BY MIKE VON WAHLDE
Associate Editor, INTERNET TELEPHONY

Location, Location, Location

My newly acquired spouse and I have been looking for new digs in the Tri-State area. While the fast pace and interesting culture of Manhattan has been wonderful, the exorbitant rent and the lack of on-street parking has, at times, made life a little difficult. Moving off our little island will not, however, allow for smaller rent checks. This little part of the Right Coast seems way too expensive, but realtors just have thing to say as the two of us gasp at another $2,000 studio: Location, location, location.

The wireless industry is abuzz with location as well. GPS (Global Positioning System) is no new technology, and anyone who is an aficionado of outdoor pursuits has probably seen or used one. These handy little devices pinpoint -- by way of latitude and longitude -- your exact  location (within 30 feet) on this big blue planet. For most of us, a GPS seems a little frivolous. After all, street maps and Mapquest usually do a good job of giving us a handle on where we are. Intrepid explorers have used GPS devices to find their way across oceans and obscure mountain ranges. I have used it to put my latitude and longitude on my resume in lieu of my address. The Federal Communications Commission, however, is using it to nail down us wireless users.

The FCC And Location-Based Technologies
The FCCs E-911 Phase 2 mandate stipulates that wireless carriers in the U.S. who opt for a handset-based geolocation solution must begin offering GPS-enabled handsets by October 2001. By the end of 2002, however, all cellular phones offered by these carriers must be able to identify their location to within 125 meters for 911 emergency calls. We will soon know not only who is calling who, but from where to where. Location-based technologies are set to grow exponentially.

On one hand, geolocation devices enable emergency service providers to pinpoint people in need -- people who may not otherwise be able to provide an EMS operator with their location, verbally or otherwise. For example, if Michael, Joshua, and Heather get lost in the woods of Maryland, and the sound guy is accosted and held hostage, they wouldn't need to run around the forest in circles, screaming that they were lost and being tricked by a witch by the name of Blair. With a GPS in their phone, the map that Michael threw in the river wouldn't have been necessary anyways. And when worse came to worst, they could have simply dialed 911 on Heathers GPS-enabled wireless phone. Rescue personnel would have been sent to the scene and the whole crew could have been airlifted away from a horrible fate -- saving, at the same time, the American public from the worst series of camping horror flicks ever.

I wonder if these location-based technologies will trickle down into the workplace. If working from home means that I am happily typing away from a park-bench across from the beach, I feel that's my own business and not my company's (see "Thanking the Technology Tikis"). Suffice it to say I dont want a microchip planted on my person that allows someone to track my whereabouts. There are reasons, after all, that we can turn off our phones, pagers, and PDAs.

Nevertheless, I find myself transfixed by the development of the technology, like the guys in Real Genius who develop a laser for defense purposes, but wind up using it to pop an outsized container of Jiffy Pop.

A GPS The Size Of A Dime
Traditionally, GPS units are either handheld  (with a display roughly two-thirds the size of your average Post-it), or as a LCD display embedded in the faux wood dashboard of your Cadillac Escalade. Now take a peek at your phone, which is probably close to the size of a collectors Amelia Earhart stamp. Guess what? That GPS has some shrinking to do.

I recently met with Sychip, a Lucent Technologies venture that is offering the GPS2020 -- what they claim to be the worlds smallest fully-integrated GPS module. The concept sounded interesting to me, and I wanted to see what they had to offer. I had no idea that I should have brought my magnifying glass.

The philosophy that seems to be behind this venture jibes with the wireless mantra: Small Fast Small Fast. Dr. Moses T. Asom, COO of Sychip,  handed me a teensy clear jewel-box that contained a neat little silicon chip -- about the size of a dime -- imbedded in green foam. That little chip had all the technology of a GPS, and would have fit into the mouthpiece of the wired module for my cell phone (the only safe way to drive). Using CSM (Chip-Scale Module) technology , Sychip is able to overcome some traditional barriers of size and cost.

With the integration of location-enabled devices into the mainstream, location-based services will be in their salad days. Directions will intuitively be beamed down to users, and cars will wirelessly, driver-lessly, pilot their way around our city. Pizzas will be delivered to obscure locations. Advertising firms will make bundles off WAP/GPS-based spam. Soon we all will be equipped with our own little GPS, and even fewer people will know how to correctly read a road map.

I, for one, will still maintain my collection of DeLorme Gazetteers and NGS topographical maps, and will continue placing push pins in my world map. Location, location, location is second only to Know where you are, and know where you want to be.

Mike von Wahlde welcomes your comments at mvonwahlde@tmcnet.com.