Medical emergencies: Football games, concerts

Telenav press release:

Carilion Clinic Cuts Down Emergency Medical Response Times with TeleNav Track(TM); Replaces Radio-Based GPS Tracking System with Enhanced Web-Based Service

In an emergency situation, every second counts for first response medical teams. An essential part of Virginia-based Carilion Clinic's success is due to finding and implementing the latest proven technologies that improve healthcare. That is why Carilion Clinic and TeleNav Inc. today announced the implementation of TeleNav's TeleNav Track(TM) GPS solution over mobile phones, to assist Carilion with the location and deployment of ambulances and emergency medical teams during local organized events. The Carilion Clinic is western Virginia's leading healthcare partner.
Carilion Patient Transportation Services was recently tasked with providing medical response teams for events that take place at the Martinsville Speedway, which often attracts thousands of people.

"Large events, such as an auto race, football game or concert, are very difficult environments for emergency medical response teams to easily work in. The number of people can be overwhelming, making it vital to implement a system that will help us send teams to an area within minutes of any reported incident," said Allan Belcher, operations manager, Carilion Patient Transportation Services. "The mobility of TeleNav Track allows us to locate the closest available resources, send them to the location of the emergency while simultaneously watching the status of the call directly from anywhere in the world."

TeleNav Track is a fully hosted, 100 percent Web-based service available at http://www.telenavtrack.com/. The price per phone/device starts with the TeleNav Track Basic plan at $9.99 per month, plus a one-time $19.99 activation fee. The basic service includes GPS tracking, timesheets and location reporting. The TeleNav Track Plus plan is priced at $12.99 per month, which adds two-way messaging. The $15.99 per month TeleNav Track Enhanced plan adds barcode scanning, wireless forms and job dispatching and scheduling capabilities. TeleNav Track Premium is priced at $21.99 per month and includes turn-by-turn voice and visual navigation.

Technorati Tags Location Based Services, LBS, teleNav, medical

AirIQ Named 15th Fastest Growing Technology Company in Canada

AirIQ Named 15th Fastest Growing Technology Company in Canada

2006 Deloitte Fast 50 Ranking measures % revenue growth over 5 years

"AirIQ is a leader in the telematics service industry, using wireless communications to send and receive location-based information and control messages to and from vehicles and vessels. AirIQ's increase in revenues of 2,438% from 2001 to 2005 resulted in a 15th ranking overall in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50. "

Rest of press release here at Marketwire.com.
Technorati Tags Location Based Services, LBS, marketwire, AirIQ

MAST patent

Press Release from Marketwire:

TCS Receives Cornerstone Location and Presence Patent -- Enables Delivery of Wireless Device Information to Authorized Sources

The MAST invention allows presence information and location information regarding a particular wireless device, which is contained in the Home Location Register (HLR) of a wireless carrier, to be made available to any authorized outside entity or application. This invention enables authorized sources to use location and presence information for specialized services such as location-based advertising and couponing, mapping, mobile instant messaging, traffic alerts and geo-fencing.

Head here for more info.

Technorati Tags Location Based Services, LBS, Mobile Activity Status Tracker, MAST

NEC and Qualcomm

IT News from Italy has this press release (via Presswire I think):

NEC COMPLETES SUCCESSFUL A-GPS INTEROPERABILITY TESTING WITH QUALCOMM USING A "SUPL VERSION 1.0 STANDARD LOCATION PROTOCOL"

...announced the successful completion of assisted-GPS (A-GPS) interoperability testing (IOT) on a commercial GPRS/WCDMA network in Japan and London.

NEC and QUALCOMM support the standard to meet the rapidly accelerating demand for higher-accuracy location-based services in Europe, North and South America and Asia."NEC is committed to the global success of location-based information services.

In 2001, our technology enabled the first commercial user-plane location information system built in Japan," said Ruth Brannvall, Head of Value Added Services, NEC Europe Ltd. "Today, the success of our IOT with QUALCOMM ensures the user-plane A-GPS location-information system is no longer dependent upon operators' control plane networks, providing continual improvements to mobile operators' location-based information services."

Technorati Tags Location Based Services, LBS, NEC, Qualcomm, Brannvall

Blackberry and GPS

From a Press Release (techwhacks):

RESTON, Va., and WATERLOO, ON. - Sept. 20, 2006 - Sprint (NYSE: S) and Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today introduced the BlackBerryÒ 8703e from Sprint with updated features, including EV-DO support and Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) capability in a sleek and light design.

The BlackBerry 8703e includes integrated GPS (assisted-GPS) enabled through Sprint to deliver support for popular location-based services to mobile users, such as turn-by-turn driving directions to any address, anywhere on the Nationwide Sprint PCS Network.

Technorati Tags Location based services, lbs, techwhack.com, Sprint, BlackBerry 8703e

Cornershop in India

Indian Television has this:

MUMBAI: Cornershop Entertainment has launched an SMS based information service called Info on the Go. Ask 757577 is a service that works on any mobile phone with a text messaging facility.

It claims to be simple and user-friendly, as one can SMS questions to 757577. This service helps extend the virtual boundaries of knowledge and is available to all pre-paid and post-paid mobile users, informs an official release.

Ask757577 is a service that delivers Info on the go. You can now get quick and easy access to restaurants, weather, movie timenigs, emergency services, sports scores, directions, and more. At Ask757577 we are singularly focused on helping users find what they need through ever-changing mobile technologies. Ask757577 promises to be committed to meeting the search challenge of users.

"Innovation in services is key to reaching out to people, we believe in innovating against demand, and there is a strong demand for accurate info based services in the wireless market place" said CornerShop director Chirag Shah. One of the best ways to accomplish this is through the delivery of highly personalized location based services.

CornerShop claims to be the first to launch SMS voting/polling on reality TV in India for shows like Sa Re Ga Ma, Business Baazigar, Zee Cine Awards. The company also powers India's first 24 hour live interactive gaming channel 'PlayTV'.

Is SMS info LBS? I guess you SMS "where is the nearest MacDonalds" and it does a location check on your phone and sends back an answer? Much better than an "always on" push solution, I reckon.

They have a 24 hour live interactive gaming channel PlayTV? o.O Is that online gambling or quiz shows or tetris or what?

Technorati Tags lbs, indian television, Location Based Services, Cornershop,

Rescue me: SMS from kidnapped 14-year-old

Jim Davenport in South Carolina as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald:

POLICE have arrested the man they believe is responsible for kidnapping a 14-year-old girl who sent a text message to her mother that led to her rescue from a booby-trapped bunker.

The sheriff said the text message the girl sent to her mother came from Filyaw's mobile phone. Investigators used telecommunications towers to determine the general location of the phone used to send the message.

Soon, triangulation (iffy at best) will be a thing of the past.

Technorati Tags LBS, Elizabeth Shoaf,Sydney Morning Herald, kidnap, mobile phone

Dude, where's my coffee?

From the Taipei Times:

Tim Hibbard wants you to see where he is. On his Web site, timhibbard.com/wherestim, Hibbard uses GPS technology to plot his location on a map of Lawrence, Kansas, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

A GPS phone in his car feeds information into a Google Map, and a small icon represents Tim Hibbard, Web site architect and self- confessed geek. If you zoom in on the location, you can see the roof of the building he's in. If you were familiar with Lawrence, you could suggest things for Hibbard to do.

"One guy sent me a text message which said: `Hey dude! Get some coffee!' I was actually already on my way to get coffee," he recalls.
It won't be long before Hibbard's isn't the only pin on such maps.

The article is actually from The Guardian (Ronan Fitzgerald) but few traditional media outlets link to original articles. Unlike bloggers. From Tim's website:

Jeff Julian and John Alexander were nice enough to interview me on PodcastStudio.net; We talked about Where's Tim, GPS, consumer trust and all kinds of fun stuff. The podcast is here, and the podcast feed is here...check them out.

I'll have a latte, thnx.

Technorati Tags Online Communities, Tim Hibbard, Taipei Times, Ronan Fitzgerald, Guardian, LBS