Archive for the 'Personal Navigation Devices' Category

Open Source Programmable GPS Devices

Published by Babar Bhatti on May 23, 2008 under Entrepreneurship, Gadgets, Linux, Location Based Services, Mobile Applications, Personal Navigation Devices

I believe these kind of hardware+software mashups to be very relevant to next generation of location based services and telecom industry. Here’s a video from 2008 O’Reilly Where 2.0 conference, the meeting place for upcoming location based services. This talks about a set of open-source hardware modules which can be connected together and programmed to interact as desired - for example to create a proximity-based to-do list. There is more information available at conference proceedings page.

How Does Google Maps Find Me Work In Pakistan?

Published by Babar Bhatti on May 15, 2008 under Location Based Services, Mobile Applications, Personal Navigation Devices, Telecommunications

Recently a few readers and friends have asked about the google maps feature on mobile phones called find me (aka blue dot). This is a feature from google maps for mobile phones which shows your approximiate location on a web enabled mobile phone. GPS is not required. People love it! See this official google page for details on how it works, including a video.

The question was: how does google know my location in Pakistan? There are 2 pieces of local information needed: the tower location data and other is the map data. There are companies which sell such kind of data so expect this feature to be available at more and more places. Rest of the algorithm uses the signal information and the application is able to locate you within a certain degree of accuracy, therefore the term blue dot.

So go ahead, use your web-enabled phone and download google maps in case you don’t have it. And if you use this feature often please share where and how or better yet, send us pictures.