75 more visits daily.Mapping technology, now in its fourth generation, started with fairly expensive systems designed for automobiles, said Andreas Hecht, senior vice president at the Chicago-based office of Navigon Inc.'s North American headquarters."Twenty years ago, cell phones were all based in automobiles," Hecht said. "As service got less expensive and handsets got smaller, we started carrying cell phones."similar migration has occurred with mapping technology, which can now be found in smart phones, personal digital assistants and handheld navigation devices, Hecht said."Now you can carry a navigation device in your pocket," he said. "When you get in your car, there's a docking station where you put your navigation device and then it displays on a screen in the car. We've come full circle."Even the highly personalized service of home physician visits to the elderly has been touched by location-based software. Home Physician Management LLC recently automated scheduling for the physicians it sends to visit Medicare patients at home. Craig Reiff, the firm's chief executive, estimates the software has cut scheduling time by 75 percent and boosted accuracy."When we did it manually, sometimes the addresses would be wrong, or the physician couldn't read them," Reiff said. "That doesn't happen now."Drives might cost you moreThe Pay As You Drive option was recently launched in the United Kingdom by Norwich Union, that nation's largest general insurer.Customers who opt for this service must have a GPS system installed in their vehicle that sends their location information to the insurance company's computers in much the same way that trucks in a fleet inform their dispatcher of their whereabouts.Norwich Union matches its customers' travel patterns with databases that track where accidents occur and the most hazardous times at which to travel.The company charges more when customers drive the more dangerous routes, and motorists get monthly bills similar to cell phone bills that also charge according to distance traveled, time of day and routing.Obviously motorists who don't wish their insurer to know where they're driving, or even how fast they travel, cannot utilize the service.Trends and innovationsWhat innovations are ahead are anyone's guess. Navteq Corp., the Chicago-based firm that provides mapping information that is the foundation of digital mapping services, each year awards prizes to firms that dream up the best new location-based applications.Bones In Motion Inc., an Austin, Texas, software firm, won the top prize, $50,000 in cash and $100,000 worth of map licensing for a year, in 2005 with its fitness service that enables joggers to chart their progress using satellite tracking technology and cell phones.Cell phone carriers and equipment makers support the contest, said Winston Guillory, Navteq consumer sales vice president, because it helps attract new players with ideas to grow the market."Some ideas are crazy," he said, "but some will be a hit."Overlaying dynamic information such as traffic flow and weather conditions on digital mapping data is already under way. Earlier this month, Navteq purchased Traffic.com, which collects traffic information in 50 metropolitan areas."We see Navteq providing more dynamic content," said John MacLeod, Navteq executive vice president. "Navigation is just the beginning."-----jvan@tribune.com