Street View-style Imagery Lets Mobile Devices Locate Themselves Indoors As Accurately as GPS

As reported by MIT Technology Review: Smartphones locate themselves outdoors using a GPS sensor, but those signals are typically blocked indoors. A new technique uses a device’s camera to get an indoor location fix to an accuracy of within a meter. The technique could enable new kinds of apps, and may be particularly valuable for wearable computers such as Google Glass.

The new location-fixing method is being developed at the University California, Berkeley. It uses a photo from a device’s camera to work out the location and orientation of the device. It does this by matching the photo against a database of panoramic imagery of a building’s interior, similar to the outside views offered by Google’s Street View. The system can deduce the device’s location because it knows the position of every image in that database.

The researchers used a special backpack that captures Street View-style imagery indoors as the wearer carries it around. It has two fisheye cameras, laser scanners, and other sensors. Software uses the data collected to generate a map of the building’s interior, a stitched-together set of panoramas, and a database of individual images that can be used for location lookups.

“You can provide that blue dot you see on a mobile map when out-of-doors for interiors,” says Avideh Zakhor, who leads the Berkeley group developing the system. Zakhor previously sold a 3-D city mapping company to Google that became a major part of the company’s Google Earth 3-D virtual globe.

Zakhor and colleagues have tested their system in buildings on the Berkeley campus and in a mall in Fremont, California. In tests at the mall, they successfully matched more than 96 percent of images taken by a smartphone’s camera against the database of images. When the matches were turned into location fixes, most came out with an error of less than a meter from the device’s true location.

Zakhor says her approach compares favorably with competing methods of determining location indoors in terms of accuracy and the cost of deployment. Alternative methods include using Bluetooth “beacons” or fingerprinting the pattern of Wi-Fi signals inside a building.

Jonathan Ventura, senior researcher at Graz University of Technology, Austria, agrees. “The major advantage of image-based localization is that it works almost everywhere and doesn't require changing the environment in any way,” he says.

Zakhor’s group isn’t the only one capturing such data: Google has begun taking its Street View product inside and announced last month that it had documented the interiors of 16 airports and over 50 train stations.

Ventura’s own research focuses on augmented reality. He says that if devices can be located very accurately it will allow for virtual and real worlds to be closely aligned. “If we want to render a rich and complex virtual world into a high-resolution image,” he says, “we need to have much more accurate positioning than a consumer GPS receiver can deliver.”

Zakhor is planning tests of her method on computerized glasses, with the intention of having the devices use snapshots to track their location, making it possible to provide a map of an interior space in a person’s field of vision. The Berkeley research group is also working on using data from Wi-Fi signals collected by their backpack to provide a secondary method of deducing a device’s indoor location.

New Trucking Regulations to Shrink Capacity, Spur Rate Increase, Economist Says

As reported by Overdrive: Trucking faces the largest concentration of regulatory changes in its history beginning next year, economist Eric Starks, President of research firm FTR, said Wednesday.

The changes include CARB trailer regulations, hours of service changes, new greenhouse gas/mpg regulations, as well as potential mandatory electronic onboard recorder and speed limiter requirements.

The regulatory bottleneck heading toward the trucking industry in 2014 — and partly already in effect, headlined by the hours-of-service rule changes that went into effect July 1 — will further shrink the driver pool and the industry’s capacity and could lead to a 6 percent increase in truckload rates by the second quarter of 2014, said Mr. Starks. 

Starks spoke at CCJ‘s Fall Symposium in Scottsdale, Ariz., this week, where he told an audience of fleet executives that some estimates show that fleets will need to hire an additional 1.5 million drivers to maintain current productivity levels, due to regulatory changes that loom. 

He pointed to tightening emissions regulations in California, federal greenhouse gas and mpg regulations, electronic logging device mandate, speed limiter requirements and the already-underway hours-of-service changes as a concentration of regulations that will be what he called “game-changers” for the industry.

Starks said his estimates show that fleets will need 150,000 to 200,000 additional drivers to maintain current productivity in the coming years, and the regulations will create a tough environment for smaller fleets and create barriers for newcomers to the industry. 

The 6 percent increase in truckload rates “is a good number,” Starks said,” but not as dramatic as the initial data suggests” due to a rate drop this summer. 

GPS Farming App Goes Global

As reported by Ag Professional: A new precision crop management tool for mobile devices was introduced by AgDNA. 

Since AgDNA was launched by founder Paul Turner less than six months ago, the cloud-based program has registered users in more than 80 countries with six million acres of farmland boundary mapped.

The growth rate of one million acres a month is set to accelerate with the launch of a version for Android smartphones and tablets to complement the original system developed for iPhone and iPad.

To help build international penetration, AgDNA was showcased at the world’s biggest farm machinery show, Agritechnica, which attracted more than 450,000 visitors to Hanover in Germany in November.

“Our mobile farming platform has excited a lot of interest and feedback in the European farming community,” Turner said.

The intuitive software is a free download from the AppStore or Google Play and can be used for a number of applications each month at no charge.  Inexpensive subscription plans are available for larger farms and power users.

Turner said the technology had unique features, including the ability to track machinery operating in the field in real time using the mobile device’s GPS, linking multiple users to a single account and displaying season activities for each field.

“It allows farmers to make full use of the ever increasing amount of electronic data being generated in modern agricultural systems.

“It brings all this data together in a usable form to help the farm business run more smoothly,” said Turner, who has an extensive background in precision farming and was a pioneer in the development of GPS auto-steering technology in Australia and the USA.

New data only needs to be entered into the AgDNA system once and if there is no internet connection it automatically uploads when the device comes back into range.

“The program can be accessed by multiple operators, including work groups in the field, agronomists and advisers, in packing sheds and processing facilities.

“This makes for easy planning and coordination of farming activities,” Turner said.

Once the field boundaries on a property have been mapped or imported other information such as soil profiles, irrigation and fertilizer applications can be overlaid to provide a complete picture.

Weather data can also be added to build a detailed history of how individual crops have performed across the seasons.

“We are working closely with machinery manufacturers so that electronic data being generated on crop yields or fertilizer application or spray rates can be readily up loaded to the AgDNA program.

“A lot of this technology is now invisible. The capability is built into the machinery and it is just a matter of collating it all into a format that the farmer can use to help in their decision making.

“AgDNA is an extremely powerful farm management tool when all the data comes together. Information that might otherwise take months to assemble can be captured as it is generated,” Turner said.

All the data is stored in a secure account on the Internet where it can’t be lost or corrupted, with access password protected.

“When it comes to meeting external demands such as quality assurance or product traceability, all the information needed about the history of a particular crop can be extracted with ease.”
“We are continuing to work closely with farmers, agronomists, retailers and service providers to increase the information gathering potential of AgDNA as more and more electronic data is generated.”

“The potential productivity gains, improved yields and timely access to critical farm data using mobile devices and connected data services is huge.

“AgDNA is quickly being recognized as an industry leader in this space and we are committed to helping growers around the world to access their farm data wherever and whenever they want,” Turner said.

An Alternative to the iBeacon; Qualcomm Has Low-Cost Gimbal Proximity Beacons

Apple's iBeacon isn't the only game in town when it comes to
Bluetooth Smart Proximity devices for retailers.  Qualcomm's
Gimbal proximity sensor is now available, supporting IOS today
and Android in the future.  Get ready for a Hyper-personal in-store
shopping experience.

As reported by GigaOM: Apple’s iBeacon is already tracking where you are in Apple Stores in order to present a more personalized experience.

It’s not the only game in town though. Qualcomm’s Gimbal Proxmity Beacons are now available for as low as $5 in quantity, the company announced on Monday. Currently a favorite vendor for chips in smartphones, Qualcomm’s Gimbal represents another product to keep the company powering mobile devices, smartwatches and just about any other Internet of Things connected gadget.

There are actually two Gimbal sensors now available: The small Series 10, measuring 28 x 40 x 5.6 millimeter and the larger Series 20 that takes up a 95 x 102 x 24 millimeter footprint. Both use low-energy Bluetooth Smart technology for detailed micro-location data; accurate within a foot. The idea is that retailers can add the Gimbal sensors throughout a brick-and-mortar store to see where customers are. That data provides the opportunity for a hyper-personal shopping experinece, says Qualcomm:

“Use of the platform enables brands to increase sales and drive loyalty by delivering highly relevant communications while those consumers are physically present in their stores and venues. Brands using the Gimbal platform can send customized communications based on interest derived from geofence triggers and proximity triggers, all matched to inferred interests.“

The concept is exactly what Apple is trying to do in its stores — as is Macy’s, which has installed Apple’s iBeacon in some locations. With accurate in-store location data of customers, retailers know what section of the store potential buyers are in. It can then tailor ads, product information, even limited in-store product specials, to the most likely buyers of such products.

The use of Bluetooth makes far more sense than other alternatives: NFC generally requires a customer action, such as tapping a phone to a tag, while GPS is pure overkill and not likely as accurate in some indoor locations. Before Bluetooth Smart, the Bluetooth wireless technology simply lacked either the range or used too much power to effectively be a detailed proximity location tool.

Qualcomm’s Gimbal product, which combines “physical location, activity, time and personal interests” currently supports iOS devices for now but the company says Android support is planned. This past January, I got a demo of how Gimbal can be used in other unique ways, such as the launch of a new Star Trek movie. Qualcomm can’t beam you up just yet, but it can provide computers with your exact location.

Germany’s DHL Test Delivers Medicine by Drone

As reported by GigaOM: Germany’s postal service has completed its first drone-based package delivery, successfully using a “Paketkopter” to carry a pack of medicine from a Bonn pharmacy to the Deutsche Post (DHL) headquarters a kilometer away.

When Amazon announced its own drone delivery plans just over a week ago, DHL was quick to say that it too was already developing a similar scheme. Monday’s maiden flight proves this to be true. However, Germany’s airspace rules remain unclear on drones, and this flight required a special permit.

According to Deutsche Welle, DHL currently has no plans to actually launch drone-based deliveries. This was just a trial to check the technological feasibility of the idea.

In that case, medicine was a great choice. It’s light, which is handy as drones aren't very strong. It’s also something that could plausibly merit very urgent delivery — delivering stuff via drone only makes economic sense when time is of the essence, due to fuel costs and the fact that drones will probably only be able to carry one package at a time.

Benefits of Fleet Tracking

As reported by Business2Community: Fleet tracking is the simple tracking of vehicles through a GPS system. It has widely been proven to assist businesses in fully enhancing the performance of their fleet. 

Typically, fleet managers have even been known to see a tremendous reduction in costs within just days of the installment of a GPS fleet tracking system. There is a wide range of top reasons to use vehicle tracking on your fleet.

Reduction in Fuel Costs

Fleet tracking assists businesses in making their vehicles much more efficient by reducing excess in speeding, idling, or unauthorized usage. With optimized routes, a business can greatly improve schedules and decrease the costs of fuel. Speeding and idling both waste fuel. However, with GPS tracking, alerts, and maps, it will easily show a fleet manager those employees who speed and where they are speeding.

Unnecessary wastes of fuel such as speeding and idling can be greatly reduced by regulating the total number of minutes that a driver is permitted to idle. This significantly decreases business costs due to fuel expenses. With fleet tracking, businesses are provided the unique opportunity to even notify drivers with alerts instantly.

By determining when your company’s vehicles are being used for non-business purposes, you can substantially improve the efficiency of your fleet. The vast majority of these fleet tracking systems also offer the capability to set customized hours that your vehicles can be utilized. This will effectively track improper use of company vehicles and report the data back to you.

With the benefits of a fleet tracking system, you also will receive the chance to completely optimize every route. It will assist you in determining whether a trip has been wasteful as well as specific routing that can assign advanced routes to your vehicles. The proactive and intuitive technology is a must for the vehicles in your fleet.

Increase in Productivity

A fleet tracking system permits a business to enhance the dispatching process by ensuring that the proper driver is dispatched to every job. With the careful insight received, a dispatcher can easily and quickly identify the most efficient routes for specific drivers. During particular weather conditions, this can be a major necessity for your drivers by giving your dispatch team the ability to reroute a driver or a fleet instantly.

Reduction of Labor Costs

Without the worries of time sheets, you no longer need to deal with punch card disputes. Your drivers are reported at the start of their shift, along with the stops made and time of completion. By monitoring your fleet, you will cut out those workers who may be finding less productive ways to pass company time. This will greatly improve your labor costs as well as the life and efficiency of your vehicle or fleet.

Improvement in Safety

Improved navigation can easily enhance the safety of your drivers and your fleet by keeping drivers on track with directions. The fleet tracking systems also offer ways to safely communicate with your drivers. Aside from safety in navigation and location, by improving simple tasks such as recorded maintenance needs, you will prevent potentially treacherous situations that unreliable vehicles can cause.

Apple to Locate Shoppers Within Its Stores Using iBeacon Technology

As reported by Fox News: GPS will tell you how to get to the nearest Apple store. With iBeacon, Apple hopes to guide you around once you're inside, whether it's to pick up an order, upgrade to a new iPhone or shop for a pair of headphones.

On Friday, Apple will begin using the technology at its 254 U.S. stores to send you messages about products, events and other information -- tailored to where you are inside, provided you have downloaded the Apple Store app and have given Apple permission to track you.

Using the iBeacon feature, the app will notify you if the computer you ordered is ready to be picked up, for example. Show a clerk your screen with the order number, and the clerk will get it for you. Walking by an iPhone table? You may get a message asking if you want to upgrade, check your upgrade availability and see if you can get money for trading in your old phone.

The company demonstrated the technology to The Associated Press this week at its busy, 24-hour Fifth Avenue store in New York City. At this particular store, Apple has installed about 20 iBeacon transmitters, some of which are simply iPhones and iPads, which come with the capability as part of the iOS 7 mobile software released in September. The transmitters use Bluetooth wireless technology to sense your exact location. That's not possible with GPS, which don't work well indoors and aren't good at distinguishing between locations that are just a few feet apart.

The beacons can be adjusted to specific distances, so you may get some notifications regardless of where you are inside. Others will come only when you are standing at a particular aisle, wall or product demo table. The store can also send out notifications about deals or upcoming events.

The implications go beyond Apple stores. One day, commuters might get information on subway delays as they stand on the platform, while museum visitors might get details on the painting they are standing in front of. Other retailers, of course, will be also able to offer special deals or track which aisle shoppers spend the most time at.

In-store location technology does raise privacy concerns, though many shoppers have shown a willingness to be tracked if there's something in it for them.

Major League Baseball already plans to use the technology next year to customize fans' experiences at its ballparks, provided they download the At The Ballpark app to their iPhones or iPads and have iOS 7 installed. In a demo earlier this year, MLB officials showed how the app can offer special features based on users' location in a stadium, such as coupons in the souvenir shop or a video that plays near landmarks.

Apple is not the first to offer in-store location technology. An app called Shopkick, for example, sends users discounts when they enter Macy's, J.C. Penney and other stores. But Apple's entry into micro-location puts the nascent technology into the hands of thousands of developers and broadens its reach considerably.

Apple said iBeacon provides apps with "a whole new level of micro-location awareness, such as trail markers in a park, exhibits in a museum, or product displays in stores."

To take advantage of this, make sure you have Bluetooth enabled on your phone and download the Apple Store app. You'll have to agree to let Apple track your location and to receive notifications while in the store. It'll only work if you say yes to both as you set up the app.

The app will automatically switch to "in-store mode" once you enter. Even without iBeacon, the app already lets you scan and pay for some items using your phone, get customer service help and reserve products.
Location tracking does raise privacy worries. After all, shoppers may not want their every move watched and recorded inside a store. Apple, however, said that it does not collect information about shoppers inside its stores. But other companies using iBeacon could, as long as people who download their apps agree to be tracked.

Privacy advocates have raised concerns about the various ways that retailers track shoppers, whether it's their location, purchase history or how often they visit a store. But consumers often agree to be tracked in exchange for discounts.