Tag: location based technology

Mobile phones tracked through JFK Airport to shorten lineups

| January 7, 2016

The busy New York City airport is trying out a new way to try to reduce waiting time through tech.

A new technology based test is now underway at JFK Airport in New York City, which involves tracking the signals from passenger mobile phones in order to reduce the length of lines and, therefore, the amount of time people spend waiting as they make their way to board their planes and as they progress through the arrivals process.

This is the busiest commercial airport in the city and is known for presenting some usage challenges.

Due to the confusion many passengers routinely feel as they attempt to use JFK Airport, the facility is aiming to use the technology in mobile phones to shorten lineups and wait times to provide at least a little bit of relief from the overall stress being felt. In this effort, new geolocation technology devices have been installed in the airport’s Terminal Four. The tech is from Blip Systems, a Denmark based company, and it works to track the movements of passengers as they make their way through the areas of the airport that experience the highest levels of congestion.

The use of mobile phones makes this program different from what most other airports have tried.

Mobile Phones Tracking - Image of JFK AirportSimilar types of strategy have been made in other airports around the world. For instance, in London City Airport, cameras have been used to add a “pixel” on the heads of passengers as they move throughout the airport. The geolocation technology from Blip doesn’t require the use of cameras as it tracks the signals from mobile phones, instead.

Sensors have been placed in strategic points throughout Terminal Four. Those sensors are able to detect devices that have been Bluetooth or WiFi enabled, such as smartphones, tablets and even e-readers. The information collected is the movement of that person, the length of time they spend waiting in a specific location and their level of flow when traveling from one location to the next, within the facility.

According to Blip, in a description of the way the mobile phones are used for movement tracking, “When a device passes the sensors, its non-personal unique ID – called a MAC address – is recorded, encrypted and time-stamped. By re-identifying the device from multiple sensors, the travel times, dwell times and movement patterns become available.”

Massive geolocation coverage project is underway in Belarus

| December 4, 2015

By the end of the year, the goal is to have 85 percent of the country’s territory accurately covered.

According to a recent press release issued by the State Property Committee of Belarus, up to 85 percent of the territory of that country is going to have been covered by its precise geolocation system by the close of this year.

The press release explained that there will be additional tech put into place to accomplish this goal.

The intention is to add more continuously operating reference stations (CORS) to the country throughout the remainder of the year, for the purpose of increasing the total number to 90. This will make it possible to create geolocation coverage of up to 85 percent of the territory of the country. At the end of last month, the test operation of 17 of the CORS was brought to completion. Now that the testing phase is complete, they will be commissioned by the State Property Committee’s Belaerokosmogeodeziya enterprise.

The goal of this project is to provide accurate geolocation technology for a range of different purposes.

Geolocation Technology - BlearusFor instance, the satellite technology development will provide geodesic measurements as well as navigation in the country and land surveying tools. That said, the primary goal of the location based tech service is to be able to use a global satellite precise positioning system in order to obtain the heights and coordinates of various specific locations to improve the accuracy and ease of land surveying projects.

In this way, it will become more efficient to determine land plot borders in fields, to identify boundary markers and to understand exactly where city limits reach. Moreover, it will also be helpful to local aerial photography centers in the region that require specific coordinates before they obtain the images they require.

The geolocation system that is being established in Belarus will be able to create coordinates with precision to within 1 to 5 centimeters. The design of the system is meant to offer data from the coordinates to a range of different registries, such as those used for forestry management, water management, city planning, territory planning and other forms of environmental survey, in addition to those responsible for precision farming, civil engineering and other operation types.