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Assistant Professor,Faculty of Engineering,Chulalongkorn University, Patumwan, Bangkok, Thailand phisan_chula@yahoo.com WIRELESS NETWORK AND MOBILE PHONE USERS Currently there is an increasing demand for mobile phones and wireless gadgets, which are parts and parcels of ICT. One of the most attractive features of mobile phones, is instant connection to 'always-on' highspeed network e.g., General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), (Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE), and High Speed DownLink Packet Access (HSPDA). The major operating systems for mobiles are, Symbian, and "Microsoft Window Mobile", with more operating systems to follow. Since June 29, 2007 Apple has been marketing its innovative mobile phone with special features, "multi-touch", intelligent web browsing, and integration of Google Maps, including virtual keyboard, Wi-Fi. Somehow Thailand has caught the iPhone fever! Although Apple iPhone has not yet been launched in this country, iPhone information via web-board and web sites, and even, specialized iPhone service shops are already available. The latest technology for mobile phones is known as "Androidology". Android is a new operating system for mobile phone, free of charge, which has been developed from the open source Linux. Google, the developer of Android, claims that Android can perform more efficiently than PC, with its various applications, such as spinning globe and the well-known, Google Maps, and "StreetView". StreetView and its similar applications allow virtual walking or driving through cities streets, including virtual entry to buildings. PANORAMIC VIEW OF STREETS AND PLACES   Fig.1Illustration of two similar panoramic view applications In this digital camera era, we can create panoramic view much easier than ever. Taking contiguous pictures and 'stitching' them seamlessly is a matter of CLICK. We can produce a panoramic view with mosaics of overlapped photos, automatically, and then project them onto a spherical surface. A series of panoramic views can be lined up within an on-line map for viewing. Years ago the Immersive Media Corp. invented a dodecahedron- shaped digital camera system with eleven lenses, including, GPS and processing hardware, which can be mounted on a Volkswagen Beetle. There are now more than ten such vehicles in service all over the USA. The innovative product from Immersive Media is one of a core features of Google Maps. Now there are competitors, such as EveryScape (www.everyscape.com), MapJack (www.mapjack.com), for the USA and JietuSoft (www.city8.com, www.jietusoft. com), who has developed the panoramic views of China as shown here. ON-LINE MAP SERVICES AND STREET MAPS   Fig. 2Mash-up of OGC Web Service (OWS) and Google Maps map service Map is useful in many ways and should help somehow cognitive development. Therefore in some Western countries, maps are readily available to the publics. Thanks to Google and oth er internet-based map services, more and more countries in the World can now access detailed street maps, including high-resolution satellite orthomaps. A new paradigm of GIS, called, "mashup" map services application, has aroused immense interest in the internet community. Ordinary 'internauts' with some knowledge of JavaScript, but without having any prior experience with GIS or satellite orthomap, could integrate this map service application into their homepages with a few lines of JavaScript. Popular map services are, Yahoo! Maps, Google Maps, MapQuest, Multimap with global map coverage and some other services with USA only map coverage. Mash-up map services can also be integrated seamlessly on top of interactive virtual globe software packages, e.g. Google Earths, Microsoft Virtual Earth, ESRI ArcGlobe, Leica TITAN, NASA WorldWind, WorldWind JAVA SDK and OSSIM Planet. The latter three packages are full-blown free and open source software (FOSS) and have high potential for further extension. The well-known Ordnance Survey, Great Britain's national mapping agency, has recently introduced "OS OpenSpace", based on this paradigm. The OS OpenSpace is a free mash-up service that allows users to embed OS maps covering Britain in their web applications. The mash-up mapping application is operated using, web services model, JavaScript, JaSON, XML and other geo-spatial exchange standards. Electronic street map and point-of-interest (POI) are major components for, incar navigator, and personal navigation device (PND). With the increased demand for map services, there is more demand for street map and POI, stimulating more business competitiveness, e.g. through business acquisition. Nokia has now acquired NAVTEQ, one of the world leading street map suppliers. TomTom, a leading maker of car navigation devices, has offered to buy shares from TeleAtlas, who has access Asian road datasets. Both NAVTEQ and TeleAtlas have complete Thai street map datasets, which are constantly being updated. Microsoft has also acquired Multimap, a UK-based mapping company. By 2011, ABI Research claimed, most navigation systems will be far more sophisticated with incorporation of 3-D and panoramic view displays (ABI Research 2007). At the Thai National Conference on Mapping and Geo-Informatics 2007 in Bangkok, a paper, "Mash-up OGC and Google Maps Services", was presented by P. Santitamnont and C. Neng-comma (2007). This paper describes how to combine Open Geospatial Consortium Web Services (OWS) and Google Maps application interface (API), to enhance quality map services and contents, simultaneously. The authors explain how map services quality and contents can be achieved. The former is by applying, Google Maps API, multi-resolution tiling and caching of orthoimage, and the latter by instant overlaying the user's own data (i.e. features and orthomaps), the moment the program is invoked using OWS. In Thailand Metamedia Technology Co.,Ltd. has developed the indigenous on-line "LongDo Map" as map services for local consumption. The LongDo Map services have two major sources of street data, one from a GIS consulting company, Numap Co.,Ltd., and the other from cascaded Google Maps by mashing-up technique. LongDo Map also has a J2ME version installable on mobile phone. Metamedia Technology has applied the Longdo Map with a traffic reporting system. The traffic reporting system using LongDo map serves realtime traffic information of Bangkok from the Thai Intelligent Transport System Forum (Thai ITS Forum). Another interesting feature of Longdo Map is pop-up window of the Thai Geocoding (TG). Thai Geocoding is a spatial geocoding scheme developed by Chulalongkorn University. The anticipated geocoding standard makes use of limited Thai geographic extent and 32-based numeral encoding to achieve comprehensive, flexible and compact geocoding. The TG will show up immediately when users right-click on the LongDo map. For example, a geographic position at 100º53'.202, 13º 73'.846 of the national flag-pole at Chulalongkorn University can be, TG:KY5S-A2VLW or, TG:BCPY-CVKZ or, TG:DOM-IRC, with an accuracy of 1-meter, 10-meter and 100-meter, respectively. The geocode "TG:DOM-IRC" is easy to remember and key-in for geo-spatial identification of Chulalongkorn University (Santitamnont 2007). Google map service also provides Google Maps for Mobile (GMM). The latest released of GMM by the end of 2007 is version 2, with a simple positioning system, "My Location". "My Location" can approximate the position of a mobile phone, using information broadcasted from mobile towers. The result of the initial experiment showed position accuracy within the range of 500 meters and just a few kilometers. The accuracy of "My Location" cannot, by any means, compare with that of a handheld GPS, but at least it is costless and can also track the user's position on the GMM. Similar to GMM, Microsoft also provides Virtual Earth "VE" for Mobile as solution.   Fig. 3Thai indigenous LongDo map service ORTHOMAP AND PHOTOGRAMMETRY Orthomap is regarded as one of the major sources for rapid GIS updating. There is a massive production of orthomaps using high-resolution satellite and air-borne digital imageries. Over a century the science and art of map-making from analogue aerial photography has been steadily developed. But a decade ago, the 1996 Annual Conference of the International Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) in Vienna seemed to mark the beginning of a digital photogrammetric era, as acknowledged by the conference papers of prevalent usage of the digital photogrammetry. Since the year 2000, air-borne digital cameras of, "medium- and large-format" have been increasingly used in making orthomap. There is an estimate of about 400 digital camera systems in use, in the last 5 years, comparing with the estimated 800 analogue aerial cameras used in the last century (Walker 2007). Nowadays earth imaging users can opt for air-borne photography or highresolution satellite imaging, e.g., SPOT- 5, IKONOS, QuickBird, WorldView-1, and more satellite systems being developed. Thailand has conducted most ambitious and largest coverage mapping project in Thai history, led by the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative (MoAC). More than 70,000 aerial photographs scale 1:25,000, were taken mostly during the year 2001 to 2003. All the photographs were systematically scanned at 15 micron resolution and photogrammetrically reproduced to 0.5-meter resolution orthophotos and 5-meter gridded Digital Elevation Model (DEM). The orthophoto project was completed in 2007, and is now ready for service. This project is supposedly to be largest large-scale photogrammetry mapping project in the region.   Fig. 4 Illustration of THEOS satellite Fig. 5 Measurement of Oblique Photo The on-going prestigious THai Earth Observation System (THEOS) project will be another source providing highresolution satellites imageries for mapping. The THEOS satellite will be launched in beginning of 2008, according to the latest public announcement. THEOS system will orbit round the earth at the altitude of 822 kilometers and can produce up to 2-meter resolution imageries. Although the THEOS system is commissioned to a French company for design and construction, the satellite operation will be totally operated in Thailand by the Thai engineers trained in France. The THEOS imageries could be ideally supplement the out-dated orthomaps, scale 1:4,000, produced by the MOAC. THEOS imagery can be geometrically improved by taking information from the more precise MOAC DEMs and orthophotos, scale 1:4,000. In the U.S. the earth imaging technology, by using concepts of oblique photography, has been recently developed. Oblique photography is described in basic Photogrammetry textbooks but this concept has never been put into practice. Pictometry International Corp. makes use of this technology and patented it. Oblique images of cities are systematically collected and processed. Users, therefore, can have visual information for easy understanding of buildings, and their environments, without having any photo interpretation skills. Pictometry should also be useful for urban safety, town and country planning, including tourism. Walker (2007) reported that more than 70 air-crafts equipped with medium- format cameras were flying over major populated cities in the States for Pictometry International Corp. There has been acceptance of 'Pictometry' technology, as for example, Microsoft integrates this technology into their Virtual Earth product, and "Ordnance Survey has teamed up with BLOM Aerofilms Limited to become authorized resellers of Pictometry data of Great Britain" (News released on 28 Feb. 2006, OS). CONCLUSION There has been constant development of mobile phone and wireless gadget for instant and easy access to geo-spatial information services. Diversity of mapping applications can now enable mobile devices to perform as effectively and efficiently as desktop PC. The geo-spatial information is 3-D rich and has tendency to expand further, creating a bright consumer market. Quality of on-line mapping applications on devices and web services will be dramatically improved because of mash-up techniques, together with contents integration. There will be more suppliers of earth imaging for map updating processes, more alternative technologies, e.g. panoramic view, Pictometry, for enriching 3-D geo-spatial data and ways of dissemination. Thailand should learn and understand experiences from other countries, in order to choose and integrate the most appropriate technology and web services for Thailand. Countries should also learn from each other for spatial data sharing and opportunity for system interoperability. Page 1 of 1
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