Research / Been Gone, Back from Iraq

In present times, Muff is a research project that challenges the idea of failure in Location Based Services (LBS). In the future, Muff will be a product available at all major Canadian ski resorts to assure safety of friends and family members.

I firmly believe that one of the big mistakes location based services have been continually doing is producing nothing in line with tangibility. It is proven that a big part of the population, nationwide, do not trust what they cannot feel and touch. People also have a tendancy to not bother with online applications.

Muff is a LBP, location based product.

Not only is it tangible, but it assures the consumer quality, security and your money’s worth.

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Muff consists of two units: a trendy bandana, and a small screen. Inside the bandana is a gps locator and a zigbee radio. You would also have a screen with keypad in-hand.

Muff allows surveillance of chosen members to assure safety against the harsh mountain conditions. It provides the user with:

• real-time knowledge of where activated users are located
• simple icons used to demonstrate users location on mountain
• user friendly interface, simple and straight to its purpose
• clearly displays trails, as well as, trail difficulty (circle, square, diamon, double-diamond, etc…)
• displays time
• (possibly inserted into proposal, but not sure) ability to communicate through walkie-talkie format
• (possibly inserted into proposal, but not sure) ability to communicate through messaging

Images will come shortly

Analyzing:

Meetro – www.meetro.com

Loopt –
http://www.looptblog.com/

Fireeagle –

http://fireeagle.yahoo.net/gallery

Snowranger -
http://gps.about.com/od/onlineservices/gr/snowranger.htm

StoneMaps –

http://www.stonemaps.com/case_ski.php

Mobile phone applications – Six M’s Theory – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone

Jason Levitt/ former LBS owner - 

http://venturebeat.com/2008/06/14/iphone-3g-heralds-new-day-for-location-based-services/

Nicolas Nova: Location-based applications, failures and a second wave of applications to be expected

Gerhard Navratil and Eva Grum: What Makes Location-Based Services Fail? (pdf)

Paul Bragiel: Anatomy Of A Failure: Lessons Learned

David Williams: Why LBS applications fail

especially**Tomi T Ahonen & Alan Moore: Elusive pot of gold beyond reach of location-based services and GPS now on iPhone 3G