Nick Hermandorfer

Overcoming a Major Obstacle

QUICK REVIEW

• Global Positioning System (GPS) technology involves the use of transmission of at least three radio signals from a “constellation” of 24 satellites to a hand held receiving unit. The receiving unit uses triangulation to calculate extremely accurate measurements of the user’s position, velocity, and time .

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM FOR GPS???

Who does this problem affect?

• Emergency Rescue • Seeing Impaired• Criminals• Parents• And you…..

Growing Trends Of GPS

• Japan- offers over 100 different location based services ranging from bracelets that allow parents to monitor the children to cell phones equipped with the latest GPS technology.

• Korea- Two million citizens are already able to use their cell phones to locate friends.

• Europe- Cell phone users can be located by their networks and are provided with personalized directions

• United States- Regardless of the fact that GPS is operated by US Military, The United States is behind the curve when it comes to general public use of location based technologies. But the market for this technology is expected to grow exponentially over the next few years.

GROWING POPULARITY

• Predicted GrowthConsumer Usage 2002=150,000

Consumer Usage 2005= 42 million

Market Value in 2002= 6 million Predicted Value 2005= 828 million Predicted Value 2007= 26 BILLION!!! Predictions from market research firm Gartner

REASON

• The cause of the predicted growth of the use of GPS technology was a mandate several years ago, requiring cell phones to have to ability to locate someone making an Emergency 911 call with an accuracy of 50 to 100 meters by the year 2005.

• Of the roughly 190 million 911 calls made last year,

some 50 million originated from mobile phones,

• The new cell phones are expected to use variety of technologies in order to locate their users.

Global Positioning Technologies

• In order to overcome the GPS inability to work indoors, cell phones providers are expected to use a combination of four similar forms of tracking devices.

Assisted GPS

“Time Difference of Arrival”

Wi-Fi

Ultra Wide Band

Outdoor Tracking

• Currently, there are two major types of technology being used for outdoor tracking. The farthest along of all the technologies is GPS. Although the GPS is much more accurate (range of 5 to 20 meters) than other outdoor options, it is also more expensive because it requires each phone to have a built in receiver.

• Since GPS requires a direct line of site to at least three satellites, the cell phone technology used is commonly referred to as assisted GPS. This system automatically activates itself when the phone moves indoors or out of range of the satellites. Once assisted GPS takes over, the users location is determined by the signal strength of their phone to the nearest base station.

• Assisted GPS is also used in vehicles when they are driving through large cities and surrounded by large towers

• Another indoor/outdoor location identification method is known as the “time difference of arrival” technique. The basic method is very similar to the GPS technology. Rather than calculation of location based on time difference of arrival from three or more satellites, this method depends on at least three cellular antennas.

• Although the method is only accurate to a range of 80-120 meters, it does meet E911 requirements, and is more cost effective than the use of assisted GPS. Furthermore, cell phone users are still able to continue using their brick sized phones if the do not feel inclined to by a new phone prior to 2005.

• The decision the consumer must make is how valuable a few meters of accuracy are during a time of emergency.

Outdoor Tracking (Option B)

More advances…

• Many consumers and businesses are unsatisfied with a range of 100-200 meters for both personal use and in the case of an emergency.

• For the consumer, a difference of 100 meters can mean the inability to find an office or the fear that in terrorism aftermath rescue workers will be unable to find them.

• For businesses, this can mean a missed opportunity to flash an advertisement on the cell phone screen of a passing consumer.

WI-Fi Technology • Wi-Fi technology (short for “wireless fidelity”) is currently one of the

most popular wireless processes for many laptop and send PDA users because of its ability to quickly and receive large amounts of information.

• Only covering an area of approx. 300 feet, the Wi-Fi signal strength can much more accurately locate consumers with phones equipped with Wi-Fi technology.

• Although expensive, this option not only gives users the ability to be located very accurately, it also gives them the added bonus of sending and receiving large amounts of data through the internet using their phone.

• The largest downfall of this technique is that it is just becoming popular in the United States, and is currently only available in several airports, coffee shops, etc.

Ultra Wide Band• UWB uses a kind of pulse modulation. To transfer data, a UWB

transmitter emits a single sine wave pulse (called a monocycle) at a time. This monocycle has no data in it. On the contrary, it is the timing between monocycles (the interval between pulses) that determines whether data transmitted is a 0 or a 1.

• UWB devices are intended to operate on already occupied spectrum without causing harmful interference.

• UWB devices can reportedly see images of objects buried underground or imbedded in walls. UWB devices can be used to measure distances or locations of objects. UWB can also be used for short-range high-speed data. (15—100 m.) But have an accuracy of several centimeters

• European Space Agency intends to launch 30 Galileo satellites by 2008, and using UWB the transmission frequencies may be able to penetrate buildings.

Sample Pulse

Goal

• Overall the goal of the system developers should be…

“Trying to develop a single instrument that solves all way finding problems…It’s not that far off.” -Dr. Ponchilla, Chairman of the Department of Blindness

So What’s the Problem??• Different companies have each invested in different services. It

is unlikely that any company will quickly change their technology or combine it with other servers.

• Basic research companies attempt to find faults in other forms of technology rather than improving their own, because they have already invested so much. Ex.) trying to prove UWB interference

GPS TDOA Hi-Fi UWB

Qualcomm AT&T Accenture European Companies

Sprint Cingular Symbol Technologies

Pulse-Link

Verizon Transit Technologies

FINDING The Perfect Balance

THE END

Works Cited• Europe's answer to GPS irks Pentagon

Duncan Graham-Rowe. New Scientist. London: Jun 7, 2003. Vol. 178, Iss. 2398; p. 13

• Trimble Online

http://www.trimble.com/gps/what.html

• Soon, Your Cell Phone May Be Tracking YouAndrew Brandt. PC World. San Francisco: Apr 2004. Vol. 22, Iss. 4; p. 54 (1 page)

• .A Sense Of Where You AreIan Austen. New York Times (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Mar 29, 2004. p. C.7

• Parents & technologyJeff Dodd. Smart Computing in Plain English. Lincoln: Feb 2004. Vol. 15, Iss. 2; p. 35

• Yahoo. Com (Definition Searches)

• Pictures from Microsoft Clip Art