Global Positioning System Reference
In-Depth Information
Secondary services could take the form of audit trails, such as where the
person was located relative to a time horizon, for example, during the last 2 hours.
These could also include group applications where the service is extended to
several people either identified individually or via a group identity. Knowledge of
a relative distance (away) will imply that the systems also have knowledge of the
users' location.
The main markets include professional business people who are working in
urban areas and traveling by car or public transport, field workers operating in
distributed teams, and young adults and higher net worth older people who have
active social lives.
Benefits to users would be saved time and other resources by eliminating
fruitless searching and avoidance of unnecessary time contingencies. Emotional
stress may be reduced as uncertainty is reduced, and efficiency may be increased
as work and leisure become more flexible.
Weaknesses of the service would be concerns about privacy and trust, so that
many people may not want to participate as targets, and some may find ways of
cheating. Good forward planning of meetings and events may be reduced, as
reliance on dynamic finding of people leads to improvements for those with the
service at the expense of those without.
Requirements are that targets should be located to a specific room, building,
or street segment (preferably) within sight of the user's arrival, after following
location advice. Location to within <10m is required in general. In some
circumstances this accuracy may not be achievable, in which case even with
reduced performance the service may still be useful. For example, if someone's
diary indicated being in a certain town, a single communications session in that
town will increase the likelihood of the target being where the diary suggests.
Convergence will be needed with all available portable positioning methods
and close integration with electronic diaries and calendars will be desirable since
this is important (a priori) information. The automatic service is then acting
mostly to confirm the validity of a diary entry.
Associated information spaces include GIS (maps), identity management, and
security including DRM for images, and proprietary and private information.
4.10
Moving Object Management
Goods within supply chains, vehicles carrying goods or people, fleets of vehicles
in general, couriers, and mobile workforces all have a requirement to be managed
efficiently. Workforce and vehicle utilization must generally be maximized and
time between productive activities minimized. Allocation of resources needs to
include the real-time management of what (or who) is where and when.
Exceptions need to be generated if plans are not being fulfilled and reports made
to controllers so corrective action can be taken, which may then include guidance
services.
