°Û °Û ÞÜ ±Û °Û °Û ÜÛÛ ÛÜ ±Û ²Û°ÛÛÛÛß°Û ÜÜÜ ±Û ÜÜ ÜÛÛÛÜ°ÛßßßÛ°Û °Û ÛÛ ° ÛÛ±Û ±Û ÛÛ ±ÛÛßßßÛܱÛÛßß°ÛÜÜÜß °Û°ÛÛÛ ÛÛ ° ÛÛ±Û ±Û ÛÛ ±Û °Û±Û °ÛÜ °ÜÛßßÛ°Û °Û ßÛ ÛÛß °ÛÛÛ ßÛÛÜ°ÛßÛÛÛÛß±Û °ÛÛÛß°ÛÜÜÛ²°Û °Û Outbreak Magazine Issue #9 - Article 12 of 13 '~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~' ###################################################################### #### Developement of Location Determination on Wireless Networks. #### ###################################################################### Intro. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In the last two years wireless technology, as well as technology based on wireless communications has seen alot of ground-breaking developements. To anyone with a bit of well grounded foresight, it isn't very difficult to envision a future bare of data carrying cables altogether. This article will deal mainly with the JAVA 2 MICRO EDITION (J2ME) programming language, developed by Sun Mircosystems as a JAVA variant for wireless devices, and its potential for location determination services. I plan to update this article as more information on the subject becomes available publicly. Global Positioning. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GPS (the Global Positioning System) was originally developed for the US military and funded by the US Department of Defence. Basically a series of 24 satellites orbit the earth at a rate of one rotation (orbit) every 12 hours. Their functions consist of A) recieving request transmitions from ground units (any GPS capable unit inside the GPS satellite matrix). B) Determining the global coordinates of the the ground unit using a complex system of linking 3 satellites (4 when a TIME request is made as well) to triangulate the units position. And c) to transmit the data back to the ground unit, accounting for any ionospheric interference. GPS and Wireless Devices. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The market for GPS capable cellphone/pda chipsets has increased ten- fold since last November when the FCC passed legislature containing mandatory deadlines for the implementation of the technology. Soon all wireless devices will contain GPS chips. J2ME and GPS. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- J2ME is the leading wireless application developement language. When used in conjunction with the NMEA protocol, a data transmission protocol used by GPS units, we have some interesting potential for location determination. Technical Notes, for the curious: data sent via the NMEA protocol must conform to the following standards: Data is sent as ASCII, begins with a dollar sign ($) followed by GP, uses a comma (,) delimiter. For more information, try the NMEA FAQ. LocatioNet, 11 year veteran of the location based services area of the wireless communication field, and gate5, a mobile internet application developement company, have recently combined their efforts in developing the zone5 engine. Its basically an enhanced version of LocatioNet's GIS engine that includes, among many other things, mechanisms for location determination and on-the-fly vector map generation. What a brave new world we live in. Pro's and Con's. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In the shadow of the 9/11 tragedy, public safety is a bigger issue than ever before. People are learning to sacrifice their civil liberties for the safety of the status quo (ie the Patriot Act). Location Determination has the potential to be a great device for insuring public safety in a wide variety of ways. This is a definate pro. But its this that frightens me. A single transmition from any wireless device (remember, the FCC made this a LAW) can transmit the *exact coordinates of any cellphone/pda's position on the planet to any other device that requests it in a compact and easily decoded form. This carries an unsettling air of Orwellian possibility. * - the positioning capabilities of GPS are not exact, the predictable accuracy is as follows: 22 meter horizontal, 27.7 meter vertical. Obviously the GIS/zone5 engines are both proprietary, but its quite conceivable that some ingenious 16 year old coder will develop a client/server application using J2ME/NMEA and release the client as a trojan-type email attachment... He could know where you're standing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- greets: savvyD, ramb0x, gr3p, kleptic, dirv, jenny, lexi, lenny, turb, joja. You'll all have to bear with me, its been a hectic month.