Location Aware Applications

Mobile devices have been deemed the future seventh media by many technology evangelists of our times. There are many reasons that the mobile can be tagged with such a bold statement. One of the obvious reasons is that the mobile phone is a device whose location can be pinpointed by the network. Whether by the means of GPS, Cell ID or CBM (Cell Broadcast Messages) positioning, the information on the location of a device is an extremely valuable one. In fact this information can open up an extremely high revenue market of unimaginable proportions.

Psiloc has been outstandingly active in the field of LBS (Location Based Services). Amongst our numerous applications, the following are above all worth mentioning:

PhotoTagger uses CBM broadcasted by the mobile operator. CBM is a short text embedded in the radio signal sent by each base station describing the area in which it resides, be it a district, street name or a building (in the case of picocells). The text information contained in the CBM is then further used to tag photographs taken with the phone camera. This assigns them to a position on the globe by inserting the CBM message to the EXIF header of each JPEG encoded photo. To further increase the accuracy of this application a morphed CBM and GPS method of positioning is currently being developed by Psiloc.

MiniGPS is a solution based on Cell ID and Area Code information. Using the standardized Cell ID information, the country, city and even street can be identified. This method proves to be surprisingly accurate, with the location resolution ranging from 50 to 300 meters in urban areas. MiniGPS can work in both GSM and UTMS mobile networks. Learning algorithms implemented in this software, map the devices location accounting for the fuzzy and fluctuating nature of cellular networks. MiniGPS allows triggering of user defined events in the mobile device depending on location. When in a certain area, the user can predefine actions such as switching Bluetooth connectivity ON/OFF, changing of profiles and themes, sending SMS messages and triggering alarms in certain locations. This literally brings in a second dimension to reminders, so that now we can make them location dependant as well as time dependent.

We strongly believe in the potential of Location Based Services, and see it in bold print, on our strategic mobile solutions roadmap.