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Mobility in mapping and navigation, NEW STRAITS TIMES-MANAGEMENT

Posted on: Monday, 5 January 2004, 06:00 CST

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Emerging Markets DatafileJanuary 05, 2004

NEW STRAITS TIMES-MANAGEMENT TIMES

MALAYSIA

ENGLISH

Mobility in mapping and navigation, NEW STRAITS TIMES-MANAGEMENT TIMES

Caroline Louis

ASIA

WorldSources, Inc. 322 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE 2ND FLOOR, NE WASHINGTON, DC 20002

COPYRIGHT 2003 BY WORLDSOURCES, INC., A JOINT VENTURE OF FDCH e-Media, INC. AND WORLD TIMES, INC. NO PORTION OF THE MATERIALS CONTAINED HEREIN MAY BE USED IN ANY MEDIA WITHOUT ATTRIBUTION TO WORLDSOURCES, INC.

FOR Stanislas de Lauriston, BCI's chief operating officer, the concept of mobility involves much more than just being able to move from point A to point B. ``It's about having information,'' he says.

BCI, a French tech company with experiences in navigation and mobility, consists of two entities - BCI Carto which specialises in mapping; and BCI Navigation, which does development for navigation and positioning.

According to de Lauriston, the company's perception of mobility involves a wide spectrum of technologies. ``We have technologies that will bring information to people. Now this is something entirely new. As you know, every day you spent most of your time trying to find information. We believe the current technologies that we have will reverse the course of things, in a sense that wherever you are, you can now find information, provided the infrastructure organised is available,'' he adds.

``We believe mobility is the absolute market because every human being is concerned about mobility,'' de Lauriston says, adding that BCI's philosophy centres around four main pillars of mobility - localisation; modelling of the world; mobility-related applications; and telecommunications.

``If you haven't got the four pillars, then you have nothing.''

De Lauriston says localisation is important as one needs to have a high degree of accuracy to obtain a particular position. He cites an example where a mother is concern about the safety of her child when the child is at school. A mother will naturally be worried if the child is not back from school, hence de Lauriston maintains that it makes a difference to be able to locate the child even if it is only within a few metres.

``Having a high degree of accuracy means being able to locate something or someone within the radius of just one or two metres. Thus, the technology behind such solutions is very complex,'' he adds.

The second point, he continues, is that the position one has identified or located should be found on the map. ``If I have the exact co- ordinates such as latitude and longitude, these will be of no value if I can't look them up on a map. A paper map is not accurate. But a digital map is, and creating one is a huge job. We have to input real world data into computers with fine descriptions of roads, networks, buildings, rivers, airports, shops, etc. This is what we call modelling of the world,'' he explains to journalists during a Press trip themed Intelligent Transport Systems in France.

``With the location on the map, we now need to develop applications which will be able to provide the service customers expect. For example, a car navigation system requires the location of a car and with the full road network in the computer, you would want to be guided by the global positioning system (GPS) tool, for instance. We know customers will not pay just to get information about a location but will do so if the applications for such purposes are available.''

Telecommunications is also another important area because they are channels which provide information, he adds.

Hence, among BCI's core technology offerings which incorporate these four pillars of mobility include Shared Navigation Network (SNN), SNN Aero and Raider.

SNN is a software tool for creating, editing, updating and visualising cartographic navigable databases. According to de Lauriston, this flexible tool handles all cartographic database formats. It allows complete, fast and simple management of any geographical database. It's also user- friendly since an operator is in direct visual contact with all the descriptive elements of a cartographic database.

SNN merges all databases together such as topo, raster, satellite photos, ortho-images, vector maps, services, and tourists guides; runs on personal computers (PCs); and does not require highly skilled specialists. It can be used with the Raider tool to collect data in the field such as exact road geometry, and includes any additional visual and sound information.

With the incorporation of aerial or satellite geolocalised photographs, SNN is a tool for modelling the environment, de Lauriston says.

SNN Aero, on the other hand, handles airport cartographic databases.

The Raider system, which is an automatic data collection tool, is used in the field to complement and augment existing databases. It also updates databases without having to wait for new releases from the main database providers, particularly when new roads or new blocks of houses are created.

For fleet management, the Cristine navigation software family is hardware-independent and can accommodate high-end and low-end systems, and work either on-board or off-board vehicles.

Cristine Pro, on the other hand, is targeted at companies that need to handle fleet management efficiently and as such, require customised software to meet their needs. Cristine Pro consists of two sets of software - the embedded device (on-board) which provides turn-by-turn guidance and route information; and a PC or a server-based application for fleet management (off-board). The system also handles traffic information.

Cristine Aero is an aircraft embedded system which provides navigation and guidance assistance to aircraft for ground taxiing operation.

Another tool, bciTrack, is a vehicle-tracking and route analysis software, and is targeted at security companies. The software can be customised and fine-tuned to meet customers' requirements. It provides vehicle real-time monitoring; vehicle route and trip uploading via global system for mobile communications/general packet radio service (GSM/GPRS); journey analysis such as speed, localisation and timing; traffic information display; and journey data export. The software also allows photos, video clips and updates to be incorporated as well.

BciNav, a cartographic database handling software, provides geographic information display; addresses management; route calculation; search for services and points of interest; and offers traffic information management.

BCI has 45 employees, of which 80 per cent are engineers.

For more information, visit www.bcisa.com.

Copyright 2004 NEW STRAITS TIMES-MANAGEMENT TIMES all rights reserved as distributed by WorldSources, Inc.

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