What is special about Geospatial?

What are the best mobiles for LBS? To answer this questions I have taken four phones from different manufactures and compared them. In my opinion following issues are important if you want to use a mobile for LBS applications:

• buid-in GPS
• large screen size and resolution
• fast internet connection
• good usability and operating system which allows to design own applciation easily
• battery life
• prize

Maybe there are some more criteria to rate phones for their LBS suitability.

I know this is a very limited evaluation. But for this four phones my winner is the iPhone 3G because of the great suitability and the mobile MacOS X SDK.

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

A slide deck of the Android Developer Challenge prize recipients is now available. The deck includes descriptions and screenshots of the 46 recipients who consented to sharing their information and is a great way to get a feel for the quality of apps submitted.

The judges, who has selected these applications come from various different companies, which are part of the Open Headset Alliance.

I’ve looked through the slides and it is interesting to see that 27 of 46 applications (~59%) have something to do with location or embed Google Maps. That’s amazing in my opinion.

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.

Two students from Germany have worked on a project called Enkin. The have written this locational service on Google Andriod. Enkin allows to navigate in three differend modes:

• Classic Map
• 3D View
• Reality

Until now the hardware is a little bit cumbersomely but I hope this will change after the first real Android mobiles are on the market.

“Enkin” introduces a new handheld navigation concept. It displays location-based content in a unique way that bridges the gap between reality and classic map-like representations. It combines GPS, orientation sensors, 3D graphics, live video, several web services and a novel user interface into an intuitive and light navigation system for mobile devices. This project is a submission for the first round of the Google Android Developer Challenge and should not be considered a final product. If you want to learn about it in depth, please read our detailed documentation.

Link: http://www.enkin.net/

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The Mobile and Web-based Information Systems Group of Salzburg Research and the Cartography & Engineering Geodesy Research Groups of the Vienna University of Technology are pleased to present the 5th International Symposium on LBS & TeleCartography in cooperation with the ICA Commissions on Maps and the Internet & Ubiquitous Mapping and the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing WG II/5 on Communication and Visualization of Spatial Data to be held from

Wednesday, 26th to Friday, 28th November, 2008 at the Salzburg Residenz, City of Salzburg, Austria.

The symposium will bring together experts from around the world to present the latest research results and developments with focus on Location Based Services in the fields of Cartography, Geoinformation, Computer Sciences, Telecommunication, Geodesy, and Geomedia Techniques.

Organizers

• Mobile and Web-based Information Systems Group, Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft mbH.
• Cartography Research Group, Vienna University of Technology
• Engineering Geodesy Research Group, Vienna University of Technology

Co-Organizers

• ICA Commissions on Maps and the Internet & Ubiquitous Mapping
• ISPRS WG II/5 on Communication and Visualization of Spatial Data
• IAG WG 4.1.2 on Indoor and Pedestrian Navigation
• Centre for Geoinformatics (Z_GIS) at Salzburg University

Call for Contributions

Contributions from the fields of Cartography, Geoinformation, Computer Science, Ubiquitous and Pervasive Computing, Telecommunication, Geodesy, Geomedia Techniques, etc. should address, but are not limited to current topics of

• Location Based Service
• Wayfinding and Navigation
• Smart Environments and Active Landmarks
• Pervasive Technologies for LBS
• Cartographic Theories and Techniques
• TeleCartography (Map based LBS)
• Mobile and Ubiquitous Mapping
• 3D-Mapping, Virtual and Augmented Reality
• Location Based Media Technologies
• Personalization & Adaptive Methods
• Positioning Methods
• Modelling of Spatial Environments for LBS
• Location Based Sensor Networks
• Location Based Collaboration

Extended Abstracts (max 1000 words) can be submitted to present visionary ideas, work in progress and preliminary research results, whereas Full papers (max 6000 words) should present substantial results. Full papers will be reviewed by the members of the scientific committee. Full papers will be published in an upcoming book on Locations Based Services & TeleCartography and/or in a special edition of the Journal on LBS.

NEW: LBS 2008 Showcases

LBS & TeleCartography 2008 should become a live LBS experience for all attendees! Thus, the committee is seeking for real-world showcases of location-based services. Submissions for outdoor as well as indoor LBS Showcases are welcome. Applying organizations or companies should submit an abstract description of the LBS Showcase and the mode of experiencing the showcase (app. 2 pages). The LBS Showcase Committee will select the most innovative showcase submissions for live demonstration. During the symposium the best LBS 2008 Showcase will be elected by the audience.

Official Conference Information

[via lbs2008]

Written and submitted from Home, using my 802.11g WiFi network.