Hi, I am curious to hear what this list has to say about the topic of location- aware computing.
I am doing research on this topic, which overall has been �in the lab� for the last decade where applications, frameworks, technology infrastructure, etc. have been extensively explored. So far location-based services have not made an impact in the mobile computing world (except perhaps with E911 services). The reason is the dilemma of having both infrastructure investment and the �killer� (or at least a valuable) application. Without the application people won�t invest in infrastructure and without the infrastructure the open- market for iterating towards valuable applications and their business models doesn�t exist. One approach is to exploit the proliferation of Wi-Fi hotspots that can provide positioning comparable to GPS in urban settings and also function indoors where GPS does not. One technique would be to have a WiFi positioning database for a region. With this database, notebook computer and PDA users without GPS can start contributing more information into the database. For example, assume a user goes to a Starbuck�s and receives beacons from three APs but only two are in the database. The third AP can then be added to the database with some high confidence that it is near the location of the other two APs. Data can also be added when an unknown AP is detected temporarily between two known APs. This collection of techniques for refining the details of the WiFi Positioning database as a side effect of people using their mobile computers is the second, geographic statistical technique. Clearly, the data being collected by the geographic statistical technique would be much more useful if it was sent back into the infrastructure and then redistributed to all users as part of the WiFi positioning database. A third technique is to employ a distributed contributor update mechanism for the WiFi positioning database� Any thoughts? Thanks in advance! Kris -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
