Location based services is a fundamental enabler of new services in wireless data access systems. A number of location based innovations are transforming the way we experience places, interact with other people, communicate and shop- virtually in aspects of our daily lives. A major difference between mobile broadband networks and fixed networks is that the former can be subject to location changes. This provides a huge opportunity for location based services (LBS) which have very broad potential to integrate with high performance mobile services. General LBS include the updating of maps, provision of information on the location of shops, service points, etc., depending on the location of the user.
As LBS become more intuitive to use, require regular updates when on the move and have access to the sophistication of applications like Google Maps and Google Earth, they are expected to drive network traffic to considerable volumes. Operators are strongly interested in LBS as a route to provide true personalized services, and, with true broadband connectivity, they will be able to take advantage of devices with embedded GPS to offer their own and third party services, e.g. using Google Maps or similar. Services such as these raise the possibility of new business models to be developed for charging users or specialist service providers for use of network capacity.
While location detection, location disclosure, proximity search, micro-blogging with geo-tagging, and embedded sensor based location services will become hugely popular and some of them will become enablers of new services in 4G networks. I am particularly excited about the object and image recognition techniques which are regarded as one of the most significant development of the decade.
What is OR(object Recognition) for mobile devices?
OR-M is fundamental to “visual Search” (e.g. Google Goggles), which given its ease of use and intuitiveness, will soon come to dominate search on mobile devices. We have seen Google acquiring Naven Vision in 2006, which specialized in image recognition and betting high in this technology.
“Neven Vision has developed a suite of mobile recognition technologies that enable images to become the interface to digital content—photos of advertisements become hyperlinks to branded content portals, while your camera phone can snap a picture of your face to secure verification of identity and control access to your private data. By equipping customers with an intuitive visual interface that anyone can use, this technology is unlocking vastly untapped market opportunities in Mobile Marketing and Commerce, Personal Security, and Biometric Identity Verification” The goal is to recognize every image.
How does OR works in mobile devices?
OR-M matches an image viewed through the lens of a mobile device’s camera to image in a database by identifying the image’s “feature points”, where shapes, pixels, colors, or brightness change. These are used to establish the unique “Fingerprints” or “visual signature” of an image – in essence a mathematical expression that can contain 10,000 variables. These images’s signature is then compared with that of other known objects in a database.
Enabling location in your 4G networks can allow a whole set of new applications. Are you ready with your location strategy to monetize internet or would you rather experience content by selling dumb pipes?
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