LBS

Association Says Indoor Location Technology Not Ready

In a recent FCC filing, the Telecommunications Industry Association said that indoor positioning technology is not sufficiently developed to support ongoing wireless E-911 location accuracy requirements.

While TIA supports the FCC’s goal to improve location accuracy, “Imposing location accuracy mandates at this time would be premature, given the nascent stage of the technology that will be needed to accomplish the Commission’s objectives, and should neither favor nor disfavor specific technologies,” said the association in its filing.

The NPRM proposes a requirement to achieve “rough” indoor location information, TIA said. It proposes to require providers to provide horizontal information for wireless 911 calls that originate indoors, specifically a caller’s location within 50 meters.

TIA also disagrees with an FCC proposal to require mobile operators to provide z-axis, which is vertical location within 3 meters of a caller’s location, for 67 percent and 80 percent of indoor wireless 911 calls — ranging from three to five years after adoption. Again, TIA says that the technology is not fully developed.

Mobile indoor 3D-mapping app for its Citizens Hall in Seoul City

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has rolled out a mobile app using 3D mapping technology to help visitors better navigate the massive Seoul Citizens Hall, visited by an average of 4500 people daily.

Located in the new building of the Seoul City Hall, the over 7,600-square metre Seoul Citizens Hall consists of more than 20 rooms and galleries designed for citizen engagement activities and programmes.

After observing that some citizens have experienced difficulty getting to their desired location within the massive venue, the Seoul Metropolitan Government introduced an indoor route-planner and navigation app. www.futuregov.asia/

Nokia announces $100 million Connected Car Fund

Nokia, has announced a $100 million Connected Car fund to be managed by Nokia Growth Partners (NGP). Nokia said that the fund will be used to identify and invest in companies “whose innovations will be important for a world of connected and intelligent vehicles.”

Nokia is already making headway in the automotive industry providing location intelligence for connected vehicles through HERE (its mapping business). The NGP fund, working closely with HERE, will seek to make investments that also support the growth of the ecosystem around its mapping and location products and services.

TCS Family Locator™ App selected by Iusacell Robust LBS

TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. has announced that Iusacell, the third largest carrier in Mexico, has deployed TCS Family Locator™, a global locator application. Branded as Ubicacel Familiar, the service is available to Iusacell and its Unefon subsidiary’s more than five million GSM subscribers throughout Mexico. The award-winning offering provides Iusacell customers with a flexible and easy-touse solution to locate the handsets of one or more family members and view their locations on a map. www.iusacell.com.mx

Third ESA App Camp puts out call to developers

From 8 to 15 September 2014, the European Space Agency will be welcoming 20 app developers to its ESRIN facilities in Frascati (near Rome), Italy. At the event, participants will learn how to leverage Earth observation data – particularly coming from the European Earth observation programme Copernicus – for use on smartphones. Experience in integrating such data is not a prerequisite to participate, ESA will provide participants with access to satellite data they can use in creating mobile apps (for Android or iOS). By using a specially developed API, they can then incorporate these Earth observation data into the App Camp’s ultimate goal: functional app prototypes.

When registering online, entrants can choose from various categories and apply either alone or as a team of up to four people. Among other criteria, these participants will be selected based on their previous programming work. Their travel and accommodation expenses will be covered by the ESA. The App Camp is being organised again by Anwendungszentrum GmbH Oberpfaffenhofen, acting under an ESA contract.

At the 2013 ESA App Camp, Valentijn Venus and his team developed “Cheetah”, an app designed to minimise food wastage along the entire production and transport chain in Africa with the help of Earth observation satellites. The app was then named 2013’s best smartphone application by ESA as part of the innovation competition Copernicus Masters.

FieldSense wins at Space App Camp. This app is being developed by Brian Frølund, John Nielsen, Manuel Ciosici, and Mikkel Kringelbach, four computer science students from Aarhus University (Denmark). It handles the complexity of retrieving data from space by processing and interpreting it. The app provides easily understandable information that integrates into farms’ existing workflows. This will allow farmers to better prioritise the time they spend on oversight and precise spatial evaluation of their crop treatments. In the other team categories, the following app concepts were developed:

• enviQ – air quality information for all

• safe.HUD – augmented-reality headsup- display for unmanned aerial systems

• Sapelli – a data collection and sharing platform for illiterate users

• Sea Care – grassroots reporting of illegal fishing

www.app-camp.eu