Mobile Applications: Feedback on Survey 1

Written by: Jonathan Briggs

February 15, 2005 [2738 views]

Thanks to everyone who filled this in. I have reviewed all of the answers and wanted to start by making some general points followed by some comments on the specific questions.

• Many of you gave only half an answer for how your technology worked or would work. You need to think about all the steps in the chain: how does data get from the customer to a server or from the server back to the customer.
• About half of you clearly understand what is going on behind the scenes. The others need to ask more questions and try and work out what is really happening.
• Make sure you answer the question. If this were an exam then you would need to write a few sentences to explain your thinking. I know that GPS is part of many location based services but how does a van know where it is using GPS.
• Try to separate the different technologies in your mind; perhaps by making your own notes about what they are good and bad at.
• Write a bit more. Particularly in an exam we can give credit for your thinking even if you have got things a bit muddled.

Q1. Delivery vehicle tracking so that a company can work out where all its vans are at any time

• Most of you identified the need for GPS.
• A few of you still think that the receiver talks to the satellite – it doesn’t
• A few of you have the satellite beaming info back to head-office – GPS satellites don’t know about head-office
• The best answers considered how position data (from GPS) would be transmitted back to base (via GPRS over GSM)

Q2. Staff tracking inside a laboratory

• A few of you thought you could use GPS inside the lab – you can’t
• A bigger mixture of technologies was considered here – Wifi, Bluetooth and RFID
• I would go for RFID as the location technology (suitable inside buildings) with cable (or perhaps WiFi) back to the server.
• You need to describe how gates would be set up to detect RFID tags in their vicinity
• I’m not sure that Bluetooth is good at location information.

Q3. Allowing fans at an outdoor music festival to vote for their favorite bands or tracks

• How many people have WiFi devices at a festival? This might be coming but unlikely at the moment.
• SMS is still the easiest technology and if it works use it.
• Not at all sure how you would use RFID unless you had some sort of membership card that allowed you to cast your votes at a booth.

4. Providing a news service to individual passengers on the London Underground

• This proved to be the hardest for many of you.
• Use your common sense. GSM and 3G are not installed underground in the tube. They could be but they aren’t.
• No one has WiFi – how many people have you seen using their laptops on the tube?
• Bluetooth is the only sensible suggestion and this requires info points that beam Bluetooth messages to suitable phones.
• Perhaps you would register only for particular types of news you would want.

5. Providing streaming video from a central server to multiple handheld receivers inside a school or college

• Be realistic again and think about the business and the environment.
• No one is going to stream content to kids or teachers over standard GSM/GPRS phones – ever!
• Kids aren’t going to have 3G phones in the short term and won’t want to pay for content.
• I’m not sure who thought GPS was needed but I can’t imagine how that would work.
• Bluetooth is too slow.
• That leaves WiFi and as some people pointed out you might still have problems because of the bandwidth – you would need to consider quite a few base stations.

Anyway – thanks again for having a go. Hope the feedback is useful and watch out for this weeks similar survey.

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