19 Sept. 2008

Irish Examiner Article

Handheld devices are the 'signs' of the near future

Mark Twomey says city dwellers may soon be locating goods,services, and other amenities via electronic navigation.

A new research project at the National Centre for Geocomputation shows how city dwellers may soon be using handheld devices to search for services in cities.

A RESEARCH project that could lead to the establishment of true location-based services, while having more far-reaching applications, has been launched with the aid of a €9 million grant from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). StratAG - Strategic Research in Advanced Geotechnologies - brings together cutting edge technological research from multiple areas around themes of geospatial monitoring and early warning systems. The project is being led by Prof Stewart Fotheringham, the director of the National Centre for Geocomputation at NUI Maynooth.

"Basically it's a research programme which is concerned with finding out where people are and where things are, for better, more informed decisions," says Prof Fotheringham. "We know how to find where we are through the use of GPS and sat nav systems, the next stage of that is to find out where other things and other people are." He says research is at an advanced stage and has potential applications that will be hugely relevant to everyday life.

"The first intelligent city is not that far away. Picture a person walking down the street with a handheld device which they point at each building. As they pass the cinema, the device will tell them what's on, as they pass a restaurant, the device gives them the menu, as they pass an office block the device tells them what firms are located in the block, their line of business and contact numbers. The applications from spatial visualisation and location-based services are very exciting."

He says this technology could be available in any new city, or even in the city in which you live, with the use of a handheld device. "The device is somewhat immaterial, it could well be a phone that does this, or it could be the next generation or the generation after that. Each generation of mobile phones does a little towards this, we are now seeing GPS (global positioning system) receivers in phones becoming more common, the iPhone 3G has a Googlemaps interface which positions you very nicely upon it, but the next stage is to position other things on it for finding information as you pass by, so it knows where you are, that's the first stage."

But he says there are problems to overcome in developing a fully robust positioning system. "Sometimes a GPS signal cuts out, if you're indoors it cuts out, or under a bridge or in a tunnel, or in an urban canyon, even though we don't have too many of those in Ireland. But certainly in bigger cities where you've got very tall buildings, your view of the satellites is cut off so your positioning with GPS is cut off, so there is a secondary issue there: how we can be more flexible, so that when the GPS signal cuts out can we switch to something else that positions us."

Prof Fotheringham says we need a technology that blends a series of sensors that detect location, so that if one cuts out another cuts, in seamlessly.

"GPS may well be the main one but when it cuts out, the positioning system switches to something else, it could RFID (radio frequency identity tag), if it's a phone it could be triangu-lation of phone masts; it could be some other signal. Some cities are experimenting with what they call pseu-dolites, which are essentially mini satellites — theses are in effect local GPS devices that send out a signal that's confined to a city. "So in a city you could have a system of beacons emitting some sort of radiowave that detects your location, and you would need three to detect your location precisely through trian-gulation."

Prof Fotheringham says that we need a system that will continuously provide position-monitoring.

"Ideally we need a robust system, we are still a bit away from that because we would have to construct a device that has a digital compass, which we can do, and a device that also contains a range-finder, but the main point is that the device would have access to databases and feed the information back, and that is an area of research we are currently undertaking. "A key challenge we are working to solve is to get a common language between all the different types of sensors such as CCTV, satellites and RFID monitors, so we can develop a more complete picture of what is happening in an area. Then we need to develop the computer algorithms, to process these data and turn them into useful information for decision-makers."

The grant is being spent on several areas of research, including sensors to detect positioning and measure location. "Another area of research is concerned with algorithms and how we process the information, because there are huge amounts of data being collected on positioning, we can get terabytes of data within minutes, but the big task is to process all that data in something meaningful. "Then we have to have a structure in which to present the data, when you look at the handheld device you will need to see something, either a map or video or 3D model of where you are, or what is even better is an 'augmented reality' model."

Virtual reality is a 3D model of where you are, but augmented reality is when you put other information onto that 3D model, so you could click on an image and retrieve information from what is inside a building or a road sign or what bus route passes through that street, augmenting the information on the 3D model. The final stage is location-based services and the research will focus on getting the information back to the handheld device. "It is all possible, we can see the end product and I'm convinced that this is the next big toy that people will have, all the technology from mobile phones 'and sat navs are all coming down in price, so the next big thing -will be a device like this."

The products of this research could have substantial impact on the lives of ordinary people. The successful integration of sensor feedback will enable motorists to receive live traffic updates directly to satellite navigation systems, which will then be capable of advising them on traffic jams as well as suggesting alternate routes and directions specific to each vehicle.

Prof Fortheringham says there are also important applications of this technology that would benefit the quality of life for the disabled. For example, using the real-time 3D computer model of an area, a visually impaired individual could be warned of unexpected obstacles in his or her path.

The research also has many social applications. "Location-based technology aims. to allow friends and family to find each other by tracking each other on their mobile phones, giving their location in real time. "The possibilities for this line of research are endless, entering what was once thought to be the realm of science fiction."

This article originally appeared in the Irish Examiner on 19th September 2008.