Applications for Mobile Internet Access

Karuna Uppal, a senior analyst with the Yankee Group forecasts that by 2003, about 10 million households will have some type of network. The Yankee Group also estimates 12.6 million U.S. homes will have high-speed Net connectionsin 2003, compared to 1.4 million U.S. homes with broadband in 1999. Uppal expects that by 2003 the 802.11B wireless standard will beat the slower HomeRF spec. Now, HomeRF is cheaper and supports some voice functions, but business use of 802.11B equipment will push down its price, she adds. Also, look for growing use of Bluetooth, a low-power and short-range radio link technology aimed at portable and handheld devices.

Applications of Wireless
Wireless LAN applications can be divided into horizontal and vertical markets:

Horizontal Applications

• Mobility is needed for LAN users in hospitals, warehouses, restaurants, stock brokers, real estate, sales people.
• Flexibility and freedom to move notebooks anywhere in the office environment, enhancing productivity. (Will be city wide in the near future!!)
• Repeated temporary setups and location changes make wiring too costly and time-consuming.
• Where conventional wire cannot be used. For example, in historical buildings, open-space floors, buildings containing hazardous materials and sealed rooms.
• Wireless LAN provides a better solution for connection of remote nodes, hostile environments and where wiring costs are very expensive.
• Flexible extension of wired LAN on a temporary basis or where no wire infrastructure exists.

Vertical Applications

• Transportation industry: Harbor/airport containers and luggage handling, where mobility and real time connectivity over large areas are required. Programmable road signs.
• Trade shows/Points of sale (retail stores): Frequent interior changes call for flexible networking. Fast reconfiguration and redeployment.
• Health care industry: Doctors and nurses can access patient medical records and call in other specialists for assistance using computer-controlled medical equipment from bedside/point of care. Mobile X-Ray can be more efficient without the time spent dragging cables or looking where to send from.
• Financial services: Trade floors, flexibility of installation in bank branches.
• Education: Accessing University computer resources from various campus locations. Tailors away from campus that are temporary.
• Manufacturing floors: Robots and other mobile automated equipment.
• Storage: Warehouses.
• Small businesses.
• Real Estate: Agents can now take a laptop around with them and look up homes through MLS on the go.
• Work at home: Spend more time at home with real time audio/video conferencing capabilities and fast data transfers & also allows for shared Internet connections.

Vendors race to pack cameras into cell phones 

Although real-time video chat and conferencing applications are an eventual goal of such service providers as Japan's NTT Docomo, initial applications will likely be "still images and maybe video clips," predicted Steve Hsu, product line manager for embedded imaging at Conexant. (click here for more info)

Mobile video: Closer than you think... ActiveSky “enables the delivery of high quality video, animation, graphics and text to today’s mobile and wireless Internet devices.” (click here for more info)

Wireless Networking in Corporate Enterprise & Manufacturing

Wireless network connects warehouse & office buildings located in two different cities.  (click here for more info)

Wireless network connections allows for production flexibility. (click here for more info)

Garment manufacturer installs wireless LANs in 200 manufacturing plants to tie automated manufacturing systems into its enterprise information system. (click here for story from Computerworld)

Wireless Networking in Education

Cost-effective high speed networking technology & the Internet to older school buildings. (click here for more info) and for another eample:(click here for more info)

Wireless campus-wide roamable high speed network. (click here for more info)

The big LAN on campus is wireless. (click here for story from Computerworld)

Students augment in-class education with wireless Web. (click here for story from CNN & Computerworld)

Wireless Networking in Healthcare

Doctors can use Innovative Wireless Note-Keeping System to Automate Patient Charting. (click here for more info)

Wireless Networking in Transportation

Revolutionary Airport Security System. (click here for more info)

Automation of passenger check-in. (click here for more info)

Hand-held devices for tracking individual items of baggage. (click here for more info)

Web-ready autos ready to roll out: Watch CNN News Video: (click here for more info)

Networked Augmented Reality (AR) Future

Virtual Reality Overlayed on Reality. A system allowing you to see virtual world objects overlayed on your physical surroundings. (click here for more info)

eTravel (Mutually-Immersive Mobile Telepresence Project)

Physical travel can be expensive (e.g., $1000 airfares from coast to coast), time consuming (e.g., 6 hour flights), and not without risk. For some people with disabilities, physical travel may not even be possible. The goal of the Mutually-Immersive Mobile Telepresence Project is to provide a compelling alternative experience to physical travel, which is also economically advantageous. The experience should be compelling for both the remote person as well as the people he or she is visiting: i.e., both mutually-immersive as well as allowing mobility.(click here for more info)

New wired clothing line comes with personal network

Clothing manufacturer Levi Strauss & Co. & Consumer electronics company Koninklijke Philips Electronics is introducing four jackets, branded Industrial Clothing Design, or ICD+, feature what the companies describe as a body-area network: a mobile phone, an MP3 player, a remote control unit and headphones, all linked together by a collection of cables stitched into the fabric. (click here for more info)

Wearable computers on verge of taking off
By Bill Zlatos - February 22, 2000 
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW

At Carnegie Mellon University, computers are wearing thin.

And thinner and thinner.

Over the past 10 years, Carnegie Mellon has developed 20 kinds of wireless computers - some as small as a bar of soap and weighing just 2 pounds.

These wearable or hand-held computers - used by the military, business and industry for a variety of purposes - are on the verge of taking off, predicts Christopher Graefe, director of marketing for Evolutionary Systems Inc.

The company, a CMU spinoff on Craig Street in Oakland, does research on platforms for mobile or wearable computers.

"We're seeing the final puzzle pieces coming into place, which will enable it to explode," Graefe said.

Emergency medical personnel could use wireless video cameras to show an expert by remote how they're treating a patient.

Navy personnel on aircraft carriers could take a quick picture of a damaged plane and send it over the Internet to the manufacturer. The company could advise the Navy whether it was safe to fly the plane back to the United States.

The devices already have reduced by 70 percent the amount of time U.S. Marine Corps mechanics spend on amphibious tractors, said Dan P. Siewiorek, Buhl professor of electrical and computer engineering and computer science at CMU.

The devices work best when workers need free hands. To accommodate such workers, Carnegie Mellon designs wearable computers that operate by voice or handwriting recognition.

Other models use a dial rather than a mouse.

Head-mounted displays serve as a computer monitor. But they work like a miniature dashboard, allowing users to obtain information without blocking their vision.

Current users of wearable devices include the National Science Foundation, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, Intel, AT&T and IBM.

Asim Smailagic, a computer scientist at CMU's Institute for Complex Engineered Systems, said it takes about 10 years for technology to catch on with the general public.

One barrier to wearable computers has been getting enough high-speed, wireless band width, Graefe said. That would enable users to get information from the Internet as quickly and accurately as possible.

Prototypes of wearable computers cost $3,000 to $4,000. But, if they are mass produced, Smailagic predicts the price will drop to $1,500.

Jane Siegel, senior systems scientist at CMU's Human Computer Interaction Institute, is studying how people work with and without wearable computers.

Siegel said there are some potential health risks associated with wearable computers.

Not enough research has been done on computers with head-worn displays to know their impact on vision, Siegel said. Workers' vision also might be affected by constantly switching their eyes from objects at a distance to those on the display.

And workers using wearable computers have to guard against getting the cable or other part of the device caught on something.

Perhaps the biggest safety hazard, she said, results from distractions caused by the technology.

"If I pay too much attention to the wearable computer, I could get hurt," Siegel said.

Just as clocks didn't gain popularity until they became jewelry, wearable computers will not gain acceptance until they make a fashion statement, Siewiorek predicted.

Siegel envisions Gucci designing a fancy belt-attached computer case for Wall Street traders. Their wearable device will give them constant access to the market.

Without wearable computers, she said, "Wall Street might miss a multimillion-dollar trade by going to lunch." 

E-cars pit safety vs. Net surfing Innovation or high-tech distraction? 
By James R. Healey and Jayne O'Donnell - February 1st, 2000
USA TODAY

Safety experts are blasting automakers for plans to put Internet access into vehicles, saying it is a distraction that surely will cause deadly crashes.

Even the Clinton administration frets. 

The safety of potentially distracting e-cars ''clearly is something to be tested,'' cautions Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater. ''We have communicated our concerns to the manufacturers in that regard.''

Others are more blunt.

''Oh, my God. We're losing sight of the fact that driving is a full-time task that demands the full attention of the driver,'' says Earl Sweeney, chairman of the highway safety committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and director of New Hampshire's Police Standards and Training Council. 

''Any type of distraction increases your risk of being involved in a crash,'' says Julie Rochman, spokeswoman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. IIHS is a research organization funded by auto insurers.

Regardless, automakers see the e-car as inevitable. ''I've got a whole generation knocking on my door demanding it,'' declares J Mays, Ford Motor's design chief.

''This is where the market is headed,'' says Ford CEO Jacques Nasser. ''It wasn't that we woke up one morning and said, 'Let's do this.' It's because that's where customers are headed.''

So, pledges Nasser, ''We will do nothing short of transforming our cars and our trucks into portals for the Internet.'' Expect Net access on everything Ford Motor sells within three years, he says. 

Automakers argue that their systems will be safe, using hands-free, voice-activated technology adapted from that already used in hands-free cell phones. And motorists will be encouraged to use the devices while parked, or to be especially careful about potential distractions. 

The alarm could be overblown. Auto historians point out that car radios once were villainized for the same reason.

This fall, Ford's Lincoln luxury brand will launch 2001 models with limited Internet access. A push button and voice command will link an onboard cell phone with a Ford computer to retrieve news, stock prices, weather, e-mail or appointments. There is no display screen; information is read to the driver. The hardware will be standard, but a fee will be charged for monthly service. 

General Motors' Cadillac luxury brand likewise has rudimentary access planned for its '01 Seville and DeVille models. Using the GM OnStar cellular phone system, the Caddies will download e-mail, stock quotes and other information, and present it on a video screen in the dashboard. In some cases, the car will read the information to the driver. 

''People are going to use their time in cars to get things done. That's unavoidable. If somebody's reading the paper to you electronically, that's probably far better than if you're glancing over to read it on the seat next to you. It could increase the net safety effect,'' Cadillac spokesman Chris Preuss says.

This fall's machines are just a hint. Within two or three years, automakers envision cars and trucks as adept at Net surfing as today's desktop computers. At last month's Detroit auto show, Ford unveiled 24.7, a concept vehicle with telephones, voice-controlled instruments, Internet access, stock market updates, weather reports and ''help-I'm-lost'' assistance. Car companies believe that today's younger buyers simply won't put up with any car that can't keep them fully in touch electronically.

Despite automakers' assurances that the technology can be used safely, e-car skeptics aren't convinced.

''It's a bad idea to think someone would be able to do something as difficult as surf the Web'' and pay attention to driving, says safe-driving expert Rich Cordivari, president of USProtect in Bethesda, Md. ''When I first saw something about this, I thought, 'It's bad enough with phones. Now this.' ''

Donald Redelmeier, co-author of a 1997 study that found cell-phone use quadruples the risk of having a traffic accident, worries that over-confident drivers will underestimate the Internet distraction: ''It puts more of an obligation on the driver to use the technology intelligently.''

Statistics on accidents linked to cell-phone use are sparse because few accident investigators note whether phones played a part. But the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a unit of Slater's DOT, says that at least 57 people died in accidents in which cell phones were a factor in 1997, up from just seven in 1991. 

The market for e-cars is expected to be so hot that they could flood the market faster than slow-moving regulatory mechanisms could decide whether to set limits and then do so.

Because the systems will connect to the Net via cell phones, they could be regulated with phone laws.

But there aren't many.

Brooklyn, Ohio; Hilltown Township, Pa.; and Aspen, Colo., have laws restricting cell-phone use while driving. A New York law bans cab drivers from phoning while driving. At least eight states are considering statewide phone restrictions. Beyond that, most states ban television screens visible by the driver. That could be used to regulate computer screens. 

''But even if there's a law, it has to be enforced,'' IIHS' Rochman notes.

Redelmeier, a University of Toronto professor of trauma and medicine whose work is cited by many cell-phone critics, summarizes the danger of distraction: ''A couple seconds can mean the difference between a fatal collision and a near-miss.'' 

More Application Examples:
(must have Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Corporate Enterprise - Wireless Connections for Coca-Cola's Processing Plants in Turkey
Education - Wireless Network Provides Access for 1000 School Notebooks in Australia
Outdoor Venues - Badminton Horse Trials