These days, there are not many new inventions or creations, but they seem to be coming out of Alto Palo on a regular basis; fortnightly, even. A couple of weeks back, Google launched Latitude, and we can also delve into the deep blue sea with Google Earth. It’s all good stuff, and it makes you wonder where all this is leading.
Let’s take latitude for instance; so you can see where your friends are on your mobile phone, “so what!” some of you may say. However, the implications of latitude have already raised eyebrows from unions and others. They say it could invade privacy for employees, or be used for checking up on a loved ones whereabouts, just to make sure they are not having illicit liaisons!
The possibilities of this kind of technology though, are endless. The technology already exists in the private domain and perhaps in government, to track the whereabouts of people using GPS, but so far it has not hit the public sector. That is, until Google became involved. Let’s just take a look at what the “spin off” technologies could come about as a result of Latitude.
For example, take public transport. Most people waiting for their train or bus to arrive can wait for ever, and we just accept it as that is what public transport is all about (at least in the UK it is!).
I am sure most of us have better things to do than wait around, and would rather sit in a cafe or wait somewhere else rather than be standing at the stop for ages waiting for the bus/train to arrive. How many hours do we waste stood at the platform or bus stop? Yes we can go for a coffee in the cafe or even do some work on our laptop somewhere else until the train/bus comes, but then if it does arrive we might miss it! So what’s the solution?
Well, if Google can come up with latitude for people location, then how about having a device fitted to a train or bus, so we know exactly where it is and when it will arrive by checking on our mobile on the map? How cool would that be! No more waiting around at the stop. We just walk/drive to the stop at the last minute when we can see the numbered service on our mobile is about to arrive. This would save so much time, not to mention waiting around in the snow/rain, whatever.
Another advantage is that if we can see for ourselves the train/bus is never going to arrive we can make alternative arrangements. The current technology for trains/buses only indicates an estimate of when it will arrive, not what can happen in reality!
The possibilities can stretch further, to the postal service. How about a chip which can be thrown in with a parcel and detected where it is on our mobile, so we can tell when it has moved, where it is and when it is likely to be delivered?
These ideas may be futuristic, not from a technology perspective perhaps, but from a general acceptance perspective. One day our mobiles will probably tell us everything, right down to how many people are in our favourite MacDonalds, so we would go somewhere else if it looks like it’s going to take ages to be served. The emphasis in the future will be to save more and more time and to provide convenience. Our guess is that Google are probably working on these things right now!
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There are privacy concerns, of course – as long as people are not compelled to use it on their own equipment, and the user can control it from wherever he is, I don’t see the problem. Many commercial vehicles are already tracked – the white dome you see on the top if semi-tractors, delivery vans, and the like is used for this purpose, as well as 2-way communication via satellite across the nation.
I would actually prefer it if my employer could cheaply track my movements – I cover a 7-county area, and it would be helpful if my employer knew exactly where I was – he could send me time-sensitive assignments without having to confirm that I would be in a position to complete them.
I foresee GPS spoofing… Already, there are programs that can read-back a previous GPS track to other GPS-capable programs, making it possible to have Latitude updated with false information. It wouldn’t be too difficult to create a program where you enter a sequence of addresses, it builds a plausible route and a spoofed GPS track for that route, and then feeds it to Latitude.
There are countless benefits to real-time tracking. As long as the user is fully aware of and fully in control of how that tracking is done, there are no reasonable privacy concerns about this technology. It’s a clear win, only possible with a company like Google behind it – M$ couldn’t pull this one off.
@dave thats a good point about GPS spoofing, I never thought of that. And I didn’t realise the white dome on top of vans was for tracking. Nice points.
@chris – The white dome is not just for tracking – it is a two-way satellite link, and some are integrated into the vehicle’s computers. They perform much the same function as OnStar, except the drivers can communicate with their own dispatchers, and the dispatchers can (in some cases) switch off the ignition or retard the throttle in case the truck is hijacked.
As for the “spoofing” google “GpsDiffuser” for windows machines, and/or “GpsGate” for PocketPCs. Simple replay (make a program think that the replay is an actual GPS device) is fairly trivial – probably take less than 20 lines of shell-script/python/perl… But, if one can grep lat/lon data from a track in Google Maps (for instance) it wouldn’t be too difficult to create a fake NMEA (GPS raw data) track and send it to the serial port where Google Maps (the Latitude updater) is listening.
Incidentally, Google Maps reminded me today that it was planning on updating my position on Latitude, and asked me if I wanted to allow it or deny it.