Global Positioning System Reference
In-Depth Information
groups. These services will be supported by new handsets that are becoming more
sophisticated, attractive, and capable. New capabilities will include hotspot
wireless, GNSS receivers, sensor technology, and new display technology. A
novel possibility, based on recent research, is the use of camera phones to provide
position and location (see Section 7.4.2).
3.5.3
Wireless Hotspot Operators
Increased numbers of public, private, and hybrid WiFi hotspot access points will
lead to new positioning services. Hotspots can be used to expose the location of
user sessions in two ways: first, via the network operator from knowledge of who
is logged on to each base station, and second, by users harvesting the broadcast ID
information and comparing it with maps. The amateur wardriving activity [8] of
logging hotspot location with GPS coordinates (which is illegal in some places)
may become a mainstream business activity.
3.5.4
Groupware
Corporate e-mail and groupware already include the functions of meeting
organization, and portable groupware devices such as Research in Motion's
Blackberry, and are becoming more popular. Groupware will be improved once
Whereness is offered.
Consumer mobile devices will have similar services but are more likely to be
linked to social networking Web service portals. In the longer term there may be a
move for corporations to use modified versions of the social portals, since
employees will be highly trained in their operations. Advanced billing, security,
and session control will enable the same (domestic) device to be used for
corporate use, thus avoiding the need for people to carry two mobile devices. The
Whereness services can thus be offered to a person according to two personal
profiles, one corporate and the other domestic.
3.6
Intelligence
Assuming customers have access to time and place information, it is likely they
will want more, especially if useful advice about actions and activities can be
provided automatically by some sort of machine intelligence in a simple and clear
way. Value-added services of this nature will probably be the areas that will be
profitable in the future digital networked economy.
3.6.1
The Invisible GIS
The temporal aspect can be immediate, involve past actions, or concern
predictions but generally concerns events. A positioning system may be associated
