Location-Based Technology For Wi-Fi Networks Highlighted At DemoMobile

At DemoMobile, held here this week, several vendors showed off new technologies that add location-based capabilities to 802.11 and wireless WANs, while still others took the technology a step further by providing location tracking, along with VoIP, paging and voice-mail capabilities. Vendors said the technology helps solution providers offer new services on top of their wireless networking installations.

Newbury Networks demonstrated version 3.0 of its LocaleServer, a Java-based software application that uses 802.11 hotspots to monitor the location of devices (and their users) on a network.

Matthew Gray, Newbury founder and CTO, said the company has teamed up with a number of integrators to deploy these solutions at universities around the country.

Many of the universities are beginning to restrict Internet access from hotspots in certain locations, he said. "They want to restrict Internet access within classrooms," he said.

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Newbury's technology provides an administrative console that solution providers can use to determine what kind of wireless access is available in different locations. In classrooms, for example, the system could block access to all URLs except those of the online schedules and notes for a particular course, Gray said.

Solution providers also are using the technology to set up customized museum tours via handheld computers. Using Newbury's technology, a server could determine where a user is in a museum and then deliver information about nearby art to a handheld device. Gray added that the museum also could use statistics from the application to determine which art objects are most popular and to track attendee viewing patterns.

Vocera, meanwhile, is providing VoIP, paging, text-messaging, voice-mail and other applications along with location-based services. In October, the company is expected to release the Vocera Communications System, a small device that can be used to locate and communicate with workers over company 802.11 networks.

The device weighs less than 2 ounces and can be carried around the neck on a cord. Users can log on to the system via speech commands and then communicate with a back-end server. The server knows where the user is using its 802.11 location technology. A small screen is provided on the back of the unit for text messages.

A company spokeswoman said the technology can be used by solution providers for a number of vertical applications. Retail stores can use it to keep track of its employees within stores, and employees can communicate with each other wirelessly within a building. Hospitals can use it to dispatch doctors and nurses to specific patient rooms or to employ paging functions that previously required cell phone calls.

Vocera announced at the show it has signed 14 solution providers to its new channel program, and the company is continuing to recruit additional partners.

Microsoft demonstrated location-based technology that works over AT&T's next-generation wireless network. The technology allows mobile workers on the AT&T network to locate each other and interact in realtime. It also provides map directions to sales calls and other meetings, Microsoft said.

Although AT&T Wireless and Microsoft plan to sell the technology direct to enterprise users, Microsoft said solution providers can still build the location-based technology into existing sales-force automation and other custom applications.