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Friday, April 28, 2006
The Pondering Primate: Physical World Connection In Business 2.0
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This month's issue of Business 2.0 has a special pullout called "Your Wireless Future".
Carlo Longino of MobHappy does a great job of listing the companies to watch for specific applications (productivity, voice communication, location-based services, entertainment/social networking).
In the location-based services category he lists Semacode as a company to watch.
Semacode connects the mobile to the physical world using camera phones as bar-code readers.
Semacode is just one of the companies that provides this ability.
How does it work?
Semacode works by embedding a URL (web address) into a sort of two-dimensional barcode which looks like a dense crossword puzzle.
This is an open system. Anyone can create as many semacode tags for as many different URLs as they wish. Millions, even. As long as you own the domain name, the tagging system is completely unrestricted.
Congrats Carlo and nice job.
posted by Scott Shaffer @ 9:06 AM
4 Comments:
*
At 12:17 PM, April 28, 2006, Anonymous said…
As usual for an "open" system, the whole concept being pushed by Semacode rests on ideas innovated and pioneered by others. The idea of print-to-web had already been in the public consciousness for years by the time Semacode got its start (remember CueCat?)
Just once, I'd like to see the advocates of open systems come up with some important NOVEL ideas of their own. Otherwise, they seem more like parasites masquerading as do-gooders, ripping off other people's good ideas and robbing genuine innovators of their incentive to come up with new ideas.
*
At 1:10 PM, April 28, 2006, Scott Shaffer said…
Huh?
An open system is bad?
How is Semacode acting like a parasite?
CueCat was a closed system and look at what happened to that venture.
*
At 1:31 PM, April 28, 2006, Anonymous said…
How is an open system bad?
How about by robbing genuine innovators of their incentive to innovate?
Isn't that EXACTLY why we have these things called patents, protecting innovative ideas?
And the failure of CueCat derived mainly from the context of its application -- a scanner attached to a PC -- NOT from the underlying concept of print-to-web. But Semacode clearly was NOT a pioneer in this space. (For that matter, neither was CueCat, but it DID come out with sufficient publicity that it got into the public consciousness).
Look, it always seems like a great idea when somebody copies someone else's idea, and that offers it up more cheaply. It looks like a great public service has been done -- the same thing is now cheaper, right? But what happens to the incentive to innovate?
Basically, the vast majority of open systems (not all) embody other people's innovations. They virtually never innovate on a basic level. Linux, for example, was mostly a ripoff of Unix. gcc is just another C compiler, at base. Where's the innovation?
Open systems are seductive because they seem better AT THE TIME, namely, AFTER THE INNOVATION HAS ALREADY TAKEN PLACE. But they are, altogether too often, the force that would kill the golden goose of innovation.
*
At 2:01 PM, April 28, 2006, Anonymous said…
Just to add a bit to my previous post.
If open systems are so good, why not simply make EVERYTHING open, EVERY idea?
Why not scrap the patent system altogether, and make drugs go to a small fraction of their current prices, and medical equipment, and just about every device we might decide to buy? Why not throw copyright out as well, and get Windows for free and all other software, and buy books for a pittance?
Because, as good as it may seem for a few months or years, it will dry up the font of innovation. Ripping off other people's ideas is not just wrong, it's bad for society. It's a fool's paradise.
Look, it may be that some open systems can be created that nonetheless fairly award innovators, through some kind of patent licensing arrangement. But the notion that any and all systems can be made open under all circumstances with no downside to innovation is absurd on its face.
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location based services
This month's issue of Business 2.0 has a special pullout called "Your Wireless Future".
Carlo Longino of MobHappy does a great job of listing the companies to watch for specific applications (productivity, voice communication, location-based services, entertainment/social networking).
In the location-based services category he lists Semacode as a company to watch.
Semacode connects the mobile to the physical world using camera phones as bar-code readers.
Semacode is just one of the companies that provides this ability.
How does it work?
Semacode works by embedding a URL (web address) into a sort of two-dimensional barcode which looks like a dense crossword puzzle.
This is an open system. Anyone can create as many semacode tags for as many different URLs as they wish. Millions, even. As long as you own the domain name, the tagging system is completely unrestricted.
Congrats Carlo and nice job.
posted by Scott Shaffer @ 9:06 AM
4 Comments:
*
At 12:17 PM, April 28, 2006, Anonymous said…
As usual for an "open" system, the whole concept being pushed by Semacode rests on ideas innovated and pioneered by others. The idea of print-to-web had already been in the public consciousness for years by the time Semacode got its start (remember CueCat?)
Just once, I'd like to see the advocates of open systems come up with some important NOVEL ideas of their own. Otherwise, they seem more like parasites masquerading as do-gooders, ripping off other people's good ideas and robbing genuine innovators of their incentive to come up with new ideas.
*
At 1:10 PM, April 28, 2006, Scott Shaffer said…
Huh?
An open system is bad?
How is Semacode acting like a parasite?
CueCat was a closed system and look at what happened to that venture.
*
At 1:31 PM, April 28, 2006, Anonymous said…
How is an open system bad?
How about by robbing genuine innovators of their incentive to innovate?
Isn't that EXACTLY why we have these things called patents, protecting innovative ideas?
And the failure of CueCat derived mainly from the context of its application -- a scanner attached to a PC -- NOT from the underlying concept of print-to-web. But Semacode clearly was NOT a pioneer in this space. (For that matter, neither was CueCat, but it DID come out with sufficient publicity that it got into the public consciousness).
Look, it always seems like a great idea when somebody copies someone else's idea, and that offers it up more cheaply. It looks like a great public service has been done -- the same thing is now cheaper, right? But what happens to the incentive to innovate?
Basically, the vast majority of open systems (not all) embody other people's innovations. They virtually never innovate on a basic level. Linux, for example, was mostly a ripoff of Unix. gcc is just another C compiler, at base. Where's the innovation?
Open systems are seductive because they seem better AT THE TIME, namely, AFTER THE INNOVATION HAS ALREADY TAKEN PLACE. But they are, altogether too often, the force that would kill the golden goose of innovation.
*
At 2:01 PM, April 28, 2006, Anonymous said…
Just to add a bit to my previous post.
If open systems are so good, why not simply make EVERYTHING open, EVERY idea?
Why not scrap the patent system altogether, and make drugs go to a small fraction of their current prices, and medical equipment, and just about every device we might decide to buy? Why not throw copyright out as well, and get Windows for free and all other software, and buy books for a pittance?
Because, as good as it may seem for a few months or years, it will dry up the font of innovation. Ripping off other people's ideas is not just wrong, it's bad for society. It's a fool's paradise.
Look, it may be that some open systems can be created that nonetheless fairly award innovators, through some kind of patent licensing arrangement. But the notion that any and all systems can be made open under all circumstances with no downside to innovation is absurd on its face.
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Xybernaut Sells Patents Targeting Ads To Mobile Devices | April 27, 2006
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The WayPoint patents, which go up for bid in an attempt to help their maker emerge from bankruptcy, help to push information or advertisements to GPS-equipped cell phones.
By Laurie Sullivan
TechWeb.com
Apr 27, 2006 04:44 PM
Xybernaut Corp. will auction patents that can wirelessly transmit advertising, direct mail and information to targeted mobile phones and devices at specific locations, a company executive told TechWeb.
The company intends to use the proceeds to emerge from Chapter 11 and successfully reorganize. Xybernaut president and chief executive officer Perry Nolan said the patents will go up for auction in Washington, D.C. on May 17, with a minimum bid of $3.9 million for the three U.S. patents, one pending known as "WayPoint."
Xybernaut filed for Chapter 11 federal bankruptcy protection last July in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The company, which sells wearable computer equipment, received court approval this week to sell the group of patents. "We need capital to get us out of Chapter 11 and reorganize," Nolan said. "My primary goal is to get through the auction, generate the revenue, paying off the creditors, and get out of Chapter 11 as quick as we can."
The WayPoint patents help to push information or advertisements to cellular phones equipped with global positioning system (GPS). The technology relies on wireless companies, such as Cingular or Verizon, to transmit information based longitude and latitude. The telecommunication carriers would install server-based units at their main stations and allow the information to transmit to disperse geographically from a central location.
Xybernaut's WayPoint patents provide similar technology the free Wi-Fi service Google Inc. and Earthlink Inc. announced earlier this month. The two Internet companies proposed building an infrastructure to provide free Wi-Fi service in San Francisco, targeting users with advertising based on their location to pay for the plan.
The company has reduced 70 percent of its operating costs since Nolan stepped in last year by terminating about 75 of the 115 employees, closed offices that had never been productive, terminated unnecessary contracts with suppliers and put restrictions on travel. "The company was loosing $19 million a year," Nolan said.
Xybernaut new business strategy will target markets and technologies in radio frequency identification (RFID), wireless, Wi-Fi and asset tagging, for example. The company will do this through the remaining patent groups: Family (duel flat-panel displays), Wearable, and Transferable core (a computing environment the size of a PCMCA card, for example, containing processor, data, music or video that can plug into multiple devices to power-up)
"We want to reform the company into a mobile solutions provider, rather than mobile and wearable hardware provider," said John Moynahan, executive vice president and chief financial officer, who joined Xybernaut as employee No. 5 and co-invented four U.S. patents, including the transferable core. Moynahan also took the company public in 1996.
Companies enter Chapter 11 to protect assets from creditors because they are deeply in dept with little chance to recover. Not the case for Xybernaut, Nolan said. "Our debt was low, about $1.5 million," he said. "We chose Chapter 11 because class action lawsuits were filed."
A whistle blower in early 2005 disclosed to the board of directors "inappropriate actions" taken by the company chairman, chief executive officer and president at the time. The executives were released after the findings were proved accurate. Shareholders hit Xybernaut with nine class action lawsuits.
Nolan stepped in April 2005 on request of the board, replacing Xybernaut chairman and CEO Edward Newman, and president Steve Newman. "I couldn't afford to be distracted by the smoke associated with class action lawsuits, so I chose Chapter 11," Nolan said. "It gives me time to look at the company to restructure and cut the burn rate and costs."
location based services
The WayPoint patents, which go up for bid in an attempt to help their maker emerge from bankruptcy, help to push information or advertisements to GPS-equipped cell phones.
By Laurie Sullivan
TechWeb.com
Apr 27, 2006 04:44 PM
Xybernaut Corp. will auction patents that can wirelessly transmit advertising, direct mail and information to targeted mobile phones and devices at specific locations, a company executive told TechWeb.
The company intends to use the proceeds to emerge from Chapter 11 and successfully reorganize. Xybernaut president and chief executive officer Perry Nolan said the patents will go up for auction in Washington, D.C. on May 17, with a minimum bid of $3.9 million for the three U.S. patents, one pending known as "WayPoint."
Xybernaut filed for Chapter 11 federal bankruptcy protection last July in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The company, which sells wearable computer equipment, received court approval this week to sell the group of patents. "We need capital to get us out of Chapter 11 and reorganize," Nolan said. "My primary goal is to get through the auction, generate the revenue, paying off the creditors, and get out of Chapter 11 as quick as we can."
The WayPoint patents help to push information or advertisements to cellular phones equipped with global positioning system (GPS). The technology relies on wireless companies, such as Cingular or Verizon, to transmit information based longitude and latitude. The telecommunication carriers would install server-based units at their main stations and allow the information to transmit to disperse geographically from a central location.
Xybernaut's WayPoint patents provide similar technology the free Wi-Fi service Google Inc. and Earthlink Inc. announced earlier this month. The two Internet companies proposed building an infrastructure to provide free Wi-Fi service in San Francisco, targeting users with advertising based on their location to pay for the plan.
The company has reduced 70 percent of its operating costs since Nolan stepped in last year by terminating about 75 of the 115 employees, closed offices that had never been productive, terminated unnecessary contracts with suppliers and put restrictions on travel. "The company was loosing $19 million a year," Nolan said.
Xybernaut new business strategy will target markets and technologies in radio frequency identification (RFID), wireless, Wi-Fi and asset tagging, for example. The company will do this through the remaining patent groups: Family (duel flat-panel displays), Wearable, and Transferable core (a computing environment the size of a PCMCA card, for example, containing processor, data, music or video that can plug into multiple devices to power-up)
"We want to reform the company into a mobile solutions provider, rather than mobile and wearable hardware provider," said John Moynahan, executive vice president and chief financial officer, who joined Xybernaut as employee No. 5 and co-invented four U.S. patents, including the transferable core. Moynahan also took the company public in 1996.
Companies enter Chapter 11 to protect assets from creditors because they are deeply in dept with little chance to recover. Not the case for Xybernaut, Nolan said. "Our debt was low, about $1.5 million," he said. "We chose Chapter 11 because class action lawsuits were filed."
A whistle blower in early 2005 disclosed to the board of directors "inappropriate actions" taken by the company chairman, chief executive officer and president at the time. The executives were released after the findings were proved accurate. Shareholders hit Xybernaut with nine class action lawsuits.
Nolan stepped in April 2005 on request of the board, replacing Xybernaut chairman and CEO Edward Newman, and president Steve Newman. "I couldn't afford to be distracted by the smoke associated with class action lawsuits, so I chose Chapter 11," Nolan said. "It gives me time to look at the company to restructure and cut the burn rate and costs."
Google Offers Free 3D Modeling Software April 27, 2006
location based services
Google SketchUp helps create models of a variety of items--including houses, sheds, decks, home additions, and woodworking projects. By Antone Gonsalves TechWeb.com Apr 27, 2006 07:31 PM
Google Inc. on Thursday launched a free version of the 3D modeling software the Reprint
location based services
Google SketchUp helps create models of a variety of items--including houses, sheds, decks, home additions, and woodworking projects. By Antone Gonsalves TechWeb.com Apr 27, 2006 07:31 PM
Google Inc. on Thursday launched a free version of the 3D modeling software the Reprint
gps tracklog: Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx review
location based services
The Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx updates the Garmin GPSMAP 76CS with two major improvements. First, the 76CSx includes the new SiRFSTAR III chipset, which has been getting rave reviews for its fast acquisition time and awesome coverage under canopy, in urban canyons and even indoors! Second, the 76CSx no longer utilizes its built in memory for MapSource maps, but loads them to a microSD card instead (the unit comes with a 128 MB card). This means you have unlimited map storage capability, plus you can use some of the newer MapSource software like City Select Mexico.
One other point before we go on to other reviews -- the 76CSx is identical to the 76Cx, except that the 76CSx adds an electronic compass and barometric altimeter.
Here’s what the editors at Amazon have to say in their Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx review:
"Aimed squarely at boaters and marine users, the Garmin GPSMap 76CSx is packed with features that seasoned mariners crave. The 7.6-ounce 76CSx now features an insanely accurate, high-sensitivity GPS receiver by SiRF that tracks your position even in tree cover and canyons. Plus, you get a bright, sunlight-readable color TFT display and an included a 128 MB microSD card for storage of optional map detail. Add all that to the 76CSx's integrated barometric altimeter and electronic compass, and you've got a highly capable unit. Simply put, the 76CSx is ready to take you anywhere on the water. Landlubbers will find much to like about this unit, too, as it packs great GPS mapping capabilities into a compact device..."
Here's what others are saying about the 76CSx:
location based services
The Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx updates the Garmin GPSMAP 76CS with two major improvements. First, the 76CSx includes the new SiRFSTAR III chipset, which has been getting rave reviews for its fast acquisition time and awesome coverage under canopy, in urban canyons and even indoors! Second, the 76CSx no longer utilizes its built in memory for MapSource maps, but loads them to a microSD card instead (the unit comes with a 128 MB card). This means you have unlimited map storage capability, plus you can use some of the newer MapSource software like City Select Mexico.
One other point before we go on to other reviews -- the 76CSx is identical to the 76Cx, except that the 76CSx adds an electronic compass and barometric altimeter.
Here’s what the editors at Amazon have to say in their Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx review:
"Aimed squarely at boaters and marine users, the Garmin GPSMap 76CSx is packed with features that seasoned mariners crave. The 7.6-ounce 76CSx now features an insanely accurate, high-sensitivity GPS receiver by SiRF that tracks your position even in tree cover and canyons. Plus, you get a bright, sunlight-readable color TFT display and an included a 128 MB microSD card for storage of optional map detail. Add all that to the 76CSx's integrated barometric altimeter and electronic compass, and you've got a highly capable unit. Simply put, the 76CSx is ready to take you anywhere on the water. Landlubbers will find much to like about this unit, too, as it packs great GPS mapping capabilities into a compact device..."
Here's what others are saying about the 76CSx:
TomTom steers through another successful quarter - Automotive Business Review
location based services
Navigation products and services provider TomTom NV has posted its second largest-ever quarter results in its traditionally slowest period, as the GPS market continues to boom.
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For the first quarter ending March 31, it posted a 121% rise in net profits to 31m euros ($38.5m), from 14m euros ($17.4m) in the year ago period. The market had expected profits of 29.5m euros ($36.5m) to 41.8m euros ($52m).
Sales, however, beat the street after shooting up a staggering 288% to 256m euros ($318m) from 66m euros ($82m) in Q1 2005. Analysts had predicted sales of 194.7m euros ($241.6m) to 225m euros ($279m).
"Market demand continues to be strong and TomTom increased unit sales seven-fold compared to the first quarter of 2005," said CEO Harold Goddijn.
"In the first quarter we successfully secured the sell through of the current TomTom GO series ahead of the introduction of the new range," he added. "In Europe we strengthened our market leadership position and increased our market share. In the US we expanded our distribution strength through a substantial increase in the number of retail outlets we are present in."
In the first quarter TomTom shipped a total of 762,000 portable navigation devices, a 2% decrease from its seasonally strongest fourth quarter. The average selling price fell to 305 euros ($378) from 337 euros ($417) in the last quarter of 2005.
TomTom's slow performance in the US market during the first quarter is blamed on a lack of marketing as well as new products from rival Garmin Ltd. In February, Garmin slapped its European rival with a patent infringement lawsuit and accused the Dutch GPS developer of copying a number of its navigation innovations. TomTom rejected the claims and said it would vigorously defend itself.
Goddijn admitted that only 8% of revenues come from outside of Europe, with 16m euros ($19.8m) from North America. He promised that TomTom would launch an advertising campaign in the second quarter, which is usually a good quarter for TomTom as the market gears up for summer.
Looking forward, the Amsterdam, Netherlands-based company now expects full-year revenue to be in the 1.1bn euros ($1.36bn) to 1.3bn euros ($1.61bn) range, up from a previous guidance of 1bn euros ($1.24bn) to 1.1bn euros ($1.36bn). It also expects the volume of integrated units sold to more than double to 3.6 million to 3.9 million units, compared to an earlier guidance of 3.0 million to 3.3 million.
TomTom has good reason to be confident about growth prospects. Approximately 13% of the 200 million cars on the road in Europe have some form of navigation device, while in the US, there is only 7% penetration of the 220 million cars on the road
location based services
Navigation products and services provider TomTom NV has posted its second largest-ever quarter results in its traditionally slowest period, as the GPS market continues to boom.
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For the first quarter ending March 31, it posted a 121% rise in net profits to 31m euros ($38.5m), from 14m euros ($17.4m) in the year ago period. The market had expected profits of 29.5m euros ($36.5m) to 41.8m euros ($52m).
Sales, however, beat the street after shooting up a staggering 288% to 256m euros ($318m) from 66m euros ($82m) in Q1 2005. Analysts had predicted sales of 194.7m euros ($241.6m) to 225m euros ($279m).
"Market demand continues to be strong and TomTom increased unit sales seven-fold compared to the first quarter of 2005," said CEO Harold Goddijn.
"In the first quarter we successfully secured the sell through of the current TomTom GO series ahead of the introduction of the new range," he added. "In Europe we strengthened our market leadership position and increased our market share. In the US we expanded our distribution strength through a substantial increase in the number of retail outlets we are present in."
In the first quarter TomTom shipped a total of 762,000 portable navigation devices, a 2% decrease from its seasonally strongest fourth quarter. The average selling price fell to 305 euros ($378) from 337 euros ($417) in the last quarter of 2005.
TomTom's slow performance in the US market during the first quarter is blamed on a lack of marketing as well as new products from rival Garmin Ltd. In February, Garmin slapped its European rival with a patent infringement lawsuit and accused the Dutch GPS developer of copying a number of its navigation innovations. TomTom rejected the claims and said it would vigorously defend itself.
Goddijn admitted that only 8% of revenues come from outside of Europe, with 16m euros ($19.8m) from North America. He promised that TomTom would launch an advertising campaign in the second quarter, which is usually a good quarter for TomTom as the market gears up for summer.
Looking forward, the Amsterdam, Netherlands-based company now expects full-year revenue to be in the 1.1bn euros ($1.36bn) to 1.3bn euros ($1.61bn) range, up from a previous guidance of 1bn euros ($1.24bn) to 1.1bn euros ($1.36bn). It also expects the volume of integrated units sold to more than double to 3.6 million to 3.9 million units, compared to an earlier guidance of 3.0 million to 3.3 million.
TomTom has good reason to be confident about growth prospects. Approximately 13% of the 200 million cars on the road in Europe have some form of navigation device, while in the US, there is only 7% penetration of the 220 million cars on the road
Marketers Map Out Their GPS Ad Plans
NEW YORK -- Many people find global positioning systems a handy navigational tool, but can GPS also be a marketing tool?During the past two months, Dunkin' Donuts, Cold Stone Creamery and others began appearing on in-car GPS devices to alert drivers to nearby locations and, in some cases, offer special deals. Proponents say this form of media has a special edge: "Not only can GPS devices tell you how to get there, they can tell you where to go," said Samir Bhavnani, director of research with Current Analysis, San Diego. Media buyers have also taken notice. "There are a lot of great applications, especially in the quick service restaurant category," said Sharon Hatch, vp/director of out-of-home at Horizon Media, New York. While the number of GPS owners is still relatively small, it is growing quickly thanks in part to the fact that prices fell last year from an average of $1,000 per unit to $800, per the NPD Group, Port Washington, N.Y. While the user base is well under a million, unit volume sales of GPS devices jumped 152% in 2005, per NPD, which doesn't track Wal-Mart, direct and warehouse clubs sales. Thales Navigation, the San Dimas, Calif., owner of the No. 3 Magellan GPS brand, projects the global market for car navigation and recreational handheld units to reach $5.4 billion globally by 2008.Seizing the opportunity to talk to consumers on the go via their GPS devices, Dunkin' Brands inked a first-of-its-kind licensing agreement in February with the trendy No. 2 manufacturer TomTom. Under the agreement, users can download the Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin Robbins logos onto their devices so they can easily spot the popular chains when they are on the road. Typically restaurants are shown using a standard knife and fork icon.The TomTom systems, which begin at $699, can also be programmed so that drivers are alerted, via a flashing icon or a beep, as they approach a local Dunkin' or Baskin outlet. "If people are within a one-mile radius and something pops up and the driver says 'Hey, how about a nice cup of coffee,' then why not [try advertising on a GPS system]?" said Hatch. TomTom is exploring similar arrangements with other brands.No. 1 manufacturer Garmin, meanwhile, partnered with Entertainment Publications, best-known for its Entertainment Book of discounts commonly used for local school and community fundraisers. Garmin Nüvi GPS owners can sign up to receive 45,000 special offers on everything from ice cream treats at Cold Stone Creamery to shoes at Athlete's Foot.Nüvi users can add a digital SaversGuide to their devices for an annual fee of $49.95. The searchable database of discounts also can direct customers to offers available at select Eddie Bauer, GNC and Supercuts locations. Users present a membership card at purchase to receive their discount. The service will be expanded to other Garmin products as well."No matter where you are in the country you can find not only the location of a restaurant or dry cleaner, you can get a discount," said Ted Gartner, rep for Garmin, Olathe, Kan. Garmin has sold more than 14 million units worldwide. Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at NPD, sees "huge potential . . . to almost literally drive traffic to the point of transaction."These devices and others could serve as a distraction, prompting the Consumer Electronics Assn. to launch its "Watch the Road" campaign next month.The demographics of GPS buyers is desirable. A third (34%) of buyers earned between $100,000 and $150,000 annually per a three-month NPD survey. Roughly 45% made $75,000 or more annually. Maybe this will help explain why men don't ask for directions: 81% of GPS purchasers were male, of which 29% were ages 45-54 while 23% were ages 18-24. The younger buyers "make a lot of investment in vehicle technology. They want to soup up their cars," said Rubin.Current Analysis' Bhavnani agreed that while the partnership was a good idea, "in the beginning sales will be challenging because they have to not only be familiar with the Entertainment Book, they have to be in the market for a GPS system."Still, advertisers will know how effective the buy was since consumers will have to use membership cards to redeem the discounts. Hatch said from an ROI standpoint, this is invaluable: "If it's trackable, that's an important selling point."Overall, the category is attracting some powerful players. Google recently joined with Volkswagen to offer Google maps on its pre-installed GPS systems, and AOL will offer Mapquest as a service for GPS-enabled cell phones. Thales Navigation has yet to strike any marketing deals for its Magellan devices, however rep Angela Linsey-Jackson noted, "We're going down that road."--Kenneth Hein
NEW YORK -- Many people find global positioning systems a handy navigational tool, but can GPS also be a marketing tool?During the past two months, Dunkin' Donuts, Cold Stone Creamery and others began appearing on in-car GPS devices to alert drivers to nearby locations and, in some cases, offer special deals. Proponents say this form of media has a special edge: "Not only can GPS devices tell you how to get there, they can tell you where to go," said Samir Bhavnani, director of research with Current Analysis, San Diego. Media buyers have also taken notice. "There are a lot of great applications, especially in the quick service restaurant category," said Sharon Hatch, vp/director of out-of-home at Horizon Media, New York. While the number of GPS owners is still relatively small, it is growing quickly thanks in part to the fact that prices fell last year from an average of $1,000 per unit to $800, per the NPD Group, Port Washington, N.Y. While the user base is well under a million, unit volume sales of GPS devices jumped 152% in 2005, per NPD, which doesn't track Wal-Mart, direct and warehouse clubs sales. Thales Navigation, the San Dimas, Calif., owner of the No. 3 Magellan GPS brand, projects the global market for car navigation and recreational handheld units to reach $5.4 billion globally by 2008.Seizing the opportunity to talk to consumers on the go via their GPS devices, Dunkin' Brands inked a first-of-its-kind licensing agreement in February with the trendy No. 2 manufacturer TomTom. Under the agreement, users can download the Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin Robbins logos onto their devices so they can easily spot the popular chains when they are on the road. Typically restaurants are shown using a standard knife and fork icon.The TomTom systems, which begin at $699, can also be programmed so that drivers are alerted, via a flashing icon or a beep, as they approach a local Dunkin' or Baskin outlet. "If people are within a one-mile radius and something pops up and the driver says 'Hey, how about a nice cup of coffee,' then why not [try advertising on a GPS system]?" said Hatch. TomTom is exploring similar arrangements with other brands.No. 1 manufacturer Garmin, meanwhile, partnered with Entertainment Publications, best-known for its Entertainment Book of discounts commonly used for local school and community fundraisers. Garmin Nüvi GPS owners can sign up to receive 45,000 special offers on everything from ice cream treats at Cold Stone Creamery to shoes at Athlete's Foot.Nüvi users can add a digital SaversGuide to their devices for an annual fee of $49.95. The searchable database of discounts also can direct customers to offers available at select Eddie Bauer, GNC and Supercuts locations. Users present a membership card at purchase to receive their discount. The service will be expanded to other Garmin products as well."No matter where you are in the country you can find not only the location of a restaurant or dry cleaner, you can get a discount," said Ted Gartner, rep for Garmin, Olathe, Kan. Garmin has sold more than 14 million units worldwide. Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at NPD, sees "huge potential . . . to almost literally drive traffic to the point of transaction."These devices and others could serve as a distraction, prompting the Consumer Electronics Assn. to launch its "Watch the Road" campaign next month.The demographics of GPS buyers is desirable. A third (34%) of buyers earned between $100,000 and $150,000 annually per a three-month NPD survey. Roughly 45% made $75,000 or more annually. Maybe this will help explain why men don't ask for directions: 81% of GPS purchasers were male, of which 29% were ages 45-54 while 23% were ages 18-24. The younger buyers "make a lot of investment in vehicle technology. They want to soup up their cars," said Rubin.Current Analysis' Bhavnani agreed that while the partnership was a good idea, "in the beginning sales will be challenging because they have to not only be familiar with the Entertainment Book, they have to be in the market for a GPS system."Still, advertisers will know how effective the buy was since consumers will have to use membership cards to redeem the discounts. Hatch said from an ROI standpoint, this is invaluable: "If it's trackable, that's an important selling point."Overall, the category is attracting some powerful players. Google recently joined with Volkswagen to offer Google maps on its pre-installed GPS systems, and AOL will offer Mapquest as a service for GPS-enabled cell phones. Thales Navigation has yet to strike any marketing deals for its Magellan devices, however rep Angela Linsey-Jackson noted, "We're going down that road."--Kenneth Hein
Thursday, April 27, 2006
The View from Here - Articles: "The Mystery of Yahoo Maps Imagery"
location based services
The Mystery of Yahoo Maps Imagery
Like many, I was jazzed recently when Yahoo added imagery to its Yahoo Maps offering. And, like many, I was curious about its source. I could find nothing on Google Maps’ website about the imagery. I wrote a blog entry hoping someone from Yahoo might share the sources. No luck thus far.
Over time, tidbits are being revealed. I first read about USGS quads as sources for Yahoo's imagery in a comment to a post by James Fee at Spatial Adjusted. The poster cited a colleague who knew of a company that had helped "colorize" the black and white DOQs. He pointed out some oddities when old black and white images were meshed with newer "multispectral satellite data." My first thought was that's a lot of work to fix up what are rather old images.
But, that's certainly the source of at least some of the imagery, per Michael Lawless, a Yahoo product manager. He notes at the Yahoo Search Blog that indeed Yahoo is "using a lot of USGS data in the backfill, as well as other government sources that are much newer than that." He does point to U.S. and international updates that are expected soon.
Sean Gilles at Import Cartography confirms that i-cubed is the source of at least some of the imagery, likely exactly the imagery noted above. (I saw that company's copyright in the map window when I first checked out the imagery.) You can read up on the colorization process courtesy of i-cubed.
One of the few ways to know the source of Yahoo's new imagery data is to look at the copyright information.
The other copyright notice you might find as you explore Yahoo Maps is from Aerials Express. Just that name might suggest aircraft and not satellite imagery, but nearly all press coverage of Yahoo's additions cites "satellite imagery."
Gary Price at ResourceShelf (he also works at Ask.com, but not in the mapping part) notes Yahoo offers "Aerial/Satellite imagery provided by Aerials Express, NASA, i-cubed, MDAFederal." I did find some MDAFederal imagery, but despite my best efforts, I could not get NASA to show up as a source. I suspect that's what "other government sources" means.
And, just to confuse things more, Forbes this week reports that Yahoo is working with GeoEye (the combination of ORBIMAGE and Space Imaging, after an acquisition). E-mails to Yahoo for confirmation have gone unanswered. But, an interview from April 20 has Michael Lawless, Yahoo Maps product manger, confirming working with GeoEye.
So, why the big mystery? Unlike other licensees of imagery or vector road data who allow the selected vendors to scream it from the rooftops, why is Yahoo not even mentioning the vendors’ names? Why do bloggers and librarians need to dig up this very high level metadata? Frankly, I’m puzzled.
Will Mapping Portals Drive Commercial Remote Sensing?
At one time I edited an imaging magazine and asked the same question many other folks asked: what's the future of commercial satellite remote sensing? Back then the commercial side of the house was quite small, with most of the funds coming from government sources. That's still true – but now consumers and thus business people and their kids – are becoming far savvier about satellite imagery.
Will looking at "pretty pictures" on mapping portals encourage spending on similar images? Will consumers and business learn to take advantage of advanced imagery like this simulated OrbView-3 four meter multispectral image of Castroville, California? (Image courtesy ORBIMAGE.)
So, will this ubiquity of imagery drive more commercial sales? Here's what we know: GeoEye provides imagery to Microsoft and Yahoo. DigitalGlobe provides its images to Google. Ask.com uses GlobeXplorer, which offers up many sources of satellite and aerial imagery. Space.com reports that neither of the satellite firms will disclose the nature or size of its contract, but both indicate it is evidence of a growing commercial market. Ed Jurkevics, an analyst with the firm Chesapeake Analytics, is quoted as saying that consumers and small business will be the third largest customer of satellite imagery in the coming years, after government and foreign ground stations.
Jurkevics goes on to speculate that current contracts from mapping portals with satellite imagery providers total about $25 million annually today. With demand for international sites and 3D growing, he expects that to jump five or six times in the coming years. He's quick to point out this depends quite a lot on the fickle consumer: "But if all of this fails to produce consumer interest, these expenditures won't develop."
So, the question comes back to this: does making imagery ubiquitous create demand for it? For a parallel, consider vector GIS data. Is there demand for it? Yes, indeed. Why? I'd suggest the answer is that there is so much you can do with it – routing, location-based services, emergency response, traffic management, geocoding… And, that means that NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas have many, many clients in the public and private sector. Satellite imagery? There are certainly things you can do: change detection, aerial analysis, feature extraction, etc., but those haven't yet been commercialized in the same way. For now, most users of portal imagery are "just looking at pictures." In short, the public (and thus the commercial sector) will need to see and learn more about these sorts of applications and uses, just like they have over the years with vector data uses.
location based services
The Mystery of Yahoo Maps Imagery
Like many, I was jazzed recently when Yahoo added imagery to its Yahoo Maps offering. And, like many, I was curious about its source. I could find nothing on Google Maps’ website about the imagery. I wrote a blog entry hoping someone from Yahoo might share the sources. No luck thus far.
Over time, tidbits are being revealed. I first read about USGS quads as sources for Yahoo's imagery in a comment to a post by James Fee at Spatial Adjusted. The poster cited a colleague who knew of a company that had helped "colorize" the black and white DOQs. He pointed out some oddities when old black and white images were meshed with newer "multispectral satellite data." My first thought was that's a lot of work to fix up what are rather old images.
But, that's certainly the source of at least some of the imagery, per Michael Lawless, a Yahoo product manager. He notes at the Yahoo Search Blog that indeed Yahoo is "using a lot of USGS data in the backfill, as well as other government sources that are much newer than that." He does point to U.S. and international updates that are expected soon.
Sean Gilles at Import Cartography confirms that i-cubed is the source of at least some of the imagery, likely exactly the imagery noted above. (I saw that company's copyright in the map window when I first checked out the imagery.) You can read up on the colorization process courtesy of i-cubed.
One of the few ways to know the source of Yahoo's new imagery data is to look at the copyright information.
The other copyright notice you might find as you explore Yahoo Maps is from Aerials Express. Just that name might suggest aircraft and not satellite imagery, but nearly all press coverage of Yahoo's additions cites "satellite imagery."
Gary Price at ResourceShelf (he also works at Ask.com, but not in the mapping part) notes Yahoo offers "Aerial/Satellite imagery provided by Aerials Express, NASA, i-cubed, MDAFederal." I did find some MDAFederal imagery, but despite my best efforts, I could not get NASA to show up as a source. I suspect that's what "other government sources" means.
And, just to confuse things more, Forbes this week reports that Yahoo is working with GeoEye (the combination of ORBIMAGE and Space Imaging, after an acquisition). E-mails to Yahoo for confirmation have gone unanswered. But, an interview from April 20 has Michael Lawless, Yahoo Maps product manger, confirming working with GeoEye.
So, why the big mystery? Unlike other licensees of imagery or vector road data who allow the selected vendors to scream it from the rooftops, why is Yahoo not even mentioning the vendors’ names? Why do bloggers and librarians need to dig up this very high level metadata? Frankly, I’m puzzled.
Will Mapping Portals Drive Commercial Remote Sensing?
At one time I edited an imaging magazine and asked the same question many other folks asked: what's the future of commercial satellite remote sensing? Back then the commercial side of the house was quite small, with most of the funds coming from government sources. That's still true – but now consumers and thus business people and their kids – are becoming far savvier about satellite imagery.
Will looking at "pretty pictures" on mapping portals encourage spending on similar images? Will consumers and business learn to take advantage of advanced imagery like this simulated OrbView-3 four meter multispectral image of Castroville, California? (Image courtesy ORBIMAGE.)
So, will this ubiquity of imagery drive more commercial sales? Here's what we know: GeoEye provides imagery to Microsoft and Yahoo. DigitalGlobe provides its images to Google. Ask.com uses GlobeXplorer, which offers up many sources of satellite and aerial imagery. Space.com reports that neither of the satellite firms will disclose the nature or size of its contract, but both indicate it is evidence of a growing commercial market. Ed Jurkevics, an analyst with the firm Chesapeake Analytics, is quoted as saying that consumers and small business will be the third largest customer of satellite imagery in the coming years, after government and foreign ground stations.
Jurkevics goes on to speculate that current contracts from mapping portals with satellite imagery providers total about $25 million annually today. With demand for international sites and 3D growing, he expects that to jump five or six times in the coming years. He's quick to point out this depends quite a lot on the fickle consumer: "But if all of this fails to produce consumer interest, these expenditures won't develop."
So, the question comes back to this: does making imagery ubiquitous create demand for it? For a parallel, consider vector GIS data. Is there demand for it? Yes, indeed. Why? I'd suggest the answer is that there is so much you can do with it – routing, location-based services, emergency response, traffic management, geocoding… And, that means that NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas have many, many clients in the public and private sector. Satellite imagery? There are certainly things you can do: change detection, aerial analysis, feature extraction, etc., but those haven't yet been commercialized in the same way. For now, most users of portal imagery are "just looking at pictures." In short, the public (and thus the commercial sector) will need to see and learn more about these sorts of applications and uses, just like they have over the years with vector data uses.
The Mystery of Yahoo Maps Imagery
location based services
The Mystery of Yahoo Maps ImageryLike many, I was jazzed recently when Yahoo added imagery to its Yahoo Maps offering. And, like many, I was curious about its source. I could find nothing on Google Maps’ website about the imagery. I wrote a blog entry hoping someone from Yahoo might share the sources. No luck thus far.Over time, tidbits are being revealed. I first read about USGS quads as sources for Yahoo's imagery in a comment to a post by James Fee at Spatial Adjusted. The poster cited a colleague who knew of a company that had helped "colorize" the black and white DOQs. He pointed out some oddities when old black and white images were meshed with newer "multispectral satellite data." My first thought was that's a lot of work to fix up what are rather old images.But, that's certainly the source of at least some of the imagery, per Michael Lawless, a Yahoo product manager. He notes at the Yahoo Search Blog that indeed Yahoo is "using a lot of USGS data in the backfill, as well as other government sources that are much newer than that." He does point to U.S. and international updates that are expected soon.Sean Gilles at Import Cartography confirms that i-cubed is the source of at least some of the imagery, likely exactly the imagery noted above. (I saw that company's copyright in the map window when I first checked out the imagery.) You can read up on the colorization process courtesy of i-cubed.
One of the few ways to know the source of Yahoo's new imagery data is to look at the copyright information. The other copyright notice you might find as you explore Yahoo Maps is from Aerials Express. Just that name might suggest aircraft and not satellite imagery, but nearly all press coverage of Yahoo's additions cites "satellite imagery."Gary Price at ResourceShelf (he also works at Ask.com, but not in the mapping part) notes Yahoo offers "Aerial/Satellite imagery provided by Aerials Express, NASA, i-cubed, MDAFederal." I did find some MDAFederal imagery, but despite my best efforts, I could not get NASA to show up as a source. I suspect that's what "other government sources" means.And, just to confuse things more, Forbes this week reports that Yahoo is working with GeoEye (the combination of ORBIMAGE and Space Imaging, after an acquisition). E-mails to Yahoo for confirmation have gone unanswered. But, an interview from April 20 has Michael Lawless, Yahoo Maps product manger, confirming working with GeoEye.So, why the big mystery? Unlike other licensees of imagery or vector road data who allow the selected vendors to scream it from the rooftops, why is Yahoo not even mentioning the vendors’ names? Why do bloggers and librarians need to dig up this very high level metadata? Frankly, I’m puzzled.Will Mapping Portals Drive Commercial Remote Sensing?At one time I edited an imaging magazine and asked the same question many other folks asked: what's the future of commercial satellite remote sensing? Back then the commercial side of the house was quite small, with most of the funds coming from government sources. That's still true – but now consumers and thus business people and their kids – are becoming far savvier about satellite imagery.
Will looking at "pretty pictures" on mapping portals encourage spending on similar images? Will consumers and business learn to take advantage of advanced imagery like this simulated OrbView-3 four meter multispectral image of Castroville, California? (Image courtesy ORBIMAGE.) So, will this ubiquity of imagery drive more commercial sales? Here's what we know: GeoEye provides imagery to Microsoft and Yahoo. DigitalGlobe provides its images to Google. Ask.com uses GlobeXplorer, which offers up many sources of satellite and aerial imagery. Space.com reports that neither of the satellite firms will disclose the nature or size of its contract, but both indicate it is evidence of a growing commercial market. Ed Jurkevics, an analyst with the firm Chesapeake Analytics, is quoted as saying that consumers and small business will be the third largest customer of satellite imagery in the coming years, after government and foreign ground stations.Jurkevics goes on to speculate that current contracts from mapping portals with satellite imagery providers total about $25 million annually today. With demand for international sites and 3D growing, he expects that to jump five or six times in the coming years. He's quick to point out this depends quite a lot on the fickle consumer: "But if all of this fails to produce consumer interest, these expenditures won't develop."So, the question comes back to this: does making imagery ubiquitous create demand for it? For a parallel, consider vector GIS data. Is there demand for it? Yes, indeed. Why? I'd suggest the answer is that there is so much you can do with it – routing, location-based services, emergency response, traffic management, geocoding… And, that means that NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas have many, many clients in the public and private sector. Satellite imagery? There are certainly things you can do: change detection, aerial analysis, feature extraction, etc., but those haven't yet been commercialized in the same way. For now, most users of portal imagery are "just looking at pictures." In short, the public (and thus the commercial sector) will need to see and learn more about these sorts of applications and uses, just like they have over the years with vector data uses.
More about this author -->
Your CommentsPost a comment
All comments provided in this section are those of the individual that has created the post. These are not the opinions of Directions Magazine, its editors, staff or owners unless otherwise noted. Directions Magazine retains the right to edit or delete any comments posted herein.
Yahoo Map sources (#1)by Mats Elfström, FB Engineering AB
Hi!I think that Yahoo does like Google do, obtain imagery piece by piece, whereever it is available.I could immediately see, because of a cloud pattern, that the source for the satellite imagery over my home region in Sweden has the same source in Google Earth as in Yahoo Maps beta.
Field of Dreams (#2)by Bruce Westcott, I'll keep any comany I can
"If we build it, they will come." That seems to be the last refuge of marketeers who cannot with a straight face tell us what consumers will "demand." Sometimes I am sad that I lack imagination but, like Adena, tend to think there ain't much you can actually do with this cool stuff. Maybe there will be new applications that make more things consumers can do, but (in their absence) I'd bet consumer demand will be fitful and thin.
More on GeoEye and Yahoo (#3)by Mark Brender, VP, Communications & Marketing for GeoEye
It is true that GeoEye is working with Yahoo and provided them 1-meter resolution IKONOS satellite imagery which was included in the launch of their beta site on the evening of April 11, 2006. Unfortunately, we can not disclose much more surrounding the terms of the agreement or about future plans. But what we can do is talk about how more and more consumers, military, government officials and commercial businessmen are beginning to think geospatially.
The next, next, next, next , next big thing (#4)by Archie Belaney, GreyOwl Analytics
Yup, yessiree-bob you betcha...Prospertity is just around the corner for them satellite companies.
location based services
The Mystery of Yahoo Maps ImageryLike many, I was jazzed recently when Yahoo added imagery to its Yahoo Maps offering. And, like many, I was curious about its source. I could find nothing on Google Maps’ website about the imagery. I wrote a blog entry hoping someone from Yahoo might share the sources. No luck thus far.Over time, tidbits are being revealed. I first read about USGS quads as sources for Yahoo's imagery in a comment to a post by James Fee at Spatial Adjusted. The poster cited a colleague who knew of a company that had helped "colorize" the black and white DOQs. He pointed out some oddities when old black and white images were meshed with newer "multispectral satellite data." My first thought was that's a lot of work to fix up what are rather old images.But, that's certainly the source of at least some of the imagery, per Michael Lawless, a Yahoo product manager. He notes at the Yahoo Search Blog that indeed Yahoo is "using a lot of USGS data in the backfill, as well as other government sources that are much newer than that." He does point to U.S. and international updates that are expected soon.Sean Gilles at Import Cartography confirms that i-cubed is the source of at least some of the imagery, likely exactly the imagery noted above. (I saw that company's copyright in the map window when I first checked out the imagery.) You can read up on the colorization process courtesy of i-cubed.
One of the few ways to know the source of Yahoo's new imagery data is to look at the copyright information. The other copyright notice you might find as you explore Yahoo Maps is from Aerials Express. Just that name might suggest aircraft and not satellite imagery, but nearly all press coverage of Yahoo's additions cites "satellite imagery."Gary Price at ResourceShelf (he also works at Ask.com, but not in the mapping part) notes Yahoo offers "Aerial/Satellite imagery provided by Aerials Express, NASA, i-cubed, MDAFederal." I did find some MDAFederal imagery, but despite my best efforts, I could not get NASA to show up as a source. I suspect that's what "other government sources" means.And, just to confuse things more, Forbes this week reports that Yahoo is working with GeoEye (the combination of ORBIMAGE and Space Imaging, after an acquisition). E-mails to Yahoo for confirmation have gone unanswered. But, an interview from April 20 has Michael Lawless, Yahoo Maps product manger, confirming working with GeoEye.So, why the big mystery? Unlike other licensees of imagery or vector road data who allow the selected vendors to scream it from the rooftops, why is Yahoo not even mentioning the vendors’ names? Why do bloggers and librarians need to dig up this very high level metadata? Frankly, I’m puzzled.Will Mapping Portals Drive Commercial Remote Sensing?At one time I edited an imaging magazine and asked the same question many other folks asked: what's the future of commercial satellite remote sensing? Back then the commercial side of the house was quite small, with most of the funds coming from government sources. That's still true – but now consumers and thus business people and their kids – are becoming far savvier about satellite imagery.
Will looking at "pretty pictures" on mapping portals encourage spending on similar images? Will consumers and business learn to take advantage of advanced imagery like this simulated OrbView-3 four meter multispectral image of Castroville, California? (Image courtesy ORBIMAGE.) So, will this ubiquity of imagery drive more commercial sales? Here's what we know: GeoEye provides imagery to Microsoft and Yahoo. DigitalGlobe provides its images to Google. Ask.com uses GlobeXplorer, which offers up many sources of satellite and aerial imagery. Space.com reports that neither of the satellite firms will disclose the nature or size of its contract, but both indicate it is evidence of a growing commercial market. Ed Jurkevics, an analyst with the firm Chesapeake Analytics, is quoted as saying that consumers and small business will be the third largest customer of satellite imagery in the coming years, after government and foreign ground stations.Jurkevics goes on to speculate that current contracts from mapping portals with satellite imagery providers total about $25 million annually today. With demand for international sites and 3D growing, he expects that to jump five or six times in the coming years. He's quick to point out this depends quite a lot on the fickle consumer: "But if all of this fails to produce consumer interest, these expenditures won't develop."So, the question comes back to this: does making imagery ubiquitous create demand for it? For a parallel, consider vector GIS data. Is there demand for it? Yes, indeed. Why? I'd suggest the answer is that there is so much you can do with it – routing, location-based services, emergency response, traffic management, geocoding… And, that means that NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas have many, many clients in the public and private sector. Satellite imagery? There are certainly things you can do: change detection, aerial analysis, feature extraction, etc., but those haven't yet been commercialized in the same way. For now, most users of portal imagery are "just looking at pictures." In short, the public (and thus the commercial sector) will need to see and learn more about these sorts of applications and uses, just like they have over the years with vector data uses.
More about this author -->
Your CommentsPost a comment
All comments provided in this section are those of the individual that has created the post. These are not the opinions of Directions Magazine, its editors, staff or owners unless otherwise noted. Directions Magazine retains the right to edit or delete any comments posted herein.
Yahoo Map sources (#1)by Mats Elfström, FB Engineering AB
Hi!I think that Yahoo does like Google do, obtain imagery piece by piece, whereever it is available.I could immediately see, because of a cloud pattern, that the source for the satellite imagery over my home region in Sweden has the same source in Google Earth as in Yahoo Maps beta.
Field of Dreams (#2)by Bruce Westcott, I'll keep any comany I can
"If we build it, they will come." That seems to be the last refuge of marketeers who cannot with a straight face tell us what consumers will "demand." Sometimes I am sad that I lack imagination but, like Adena, tend to think there ain't much you can actually do with this cool stuff. Maybe there will be new applications that make more things consumers can do, but (in their absence) I'd bet consumer demand will be fitful and thin.
More on GeoEye and Yahoo (#3)by Mark Brender, VP, Communications & Marketing for GeoEye
It is true that GeoEye is working with Yahoo and provided them 1-meter resolution IKONOS satellite imagery which was included in the launch of their beta site on the evening of April 11, 2006. Unfortunately, we can not disclose much more surrounding the terms of the agreement or about future plans. But what we can do is talk about how more and more consumers, military, government officials and commercial businessmen are beginning to think geospatially.
The next, next, next, next , next big thing (#4)by Archie Belaney, GreyOwl Analytics
Yup, yessiree-bob you betcha...Prospertity is just around the corner for them satellite companies.
MGeocoder: A Geocoding Google Maps API Extention:
location based services
"The Google Maps API lacks a Geocoder. This extension integrates free geocoders (for non-commercial use) directly into Google Maps.
Click the 'Geocode' button in the map above to search for US addresses, or International cities.
How: Adding a geocoder to your Google Map is as simple as the following Javascript.
For version 1.. "
location based services
"The Google Maps API lacks a Geocoder. This extension integrates free geocoders (for non-commercial use) directly into Google Maps.
Click the 'Geocode' button in the map above to search for US addresses, or International cities.
How: Adding a geocoder to your Google Map is as simple as the following Javascript.
For version 1.. "
MGeocoder: A Geocoding Google Maps API Extention:
location based services
"The Google Maps API lacks a Geocoder. This extension integrates free geocoders (for non-commercial use) directly into Google Maps.
Click the 'Geocode' button in the map above to search for US addresses, or International cities.
How: Adding a geocoder to your Google Map is as simple as the following Javascript.
For version 1..
..and version 2..
Download: A proxy is required to work around browser security. A simple proxy in php is available here. Rename to proxy.php and place in the same directory as your GMap application. The javascript GMaps v1, and GMaps v2.
License: Use of the MGeocoder class requires compliance with Terms of Use of geocoder.us and brainoff.com/geocoder. Check with these services before deploying MGeocoder!
Contact: I am reachable at [mikel_maron yahoo com]. My weblog.
Todos (help welcome!):
Make the button look better. Maybe subclass GMapTypeControl
Option to add marker when location is navigated to.
Generally more control over what happens when location is found. Callback mechanism.
better error messages
allow MGeocoder to be called from form external to map "
location based services
"The Google Maps API lacks a Geocoder. This extension integrates free geocoders (for non-commercial use) directly into Google Maps.
Click the 'Geocode' button in the map above to search for US addresses, or International cities.
How: Adding a geocoder to your Google Map is as simple as the following Javascript.
For version 1..
..and version 2..
Download: A proxy is required to work around browser security. A simple proxy in php is available here. Rename to proxy.php and place in the same directory as your GMap application. The javascript GMaps v1, and GMaps v2.
License: Use of the MGeocoder class requires compliance with Terms of Use of geocoder.us and brainoff.com/geocoder. Check with these services before deploying MGeocoder!
Contact: I am reachable at [mikel_maron yahoo com]. My weblog.
Todos (help welcome!):
Make the button look better. Maybe subclass GMapTypeControl
Option to add marker when location is navigated to.
Generally more control over what happens when location is found. Callback mechanism.
better error messages
allow MGeocoder to be called from form external to map "
MGeocoder: A Geocoding Google Maps API Extention
location based services
The Google Maps API lacks a Geocoder. This extension integrates free geocoders (for non-commercial use) directly into Google Maps.
Click the "Geocode" button in the map above to search for US addresses, or International cities.
How: Adding a geocoder to your Google Map is as simple as the following Javascript.
For version 1..
..and version 2..
Download: A proxy is required to work around browser security. A simple proxy in php is available here. Rename to proxy.php and place in the same directory as your GMap application. The javascript GMaps v1, and GMaps v2.
License: Use of the MGeocoder class requires compliance with Terms of Use of geocoder.us and brainoff.com/geocoder. Check with these services before deploying MGeocoder!
Contact: I am reachable at [mikel_maron yahoo com]. My weblog.
Todos (help welcome!):
Make the button look better. Maybe subclass GMapTypeControl
Option to add marker when location is navigated to.
Generally more control over what happens when location is found. Callback mechanism.
better error messages
allow MGeocoder to be called from form external to map
location based services
The Google Maps API lacks a Geocoder. This extension integrates free geocoders (for non-commercial use) directly into Google Maps.
Click the "Geocode" button in the map above to search for US addresses, or International cities.
How: Adding a geocoder to your Google Map is as simple as the following Javascript.
For version 1..
..and version 2..
Download: A proxy is required to work around browser security. A simple proxy in php is available here. Rename to proxy.php and place in the same directory as your GMap application. The javascript GMaps v1, and GMaps v2.
License: Use of the MGeocoder class requires compliance with Terms of Use of geocoder.us and brainoff.com/geocoder. Check with these services before deploying MGeocoder!
Contact: I am reachable at [mikel_maron yahoo com]. My weblog.
Todos (help welcome!):
Make the button look better. Maybe subclass GMapTypeControl
Option to add marker when location is navigated to.
Generally more control over what happens when location is found. Callback mechanism.
better error messages
allow MGeocoder to be called from form external to map
Microvision (MVIS) Blog: Location-based Mixed Reality for Mobile Information Services
location based services
By Dr. Fotis LiarokapisWith advances in tracking technologies, new and challenging navigational applications have emerged. The availability of mobile devices with global positioning system receivers has stimulated the growth of location-based services, or LBS, such as location-sensitive directories, m-commerce and mapping applications.Today, standard GPS devices are becoming more and more affordable, and this promises to be the lead technology in use in LBS. Commercial applications such as in-car navigation systems are already established. However, for other potential applications like pedestrian urban navigation standard GPS devices are still deficient in providing high accuracy (ranges between 10 to 50 meters); coverage in urban areas (in-between high buildings or inside tunnels); and coverage in indoor environments.An assisted GPS application has been proposed that features orientation assistance provided by computer-vision techniques — detecting features included in the navigation route. These could be either user-predefined fiducials or a careful selection of real-world features (i.e. parts of buildings or whole buildings).With the combination of position and orientation it is possible to design “augmented reality” interfaces, which offer a richer cognitive experience, and which deliver orientation information infinitely and without the limitations of maps. However, to complement the environment in an AR setup, the continuous calculation of position and orientation information in real time is necessary. The key problem for vision-based AR is the difficulty obtaining sufficiently accurate position and orientation information in real time, which is crucial for stable registration between the real and virtual objects.The Development of Location Context tools for UMTS Mobile Information Services research project, or LOCUS, aims to significantly enhance the current map-based user-interface paradigm on a mobile device through the use of virtual reality and augmented reality techniques. Based on the principles of both AR and VR, a prototype mixed reality interface has been designed to be superimposed on location aware 3D models, 3D sound, images and textual information in both indoor and outdoor environments. As a case study, the campus of City University (London) has been modeled and preliminary tests of the system were performed using an outdoor navigation within the campus.Research IssuesA number of principal research issues, related to good calibration and registration techniques are being addressed. They include:Registration of the geographical information with real objects in real-time Use of mixed reality for spatial visualization at decision points Integration of visualized geographic information with other location-based services System Architecture and FunctionalityTo explore the potential of augmented reality in practice, we have designed a tangible mixed reality interface. An overview of the system architecture at the mobile device side includes a tracking sub-system, camera sub-system, graphical representation sub-system and user-Interface sub-system.The AR models acquire both the location and orientation information through a client API on the mobile device, which is sent to the server. The server will build and render the scene graph associated with the location selected and return it to the client for portrayal.Image-based ModellingThe first significant challenge is to model the areas of interest as accurately and realistically as possible. We are modeling the 3D scene around the user by means of image-based modeling techniques. A partner on the project, GeoInformation Group (Cambridge, U.K.) provided a unique and comprehensive set of building height/type and footprint data for London. Subsequently, the 3D models are extruded up from Mastermap building footprints to heights held in the GIG City heights database.Next, textures are manually captured using a digital camera with five megapixel resolution in order to create a more realistic virtual environment.Mixed Reality Pre-navigational ExperiencesThe stereotypical representation for self-localization and navigation is the map, which leads to the assumption that a digital map is also an appropriate environment representation on mobile devices. However, maps are designed for a detached overview (allocentric) rather than a self-referential personal view (egocentric), which poses new challenges. To test these issues we have developed an indoor pre-navigation visual interface to simulate the urban environment in which the user will ultimately navigate.In particular, a novel mixed reality interface, referred to as MRGIS, was implemented that uses computer-vision techniques to estimate the camera position and orientation, in six degrees-of-freedom, and to register geospatial multimedia information, in real time. Two procedures are being pursued for calibration: a technique involving a set of pre-calibrated marker cards, and an algorithm using image processing to identify fiducial points in the scene.In the context of LOCUS, geospatial information that we believe would make a significant improvement in the navigation process includes 3D maps, 2D maps (with other graphical overlays), 2D and 3D textual information (guidance, description and historical information) and spatial sound (narration).Another advantage of the system is that it provides the user with a tool to control the form of visualization and the level of interaction with geographical information, in both VR and AR environments. MRGIS can seamlessly operate using any number of input devices.The main virtue of the interface is that it can combine the multimedia information effectively without sacrificing the overall efficiency of the application. Thus, different pre-navigation scenarios can be supported to meet the requirements and demands of the users.Another advantage of MRGIS in terms of augmentation is that it supports VRML animation. Animation as a navigational aid is an unexplored area and we believe that it has a significant potential. To illustrate the capabilities of animation, a virtual representation of a human, an avatar, was created in the virtual scene. Next, a potential walkthrough around City University’s campus was designed. This makes the application look more ‘alive’ thus increasing the user’s feel of immersion in the environment.The mixed reality system has been demonstrated to a number of industrial partners and at scientific conferences with encouraging feedback. The avatar-based walkthrough received positive initial feedback, but further tests of its usefulness need to be performed.Augmented Reality Outdoor NavigationBased on the indoor, pre-navigational experiences, we have designed two prototype systems for outdoor navigation, particularly in urban environments. The work draws on the research of the Columbia Universities’ MARS project and shares some research with a Vienna University of Technology AR tourist guide application. MARS was developed to aid navigation and provide information to tourists in a city, while the latter addresses issues such as data management for very large geographic 3D models and efficient techniques for collaborative outdoor AR user interfaces.The end-user has two options for navigating in the real environment. The first requires some initial calibration of the environment prior to the navigation. Fiducial points (marker cards) must be positioned in a number of decision points, or “hotspots,” in the outdoor environment. As the end-user reaches a decision point (which may be the end of a road), a marker card assists navigating inside the designated area. A camera scans the environment for artificial marker cards, and when one is detected helpful multimedia information is superimposed onto the cards. (Figure 1).The alternative way to perform navigation is to detect natural features from the environment. In the case of the City campus, all buildings consist of regular sized shapes such as rectangular sized windows and door entrances. Using edge detection and template matching new fiducials can be trained and used instead of the marker cards. A screenshot demonstrating the implementation of this method is provided in Figure 2.The major disadvantage of the “markers” scenario is that it requires the preparation of the real environment and it provides a limited range of operation. On the other hand, markers provide very robust tracking. The “natural features” scenario has a large range of operation with no need to prepare the environment, and thus it can be more easily applied for urban navigation and wayfinding. However, calibration is much harder to achieve especially when dealing with buildings that look similar. We are planning to follow a hybrid approach in the future using a combination of GPS and natural feature scenarios.PDA-based NavigationOrientation will be provided by a digital compass. A hybrid approach can be then deployed utilizing a balance between both hardware (GPS and digital compass) and computer vision techniques to achieve the best registration results. In addition, we plan to develop new tools to characterize the spatio-temporal context defining the user's geographic information needs, and to build navigation and routing applications sensitive to this context.ConclusionsThis research, funded by the EPSRC, through Pinpoint Faraday Partnership, aims to enhance the UK research base in the emerging mobile information science. LBS are a crucial element in the strategy to develop new revenue streams alongside voice, and this research could significantly improve the usability and functionality of these services. The design issues must now be addressed through holistic task-based studies of the applications needed, and their usability at cognitive, ergonomic, informational and geographic levels.
posted by Ben # 11:35 AM
Comments: Post a Comment
location based services
By Dr. Fotis LiarokapisWith advances in tracking technologies, new and challenging navigational applications have emerged. The availability of mobile devices with global positioning system receivers has stimulated the growth of location-based services, or LBS, such as location-sensitive directories, m-commerce and mapping applications.Today, standard GPS devices are becoming more and more affordable, and this promises to be the lead technology in use in LBS. Commercial applications such as in-car navigation systems are already established. However, for other potential applications like pedestrian urban navigation standard GPS devices are still deficient in providing high accuracy (ranges between 10 to 50 meters); coverage in urban areas (in-between high buildings or inside tunnels); and coverage in indoor environments.An assisted GPS application has been proposed that features orientation assistance provided by computer-vision techniques — detecting features included in the navigation route. These could be either user-predefined fiducials or a careful selection of real-world features (i.e. parts of buildings or whole buildings).With the combination of position and orientation it is possible to design “augmented reality” interfaces, which offer a richer cognitive experience, and which deliver orientation information infinitely and without the limitations of maps. However, to complement the environment in an AR setup, the continuous calculation of position and orientation information in real time is necessary. The key problem for vision-based AR is the difficulty obtaining sufficiently accurate position and orientation information in real time, which is crucial for stable registration between the real and virtual objects.The Development of Location Context tools for UMTS Mobile Information Services research project, or LOCUS, aims to significantly enhance the current map-based user-interface paradigm on a mobile device through the use of virtual reality and augmented reality techniques. Based on the principles of both AR and VR, a prototype mixed reality interface has been designed to be superimposed on location aware 3D models, 3D sound, images and textual information in both indoor and outdoor environments. As a case study, the campus of City University (London) has been modeled and preliminary tests of the system were performed using an outdoor navigation within the campus.Research IssuesA number of principal research issues, related to good calibration and registration techniques are being addressed. They include:Registration of the geographical information with real objects in real-time Use of mixed reality for spatial visualization at decision points Integration of visualized geographic information with other location-based services System Architecture and FunctionalityTo explore the potential of augmented reality in practice, we have designed a tangible mixed reality interface. An overview of the system architecture at the mobile device side includes a tracking sub-system, camera sub-system, graphical representation sub-system and user-Interface sub-system.The AR models acquire both the location and orientation information through a client API on the mobile device, which is sent to the server. The server will build and render the scene graph associated with the location selected and return it to the client for portrayal.Image-based ModellingThe first significant challenge is to model the areas of interest as accurately and realistically as possible. We are modeling the 3D scene around the user by means of image-based modeling techniques. A partner on the project, GeoInformation Group (Cambridge, U.K.) provided a unique and comprehensive set of building height/type and footprint data for London. Subsequently, the 3D models are extruded up from Mastermap building footprints to heights held in the GIG City heights database.Next, textures are manually captured using a digital camera with five megapixel resolution in order to create a more realistic virtual environment.Mixed Reality Pre-navigational ExperiencesThe stereotypical representation for self-localization and navigation is the map, which leads to the assumption that a digital map is also an appropriate environment representation on mobile devices. However, maps are designed for a detached overview (allocentric) rather than a self-referential personal view (egocentric), which poses new challenges. To test these issues we have developed an indoor pre-navigation visual interface to simulate the urban environment in which the user will ultimately navigate.In particular, a novel mixed reality interface, referred to as MRGIS, was implemented that uses computer-vision techniques to estimate the camera position and orientation, in six degrees-of-freedom, and to register geospatial multimedia information, in real time. Two procedures are being pursued for calibration: a technique involving a set of pre-calibrated marker cards, and an algorithm using image processing to identify fiducial points in the scene.In the context of LOCUS, geospatial information that we believe would make a significant improvement in the navigation process includes 3D maps, 2D maps (with other graphical overlays), 2D and 3D textual information (guidance, description and historical information) and spatial sound (narration).Another advantage of the system is that it provides the user with a tool to control the form of visualization and the level of interaction with geographical information, in both VR and AR environments. MRGIS can seamlessly operate using any number of input devices.The main virtue of the interface is that it can combine the multimedia information effectively without sacrificing the overall efficiency of the application. Thus, different pre-navigation scenarios can be supported to meet the requirements and demands of the users.Another advantage of MRGIS in terms of augmentation is that it supports VRML animation. Animation as a navigational aid is an unexplored area and we believe that it has a significant potential. To illustrate the capabilities of animation, a virtual representation of a human, an avatar, was created in the virtual scene. Next, a potential walkthrough around City University’s campus was designed. This makes the application look more ‘alive’ thus increasing the user’s feel of immersion in the environment.The mixed reality system has been demonstrated to a number of industrial partners and at scientific conferences with encouraging feedback. The avatar-based walkthrough received positive initial feedback, but further tests of its usefulness need to be performed.Augmented Reality Outdoor NavigationBased on the indoor, pre-navigational experiences, we have designed two prototype systems for outdoor navigation, particularly in urban environments. The work draws on the research of the Columbia Universities’ MARS project and shares some research with a Vienna University of Technology AR tourist guide application. MARS was developed to aid navigation and provide information to tourists in a city, while the latter addresses issues such as data management for very large geographic 3D models and efficient techniques for collaborative outdoor AR user interfaces.The end-user has two options for navigating in the real environment. The first requires some initial calibration of the environment prior to the navigation. Fiducial points (marker cards) must be positioned in a number of decision points, or “hotspots,” in the outdoor environment. As the end-user reaches a decision point (which may be the end of a road), a marker card assists navigating inside the designated area. A camera scans the environment for artificial marker cards, and when one is detected helpful multimedia information is superimposed onto the cards. (Figure 1).The alternative way to perform navigation is to detect natural features from the environment. In the case of the City campus, all buildings consist of regular sized shapes such as rectangular sized windows and door entrances. Using edge detection and template matching new fiducials can be trained and used instead of the marker cards. A screenshot demonstrating the implementation of this method is provided in Figure 2.The major disadvantage of the “markers” scenario is that it requires the preparation of the real environment and it provides a limited range of operation. On the other hand, markers provide very robust tracking. The “natural features” scenario has a large range of operation with no need to prepare the environment, and thus it can be more easily applied for urban navigation and wayfinding. However, calibration is much harder to achieve especially when dealing with buildings that look similar. We are planning to follow a hybrid approach in the future using a combination of GPS and natural feature scenarios.PDA-based NavigationOrientation will be provided by a digital compass. A hybrid approach can be then deployed utilizing a balance between both hardware (GPS and digital compass) and computer vision techniques to achieve the best registration results. In addition, we plan to develop new tools to characterize the spatio-temporal context defining the user's geographic information needs, and to build navigation and routing applications sensitive to this context.ConclusionsThis research, funded by the EPSRC, through Pinpoint Faraday Partnership, aims to enhance the UK research base in the emerging mobile information science. LBS are a crucial element in the strategy to develop new revenue streams alongside voice, and this research could significantly improve the usability and functionality of these services. The design issues must now be addressed through holistic task-based studies of the applications needed, and their usability at cognitive, ergonomic, informational and geographic levels.
posted by Ben # 11:35 AM
Comments: Post a Comment
Navigating the Roadblocks to Consumer LBS Success - Articles: "Articles
location based services
Navigating the Roadblocks to Consumer LBS Success
By Erica Karlsen
(Apr 25, 2006)Post a comment
Sponsored Links:
Microsoft MapPoint - the technology behind Microsoft's mapping and location services platforms and applications. Click here to learn more.
I have come to terms with something that I have tried to overcome for years now. Despite the fact that I work for a mobile technology company, staying on top of current trends and working with industry experts, at the end of the day I am still a mobile user like anyone else. I may know more about mobile location than most people but as a civilian, I still just want my mobile services to be practical or fun, easy, reliable and affordable.
Can�t we all just play together?
For example, I love my cool, new 3G mobile that happens to take fantastic photos and video. But it frustrates me no end that I can�t send pictures to most of my friends because they, like normal people (and in accordance with the chaos theory), have contracts with different carriers and there is no full interoperability for MMS, at least not here in Spain, and not in most other markets either. I often think how much money the operators aren�t earning because of this (and, on the bright side, how much I�m not spending). Apparently there is some way to upload your photos to the Web and your friends can be told to check them, but as a user, that just seems like too much trouble. It�s like a joke that requires so much explanation that it completely loses its funny.
I use this little anecdote to help illustrate why I see interoperability as crucial to the success of many location-enhanced mobile applications. Lots of these services"
location based services
Navigating the Roadblocks to Consumer LBS Success
By Erica Karlsen
(Apr 25, 2006)Post a comment
Sponsored Links:
Microsoft MapPoint - the technology behind Microsoft's mapping and location services platforms and applications. Click here to learn more.
I have come to terms with something that I have tried to overcome for years now. Despite the fact that I work for a mobile technology company, staying on top of current trends and working with industry experts, at the end of the day I am still a mobile user like anyone else. I may know more about mobile location than most people but as a civilian, I still just want my mobile services to be practical or fun, easy, reliable and affordable.
Can�t we all just play together?
For example, I love my cool, new 3G mobile that happens to take fantastic photos and video. But it frustrates me no end that I can�t send pictures to most of my friends because they, like normal people (and in accordance with the chaos theory), have contracts with different carriers and there is no full interoperability for MMS, at least not here in Spain, and not in most other markets either. I often think how much money the operators aren�t earning because of this (and, on the bright side, how much I�m not spending). Apparently there is some way to upload your photos to the Web and your friends can be told to check them, but as a user, that just seems like too much trouble. It�s like a joke that requires so much explanation that it completely loses its funny.
I use this little anecdote to help illustrate why I see interoperability as crucial to the success of many location-enhanced mobile applications. Lots of these services"
Navigating the Roadblocks to Consumer LBS Success - Articles
Articles
Navigating the Roadblocks to Consumer LBS SuccessBy Erica Karlsen
(Apr 25, 2006)
Post a comment
Sponsored Links:
Microsoft MapPoint - the technology behind Microsoft's mapping and location services platforms and applications. Click here to learn more.
-->
I have come to terms with something that I have tried to overcome for years now. Despite the fact that I work for a mobile technology company, staying on top of current trends and working with industry experts, at the end of the day I am still a mobile user like anyone else. I may know more about mobile location than most people but as a civilian, I still just want my mobile services to be practical or fun, easy, reliable and affordable. Can’t we all just play together?For example, I love my cool, new 3G mobile that happens to take fantastic photos and video. But it frustrates me no end that I can’t send pictures to most of my friends because they, like normal people (and in accordance with the chaos theory), have contracts with different carriers and there is no full interoperability for MMS, at least not here in Spain, and not in most other markets either. I often think how much money the operators aren’t earning because of this (and, on the bright side, how much I’m not spending). Apparently there is some way to upload your photos to the Web and your friends can be told to check them, but as a user, that just seems like too much trouble. It’s like a joke that requires so much explanation that it completely loses its funny.I use this little anecdote to help illustrate why I see interoperability as crucial to the success of many location-enhanced mobile applications. Lots of these services, like buddy-finders and games, require people to participate based upon their personal connection to another user, not because they chose one provider over another. By limiting potential users to subscribers of the home network, participation takes a huge hit. The beauty of social applications is that by sparking the interest of just one person, you can end up attracting a multitude of new users, as friends invite friends to participate. However, an operator offering a buddy-finder application that doesn’t interact with subscribers of other networks will encounter very limited success. It’s unlikely that a simple service will be enough to encourage a person to switch to another provider; especially considering the difficulties often involved with number portability and contract obligations.This may explain why, up until now, the LBS strategy of many operators has been to offer services that either rely on the "captive” audience of enterprise customers like Fleet Management, or do not require interaction between users, like simple location-based local information and navigation. It’s not really surprising that operator-operator interworking has yet to be realized for LBS. The more complicated the service, the more difficult it is for mobile providers to reach agreements that are mutually acceptable. And location, that private and personal piece of information, might just be the mother of all complications. Not only do operators have to conform to often strict local/national regulations regarding the handling of sensitive personal information, but they may also devise their own specific processes and procedures that need to be considered when data is to be shared with another party. Reaching agreements under these circumstances can be complex and time-consuming.But now we see that today’s more sophisticated networks and handsets are making the market for LBS much more attractive and the walls of the operator’s "garden” of services are crumbling. Today, some of the most innovative location-enhanced applications are social or community services which take the ideas of Internet-based communities like MySpace and Friendster to the streets. For a good example, check out Streethive which integrates group text and image messaging with location services like local posting and alerts. It’s in Beta right now but it’s a fair assessment to suggest that it, or another service (perhaps one offered by one of the popular online communities), will make a big splash in the coming months and years and thereby herald the coming of the consumer-oriented mobile location service. So third parties are picking up where operators left off. But is there a future for operator-operator LBS interoperability? Better question: Should there be? I say no and that LBS roaming will actually be a bigger issue as carriers look to extend the reach of their location-based fleet management services and keep from losing their client base to the growing number of third party service providers. But that’s another topic entirely…Finding the right priceWhen several industry experts were asked what they viewed to be the most important barriers to the adoption of location-based services (see the article entitled LBS 2006 - A Breakout Year? at Directions), the answers were all valid, ranging from privacy and positioning technologies to application availability and usability. However, it seems to me that the most challenging barrier identified is price, especially in the case of consumer-oriented services. Before I explain, I’ll just touch upon why the other barriers carry less weight. The availability and usability of location services is something that mobile application developers worldwide are working industriously to improve as we speak. The graphics capabilities, memory capacity, Web access and other functions of newer handsets enable usability features that just a couple of years ago were limited to text messaging commands, WAP, and I-mode. It’s just a question of time before the availability barrier becomes irrelevant. More precise positioning? It’s already becoming available in more and more regions, specifically through A-GPS. However, it’s worth pointing out that A-GPS is not a silver bullet (due to its performance indoors) and that high accuracy is not necessary for all location services; some basic applications meet expectations using simple Cell-ID positioning. Personal privacy? It is my opinion that if some people are sceptical, there won’t be much you can say to convince them that their information will indeed be treated confidentially. If it’s a barrier for certain mobile users, that barrier will be difficult to remove. Let’s also not forget how sensitive this issue will be to negative PR. Any news about the misuse of location information could be disastrous for location services. Fortunately, I’ve only heard stories that show how strictly location information is protected. Here’s one.Just a couple of months ago, a man in California made news when his car was stolen with his mobile phone inside along with his 11-month old baby. The mobile carrier refused to release the location information even though the phone’s owner was requesting it directly. Instead, they demanded a government subpoena. Fortunately all ended well as the car thieves took pity and left the car and baby to be found before the paperwork became necessary.Pricing, however, is key. It’s as fundamental a piece of the marketing mix as it is for any other product or service. Operators and ASPs (application service providers) would be smart to offer several pricing options such as pay per use, flat rates, or bundling application use in subscriber service packages. With the growing number of ASPs, operators will have to work out policies that not only protect their users’ privacy, but also make location data available at prices that make services, especially consumer-oriented services, viable and attractive. I heard about an operator who set a fixed price on its subscriber’s location data and when approached by a company with a proposal for a service that would help fight credit card fraud, it was not willing to negotiate. As a consequence, the deal was not reached and the operator missed out on an opportunity for a new revenue stream. Operators will have to be flexible in their approach to pricing if they want these location services to generate momentum that will in turn boost their data revenues. They have to consider each service’s potential and target market and do their part (within reason) to make location fulfil its promise. In a nutshellThe two topics I’ve addressed here, interoperability and pricing, are interrelated. As direct LBS interworking between operators becomes less and less likely, ASPs are stepping in to fill the void and provide open access to location-enhanced services. Operators need to review their plans for "selling" location data to ASPs, selecting price points that ensure that the services are viable. The "cool" factor of location is something I believe will ultimately win over a considerable number of mobile users, especially in younger age brackets. But what is needed now is a kick-start that can come in the form of community-based services and accessible pricing.
More about this author -->
Articles
Navigating the Roadblocks to Consumer LBS SuccessBy Erica Karlsen
(Apr 25, 2006)
Post a comment
Sponsored Links:
Microsoft MapPoint - the technology behind Microsoft's mapping and location services platforms and applications. Click here to learn more.
-->
I have come to terms with something that I have tried to overcome for years now. Despite the fact that I work for a mobile technology company, staying on top of current trends and working with industry experts, at the end of the day I am still a mobile user like anyone else. I may know more about mobile location than most people but as a civilian, I still just want my mobile services to be practical or fun, easy, reliable and affordable. Can’t we all just play together?For example, I love my cool, new 3G mobile that happens to take fantastic photos and video. But it frustrates me no end that I can’t send pictures to most of my friends because they, like normal people (and in accordance with the chaos theory), have contracts with different carriers and there is no full interoperability for MMS, at least not here in Spain, and not in most other markets either. I often think how much money the operators aren’t earning because of this (and, on the bright side, how much I’m not spending). Apparently there is some way to upload your photos to the Web and your friends can be told to check them, but as a user, that just seems like too much trouble. It’s like a joke that requires so much explanation that it completely loses its funny.I use this little anecdote to help illustrate why I see interoperability as crucial to the success of many location-enhanced mobile applications. Lots of these services, like buddy-finders and games, require people to participate based upon their personal connection to another user, not because they chose one provider over another. By limiting potential users to subscribers of the home network, participation takes a huge hit. The beauty of social applications is that by sparking the interest of just one person, you can end up attracting a multitude of new users, as friends invite friends to participate. However, an operator offering a buddy-finder application that doesn’t interact with subscribers of other networks will encounter very limited success. It’s unlikely that a simple service will be enough to encourage a person to switch to another provider; especially considering the difficulties often involved with number portability and contract obligations.This may explain why, up until now, the LBS strategy of many operators has been to offer services that either rely on the "captive” audience of enterprise customers like Fleet Management, or do not require interaction between users, like simple location-based local information and navigation. It’s not really surprising that operator-operator interworking has yet to be realized for LBS. The more complicated the service, the more difficult it is for mobile providers to reach agreements that are mutually acceptable. And location, that private and personal piece of information, might just be the mother of all complications. Not only do operators have to conform to often strict local/national regulations regarding the handling of sensitive personal information, but they may also devise their own specific processes and procedures that need to be considered when data is to be shared with another party. Reaching agreements under these circumstances can be complex and time-consuming.But now we see that today’s more sophisticated networks and handsets are making the market for LBS much more attractive and the walls of the operator’s "garden” of services are crumbling. Today, some of the most innovative location-enhanced applications are social or community services which take the ideas of Internet-based communities like MySpace and Friendster to the streets. For a good example, check out Streethive which integrates group text and image messaging with location services like local posting and alerts. It’s in Beta right now but it’s a fair assessment to suggest that it, or another service (perhaps one offered by one of the popular online communities), will make a big splash in the coming months and years and thereby herald the coming of the consumer-oriented mobile location service. So third parties are picking up where operators left off. But is there a future for operator-operator LBS interoperability? Better question: Should there be? I say no and that LBS roaming will actually be a bigger issue as carriers look to extend the reach of their location-based fleet management services and keep from losing their client base to the growing number of third party service providers. But that’s another topic entirely…Finding the right priceWhen several industry experts were asked what they viewed to be the most important barriers to the adoption of location-based services (see the article entitled LBS 2006 - A Breakout Year? at Directions), the answers were all valid, ranging from privacy and positioning technologies to application availability and usability. However, it seems to me that the most challenging barrier identified is price, especially in the case of consumer-oriented services. Before I explain, I’ll just touch upon why the other barriers carry less weight. The availability and usability of location services is something that mobile application developers worldwide are working industriously to improve as we speak. The graphics capabilities, memory capacity, Web access and other functions of newer handsets enable usability features that just a couple of years ago were limited to text messaging commands, WAP, and I-mode. It’s just a question of time before the availability barrier becomes irrelevant. More precise positioning? It’s already becoming available in more and more regions, specifically through A-GPS. However, it’s worth pointing out that A-GPS is not a silver bullet (due to its performance indoors) and that high accuracy is not necessary for all location services; some basic applications meet expectations using simple Cell-ID positioning. Personal privacy? It is my opinion that if some people are sceptical, there won’t be much you can say to convince them that their information will indeed be treated confidentially. If it’s a barrier for certain mobile users, that barrier will be difficult to remove. Let’s also not forget how sensitive this issue will be to negative PR. Any news about the misuse of location information could be disastrous for location services. Fortunately, I’ve only heard stories that show how strictly location information is protected. Here’s one.Just a couple of months ago, a man in California made news when his car was stolen with his mobile phone inside along with his 11-month old baby. The mobile carrier refused to release the location information even though the phone’s owner was requesting it directly. Instead, they demanded a government subpoena. Fortunately all ended well as the car thieves took pity and left the car and baby to be found before the paperwork became necessary.Pricing, however, is key. It’s as fundamental a piece of the marketing mix as it is for any other product or service. Operators and ASPs (application service providers) would be smart to offer several pricing options such as pay per use, flat rates, or bundling application use in subscriber service packages. With the growing number of ASPs, operators will have to work out policies that not only protect their users’ privacy, but also make location data available at prices that make services, especially consumer-oriented services, viable and attractive. I heard about an operator who set a fixed price on its subscriber’s location data and when approached by a company with a proposal for a service that would help fight credit card fraud, it was not willing to negotiate. As a consequence, the deal was not reached and the operator missed out on an opportunity for a new revenue stream. Operators will have to be flexible in their approach to pricing if they want these location services to generate momentum that will in turn boost their data revenues. They have to consider each service’s potential and target market and do their part (within reason) to make location fulfil its promise. In a nutshellThe two topics I’ve addressed here, interoperability and pricing, are interrelated. As direct LBS interworking between operators becomes less and less likely, ASPs are stepping in to fill the void and provide open access to location-enhanced services. Operators need to review their plans for "selling" location data to ASPs, selecting price points that ensure that the services are viable. The "cool" factor of location is something I believe will ultimately win over a considerable number of mobile users, especially in younger age brackets. But what is needed now is a kick-start that can come in the form of community-based services and accessible pricing.
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Nokia's latest mobile dazzle:
location based services
"Nokia, a company that isn't known for creating slick and sexy phones, has recently released its latest endeavor, the Nokia 6682. Nokia calls it a multimedia computer and not a phone, as it sports a speedy processing chip and includes numerous 'computer like' functions like letting you take your e-mail and office anywhere so you can view files created with programs like Adobe Reader and Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
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The phone also includes a phone book with multiple numbers per contact, a calendar with notes and reminders, and an alarm clock with snooze offline mode.
But curiously enough, even with all of this productivity functionality, it's not a classic PDA. This phone is somewhere between a regular phone and a full-featured BlackBerry or Palm Treo-style PDA. It lacks touch-screen functionality and doesn't have a miniature keyboard like these other phones. So navigation isn't as easy or intuitive as it should or needs to be.
The phone supports external Flash memory, comes with 10 MB of onboard memory and has a 64 MB external memory card. Also included is a USB cable and headphones so you can listen to your MP3 files. The phone's music functionality is really nice as it supports full polyphonic ringtones, Midi, AAC and MP3s via the previously mentioned Flash cards or downloaded directly to the unit via its integrated Web browser.
Nokia's main push with the new 6682 is its new multimedia, connectivity and gaming functions. While Nokia's nGage pla"
location based services
"Nokia, a company that isn't known for creating slick and sexy phones, has recently released its latest endeavor, the Nokia 6682. Nokia calls it a multimedia computer and not a phone, as it sports a speedy processing chip and includes numerous 'computer like' functions like letting you take your e-mail and office anywhere so you can view files created with programs like Adobe Reader and Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
100% Free Ringtones - Free Ringtones of Hottest Artists! Mono, Poly & Truetone Ringtones
Real and Poly Ringtone - Ringtones 100% Free for You - Limited Time Offer - Get it Now !
Globalstar Australia - Mobile everywhere - Satellite/CDMA Handsets from $499 (with subsidy)
Sponsored Links (Ads by Google)
The phone also includes a phone book with multiple numbers per contact, a calendar with notes and reminders, and an alarm clock with snooze offline mode.
But curiously enough, even with all of this productivity functionality, it's not a classic PDA. This phone is somewhere between a regular phone and a full-featured BlackBerry or Palm Treo-style PDA. It lacks touch-screen functionality and doesn't have a miniature keyboard like these other phones. So navigation isn't as easy or intuitive as it should or needs to be.
The phone supports external Flash memory, comes with 10 MB of onboard memory and has a 64 MB external memory card. Also included is a USB cable and headphones so you can listen to your MP3 files. The phone's music functionality is really nice as it supports full polyphonic ringtones, Midi, AAC and MP3s via the previously mentioned Flash cards or downloaded directly to the unit via its integrated Web browser.
Nokia's main push with the new 6682 is its new multimedia, connectivity and gaming functions. While Nokia's nGage pla"
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
i-mode Business Strategy: What will change to make i-mode an international success?
location based services
Back in 2004, at the European ETRE event, Keiji Tachikawa - the just retired President of DoCoMo - remained bullish on i-mode's international ambitions.
At ATRE 2006 in Beijing this week Alex Vieux, the chairman of the event, asked Access Co CTO Kamada-san "what would change by 2008 to make i-mode a success?", meaning that following the same plan as at present would continue to not be successful.
This is a tricky question for Kamada-san, since DoCoMo is their major customer, their first large customer, the reason for their success, and an investor in Access Co.
Kamada-san's answer was that in Japan DoCoMo controlled the handset makers and relationships and was able to deploy a business model with expensive handsets, full capability, and offer subsidies. Outside Japan DoCoMo had no contol over the alliance partners relaitonships and business model in these respects and this hindered i-mode's potential success in those markets.
It's true that handset limitations and limited releases of handsets have restricted i-mode's success in many markets e.g. Holland, Australia.
Later in the day, at ATRE, when Yoshito Hori, Chairman & CEO of Globis Capital Partners, was asked if i-mode had been a success outside of Japan his answer was simpler - "No".
Hori-san said that in his opinion it was because telecoms infrastructure was too difficult to successfully export because of different regulatory and other local market conditions and proved beyond DoCoMo.
I think that the reasons for i-mode's international stagnation are more complicated and diverse, and perhaps worthy of a full report in the near future.
Is there an i-mode project or news that you think we should feature? Email tips@imodestrategy.com. Thanks!
Technorati Tags: DoCoMo international ATRE i-mode Alliance mobile Japan
location based services
Back in 2004, at the European ETRE event, Keiji Tachikawa - the just retired President of DoCoMo - remained bullish on i-mode's international ambitions.
At ATRE 2006 in Beijing this week Alex Vieux, the chairman of the event, asked Access Co CTO Kamada-san "what would change by 2008 to make i-mode a success?", meaning that following the same plan as at present would continue to not be successful.
This is a tricky question for Kamada-san, since DoCoMo is their major customer, their first large customer, the reason for their success, and an investor in Access Co.
Kamada-san's answer was that in Japan DoCoMo controlled the handset makers and relationships and was able to deploy a business model with expensive handsets, full capability, and offer subsidies. Outside Japan DoCoMo had no contol over the alliance partners relaitonships and business model in these respects and this hindered i-mode's potential success in those markets.
It's true that handset limitations and limited releases of handsets have restricted i-mode's success in many markets e.g. Holland, Australia.
Later in the day, at ATRE, when Yoshito Hori, Chairman & CEO of Globis Capital Partners, was asked if i-mode had been a success outside of Japan his answer was simpler - "No".
Hori-san said that in his opinion it was because telecoms infrastructure was too difficult to successfully export because of different regulatory and other local market conditions and proved beyond DoCoMo.
I think that the reasons for i-mode's international stagnation are more complicated and diverse, and perhaps worthy of a full report in the near future.
Is there an i-mode project or news that you think we should feature? Email tips@imodestrategy.com. Thanks!
Technorati Tags: DoCoMo international ATRE i-mode Alliance mobile Japan
dailywireless.org - Annapolis Free WiFi:
location based services
"Annapolis Maryland is getting free WiFi with ad-supported hotspots, reports the Baltimore Sun.
Annapolis Wireless, a local company, is holding an official wire cutting on April 29, 2:30 pm in a public ceremony. Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich, Mayor Ellen Moyer and county officials will be on hand to celebrate.
'Companies like Annapolis Wireless and Nortel are making cutting-edge technology possible through their teamwork and sponsorship,' said Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. 'This private sponsorship creates a community environment for Maryland citizens, tourists, and the technology sector where everyone wins.'
Initially, coverage will be available throughout Annapolis, from the City Dock to West Street and Eastport. Expansion of the signal beyond downtown is planned throughout the summer.
Phil McQuade, president of Annapolis Wireless, said, 'We had advertisers and sponsors before we even launched the WiFi service city-wide, proving that businesses clearly see the value in reaching a targeted audience.
Nortel's mesh technology will supply the infrastructure. Anyone with a wireless network card can access the WiFi service in Annapolis. First time users create a profile, user ID and password. They can then browse the Internet using the WiFi service.
DSL Reports, WiFiNetNews and MuniWireless have additional coverage.
Free WiFi will be available on San Francisco's 54 square mile cloud. Google ads support their free 300Kbps service, while 1Mbps (ad-free) will cost about $20/mo from other providers. Some San Francisans object. Meanwhile, MetroFi is providing free 1 Mbps Wi-Fi throughout Cupertino, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale and Aurora, Illinois, the second-largest city in that state, have chosen MetroFi. The 134 squ"
location based services
"Annapolis Maryland is getting free WiFi with ad-supported hotspots, reports the Baltimore Sun.
Annapolis Wireless, a local company, is holding an official wire cutting on April 29, 2:30 pm in a public ceremony. Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich, Mayor Ellen Moyer and county officials will be on hand to celebrate.
'Companies like Annapolis Wireless and Nortel are making cutting-edge technology possible through their teamwork and sponsorship,' said Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. 'This private sponsorship creates a community environment for Maryland citizens, tourists, and the technology sector where everyone wins.'
Initially, coverage will be available throughout Annapolis, from the City Dock to West Street and Eastport. Expansion of the signal beyond downtown is planned throughout the summer.
Phil McQuade, president of Annapolis Wireless, said, 'We had advertisers and sponsors before we even launched the WiFi service city-wide, proving that businesses clearly see the value in reaching a targeted audience.
Nortel's mesh technology will supply the infrastructure. Anyone with a wireless network card can access the WiFi service in Annapolis. First time users create a profile, user ID and password. They can then browse the Internet using the WiFi service.
DSL Reports, WiFiNetNews and MuniWireless have additional coverage.
Free WiFi will be available on San Francisco's 54 square mile cloud. Google ads support their free 300Kbps service, while 1Mbps (ad-free) will cost about $20/mo from other providers. Some San Francisans object. Meanwhile, MetroFi is providing free 1 Mbps Wi-Fi throughout Cupertino, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale and Aurora, Illinois, the second-largest city in that state, have chosen MetroFi. The 134 squ"
MobileCrunch � Baidu Chairman Li says �The Next Big Opportunity Will Come from Mobile Phones�
location based services
According the Baidu’s Chairman and CEO, Robin Li, the next big opportunity for Baidu will come from mobile phones. Li was quoted on April 24 during the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2006. Li went on to say that 3G technology making the mobile phone more practical for accessing the web can increase the number of users from between 100 and 200 million.
Although second globally in total netizens, only one in ten Chinese has internet access at this time, meaning that unlike the domestic market, China’s market is still vastly underdeveloped. Like many countries lacking nationwide infrastructure the mobile device is of crucual importance and the deployment of robust 3G mobile networks will effectively leapfrog 2 full generations of technology, catapulting people that previously could barely get a land line right into the forfront of communications technology.
Additional information is provided in the article
Tags: Baidu, China, , RobinLi, MobileCrunch, Categories: Mobile in the News, Analysis Bookmark this post with del.icio.us
1 Comment
[…] MobileCrunch, one of my regular morning reads, has just run an article about this - Baidu Chairman Li says “The Next Big Opportunity Will Come From Mobile Phones” - and links to the original article - Baidu Sees Opportunities from Mobile Phone. […]
Pingback by Pig Work - Web Standards Compliant Web Design Blog » Blog Archive » 3G Kung POW - Mobile Internet — April 26, 2006 @ 3:40 pm
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location based services
According the Baidu’s Chairman and CEO, Robin Li, the next big opportunity for Baidu will come from mobile phones. Li was quoted on April 24 during the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2006. Li went on to say that 3G technology making the mobile phone more practical for accessing the web can increase the number of users from between 100 and 200 million.
Although second globally in total netizens, only one in ten Chinese has internet access at this time, meaning that unlike the domestic market, China’s market is still vastly underdeveloped. Like many countries lacking nationwide infrastructure the mobile device is of crucual importance and the deployment of robust 3G mobile networks will effectively leapfrog 2 full generations of technology, catapulting people that previously could barely get a land line right into the forfront of communications technology.
Additional information is provided in the article
Tags: Baidu, China, , RobinLi, MobileCrunch, Categories: Mobile in the News, Analysis Bookmark this post with del.icio.us
1 Comment
[…] MobileCrunch, one of my regular morning reads, has just run an article about this - Baidu Chairman Li says “The Next Big Opportunity Will Come From Mobile Phones” - and links to the original article - Baidu Sees Opportunities from Mobile Phone. […]
Pingback by Pig Work - Web Standards Compliant Web Design Blog » Blog Archive » 3G Kung POW - Mobile Internet — April 26, 2006 @ 3:40 pm
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
MobileCrunch � Mobile Search Continues to Heat Up; Now Microsoft is Fanning the Flames
location based services
According to Suzan DelBene, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Mobile and Embedded Devices Division there are som Asian contries where more people use mobile devices than PCs to access the Internet. She continues: For users like these, being able to combine search results with services that can sense a user’s location is critical, she said.
Personally I am surprised every time I DON’t see the name Microsoft in mobile related headlines. This is a company that MUST come to terms with the fact that mobile devices are a rapidly expanding segment of every market. I’ve gone on record as saying that Windows Mobile 5.0 is a much improved OS, but there’s still a long way to go before the user experience is anything remotely comparable to the desktop in terms of funcionality and usability.
“Those things are huge opportunities,” DelBene said, noting that Microsoft has begun tests of mobile search technology.
Called Windows Live Mobile Search, the technology is being tested in the U.S. and the U.K. It allows users to search for local listings, such as shops and restaurants, and provides them with maps and driving directions. Users can also call any of the returned listings from their handset with a single click of a button.
Windows Live Mobile Search also gives users access to search results from the Web, including blogs... (more at infoworld)
Tags: mobile-search, search, oliverstarr, mobilecrunch
Categories: Mobile Applications, Analysis | Bookmark this post with del.icio.us
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location based services
According to Suzan DelBene, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Mobile and Embedded Devices Division there are som Asian contries where more people use mobile devices than PCs to access the Internet. She continues: For users like these, being able to combine search results with services that can sense a user’s location is critical, she said.
Personally I am surprised every time I DON’t see the name Microsoft in mobile related headlines. This is a company that MUST come to terms with the fact that mobile devices are a rapidly expanding segment of every market. I’ve gone on record as saying that Windows Mobile 5.0 is a much improved OS, but there’s still a long way to go before the user experience is anything remotely comparable to the desktop in terms of funcionality and usability.
“Those things are huge opportunities,” DelBene said, noting that Microsoft has begun tests of mobile search technology.
Called Windows Live Mobile Search, the technology is being tested in the U.S. and the U.K. It allows users to search for local listings, such as shops and restaurants, and provides them with maps and driving directions. Users can also call any of the returned listings from their handset with a single click of a button.
Windows Live Mobile Search also gives users access to search results from the Web, including blogs... (more at infoworld)
Tags: mobile-search, search, oliverstarr, mobilecrunch
Categories: Mobile Applications, Analysis | Bookmark this post with del.icio.us
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