GPS World

Tag: indoor location

  • Report Looks at Indoor Location Positioning and Mobile Markets

    In December 2011, Grizzly Analytics released its first comprehensive report on indoor location positioning technology, predicting that indoor location services were ready to revolutionize the mobile market. The five months that followed have shown how true this was, with new initiatives announced on a regular basis and numerous demonstrations at industry conferences, Grizzly Analytics says.

    In a fully revised and updated 163-page report, Grizzly Analytics gives an up-to-date analysis and comprehensive overview of indoor location positioning R&D. Included is information on the research activity of all the major mobile companies — Google, Microsoft, Samsung, Apple, Nokia, RIM, Cisco, Qualcomm, Broadcom, STMicroElectronics, Sony Ericsson and others — and also more than 30 start-up companies that are actively bringing indoor location services to market.

    “These technologies are poised to revolutionize smartphone usage by enabling GPS-style mapping, navigation, local search, check-ins, location-sharing and other location-based services to work indoors in malls, megastores, offices, airports, casinos and other big indoor places,” according to a statement by Grizzly Analytics. “Indoor location will also transform commerce, enabling searching for items on store shelves, sending deals and promotions to nearby customers, advertisements for nearby stores in malls, and more. Location services are also entering the enterprise, with indoor asset tracking, employee search, and more.

    “In this updated technology trend report, Indoor Location Positioning: Research Pipelines, Start-ups and Predictions, Grizzly Analytics answers the questions you have about this new technology. What approaches are being researched by different companies? Which companies have mature research? What are the gaps in each company’s research that they are likely to fill by acquiring start-up companies? Which start-up companies are likely to be acquired or to emerge successful in the market? What areas of technology are not yet addressed by start-ups, and remain open to new entrepreneurs and investors?”

    A related report, Indoor Location Solutions and Services: Challenges, Opportunities and Market Outlook, is also available from Research and Markets.

  • Indoor Location Tests Ahead, Mapping under Scrutiny

    Janice Partyka
    Janice Partyka

    October was a month of shows, rumors and announcements. Testing of competing indoor location positioning technologies is being planned by the FCC; prospects for some companies will ride on the public results. Apple may be turning to TomTom to save it from its mapping inaccuracy issues, dubbed Mapplegate. This month’s CTIA show was flat; attendees were wondering if it was the last chapter of the fall show. Interesting industry tidbits were heard at the MforMobile Location Business Summit. New Google Ad Word rates may be created that are also based on the distance between the handset and advertiser’s location. History can be harsh, remembering an unfortunate calculation by a location industry giant. Marketers continue to be frustrated by the mobile industry’s continued difficulty to completely measure ad results.

    The FCC sees indoor location as a critical safety concern for E911 emergency response. The commission has tasked an advisory committee to evaluate indoor location positioning technologies. TechnoCom has been chosen to conduct the independent testing as a neutral third party. The test bed is in about 20 structures of various types, in locations that range from highly dense urban to sparse landscape. The following companies are submitting technology for the testing: Qualcomm (AGPS/AFLT/Cell ID), NextNav (GPS-like terrestrial beacons), Boeing (LEO satellites using the Iridium constellation), and Polaris (RF fingerprinting). Additional companies submitted technology, but later withdrew. Test results should be made public in March of 2013. A public workshop on this testing is being held at the FCC on October 24 and can be watched online at www.fcc.gov/live.

    Indoor Mapping. At the Location Business Summit, it was clear that the retail and hospitality industries is anxious to start exploring indoor marketing based on real-time location. They seem to expect it will start out working flawlessly. It won’t. In addition to the indoor positioning being early stage, mapping quality is uneven. The gold bar of quality assurance for outdoor mapping is aerial fly-overs and street driving. In some situations crowd sourcing works. For indoor maps, it’s the Wild West. Currently there are no standards for vetting indoor mapping. Maps are being created of greatly varying quality, sometimes by way of rough diagrams found on the Internet that are then shoe-horned into the outlines of buildings.

    TomTom to the Rescue?  Shares in TomTom, maker of personal navigation devices (PNDs) and mapping, jumped to a three-week high on speculation that it may be taken private by its founders with the help of Apple. In turn, Apple could buy TomTom’s maps database to correct its mapping problems. TomTom’s founders own 47 percent of the company, but may be held back by the uptick in share value.

    Paying for Location. Reportedly, Google has location-based AdWords in beta. Advertising rates go up the closer the targeted user is to the venue being promoted. A restaurant ad is more relevant, and more likely to draw a person who is one mile away than 20 miles. Some travelers will park near a string of hotels and use a site like hotels.com to find the most competitively priced room for that evening. An ad for a hotel on the other side of town is of lesser value and would be cheaper.

    Comments Heard at the Location Business Summit by MforMobile this Month:

    “We need to build ambient intelligence into devices. Nobody needs more information, more apps, ads, logins or devices. It isn’t sustainable.”

    “Location data on the consumer side is often junky because phones are trying to conserve battery, and won’t invoke GPS.”

    “You can get better locations from the carrier network, but it is too expensive a proposition for advertisers.”

    “We find that hyper-local ad targeting leaves us with too few people to address.”

    Can I Turn Back the Clock? In an interview for Forbes in 2003, Min Kao, CEO of Garmin, puts a stake in the ground. He says he does not seek to compete in navigation with the mobile phone, the likes of Nokia and Motorola, as that is the kind of commodity business Garmin would like to avoid. The PND vendors continue to be squeezed between the OEM embedded equipment and the smartphone. It is hard to be optimistic about the PND market, commented John Canali of Strategy Analytics at the Location Business Summit. Heavy discounting has led to plummeting revenues. “The PND companies are hardware focused in a market whose foundation is software. It will be very difficult to transform PND companies,” says Canali. “They will struggle.” In 2009, Google announced that all Android phones built on OS 1.6 or higher would have free turn-by-turn directions. Nokia followed shortly after. So it began.

    A Little Slow. CTIA drew more than 5,000 people to attend MobileCon, its fall show with a new brand name. You may remember it as CTIA Enterprise and Applications. This was a significant decline from last year when 10,000 to 15,000 conference-goers attended. Activity was slow and the exhibit floor was smaller. Conference sessions were held on the exhibit floor.

    Still Can’t Close the Loop. The industry continues to be unable to provide advertisers with metrics of how many pizzas a mobile ad sold. Papa John’s Pizza will know if someone has clicked to call or clicked to map, but Papa John’s won’t know if those actions resulted in a purchase. Without this fundamental metric, advertisers complain that it is hard to build a business case for mobile advertising. The click rates that they can track aren’t always representative because of user errors that include fat fingers, fraudulent clicks and pocket dialing.

  • FCC Hosts Public Workshop on Indoor Location this Wednesday

    The FCC sees indoor location as a critical safety concern for E911 emergency response. The commission has tasked an advisory committee to evaluate indoor location positioning technologies. A public workshop on this testing is being held at the FCC on Wednesday, October 24, and can be watched online at www.fcc.gov/live.

    TechnoCom has been chosen to conduct the independent testing as a neutral third party. The test bed is in about 20 structures of various types, in locations that range from highly dense urban to sparse landscape. The following companies are submitting technology for the testing: Qualcomm (AGPS/AFLT/Cell ID), NextNav (GPS-like terrestrial beacons), Boeing (LEO satellites using the Iridium constellation), and Polaris (RF fingerprinting). Additional companies submitted technology, but later withdrew. Test results should be made public in March of 2013. 

  • Funding for ByteLight Pinpoints Indoor Location Using LED Lighting

    By Janice Partyka.

    ByteLight, a provider of LED (light-emitting diode) based indoor positioning technology, announced that it has received $1.25 million in funding from individual and institutional investors, led by VantagePoint Capital Partners. ByteLight will use the funding to build its team, deploy at pilot locations, and expand its ecosystem of lighting partners.

    Using ByteLight’s LED lighting-based indoor positioning solution, commercial and enterprise building owners, public safety officials, retail outlets and public spaces such as airports, museums and convention centers can target customized information, special offers and other data directly to users based on their precise location inside a building.

  • In-Location Alliance to Promote Location-Based Indoor Solutions

    The In-Location Alliance was launched August 23 by 22 companies across location industries to drive innovation and market adoption of high-accuracy indoor positioning and related services.

    Accurate indoor positioning opens up plenty of possibilities for new mobile services. For a consumer this could mean, for example, receiving directions to the right products and personalized product promotions in nearby shops; using real-time navigation inside a building; finding the precise location of assets and people; and even increasing security in emergency situations. For facility owners and local service providers this could enable, for example, increased local customer identification; enhanced product placement; and better customer satisfaction by deploying resources when and where needed.

    The alliance will focus on creating solutions offering high accuracy, low power consumption, mobility, implementability, and usability. It will create an ecosystem that stimulates innovation, enhances service delivery, and accelerates the adoption of solutions and technologies that optimize the mobile experience, the companies said.

    Founding members include: Broadcom, CSR, Dialog Semiconductor, Eptisa, Geomobile, Genasys, Indra, Insiteo, Nokia, Nomadic Solutions, Nordic Semiconductor, Nordic Technology Group, NowOn, Primax Electronics, Qualcomm, RapidBlue Solutions, Samsung Electronics, Seolane Innovation, Sony Mobile Communications, TamperSeal AB, Team Action Zone and Visioglobe.

    Alliance members will pilot the most promising services and use cases from a business and solution point of view. The other important task for the Alliance is to ensure a multivendor environment by promoting open interfaces and a standard-based approach.

    Alliance members are encouraged to execute their own pilots and present their data to the Alliance. The primary solutions will be based on enhanced Bluetooth 4.0 low-energy technology and Wi-Fi standards using relevant existing or coming features of those technologies. These technologies are commonly used in mobile handsets and are thus a natural starting point for the Alliance’s efforts.

    Pre-commercial pilots and business model verifications will start in 2012, while 2013 is expected to bring mobile handset-based implementation enabling the first consumer applications in the indoor mobile environment.

    The Alliance says: “The aim of the In-Location Alliance is to act as a pioneer opening up new business streams for indoor environments. Indoor positioning is the next frontier of mobile services, offering great opportunities to enhance consumer experiences. For the benefit of enterprises, the Alliance will drive a world-wide indoor positioning system for use in major venues. Our pilots, along with technical evaluations, are paramount for driving rapid market adoption.”

    Patrick Connolly from ABI Research says: “The indoor location market sits on the cusp of a wave, with the market set to reach a significant number of installations in 2015-2017. With a huge number of proprietary technologies vying for position, the establishment of the In-Location Alliance can encourage innovation, lower costs and, ultimately, widespread adoption of standard based technologies and solutions.”

  • A Look at Small Indoor Location Competitors

    Everyone wants a piece of the pie, the upcoming indoor location pie. Big companies and start-ups are engaged, some in research, others having launched solutions. While Wi-Fi is the most common technology, many companies are pursuing alternate methods, including GPS, audio, Bluetooth, small cell/cellular, distributed antenna systems (DAS), near field communication (NFC), white band, sensors, movement tracking, beacons, and more. Of the large players who are making a play for the indoor market, Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Qualcomm, RIM, and TCS are the furthest along, reports Grizzly Analytics.

    At a minimum, indoor technology will do what we do outside and enable GPS-style mapping, navigation, local search, check-ins, location-sharing, and other location-based services. An explosion of other uses will evolve, enabling search for items on store shelves, sending deals, and contextual advertising.  This newsletter issue is devoted to looking at smaller companies, those not listed above, many start-ups competing for their piece of the pie.

    A pool of smaller indoor companies is focused on creating positioning technology, many ripe for acquisition. Navizon, sensewhere, and SkyHook are betting on unique approaches to determining indoor location position. No longer solely focused on driving the streets to map Wi-Fi signals, Skyhook has adopted a comprehensive approach to indoor location, integrating multiple technologies (GPS, Wi-Fi, cell, and sensor-based) to ascertain location, a solution that offers the advantage of flexibility. Navizon is focused on Wi-Fi signals, currently the most popular solution for indoor location. There are sometimes existing Wi-Fi nodes, but added nodes can usually be fairly easy to install. From a business standpoint, the downside of Wi-Fi positioning is the large number of competitors focused on solutions. sensewhere is pursuing an entirely crowd-based software offering  that locates and cross-references publically broadcast information, including MAC addresses, from consumer devices. It is the easiest solution. No infrastructure is required, but it requires a certain density of devices.

    I’ve asked Navizon, sensewhere, and Skyhook to write, in their words, about their company, technology and perspective on the industry:

    Navizon – In Their Own Words. “Navizon Indoor Triangulation System (I.T.S.) uses Wi-Fi signals to provide indoor location throughout a building or campus. Navizon designed this system to locate users of smartphones, tablets and laptops, all of whom rely heavily on Wi-Fi.  This real-time locating system’s infrastructure uses small, easily deployable nodes connected through a mesh network.  No wiring or software installation, and only minimal configuration, are required. The administration dashboard is an online interface to Navizon’s cloud.  Integration is through a web services API.  This design delivers an affordable indoor location platform, with room and floor-level accuracy, up and running in a single day.” Cyril Houri, Navizon

    sensewhere – In Their Own Words. “sensewhere technology automatically locates and cross-references RF access points via user devices to create an almost limitless proprietary, reliable, live, global RF location database. The solution does not require additional infrastructure installation nor calibration or re-calibration when the venue’s RF infrastructure changes. sensewhere technology is powered by patented algorithms that dynamically adapt to indoor environments to optimize the use of mobile device resources. Commercial benefits have been demonstrated in the largest shopping malls around the world where more than half of RF infrastructure can change within a few months.” Rob Palfreyman, sensewhere

    SkyHook – In Their Own Words. “Location technology company Skyhook, provides seamless operation of indoor and outdoor mobile device positioning using integrated GPS, Wi-Fi, cell, and sensor-based positioning technologies. Venues have been hesitant to get involved with indoor location due to concerns over control of their data, cost of initial deployment, cost of maintenance, accuracy and consistency of the technology, and availability to deploy on a large variety of devices.  Skyhook is involved in industry efforts to provide venue owners the ability to manage their infrastructure data in a consistent, standardized way that addresses both the technical and business needs.” Ronda Billings, Skyhook

    Positioning technology is of limited use without indoor venue maps, which might include shopping malls, arenas, convention centers, and hospitals. Retail is very interested in being able to direct people into their stores, to a particular aisle, or even shelf location. Meridian, Micello, and Point Inside have distinct approaches. Micello creates indoor maps by using data found in public domain; their customers are not the venues, but the developer community. Meridian creates indoor maps based on maps drawn  by customers and adds navigation and points of interest. At its start, Point Inside had a similar focus, indoor map creation, but has since integrated positioning data and added an ad network to its solution. Point Inside is targeted to retailers.

    I’ve asked Meridian, Micello, and Point Inside to write, in their words, about their companies, technology, and perspective on the industry:

    Meridian – In Their Own Words. “Meridian is focusing on providing software to allow employees of a location-based business to create an indoor way-finding app for visitors. The system enables a customer to upload maps (CAD, etc.) that are then converted into vector files.  Points of interest and turn-by-turn directions can be generated. The turn-by-turn directions can work with any wireless connectivity, from basic 3G to more sophisticated Wi-Fi systems. Indoor venues can achieve a GPS-like experience — that ‘glowing blue dot on the map’ — some are seeking. Meridian is seeing adoption from retailers, hotels and hospitals.” Jeff Hardison, Meridian

    Micello – In Their Own Words. “Micello is a provider of indoor venue maps, including shopping malls, airports, college campus buildings, hospitals, retail stores, casinos, and stadiums in over half-a-dozen countries throughout the world. Micello uses proprietary, in-house mapping and navigation tools combined with map-manufacturing tools and dashboards. The technology ingests various sources of data and information about a given venue to create a well-defined, structured set of indoor map data. In the next 36 months, every building will have an app and mapping technology, integrated with positioning technology. Information will be automatically sorted and organized for users based on where they are located inside.” Ankit Agarwel, Micello

    Point  Inside – In Their Own Words. “Point Inside provides retailers with detailed indoor maps, exact product location, and dynamic shoppers locations to help stores engage with in-store customers. The user’s shopping list, which is entered into the application, enables high-converting, hyper-targeted advertising.  With indoor location technologies advancing too quickly to pick a single winner, Point Inside uses proprietary algorithms to combine results from multiple location technologies to determine the most accurate fix. Primary technologies include: proprietary Wi-Fi fingerprinting, motion sensing to determine movement from known locations (such as product locations); partnership with other location providers; and correlation with indoor maps to determine valid locations.” Todd Sherman, Point Inside

    How does this shake out? It is too early to tell. In the coming year, I expect the indoor location market will be better formed. Consolidation will occur. Some companies will drop out and others will be purchased. Grizzly Analytics suggests eBay, Local.com, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, GroupOn, TI, Qualcomm, CSR, Google, foursquare, and Google are all shopping or looking for strategic alliances to develop indoor location offerings. Time will tell who eats pie.

  • Mapping Upheavals, Indoor Location Headway, FCC on LBS Privacy

    Big changes. Apple finally ended its long time dependence on Google Maps. As part of its latest operating system upgrade to iOS 6, Apple is launching its own, home-grown mapping service. It is an impressive offering. In a very different move, Microsoft is replacing its own Bing maps in all Windows Phone devices. Nokia maps, previously Navteq, will replace Microsoft’s home-grown Bing Maps. Micello has a new indoor location trial that isn’t just indoor mapping. This month the FCC has something to say on the topic of privacy in LBS apps. ABI Research has high expectations for indoor location.

    Google maps will be demoted to just another app on iPhones and iPads, a blow to Google’s bottom line. iOS device owners account for 28 percent of Google Map users in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, and Spain, reports Analysis Mason. This parting will create additional friction in the contentious relationship between Google and Apple. Many partners are helping Apple produce the offering, but TomTom is the only one acknowledged in the announcement. Apple reports TomTom is “powering Apple maps.” No explanation has been given.

    The new Apple in-house maps built for iOS 6 include 100 million business listings and Yelp recommendations, integrated with real-time, crowd-sourced traffic, navigation, and suggested travel routes. It all works with Siri, Apple’s voice-activated search software. Siri has its critics, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak who has been quoted with derisive, even crude, comments on Siri’s usability.

    Will Location Move Stock Price? Facebook says it’s working on a location-based mobile-advertising product that will allow advertisers to target users based on their real-time whereabouts. Facebook’s shares have dropped by almost 20 percent since the company’s initial public offering, fueled partly by concern that ad-revenue growth isn’t keeping up with a shift by users to mobile phones.

    LBS Is Being Monitored. Ever concerned with privacy, the FCC released a report on location-based services. The agency declined to adopt privacy regulations or best practices, but indicated it would monitor the industry for the following: ensuring privacy considerations are integral to product development, security of data from unauthorized access, timing and frequency of location privacy notices to consumers, and minimization of data collected and time period for which it is retained. The FCC warns it will take additional steps if not satisfied with privacy implementation for LBS.

    Indoor Fortunes. Indoor location is positioned to save retail brick and mortar, says ABI Research. I wouldn’t go that far, but it will certainly have a positive impact. Major U.S. retail brands will launch indoor location technologies in 2012 and 2013, says ABI. “Revenue will come from multiple sources, including advertising, infrastructure deployment/service fees, and application management,” says Patrick Connolly. The technology will enable advances in customer analytics, proximity advertising, store optimization, couponing, and CRM. Retailers will likely want to control store data, which will be an important consideration in picking partners.

    I Am Here. Micello, indoor mapping creator, has a trial for its new FindMe location application. Users can share their whereabouts in Singapore with anyone in their address book. The app allows users to send a text that includes a detailed map that shows the user’s indoor location. The company is expanding the app to Las Vegas and some college campuses.

    Grapevine. Rumors persist that Amazon is in talks to acquire Jumptap, one of the mobile advertising network leaders. Amazon plans to enlarge its Special Offers advertising platform to the Kindle Fire Tablet, a competitor to Apple’s pricier iPad, reports Ad Age. A Jumptap purchase would make sense. Amazon has a treasure trove of purchase information on individual users on hand that can be used to develop personalized and contextual mobile advertising.

    Timing Is Everything. In Apple’s forthcoming operating system update, all applications will require explicit user permission before accessing personal information, such as location information. Apple made the announcement just after developer Arun Thampi reported iOS social application Path was uploading users’ address books to its servers. A backlash from consumers and legislators followed. Path later acknowledged storing user data and updated its app to enable users to opt out of its contacts database.

    Sad News. Sorry to hear Nokia plans to cut 10,000 jobs by the end of 2013. Remember when Navteq had the mapping world in the palm of its hand? What a fall. Last year Nokia cut 14,000 jobs.

  • Indoor Positioning May Need Several Solutions, Says IMS Research

    A range of solutions are vying to replicate what GPS does outdoors in an indoor environment, from Wi-Fi to Bluetooth to “terrestrial” GPS, plus many others. Which one is likely to be successful? IMS Research (recently acquired by IHS Inc.) said the answer will not simply be just “one.” Locating a smartphone in an outdoors environment is straightforward, with more than 90 percent of smartphones providing GPS functionality. However, GPS becomes less useful in built-up areas and can be useless indoors, reports IMS Research.

    Indoor location enables a number of exciting applications that may previously have been considered impossible, for both the consumer and the venue owner, said IMS Research. Not only can it provide analytics, tracking footfall and understanding consumer behavior, but also improve the shopping experience, helping the consumer to find a particular store or product. Whilst these examples are useful, the real benefit and revenue generation is likely to arrive in the shape of advertising.

    Bluetooth in Nokia’s HAIP variety can provide accuracies claimed to be less than one meter, making it suitable for “aisle level” positioning. NextNav is beginning to roll out a technology described as “terrestrial GPS” in the United States, using transmitters based on the ground, and the existing GPS chipsets found in many smartphones. Other solutions include the IMES system in Japan and cellular-based solutions from companies such as Path Intelligence.

    While the roll out of commercial solutions has only recently begun, Wi-Fi has, to date, been the primary technology used. “Its high penetration in smartphones, combined with an existing infrastructure of access points, in venues such as shopping malls and airports etc., means minimal additional investment is required to support some level of positioning solution,” noted Alex West, Connectivity and Location research director at IMS Research. “For this reason, a range of different companies from Google, to Qualcomm and CSR, to Qubulus, all have solutions incorporating Wi-Fi.” Current location accuracies through Wi-Fi make it suitable for “store-level” positioning but less so for product or aisle-level, although IMS Research forecasts that consumers’ exposure to store-level accuracy will drive demand for aisle/product-level accuracy.

    In reality, it is unlikely that one solution will meet all requirements, and among recent announcements is CSR’s SiRFusion platform, which uses not only Wi-Fi, but also cellular and MEMS sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscopes, to provide a hybrid solution. MEMS sensors, which are becoming increasingly common in smartphones, are expected to play a bigger part in positioning, not only improving accuracy levels but also aiding in cutting down power consumption.

    Other leading IC suppliers, including Broadcom and Qualcomm, have announced solutions incorporating these technologies, and Bluetooth in some cases, with the necessary software. As such, a more accurate indoor positioning service is expected to be included on smartphones over the next 12 months, and is expected to provide the platform for the many apps and services that are being developed utilizing indoor location, according to IMS Research.

  • Indoor Location Apps Lead to Compelling User Experience

    Indoor location technology is evolving; indoor mapping is coming along and apps that seamlessly work in and out of doors will make a compelling experience more compelling. Bringing mobile location to indoors will stimulate our industry. The killer app? Apps that can self learn to be personalized to a user’s life, lived in and out of doors (check traffic before I leave my desk). Hop on board.

    Indoor Mapping. The indoor market is getting more interesting as Google’s Street View Mapping edges indoors. In a new pilot project, Google is providing glimpses through the front doors of retail businesses. Restaurants, hotels, stores, and other venues will show a 360-degree inside perspective. The imagery will appear on Google’s Places pages, all using the same Street View technology that enables its other map images. The company’s plans are to eventually allow users to virtually enter indoor spaces from street maps. It is a way for businesses to entice new customers. Companies in the pilot volunteer for inclusion. The project links nicely to indoor mapping plans under way.

    Finding Location Indoors. Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) introduced a new mobile phone processor to improve the accuracy of indoor navigation. It is a “self learning” indoor location platform that fuses real-time Wi-Fi, satellite positioning data, MEMS sensors, and crowd-sourced location data. The company claims it can achieve continuous and rapid indoor position fixes. The system’s distinction, says CSR’s Dave Huntingford, is it doesn’t require manual surveys to build and maintain its Wi-Fi and cellular location data base. The CSR system debuts next year.

    Leading Vehicle Integration. “The automakers that can provide the most elegant integration of vehicle and mobile apps will lead the next revolution of providing social media and other capabilities in cars,” states a report from market analysts IHS iSuppli. Integration is critical as automotive infotainment will derive functionality from smart mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Globally, Toyota and Ford lead in successful integration of car infotainment systems with mobile devices, IHS iSuppli reports. A study of production-ready applications showed that the Toyota Entune and Ford Sync AppLink apps had the highest performance on at least four criteria, including content variety, level of integration, daily relevance, and implementation.

    Being Watched? The well-publicized case in front of the Supreme Court may define the power of police forces to put location devices on vehicles for surveillance. The court’s decision may extend beyond vehicles into the far more prevalent police practice of tracking cell phones. According to the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles police tracked 295 phones, up 35 percent from the previous year. The paper reports that a magistrate in Texas who approves cell-tracking requests has used public records to estimate that U.S. federal courts issue 20,000 to 30,000 cell-phone tracking orders annually. In 2010, in comparison, state, local and federal courts approved a little over 3,000 wiretaps.

    Location Data too Accurate? Precise location info spawns lawsuit. Customers concerned about HTC’s location tracking practices have hit the company with a lawsuit. HTC is charged with using the AccuWeather app to track customer’s precise locations and providing it to advertisers who use it for location targeted ads. It boils down to location precision. The suit claims that HTC collects “unnecessarily precise” location data. Weather is a regional phenomenon based on coarse location and can be easily determined by cell towers, and not the GPS data HTC obtains. The AccuWeather app is integrated into some HTC phones and cannot be uninstalled, according to the suit. HTC can be added to the honor roll of company blunders that fuel concerns about the misuse of location data.

    New Innovators. Localmind was one of the winners at recent competitions for young location-oriented companies. This real-time, location-based clever Q&A platform leverages social check-in services. Users can ask questions of others. For instance, someone might query about waits at a restaurant, liveliness at a bar, or the state of the Wi-Fi at a coffee shop. Another winner, Tagwhat, offers a multimedia location guide that reveals videos, photos, narratives, and audio about the world around people wherever they go, based on the users’ pre-selected, customized interests such as food, music, movies, heritage, and sports. Containment in a personalized bubble may or may not be a good thing. A third winner, Right Back on Track (RBT), enables schools to reduce truancy and drop outs. The system lets schools and families know the whereabouts of truant students to enable interventions to attract the students back in school.

  • Indoor Location on the Move

    It’s coming. Indoor location, which has been stymied by the limitations of GPS and lack of mapping, is finally getting some legs and is heading us towards seamless navigation. A shopper is guided from home to an empty parking space at the mall, and the navigation doesn’t miss a beat as he heads inside and gets directions to a particular store, and perhaps to a given shelf. Today, the location of a wireless device usually cannot be determined more precisely than the building it is within. In tall or sprawling venues like arenas, malls, dormitories, or apartments this is a critical problem for emergency personnel trying to locate a person who has dialed 911. Mobile marketing and social network applications have also been constrained by problems in obtaining indoor location.

    Finding Cherries. Aisle 411 is a shopping app with local search and navigation that helps users find a particular item within a store. The app navigates to the threshold of a store and then provides a diagram of the interior (essentially a paper map) with a drawn path to the desired item, for instance, a jar of maraschino cherries. Apps like this provide a good service, but are held back by the nascent state of indoor navigation. Geo-coded locations of indoor stores often aren’t available. Apps that are more granular and attempt to locate goods within a store face greater challengers. Inventory is moved around and geo-coding is infrequent, hence the diagrams of Aisle 411. Some applications like Aisle 411 utilize crowd-sourced maps, in addition to venue-provided maps.

    Height Counts. Products are being introduced to determine the elusive “z” plane, or in layman’s terms, height. Location systems work well at determining the “x” and “y” axis but can’t distinguish between a location on the first floor and one on the twentieth floor. Polaris is releasing an indoor location offering in the second half of this year. In addition to Polaris’ existing location technology, the solution also uses femtocell and distributed antennas without necessitating a client on the handset. Polaris can distinguish a position within a range of five floors. Infrastructure provider CommScope introduced GeoLENS Indoor, a solution that integrates with wireless indoor coverage systems including distributed antenna systems (DAS), repeaters, and other RF equipment.

    Inside Job. Micello, a small start-up, has been addressing the indoor mapping issue. The free Micello app contains the maps of the insides of large structures including shopping malls, airports, hospitals, and business campuses. So far, Micello has mapped 215,545 structures in 2,200 locations.

    3D Indoors. Navteq showed off Destination Maps’ indoor navigation system at the International CTIA Wireless 2011 show, held in Orlando March 22-24 . The maps are available in 200 U.S. shopping malls and provide detailed 3D guidance and information within indoor structures. The system will use transmitters within buildings that communicate via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

    Monster in the Room. Mobile users aren’t satisfied by industry privacy measures. “About half the people in a study of 1,500 consumers we interviewed are concerned about who knows their location, particularly businesses,” says Kristi Crum of Verizon. Subscribers want to understand how their data is being used, whether is it being aggregated, or if it is being shared personally or kept totally private. It will only take one or two high-profile events involving misuse of data before there is fallout on our industry, warns Crum.

    Monetize, Monetize, Monetize. Mobile payment systems will become ubiquitous. Google is collaborating with MasterCard and Citigroup to embed contactless near-field communication (NFC) payment technologies in Android. Financial service companies are becoming players in mobile advertising and will likely provide advertising networks like Google with consumer data that will enable more targeted advertising. Google is starting a pilot in New York and San Francisco and is paying for thousands of point-of-sales readers for stores in the regions. Google will go head-to-head against ISIS, a nationwide mobile commerce NFC venture that includes Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. ISIS plans to introduce services within the next 18 months.

    GPS Interference Concerns Grow. The Department of Defense and the Department of Transportation have added their voices to concerns over LightSquared’s hybrid satellite-terrestrial LTE network, which they think may interfere with GPS systems. In a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, the agencies state they were “not sufficiently included” in the development of LightSquared’s initial work plan to address potential GPS interference issues caused by its network. An FCC spokesman tried to ease concerns by indicating that LightSquared will not be permitted to go forward until potential GPS interference issues are addressed.

    At CTIA, LightSquared acted as though there were no hurdles in its way. CEO Sanjiv Ahuja asserted that the company will beat its build-out goals with a commitment to cover 100 million POPs by the end of 2012, 145 million by the end of 2013, and 260 million by the end of 2015. “We are not only committed to meeting these milestones, we are today positioned to exceed them,” Ahuja said.

    DoCoMo. There was a large empty space where Japan’s NTT DoCoMo’s CTIA booth would have stood. DoCoMo issued a statement that it was skipping CTIA to focus fully on delivery of mobile services for relief efforts. In the bare exhibit space, a solitary vase stood filled with cherry blossoms.