Transcript A Revolution in Location Based Services

How NAC Enhance Wireless
LBS Applications
Xinhang Shen
NAC Geographic Products Inc.
www.nacgeo.com
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NAC Geographic Products Inc.
CURRENT PROBLEMS
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NAC Geographic Products Inc.
Specify Locations
Current location based services usually use street
addresses to specify locations that has many problems:
Most locations do not have street addresses
It’s difficult to input addresses with foreign characters
It’s time-consuming to input street addresses
An address database is always outdated & incomplete
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Specify Areas
Currently, location based services usually specify
areas by names of political entities, postal codes, map
sheet numbers, street addresses plus ranges or
geographic coordinates. These methods are
Incomplete
Inefficient
Language dependent
Non-standard
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Wireless LBS
Due to the lack of efficient, standard and complete
methods to specify locations and areas, wireless LBS
services are facing serious problems:
It’s extremely time consuming to input addresses on
cellphones with telephone keypads
It requires many screens to specify locations or areas
on a cellphone
It’s almost impossible to input foreign characters on
cellphones
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The Natural Area Coding System
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Objective
The new system is to standardize, optimize and unify
Geodetic datums
Geographic coordinates
Geographic area codes
Map grids
Addresses
Postal codes
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Approaches
To reach the objective, the new system:
Unifies the concepts of geographic areas and
geographic locations because any point can be
represented by a relative small area
Uses more characters (the 30 most popular
characters in the world) instead of digits to compress
the representation
0123456789BCDFGHJKLMNPQRSTVWXZ
Introduces a standard, highly efficient, flexible and
unified representation for both an area and a location
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Definition
The Natural Area Coding System is defined by a series of
grids called NAC Grids to divide the world:
Level 1 Grid: divide the world into 30 divisions in both
longitude and latitude directions.
Level 2 Grid: divide each cell on Level 1 Grid into 30
divisions in both directions.
Level n Grid: divide each cell on Level n-1 Grid into 30
divisions in both directions, where n = 2, 3, ....
Each division is assigned a NAC character accordingly.
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Representation – Simple NAC
A Natural Area Code (NAC) is written in a strict format
that starts with: “NAC: ” followed by two character
strings representing longitude and latitude respectively
separated by a blank space, e.g.
NAC: 8CNB Q7Z4
Where:
8 and Q represent Level 1 NAC Grid coordinates
C and 7 represent Level 2 NAC Grid coordinates
N and Z represent Level 3 NAC Grid coordinates
B and 4 represent Level 4 NAC Grid coordinates
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Representation – Complex NAC
A series of neighboring NACs forming a rectangular area
on a NAC Grid can be written as a complex NAC, e.g.
NAC: 8CNB Q7Z4
+ NAC: 8CNC Q7Z4
+ NAC: 8CNB Q7Z5
+ NAC: 8CNC Q7Z5
= NAC: 8CNB-C Q7Z4-5
8CNB Q7Z4
8CNC Q7Z4
8CNB Q7Z5
8CNC Q7Z5
8CNB-C Q7Z4-5
With complex NAC, any area can be specified by a NAC.
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NAC Cell Sizes
Each simple NAC represents a NAC cell anywhere in the
world with an area approximately equal to:
LEVEL
Sample NAC
AREA
1
NAC: 8 Q
1000x700 km
2
NAC: 8C Q8
33x23 km
3
NAC: 8CN Q8Z
1.1x0.8 km
4
NAC: 8CNB Q8Z4
35x25 m
5
NAC: 8CNBD Q8Z4H 1.2x0.8 m
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APPLICATIONS
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Universal Address
An eight or ten character NAC representing an area about 25x35
meters or 0.8x1.2 meters anywhere in the world is called a Universal
Address that can specify uniquely in the world:
Each building
Each house
Our address
Each gate/door
Each parking meter
1608-45 Huntingdale Blvd.
Each fire hydrant
Toronto, ON M1W 2N8
Each sewage exit
Canada
Each tree
NAC: 8CNB Q8Z4
Each street light
Each bus stop
Our Universal Address
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Universal Address (cont’d)
Compared with traditional addresses, the Universal
Address has many advantages:
Standard in the entire world
Language independent
Defined everywhere
Easy to display, read, remember and communicate
Fit small spaces of business cards, yellow pages, etc
Pinpointed on all maps with Universal Map Grids
Navigated with GPS receivers
Make emergency services faster and more reliable
As Global Postal Code to sort both domestic and
international mail to final mailboxes automatically
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Business Cards
The Universal Address can perfectly fit the limited space
of a business card as part of an address to help people
to reach the location more efficiently:
Get direction and distance
NAC Geographic Products Inc.
http://www.nacgeo.com
from street signs
Xinhang Shen, Ph.D.
Pinpoint the location on maps
President & CEO
Navigate to the location with
1608-45 Hintingdale Blvd.
Tel: (416) 496 6110
Toronto,
ON
M1W
2N8
Fax: (416) 496 9241
GPS receivers
Canada NAC: 8CNB Q8Z4
[email protected]
Specify the location on location
Universal Address
based services quickly
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GPS Watch
Displaying Universal Addresses instead of other
geographic coordinates can eliminate the need of maps
and make it:
Smaller
Lighter
Longer battery life
Less expensive
Easier to use
Widely using GPS watches will start a new era for using
digital spatial information
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GPS Watch (cont’d)
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GPS Cellphone
 Manufacturers are reluctant to display
geographic coordinates on a cellphone
even if it has a GPS inside because
they are useless to consumers.
 This will be changed by Universal
Address because they are directly
related to addresses, postal codes,
street signs, maps, yellow pages, etc.
 Displaying Universal Addresses on
cellphones will turn cellphones into
powerful navigation tools.
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Universal Map Grids
Street maps use locally defined grids because accurate
geographic grids based on UTM or longitude/latitude will
produce long coordinates that are difficult for
consumers to use.
NAC Grids called Universal Map Grids can solve the
problem. They can be applied on all kinds of maps and
the resulted grid coordinates are highly efficient Natural
Area Codes.
Universal Addresses can be directly pinpointed on all
maps with NAC Grids. The location information on these
maps are directly connected.
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Phone Books
Universal Addresses can be easily listed with telephone
numbers on telephone books so that people can:
Directly pinpoint the locations on all maps
Navigate to the locations with GPS receivers
Efficiently use all location based services
Conveniently use all other GIS applications
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Driving Directions Services
Using Universal Addresses instead
of street addresses to specify
locations can
Reduce 80% of input keys
Avoid inputting foreign characters
Eliminate errors of address databases
Extend the services to all locations
It can also make a multi-page interface
for driving directions on a cellphone fit
into a single page.
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Retrieving Maps
Using Natural Area Codes instead of longitude/latitude
coordinates to retrieve maps on GIS and map servers
can save 80% of input keys and also make the map
codes much easier to remember and communicate.
Bottom left corner longitude
Bottom left corner latitude
Top right corner longitude
Top right corner latitude
-79.6417
degrees
43.5167
degrees
-79.1917
degrees
43.8167
degrees
NAC: 8C Q8
Get Map
Get Map
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Location Based Search
Using Natural Area Codes instead of street addresses to specify a
searching area can save 90% of input keys and make the searching
available on all areas no matter whether there are addresses or not.
Type
Restaurant
Street
45 Huntingdale Blvd.
City
Toronto
State
Ontario
ZIP
M1W 2N8
Country
Canada
Range
1 KM
Type Restaurant
NAC: 8CB Q8Z
Search
Search
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Global Postal Codes
Universal Addresses can be used as Global Postal
Codes for all countries to sort both domestic and
international mail to final mailboxes automatically with
many advantages:
Defined at all addresses and locations in the world
Never used up
No need to be assigned and maintained
Self-error detection
Political neutral
Multiple uses
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Global Postal Code on Mail
Global Postal Code
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Street Signs
Universal Addresses can be
marked on all street signs and
highway sections so that
people can
Directly estimate the distance
and direction from the current
street sign to any destination
by comparing the two Universal
Addresses
Record accurate locations for
accidents, events, parking
locations, etc
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Universal Property Identifier
Universal Address can be used as Universal Property
Identifiers with many advantages such as:
Valid in the entire world
Never used up and always well aligned
Representing accurate location
Saving space in storing geographic coordinates
Efficient for communication
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Emergency Services
Using Universal Addresses instead of street addresses
in dispatching and communicating location information
can significantly enhance emergency services and
make them faster and more reliable because they can
be:
directly pinpointed on all maps.
efficiently input and displayed on all GPS devices
easily remembered and communicated
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CASE STUDY
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Mobile Location Based Service Network
A five-star wireless LBS providing
Cross-nation turn-by-turn driving
directions
Maps from detail street maps to world
maps
Location based searching of restaurants,
hotels, gas stations, parking places,
amusement places, etc
of 26 countries in eight language for all
kinds of wireless devices.
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Mobile Location Based Service Network
Driving directions service
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Mobile Location Based Service Network
Map service
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Mobile Location Based Service Network
Location based business searching
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SUMMARY
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Accomplishments
The Natural Area Coding System has unified
geographic coordinates, geographic area codes, map
grids, addresses, postal codes and property identifiers.
It makes all location related products, services and
technologies highly efficient and closely related.
This is even more significant on small wireless devices
which have very small screens and telephone keypads.
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As Universal
Property Identifiers
to unify identifiers
and coordinates
Listed on telephone books to
enhance location information
As part of an address
perfectly fit a business card
As Global Postal Codes
to sort all mail from world
level to final mailboxes
Marked on street signs to help
travelers determine the distance
and direction of any destination
A Universal Address is a highly efficient and unified
representation of an address, postal code, area code,
map grid coordinates and geographic coordinates.
Displayed instead of meaningless
longitude and latitude on GPS watches
and cellphones to turn them into timespatial clocks and navigation tools
To specify locations on any LBS to
reduce 80% input keys, avoid
inputting foreign characters, eliminate
errors from address databases and
extend services to all locations with
and without addresses.
They can be directly pinpointed on all kinds
of maps in any scales and projections
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Quotations from the Globe and Mail
“The Holy Grail in terms of addresses is a simple
system that will work in all countries.” – Tim
Evangelatos, Strategic Technologies and Policy
Advisor for GeoConnections at Natural Resources
Canada
“This is an elegant solution that seems to supply
something that is becoming necessary as the world
becomes more globalized,” – Matt Ball, Editor of
GwoWorld magazine. “It’s only a matter of time before
something like this will be implemented.”
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Thank you!
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