Battery-friendly positioning for your smartphone – finally possible with Skyhook SDK
Everybody loves Location-Based Services (well… at least those who are reading this particular blog) but there always have been problem with persistent background location tracking… the battery. It usually needs 3-5h of using GPS and the battery is dead. Now, according to Skyhook it has changed. Skyhook was one of the first companies offering WiFi positioning technology as well as data. It was launched long before the era of smartphones in 2003 but it seems that this are the times when finally we can use this technology.
Skyhook’s SKD for android, allows developers to grab location data every 30 seconds with accuracy down to 10-20 meters. Probably the accuracy can be reached at this level in the cities where the are plenty of wireless internet routers but Skyhook doesn’t say how the technology actually works. What we know is that it’s available for developers right away and that it offers location tracking for users in air-planes. Yes in air-planes. That might give rise to some virtual pilot apps that let people know what they’re flying over and nearby points of interest.
Let’s wait until developer will start playing around with new SDK.
source: Skyhood Wireless, Gigaom, Engadget
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The recent TNS research suggests that about 9% of South Africans use LBS services and about 53% will be keen to be tracked by LBS services in the future.
Coming from one of the developing nations of the world, this proves that people are beginning to mellow down on location privacy issues and are becoming more comfortable about receiving the tracking services of LBS. This is a good indication that LBS services are going to boom within the next few years.
I had a hunch that the noise about location privacy would soon subside and people would totally embrace the advantages of LBS and would always need their location information and those of their friends from LBS at every moment.
When online banking and payment started, folks had cold feet. Right now, confidence has been built on the security of online banking and payments. Same would be the case in location privacy. In no distant time, especially as our cities and vehicles get smarter, people would want their vehicles to automatically know where they are and where they are going to be next at every epoch in time.
Folks would want their vehicles to automatically know, for example, if there is a traffic jam ahead the road and which is the best route to take to avoid the traffic. Stuff like this is possible when every smart grid is enabled and when LBS solutions are able to create a connection between smart cities, smart phones, smart vehicles and so on.
source: BizCommunity
