Mapping out the growth of location services on the cloud

<script src="http://static.meteorsolutions.com/metsol.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script src="http://cdnt.meteorsolutions.com/api/multi_track?application_id=6787616a-bec6-48d3-8b3c-0f08ab2bf44a&url_storage_source=hash&query_string_tag_key=mtag&query_string_tag_key=source&query_string_tag_key=src" type="text/javascript"></script> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKAOgb0AEEe2bXY9UFB0SlfXsFfVZ-wDcnOfXyucv6VPQhqcEsEEpg4C76eDPlD-w-x_WjzqGpowDkmHNZVavX_H6Uz-e4TBJ9O2DNbPrY4mv1OYJDqOsv7u5PtuW2_NDvs_oyCIyjmqw/s1600/Jonathan_Bnayahu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKAOgb0AEEe2bXY9UFB0SlfXsFfVZ-wDcnOfXyucv6VPQhqcEsEEpg4C76eDPlD-w-x_WjzqGpowDkmHNZVavX_H6Uz-e4TBJ9O2DNbPrY4mv1OYJDqOsv7u5PtuW2_NDvs_oyCIyjmqw/s1600/Jonathan_Bnayahu.jpg" width="182" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jonathan Bnayahu </td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Editor’s note: This article is by Jonathan Bnayahu, Manager of Smart Decision Solutions at IBM Research – Haifa.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Location-aware technologies and their sensors in our mobile devices, connected cars, and environment, have become ubiquitous – and big business. Analyst firm Gartner expects Software as a Service (SaaS) and cloud-based business application services to reach $32.2B by 2016, and that revenue generated by consumer location-based services will reach $13.5B by next year. To take advantage of this growth, today's smarter systems need to be able to sense, analyze, monitor, predict, and respond to space- and time-based situations. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To meet this challenge head-on, my team at IBM Research – Haifa is developing location services that can be incorporated into mobile apps or cloud services. These solutions embrace a comprehensive set of technologies that make it easier to build smart systems than can identify, predict, and take proactive actions in space-time situations.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Just a few examples of location queries these services can provide, includes: </span></div><ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Get a list of the five technicians closest to a specific location</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Get the last few minutes traveled by an entity</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Alert when a customer is near the shop, alert when a visitor has left a group of people doing a tour of the premises</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Get notification when all staff have arrived at the facility</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Alert when the speed of a vehicle goes above a certain threshold</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Alert when a vehicle, vessel or person deviates from the planned route</span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And more… </span></li></ul><div class="MsoNormal"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXqTCc_yxIIE0Bjy3NQuSXBwvOaMyeSWKqPzw2EOEG7S3SsAFBa4i6QmKFiImy7NmOYTB-dYlI3EetBsx1K4WQaXG9rBOagFOa1lC-GLSpM5Xn5F7CPaSUilWL5JgnEpAd3bDHzQWfl_E/s1600/locationmapping2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXqTCc_yxIIE0Bjy3NQuSXBwvOaMyeSWKqPzw2EOEG7S3SsAFBa4i6QmKFiImy7NmOYTB-dYlI3EetBsx1K4WQaXG9rBOagFOa1lC-GLSpM5Xn5F7CPaSUilWL5JgnEpAd3bDHzQWfl_E/s1600/locationmapping2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When a user who visited the website last week enters the area, he gets a tailored message based on his loyalty card</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The visualization and mapping technologies we create as part of this solution are especially helpful in identifying spatio-temporal patterns and trends. One example is the visualization of maritime traffic on a map of the port. In a pilot with a port authority, we were able to help identify smuggling boats that were evading customs agents by discovering areas where singular vessels slowed their speed significantly in places that were not part of the typical routes taken. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In another pilot, we were able to use these technologies to help public transportation officials check the efficiency of their bus schedules. By mapping unscheduled stops buses make throughout the day and identifying encounters between buses serving different lines we provided city officials with data on specific problematic time slots and frequencies.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">By delivering new cloud services that streamline development for mobile applications, our research is helping create more efficient enterprise apps and improve interaction with customers.</span></div>

cloud services IBM Research - Haifa Jonathan Bnayahu location-based services mapping technologies mobile application development mobile backend services spatio-temporal visualization Mapping out the growth of location services on the cloud

Jonathan Bnayahu Editor’s note: This article is by Jonathan Bnayahu, Manager of Smart Decision Solutions at IBM Research – Haifa. Location-...

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