|
USA Today writes about a team of students from
Iowa State University who built a system that automatically sends SMS messages
to any user who approaches a certain (GPS-identified) location.
They compare it to the audio systems common in museums and galleries that
provide (audio) information at certain locations within the museum. Their
system essentially allows a user to attach a message to a certain location
in space, which will be replayed (i.e. sent) to any other user reaching
the same location.
This reminds me somewhat of ThirdVoice, the startup that allowed users to
attach arbitrary messages to any website — except that we are talking
about three-dimensional real space here, not cyberspace.
I think it's a great student project. To use our terminology, they really
provide situational information through a messaging push channel (SMS).
The GPS coordinates are the only information evaluated for the situation,
which is a very bare-bones version of "physical situations" only.
But a step in the right direction.
|
|
The term "Situational Awareness" is frequently used in a military context.
For example, the Naval
Aviation Schools Command in Florida
defines Situational Awareness as
...the degree of accuracy by which one's perception of his current environment
mirrors reality.
If we take work from this quite useful definition, then Situational Software provides
a technological answer for the need to enhance Situational Awareness. Clearly, this
need is extremely pressing in a military context, but also in a crisis management,
disaster relief and/or public safety environment, and so it's not surprising that
much has been written about Situational Awareness there.
|
![[XML]](/images/xml.gif)
Home