Global Positioning System Reference
In-Depth Information
Benefits would be lower costs for automated record-keeping for health and
safety conformance, a reduction in accidents and crime, improved utilization of
assets, and a lower wage bill for human security resources.
Weaknesses could include an overreliance on wireless technology that may
be subjected to denial of service attacks (e.g., jamming), accidental radio
interference, problems due to radio coverage and occlusion, and battery life for
powered security tags.
Performance requirements are exacting due to the criticality of many of the
objects being monitored. Very high positional accuracy (potentially down to <1m
in three dimensions) may be needed in some circumstances. Low latency is
required if health and safety issues are at stake. Some systems do not need,
however, to be in constant communication and a position audit (perhaps) every
hour may be adequate.
At present, positioning and location-based services are a niche market but the
future could include scenarios where ubiquitous positioning is the key service to
keep a free society functioning in the face of increasing terrorism.
There is some overlap with established security systems such as networked
intruder alarms and video surveillance systems. The addition of extra intelligence
to a basic surveillance system may be needed, however, to perform a positional
check at predetermined times and to react (according to a rule set) according to
what has been detected. Systems to be converged include RFID tag systems, video
surveillance, peer-to-peer communications with positioning, some long-range
telemetry tags based on GPS, WiFi, UWB, and wide area radio (e.g., GSM, SMS,
and GPRS).
4.7
Mobile Advertising
Mobile advertising is already a well-established part of mobile transacting,
buying, selling, and advertising. If, however, the advertisements are triggered by
location of a user or group of users, then more selling opportunities of a real-time
nature can arise. Proactive calling and push-messaging to mobile devices can be
used to alert potential customers to offers that are nearby, and maps and guidance
services may be offered to help customers to find the retailing facilities. Although
some aspects of these services have been used in Japan for some time, Whereness
offers the prospect of much more fine-grained advertising within indoor retail and
leisure environments.
One of the original ideas of ubiquitous computing could be used to good
effect. A public multimedia display can suddenly become personalized when a
customer is automatically detected to be standing in front [7]. The advertisement,
which perhaps first appeared on the mobile phone screen, is suddenly transferred
to the public display. The mobile device can then become a remote controller to
personalize an interactive session with the public screen (and perhaps a gamelike
