Bones in Motion

One of the "features" that specialized GPS devices have had over mobile phone solutions is ruggedness and weatherproofing. Two phones recently announced by Verizon Wireless even up the playing field for those who like to take their talking to extreme conditions. The Motorola Adventure seen to the left meets Military Specifications 810F standards for shock, dust, vibration, solar radiation, altitude, high & low temperature storage, and high & low temperature operational. The Gz'One Boulder to the right meets Military Specifications 810F standards for Water, Shock & Dust Resistance, Immersion, Vibration, Salt Fog, Humidity, Solar Radiation, Altitude, Low and High Temperature Storage.

These phones support over the air application downloads and we are looking at developing versions of our Bones in Motion software for both of them. We currently support the grandfather of the Boulder (Gz'One Type S) as it has been a hit with triathletes and trail runners.

Some of our Blackberry customers have purchased rugged protectors that envelop the device with an ultra hard shell and a thin film over the screen and keyboard to keep sweat from frying the circuits.



I believe we will continue to see advancements in mobile phone ruggedization not just targeting the construction worker crowd but also for those who want specialized phones for each of the activities they are engaged in like outdoor sports. Now that you can add devices to family plans for less than $10 a month it makes sense to have a device you can take with you where only a few (if any) people know the phone number so you can get away from it all yet make emergency calls if needed.

I count no less than 4 apps available for the iPhone that purport to record fitness information (speed, distance and calories burned) using the internal GPS of the phone. Digging into the FAQs and Forums for each of these has yielded some interesting results:

1. Without background support the app needs to stay up front and running which drains the battery
2. Auto-lock must be turned off or the app will stop recording when the screen goes blank
3. Recording stops when a call or SMS comes in and the app must keep "state" information to recover
   
4. It is recommended to turn of EDGE and WiFi to conserve enough battery for a 3 hour recording
5. You can play music in the background while recording GPS activity

Having pioneered the mobile fitness space with our first application that demoed on the iDEN network 5 years ago, we have seen a steady progression of technology in GPS accuracy, battery life, form factor and usability. The iPhone takes usability several steps ahead but it comes at a great cost to battery life and form factor (4.7 oz). The iPhone has also educated the consumer about GPS in mobile phones as the typical Verizon Wireless, Sprint or Alltel customer does not realize that their mobile phones have had a highly accurate GPS function for several years.

Even with these iPhone limitations, it makes good market sense to develop a Bones in Motion service for this audience as they will have a high tolorance as early adopters and will provide valuable feedback that can help us with the service across other handset models and wireless carriers.

Are you ready to run or ride with your 3G?

GPS receivers are used for such a wide variety of applications in our modern world. We find them in automobiles, airplanes, watches, cell phones, and various other handheld and built in devices, providing the military, the business world, and individuals with valuable information instantly 24 hours a day. GPS can be used to find addresses and directions, show travel routes, determine the speed of travel, and several other helpful types of instant feedback that can be used for many purposes. The use of GPS with exercise programs has become increasing popular in recent years with the availability of GPS watches, cell phones, and other handheld receivers. These have proved to be extremely useful for biking, hiking, running, walking and many other forms of mobile exercise. Almost every version of GPS receiver (GPSr) has a trip function for instantly calculating time elapsed, time moving, time stopped, average speed, and current speed, which are all very helpful for training and exercise in various sports and activities.
Many exercise walkers have heard of, or even use, a pedometer. These simple, inexpensive devices actually count the number of steps and calculate distance by the length of steps, but they are very inaccurate and difficult to set correctly. Compared to GPSr, they produce very primitive results. A GPSr does not know the number of steps or the length of steps, but it does provide your exact location according to multiple satellite transmissions. Trying to maintain a certain speed or keep track of distance is incredibly simple and accurate. The average speed display available with most GPSr's will quickly show how fast the walker is moving. Keeping track of distance is just as simple. If a walker wants to go a certain distance and then return, all they need to do is glance at the receiver to find the distance traveled. If the route needs to be changed or considered, a GPSr map function will display the surrounding area and the walker's current location.
For training and racing, GPS can help individuals reach specific points and specific times and help them to accurately pace their route. This is done through another GPSr function called the waypoint function. Waypoints are previously stored coordinates that plot a route in advance. As a runner or biker progresses, the GPSr can show the progress of the person in comparison to the waypoints and provide the distance to the next check point or turning point.
After completing a race, training session, or regular workout, the GPSr tracking information can be recorded in order to monitor progress. By recording total times, distances, averages speeds, etc, an individual can easily determine goals and continue steady progress towards those goals. Once most athletes and exercise enthusiasts use a GPSr to supplement their workout, they never go without it again. The kind of information that GPS provides is simply too useful to do without.

About the Author: Jon Werner is the Founder and Evangelist for Bones In Motion, a leading provider of GPS cell phone and Garmin GPS compatible software. For more information, please visit www.bonesinmotion.com.

GPS devices are becoming extremely popular for a variety of every day uses, and rightfully so. These receivers provide directions for drivers and hikers, speed and pace measurements for bikers and runners, location information for parents and friends, and that is not all. If you are thinking about picking up a GPS device to make life a little easier or beef up your exercise routine, but don't know quite what you're looking for, here are a few GPS device characteristics to consider.
The very first step to figuring out the right GPS receiver is deciding whether it will be used outside or just inside a vehicle. Considering the portability of the device is important depending on what it will be used for. There are of course GPS receivers built in to stereo decks for permanent vehicle installation. However there are also a number of devices that are portable and powerful enough to be used both in and outside of vehicles. If you are planning on regularly carrying the device, the size and weight are especially important. A hand held device should also have batteries that can last for several hours without recharging. GPS capability for cell phones has grown increasingly popular for these purposes. If the device will be used for exercise, perhaps a GPS watch would be even better. Garmin GPS watches are among the leading GPS products.
GPS software is another big factor that should affect your decision. Does the software give you the measurements that are helpful for your particular activities? If you are a runner you will want to know your pace, and maybe the distance to your next marker. If you are a parent, you will want mapping software that picks up the location of a particular device (such as your child's cell phone), and if you are traveling, good road mapping software and directions are really helpful. Some GPS devices even give real-time traffic information through an FM frequency. Mapping software is extremely variable. There is a large range of quality and accuracy of maps for GPS devices, and finding maps with the most "points of interest" will insure your ability to find locations using that software.
The practicality of the device is determined by how easy it is to use. A GPS device is not very useful if you find yourself needing to climb a tower for a reading or take 30 minutes to type in an address. Some devices have touch screens and voice commands for convenience, but you should test these features out to make sure you can easily operate them. The simpler and more understandable the device is, the more likely you are to actually use it. The screen should also be large enough to see easily. Depending on your eyesight, there are screens of different sizes as well as lettering in deferent fonts and sizes. It is important to find a machine that is easy to read and simple to use.
By keeping these characteristics in mind, you will find the device that works best for your needs. Don't let yourself be talked into something that you do not need. Pick something that is the right size, does what you need it to do, is easy to read, and is easy to operate, and enjoy the luxury that GPS has to offer.

About the Author: Jon Werner is the Founder and Evangelist for Bones In Motion, a leading provider of GPS cell phone and Garmin GPS compatible software. For more information, please visit www.bonesinmotion.com.

Since the development of GPS receivers, GPS technology has continued to evolve in order to receive the best satellite transmissions in the shortest amounts of time. As a result there are a number of GPS devices using various technologies to triangulate, transmit, and correct signals. Assisted GPS is a technology that applies the use of another server to help determine a location via GPS. For this reason, A-GPS is quite effective in areas which satellite transmission is more difficult, such as urban areas or places with heavy foliage. Over cellular networks, A-GPS is frequently utilized in Location Based Services (LBS), making the location of cell phones available to emergency dispatchers as well as allowing high quality civilian GPS calculation.

An Assistance Server is the only thing separating A-GPS from standard GPS. GPS networks usually operate using GPS receivers and satellites to calculate a specific location on the Earth. The Assistance Server allows devices with less processing power to utilize the high processing power and reference network of the server. Because an A-GPS receiver has the assistance of another server, it can produce results more efficiently and quickly, however, the connection to that server is necessary for A-GPS to give any benefit. In most cases, this is a cellular signal. Without this signal, an A-GPS receiver will not have the help of the server to calculate a location.

So what are the advantages of A-GPS?
As you may know, GPS signals shift in frequency because of the motion of the satellite relative to the receiver. For the receiver to lock onto a signal, it has to find the frequency bin. Any outside knowledge of the satellite position will increase the speed at which a receiving device can accomplish this. With an assistance server, a receiver can retrieve the orbit and clock data in order to narrow the possible frequencies, lowering the TTFF, or Time To First Fix. Due to this shorter TTFF, a receiver can find a location more quickly (saving time and energy) because it does not have to decode the navigational data, and it also has greater sensitivity. Since the better "time to first fix" narrows the frequency bins for the GPS receiver to search, the receiver can dwell longer on specific bins to produce more accurate results. Simply put, A-GPS allows receivers to retrieve location information accurately, quickly, and more energy efficiently by deferring most of the work on to the assistance server.

Due to its simple infrastructural connection to cell towers and cellular networks, A-GPS is becoming the most reliable and common strategy for determining a location through GPS. GPS cell phones, watches, cars, and other devices utilize A-GPS to provide the government and consumers alike with quick and accurate location results, making Assisted GPS the best strategy for using GPS with small, low powered receivers.

About the Author: Jon Werner is the Founder and Evangelist for Bones In Motion, a leading provider of GPS cell phone and Garmin GPS compatible software. For more information, please visit www.bonesinmotion.com.

At this point, almost everyone has heard of GPS, whether in association with aircraft, cars, biking, running, and more. But what exactly is GPS, and how does it work? Why is it such a valuable tool with so many different applications?
GPS, or Global Positioning System, is a navigation system that utilizes over 30 satellites located in the Earth's orbit to calculate the specific locations on the Earth's crust. Though it was first designed and used by the United States Department of Defense with only 24 satellites, in 1983 GPS was opened to civilian application due to the attack of a civilian Korean aircraft over Soviet skies. The great thing about this system is that it is available 24 hours per day, anywhere on Earth, with no charges or fees associated with it.
Each GPS satellite orbits the Earth two times per day with an extremely precise path. Signal information in radio form can be transmitted to GPS receivers on the Earth's surface that interpret the information and calculate the device's exact location through triangulation. Even though the satellites are moving at great speeds (upwards of 7k miles per hour), the GPS receiver compares the time of a signal transmission to the time it was received to measure the distance between the GPS receiver and the satellite. By taking the same measurement with a few more satellites, the receiver can determine the exact position of the device. This can then be displayed on an electronic map or in latitude and longitude form. This may seem like quite a lot of work, and at one time triangulation did involve a fair amount of arithmetic, but with modern GPS devices, the transmissions and calculations can take a matter of seconds.
GPS receivers need a secure signal from three or more satellites to determine the latitude and longitudinal location, and continue to track the movement of the device, but with four or more satellites a compatible receiver can provide a three dimensional location, including altitude. After calculating the position of the receiver, the speed, track, distance to destination, bearing, as well as other measurements can be established.
GPS receivers have come a long way in the past twenty years. A 12 parallel channel GPS receiver can be accurate to 45 to 50 feet, even amongst tall buildings or dense tree cover. Even newer receivers using Wide Area Augmentation can be accurate to less than 10 feet. This accuracy can be obtained with direct reception from satellites, but through the implementation of Differential GPS the signals can be corrected within 10 to 15 feet. This is achieved through beacon transmitters located on towers that receive satellite signals and transmit a corrected signal to a GPS receiver. A differential beacon receiver must be used in conjunction with a GPS receiver in order to take advantage of these corrected signals.
Assisted GPS, or aGPS, is another technique commonly used in most mobile phones, which provides very fast signal correction, typically less than 15 seconds. It also improves the accuracy to 3-5 meters in optimal conditions. In the next generation of aGPS technology, included in Qualcomm chipsets, 2-3 meter accuracy will be yielded, and reception will be improved in urban areas, canyons, and dense foliage conditions.
Whether you are navigating through traffic, piloting an airplane, or trying to improve your running routine, GPS provides valuable and accurate information. GPS is taking our civilization to a new level of precision, from daily routines to our understanding of the world and the universe we live in. Think about ways that a GPS receiver could make your life easier or more efficient.

About the Author: Jon Werner is the Founder and Evangelist for Bones In Motion, a leading provider of GPS cell phone and Garmin GPS compatible software. For more information, please visit www.bonesinmotion.com.