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 below�

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

The Great Mobile Data Roaming Robbery: How to avoid Telco’s ruining your holiday

Recently I had to pay 873 EUR excl. VAT (1.222 USD) for sending a graphic file from Cannes (France) to a server in Brussels (Belgium) on my mobile Vodafone Proximus data plan.

It was a single 90 MB EPS file, which I urgently had to get to a subcontractor to produce the background of my booth at the Batibouw exposition. The connection broke several times, so the total data transfer added up to 111,8 MB. I was shocked when Proximus (my Belgian TELeCom Operator) billed an extra 7,8 EUR/Mb for that convenient ’service’ abroad. For 873 EUR I could have hired a taxi to drive a usb key from Cannes to Brussels. Nowadays, one flies a few round trips within Europe for that sort of budget… Before I could start foaming at this invoice, I was ignorantly surfing off the hotel wifi in London & Amsterdam, where identical rates were applied .

I was subscribed to a Vodafone Promixus Mobile Internet Anytime Plus data plan (43,38 EUR/month for 5 Gb). You got to love the marketeers that come up with these bullshit product names. All I really want is a Mobile Internet Anytime Anywhere Extreme data & voice plan. Unfortunately they haven’t launched that product yet… I thought to have activated all the international discount roaming options. I even informed upfront and their call center had advised me to stick to mobile operators that are affiliated with the Vodafone network. However despite these precautions, I was still blown away by the surcharges…

Yesterday, I had a meeting at the Belgacom Proximus headquarters in Brussel to get things sorted with my account managers (they work in duo’s now: one person for Belgacom fixed lines and another for Proximus mobile). Ironically, the trade unions were handing out these leaflets at their entrance (in Dutch & French), to warn their colleagues about the exorbitant data roaming surcharges common in their industry and how to ‘avoid bad surprises’ for your loved ones. Maybe it is time Telco’s start to educate all their customers on these issues and not just those who work there. Especially now that they teamed up with hardware vendors to push fashionable mobile devices to customers bundled with 3G subscriptions.
The innovative workaround Proximus found to settle my complaint, was to retro-actively activate another international option (named ‘Vodafone Mobile Internet Plus at 62 EUR/month) and to credit the balance (873 - 62 = 811 EUR Excl. VAT). So on top of my 200 EUR monthly voice bills, I now enjoy a monthly data plan costing 43 EUR (5 GB volume in Belgium) + 62 EUR (500 MB data roaming on Vodafone networks in Europe). Even with this extreme plan at 105 EUR/month, they are entitled to bill me an extra 3 EUR/MB outside the Vodafone network and a staggering 12 EUR/Mb outside of Europe.
I was told to be ‘lucky’ to have used the Vodafone networks, since many people are uniformed victims of these outrageous surcharges. Another customer who used a ‘free weather forecast widget’ on his mobile phone would update every 3 minutes over the data connection to download sunny or cloudy images with temperature indications for the next 3 days. Those Spanish weather forecasts had cost over 1.200 EUR! Apart from offering a delayed payment plan, there was nothing Proximus could do for that customer, because he was not on a Vodafone affiliated network. I can only hope he had a nice holiday with fabulous weather conditions.

My 6 Mobile Data Roaming Lessons:

1. You are on holiday, so dump the internet & ignore your e-mails.
2. If you are working like me and 1. is no option, you should at least configure your devices (Blackberry,Apple iPhone, HTC, PalmPre, Nokia, laptop, netbook, …) to prioritize (free) wifi. There are many wifi spot finders around. It is likely your holiday destination has free wifi spots to help you when that internet withdrawal syndrome turns you into a cold turkey
3. Wifi flat fees at hotels (typically 15 EUR/day or 50 EUR/week) are far below what your telco’s are charging and offer more bandwidth too.
4. Make sure you have deactivated all useless widgets, maps and automatic updates. These little buggers are using your data connection ‘in the background’ and spend your holiday budget faster than you can imagine.
5. “Go mobile, not broke” is the appropriate tagline to purchase pre-paid 3G data cards (similar the ‘old’  pre-paid SIM cards for voice and SMS abroad:  e.g Qik). These pre-paid card can be bought on-line (cheaper than the best roaming offer) or at the destination airport (more expensive). Feel free to suggest good providers in the comment section.
6. Only use that vicious mobile data roaming subscription plan as a connection of last resort and make sure to stay within the limits included in your roaming subscription plan. Don’t forget to monitor your usage and be well informed about the cost to avoid surprises upon return (up to 12 EUR/MB).

Have you been robbed in a similar way? Let me know which creative work-around your Telco found to ease the pain and to keep you a ‘happy’ customer?

@Viviane Redding: Since greedy telecom companies cannot seem to regulate their roaming behavior themselves, please cap the mobile data roaming charges within Europe as you did for SMS and voice calls.

Tags: Data Roaming, Mobile, Rant, Technology
Posted in Ranting, Technology | 7 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 »

Why is setting up event wifi such a pain?

Last week I responded to a request from the BruTwestival team and agreed to sponsor the event Wifi on behalf of Casius.be. I consulted with one of the organisers @gculpin and we decided to order a couple of LinkSys WRT54GL broadband routers (with GNU GPL firmware). Today that hardware got delivered. From a previous life time, I still own a lot of network cable, RJ-45 connectors, crimp tool & cable tester.

What would be the best way to configure these access points?

• Should I flash these devices with enhanced firmware to deal with typical conference situations?
• Go for dual channel or limit use to 802.11b?
• Limit bandwidth per connection?
• Test tools or cheap devices to simulate 200 simultaneous Wifi connections?

From a branding point of view, this sponsorship is risky business. But without challenges, there is no fun nor glory. Free wifi at conferences has been notorious for failures at tech related events. Leweb08 organiser @loic hired Swisscom for 100.000 EUR to supply Wifi to 1.500 participants (67 EUR/participant). But Swisscom screwed up badly and certainly did not get the positive word of mout it hoped for.

Basic things I know so far:

• Get a good internet broadband connection to start with (at the Botanique this will be a Skynet ADSL connection, with ‘boosted’ bandwidth for 250 participants).
• Get enough access points (4 in our case) to cover the conference area. Try not to forget hallways & conference rooms.
• Put the access point as close as possible to the participants (stronger signal).

Thanks for sharing any reference, experience (setup/config) or advice (firmware version) in the comments below!

P.S. Don’t forget to order your Twestival ticket

Tags: BRUTwestival, conference wifi, event wifi, twestival, wifi, WRT54GL
Posted in Technology, Twitter | 5 Comments »

‘History of the internet’ in nice web documentary

By reading about Darpa (Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet), I thought I knew what there was to know about the origin of our beloved internet. However this great animated documentary by Milah Bilgil does a nice job explaining time-sharing, file-sharing, arpanet and internet. It also thought me the ‘French’ were on a thight research budget (project cyclades) which supposedly coined the term ‘internet’ to connect isolated ‘islands of computing’ (we’re talking my birth year 1972).

History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.
The history of this disruptive technology is told with clear PICOL icons, which were part of the Bilgil’s diploma project. PICOL stands for Pictorial Communication Language and aims to create “a standard and reduced sign system for electronic communication.” PICOL is free to use and open to alter. The icons are soon available for free on picol.org and I sure like the icon for application.

Tags: history of the internet, internet, origin, picol, Pictogram, Technology
Posted in Technology | No Comments »