The Washington Post recently had an article regarding a consortium of companies who plan on spending $14.5 billion (more than Bolivia’s GDP) in the creation of the WiMax network. According to the article, delivering maps is one of Google’s main considerations for joining the project.
WiMax is like WiFi, but with a much longer range; it should have the capability to cover most major population areas in the United States and have similar coverage to current cell phone networks.
WiMax has geographic implications and it should revolutionize location-based services, the technology can provide:
Digital graffiti
Networked GPS will enable people to create “virtual graffiti”, allowing users to create and receive messages based on coordinates. While primitive versions of this technology are used in some museum or college tours, WiMax will allow networking on a massive scale. Consumers will be able to see text or video reviews of a restaurant simply by standing near its entrance. Personally, I would like my GPS (which will soon be embedded in my cell phone) to signal when I’m near historical markers.
Vehicle safety
WiMax can provide information to navigation systems that would provide warnings when driving on roads with higher accident densities. These alerts could be calibrated depending on weather and time of year; for example: an icy bridge alert would only occur if a cold front has arrived and recent temperature measurements are below freezing.
The unnoticed power of street signs could be enhanced through warnings based on weather conditions.
Also, the many terabytes of data of Google Earth will finally be available on mobile devices.
It appears the dawn of networked GPS is near.
Tags: Google Earth · GPS · location-based-services · satellite navigation1 Comment
1 response so far ↓
I heard about it on NPR.