European GPS became 10 X more accurate overnight

In anticipation of the long awaited Galileo GPS sattelites, an intermediary solution named  EGNOS became active a few days ago. The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) locates you within 2 meter within most parts of Europe as opposed to the ‘old’ 20 meter for standard ‘USA powered’ GPS.  Once the €3,4 billion European Galileo project is up and running, consumer satellite receivers on its Open Service using the two available bands (1164–1214 MHz & 1563–1591 MHz) will achieve an accuracy of <4 m horizontally and <8 m vertically. Receivers that use only a single band will still achieve <15 m horizontally and <35 m vertically, comparable to current civilian GPS C/A devices.

EGNOS is a satellite-based augmentation system that improves the accuracy of GPS satellite navigation signals over Europe. “The system consists of transponders aboard three geostationary satellites over the eastern Atlantic Ocean and Europe, linked to a network of about 40 ground stations and four control centers.
 The EGNOS ground stations receive signals sent out by the US GPS satellites. Information on the accuracy and reliability of these signals is relayed to users via the geostationary satellite transponders. This allows them to determine their position to within two meters, compared with about 20 meters for GPS alone.”

EGNOS is similar to the Nord American WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) and Japanese MSAS (MTSAT Satellite Augmentation System).  EGNOS-enabled devices can also receive WAAS & MSAS.

Most recent GPS receivers got shipped as ‘EGNOS’ ready, so without any direct financial charges (that’s what some of those European taxes are for), your navigation device became more accurate overnight.

I quickly checked for TomTom and Garmin and their recent top models all seem to support EGNOS. However I did not find information on the Apple iPhone3GS and HTC Android device EGNOS-readiness. Share your link to a trustworthy source  in the comments below.

Egnos might also boost Augmented Reality applications

Apart from the evident advantages of more accurate positioning (navigation, logistics, shipping, travel, construction, emergency services…) such raised precision is a prerequisite for Augmented Reality (AR) applications, which need to be fed with exact location coordinates to make sense. Today the ’sensors’ are the weak point on consumer devices such as Apple iPhone 3GS and Google Android mobiles. Basically you need a handset with an application that computes information from the GPS receiver (up to 70 meter inaccurate due to buildings obfuscating satellite signals), compass (easily disturbed by metal objects) and camera (’low’ resolutions) to add interaction with “layers” of interest which are added on the screen. With a good mobile data connection you can even pull real-time data from the internet (e.g. Maps or  Wikipedia). The AR application will ‘mash’ these data and 3D-objects up with what you ’see’ on the screen.

I liked the experimental interface above which illustrates there are no limits to future application surfaces. This reminded me of my favorite university professor Pattie Maes and her SixthSense with demo with Pranav Mistry at TED below.

Another great example of available AR technology is the mobile browser by Layar. Game developers are even working on objecs and characters that will appear to move around your environment and allow interaction. Nice bonus for gaming retro geeks, is that the current technological limitations make these first generation AR apps take you back to the arcade times

Let me know if you already enjoy the raised precision

Tags: Android, AR, Augmented Reality, EGNOS, GPS, iPhone, Layar, Sensor precision, SixthSense
Posted in Augmented Reality, Fun, Privacy, Technology, Video | No Comments »

Why I like my MIT data portrait and why you should get yours

Tonight I stumbled upon this MIT personas project, which generates a real time data portrait of your online identity. Apart from being a cool data visualization project, I think it is a great illustration of large dataset processing and an educative warning for on-line privacy. During the processing of one’s character the most information is shown. I was stunned by the animation and personalized content generated by the flash application.  It seems I grew up with my pants down

If you’ve left traces on the internet and aren’t  cursed/blessed with on-line homonyms, you’ll be stunned by how much the internet knows about you. Enter first name & last name here to share feelings about your generated portrait belowÂ

Tags: data portrait, flash, MIT, Personas, Privacy, Technology, Visualisation, Visualization
Posted in Fun, Privacy, Technology, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Video: How to virtualize your face into a realistic 3D avatar

At my other blog, I just posted a slightly off-track video on how I virtualized myself, with the help of a pioneering Belgian tech company, which rules the emerging H2A-conversion industry (Human-To-Avatar). This resulted from my presence at the excellent Plugg event on innovation and entrepreneurship in Brussels, where Dirk Callaerts, the president of Eyetronics gave me a short explanation of their amazing virtualization technology. I discussed the privacy challenges of this technology and accepted to get myself virtualized in a similar way as Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman. Major movie stars use these scans to get their face applied to stand-ins and stunt men. But also because the insurance companies require them to get virtualized, so that expensive movies can be finished, in the unfortunate event something happens to the leading actors.

For those who do not live on a film set, there are many application for this technology too. Think about the gaming industry or online communities. But also the biometrics industry could use these high resolution scans to improve facial recognition application. Another market for these scans is to produce miniature physical copies of your virtual self. The cosmetics industry already knows vanity is a great revenue driver…

Now that I got my face virtualized, I am able to send stand-ins for those dangerous tech interviews in the heated hypervisor battle fields around the world

Which usefull or fun applications can you imagine for this technology? Would you be willing to pay to get your face virtualized & obatin a realistic3D-avatar on your favorite social network?

Tags: 3D, avatar, biometrics, Dirk Callaerts, eyebcom, eyetronics, facial biometrics, Privacy, Toon Vanagt, virtualization
Posted in Fun, Privacy, Technology, Video | 2 Comments »

Micro-blogging as Stepping Stone: Blame Twitter For Getting Me To Slow Blog

I am starting this personal blog, because 140 characters aren’t always enough to express my shallow thoughts on Twitter.

Actually Robin Wauters is to blame for hooking me up on that vile micro-blogging drug. He advised me to try some of that addictive conversational stuff last year. Beware, because these types of interactive dealers call themselves social media consultants nowadays. After pushing hash tags at those fashionable meetings & conferences, Robin would hiss the ‘Hey dude, still not on Twitter?’-mantra.

<confession>I only wanted to give Twitter a quick curious try, just to make sure I was not missing out on any BIG new trend. </confession>

A few days after signing up and much to my surprise, I had to admit Twitter was a great new way to reach out, interact and get valuable information & contacts. Did I mention its addictive nature yet? Feed me a fail whale and I start to itch.
My mind works in many ways like Twitter (signal <-> noise, focus <-> distraction & no clear business model, but always passionate). I tested several ways to remain efficient at my usual entrepreneurial tasks. I ended up by limiting Twitter to a browser tab on my laptop. I treat myself to some twitted distraction, when I finish a ‘real’ task from my To Do list.
968 Tweets down my public timeline, I am still amazed that over 262 ‘followers’ find my daily brain farts interesting enough. Having build websites since 1995 and operated a few ‘portals’ since, I remain uncertain about my writing skills. I also badly judged that I was too busy for that blogging hype anyway.
When Silicon Valley entrepreneur Jason Calacanis retired from blogging in July and limited his thoughts to a closed mailing list, I saw this as the ultimate proof of my position. After all ‘conversation by e-mail’ is what I have been doing since 1991 and largely got me to where I am today.
Today I stand corrected and admit to have underestimated the power of social interaction experienced on Twitter. It proved useful to me in several ways: as a matchmaker with other entrepreneurs, to keep a pulse on the digital newswire, hooking up new friends and reconnect with many old friends. I laugh more behind my screen (a healthy side effect), but above all I converse with my followers, reply to their tweets and learn by sharing. As a subscriber to Calacnis newsletter I even had to observe how he went back to making the odd post on his officially abandoned blog.
In some pathetic way, I feel digitally crippled for not having a personal platform to archive, elaborate & develop my largely unfocussed thoughts, while consolidating feedback and comments. I tried FriendFeed, Twitpic and was an instant Vimeo fan. However a blog seems a more appropriate place to interact and express my views mixed with links, video, pictures and text beyond 140 characters.

Being fluent in three languages, I will probably blog in Dutch and French too. I hope blogging will elevate my views, raise interaction and teach me how to weigh my words more carefully.
Let me know if you enjoy my attempt at slow blogging and how to improve my posts. I look forward to your comments.

Posted in Fun, Twitter | No Comments »