The GPS (Global Positioning System) is handy in so many arenas: travel, traffic, geotagging, military ops, etc. However, the GPS does not work indoors. According to this article, there are two groups that are striving to make IPS (Indoor Positioning System) a reality: a team of Stanford students and an Australian firm called Locata.
The team of Stanford students have launched WiFiSLAM to locate indoors by way of existing wireless networks in buildings and smartphones. Some applications that they are working towards are step-by-step indoor navigation, to product-level retail customer engagement, to proximity-based social networking.
Locata recognizes the shortcomings of GPS and strives to expand its potential. The Locata technology works both indoors and outdoors.
Here's how it works: "Conceptually, Locata’s solution is very simple. Just place a LocataLite (our equivalent of a GPS satellite) in an area where GPS signals are unreliable and the LocataLite “fills in the holes” in GPS coverage. This seems like a logical and intelligent thing to do given the evident demand for an improvement to GPS."
Of course, many other companies are working on IPS, and as they do, museums should consider the possibilities:
1. Visitors no longer getting lost in a museum
2. Personalized tours (available on a smartphone app) that visitors can choose
3. Scavenger Hunt mania! Knowing where other teams are can offer a whole new experience
4. Conversations on social networks and live feeds about objects in the museum. For example, if visitor A is looking at an object and posting great comments, and then visitor B, who is at another part of the museum, is intrigued by the conversation and wants to see the object, too, visitor B can pinpoint where visitor A is and simply follow the indoor positioning signal.
What other possibilities/applications can you think of? Consider our introduction post on ubiquitous computing (and learning) and how this blurs the spatial and traditional boundaries to learning, how this can be a platform for different modes of representation for learning, and how this will address the individuality of visitors.
I'm a little confused about that Locata diagram, I feel like from personal experience GPS can be *more* reliable in cities than in the other two based on a lack of a signal in some rural areas...
ReplyDeleteBut I think the idea of an indoor GPS system (like being able to load a map of the museum and have it pick up where you are on it, rather than physical signs around) is an awesome idea, especially for enormous institutions like the Met or the Lourve where it's definitely possible to get lost!
When I started read this, I was concerned. Why would anyone need GPS inside? Who is trying to stalk me in buildings? But it makes such sense in museums! I especially love the idea of social networking and conversing across the museum. I think I'd like to advocate for IPS in my museum when it becomes more widely available.
ReplyDeleteJamila, I too was a bit weirded out by people following strangers in museums. I can definitely see the benefits for way-finding and sparking interests, but am a bit confused. In your example, visitor A posts a comment and visitor B, now interested in that object, pinpoints visitor A's location. Do you mean that visitor B can search for the object or the phone? I vote the former.
ReplyDeleteThat is so neat! I could see IPS being a great tool for museums to attract the teen or young adult audiences, through your idea of a museum scavenger hunt via smartphones.
ReplyDeleteThis could also be a really cool evaluation tool. You can ask people when they come into the museum if they would be willing to carry an IPS with them and then track what patterns they follow in the museum. For entrance, what path they take, where they stop, and how long they spend at difference artifacts or exhibits.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I didn't know IPS was being developed, after all my years of working with GPS as an environmental scientist! How cool that it is becoming a reality. I agree that institutions will need to be careful about privacy when using it, but then again, a lot of the same issues already apply to the existing technologies in SmartPhones. Museums would do well to keep up with this technology and find interesting ways to use it that still allow visitors to feel comfortable (and not "stalked").
ReplyDeleteClarification in response to Katharine's comment: pure GPS does not require cell phone service to work. A GPS device only needs to be able to "see" three satellites (four is better) to triangulate your location. GPS signals from satellites cannot pass through buildings, into deep valleys, or even to the floor of thick forests.
So, you can see why being between tall buildings in a city (or inside any building anywhere) can wreck your GPS signal. An open field is the best place to "see" GPS satellites (you have an unobstructed view of the sky, horizon to horizon). But, to use GPS on a SmartPhone, you would obviously need to have a carrier signal as well. :-)
Great article... Thanks for sharing, it's interesting informative post for idea of an indoor GPS system . Check here some interesting about museums indoor navigation system app for Museums
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