[nycwireless] Wifi Positioning Systems
We've heard that GPS doesn't work well in the city (too many skyscrapers, not enough open sky). Wifi-based location tracking seems to be an alternative worth considering. The idea is to have the device identify (but not necessarily connect) to surrounding access points and then determine its location by triangulation. A little research has shown a couple wifi efforts. But before checking the options, it'd be wise to to formulate a couple requirements from the savvy wireless consumer's point of view: 1. Open infrastructure, open protocol and open source (no proprietary funniness) 2. 802.11 but not platform-specific (windows, linux, macintosh) 3. Able to have API to build services on top of it (Wifi positioning says I'm here) 4. User privacy (user chooses who gets their location information on a case by case basis) 5. AP owner privacy (respect owner's wishes) So what do we have? A quick ''informal'' Google search reveals two wide area options (speak up if you know of others): ''SkyHook Wireless'' [http://skyhookwireless.com/ ] This Boston firm has press releases all over the place (financing, contracts, awards). They used to be QuarterScope. They use a client software on PocketPC and Windows Mobile, with something coming out for Palm later. They also point to theft identification of stolen laptops. They claim to have mapped a network on 1.5 million access points. How? Like this: [http://www.skyhookwireless.com/scanning/upload.php ] ''HereCast'' [http://www.herecast.com/ ] By comparison, check out HereCast. This is a developer community working to provide an open infrastructure for wifi positioning. It is not a hotspot directory, but simply a directory of access point location. The directory is made up by submission. --- It's interesting to see how this space will develop. It seems any municipal wifi would do well to consider having a location-based service of its own. For example, if Hoboken deployed Access Points on each lamp post, the city could then provide simple wifi positioning information from them. Rob @@@ __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
Re: [nycwireless] Wifi Positioning Systems
Intel's Placelab (www.placelab.org) was a great privacy -sensitive wifi based positioning system developed at their Seattle Lab. But its since been handed over to Microsoft as part of Virtual Earth and they are going to keep ll your personal location data and do anythign they want with it On 12/15/05 8:53 AM, Rob Kelley [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: We've heard that GPS doesn't work well in the city (too many skyscrapers, not enough open sky). Wifi-based location tracking seems to be an alternative worth considering. The idea is to have the device identify (but not necessarily connect) to surrounding access points and then determine its location by triangulation. A little research has shown a couple wifi efforts. But before checking the options, it'd be wise to to formulate a couple requirements from the savvy wireless consumer's point of view: 1. Open infrastructure, open protocol and open source (no proprietary funniness) 2. 802.11 but not platform-specific (windows, linux, macintosh) 3. Able to have API to build services on top of it (Wifi positioning says I'm here) 4. User privacy (user chooses who gets their location information on a case by case basis) 5. AP owner privacy (respect owner's wishes) So what do we have? A quick ''informal'' Google search reveals two wide area options (speak up if you know of others): ''SkyHook Wireless'' [http://skyhookwireless.com/ ] This Boston firm has press releases all over the place (financing, contracts, awards). They used to be QuarterScope. They use a client software on PocketPC and Windows Mobile, with something coming out for Palm later. They also point to theft identification of stolen laptops. They claim to have mapped a network on 1.5 million access points. How? Like this: [http://www.skyhookwireless.com/scanning/upload.php ] ''HereCast'' [http://www.herecast.com/ ] By comparison, check out HereCast. This is a developer community working to provide an open infrastructure for wifi positioning. It is not a hotspot directory, but simply a directory of access point location. The directory is made up by submission. --- It's interesting to see how this space will develop. It seems any municipal wifi would do well to consider having a location-based service of its own. For example, if Hoboken deployed Access Points on each lamp post, the city could then provide simple wifi positioning information from them. Rob @@@ __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/ -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
Re: [nycwireless] Wifi Positioning Systems
Isnt' yahoo or google trying to give free access the city of San Fran? they could do it too (in the city), and pretty easily as they control/manage the network... Yury On Dec 15, 2005, at 3:00 PM, Anthony Townsend wrote: Intel's Placelab (www.placelab.org) was a great privacy -sensitive wifi based positioning system developed at their Seattle Lab. But its since been handed over to Microsoft as part of Virtual Earth and they are going to keep ll your personal location data and do anythign they want with it On 12/15/05 8:53 AM, Rob Kelley [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: We've heard that GPS doesn't work well in the city (too many skyscrapers, not enough open sky). Wifi-based location tracking seems to be an alternative worth considering. The idea is to have the device identify (but not necessarily connect) to surrounding access points and then determine its location by triangulation. A little research has shown a couple wifi efforts. But before checking the options, it'd be wise to to formulate a couple requirements from the savvy wireless consumer's point of view: 1. Open infrastructure, open protocol and open source (no proprietary funniness) 2. 802.11 but not platform-specific (windows, linux, macintosh) 3. Able to have API to build services on top of it (Wifi positioning says I'm here) 4. User privacy (user chooses who gets their location information on a case by case basis) 5. AP owner privacy (respect owner's wishes) So what do we have? A quick ''informal'' Google search reveals two wide area options (speak up if you know of others): ''SkyHook Wireless'' [http://skyhookwireless.com/ ] This Boston firm has press releases all over the place (financing, contracts, awards). They used to be QuarterScope. They use a client software on PocketPC and Windows Mobile, with something coming out for Palm later. They also point to theft identification of stolen laptops. They claim to have mapped a network on 1.5 million access points. How? Like this: [http://www.skyhookwireless.com/scanning/upload.php ] ''HereCast'' [http://www.herecast.com/ ] By comparison, check out HereCast. This is a developer community working to provide an open infrastructure for wifi positioning. It is not a hotspot directory, but simply a directory of access point location. The directory is made up by submission. --- It's interesting to see how this space will develop. It seems any municipal wifi would do well to consider having a location-based service of its own. For example, if Hoboken deployed Access Points on each lamp post, the city could then provide simple wifi positioning information from them. Rob @@@ __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/ nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/ -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/ nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/ -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
