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Showing posts with the label GIS

Top 11 Articles on IoT, Mobility, Code Halos and Digital Transformation Strategies

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Most of the stuff I write is rubbish, but these 11 articles beat the odds and are actually worth reading. You can find my complete Top 40 list here. Enjoy! Mobile Apps, Blind Spots, Tomatoes and IoT Sensors IoT Sensors, Nerves for Robots and the Industrial Internet Sensors - Sensing and Sharing the Physical World IoT Sensors, Tactile Feedback, iPhones and Digital Transformation IoT, Software Robots, Mobile Apps and Network Centric Operations Networked Field Services and Real-Time Decision Making Thinking About Enterprise Mobility, Digital Transformation and Doctrine GEOINT, GIS, Google Field Trip and Digital Transformation Connecting the Dots Between Enterprise Mobility and IoT Merging the Physical with the Digital for Optimized Productivity IoT Sensors Extend Our Physical Senses Beyond Our Physical Reach You can find my Top 75 articles on Mobile Strategies here. ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict Writer, Spea

Field Mobility News Weekly – Week of November 30, 2014

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The Field Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to field mobility that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends. Also read Connected Globe News Weekly Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly Also read Mobile Cyber Security News Weekly Also read Mobile Health News Weekly Also read Mobility News Weekly Looking for an enterprise mobility solution?  Read the Mobile Solution Directory Here ! Group Mobile has declared Panasonic’s Toughbook 31 to be the “best rugged computer” of 2011. In making this selection, Group Mobile's experts took price, processor, battery life, wireless options, media bay options, display brightness, and the ability to withstand harsh environments into consideration. Read Original Content A case study released by Motion showed Nebraska's Norton Public Power District saw a 75 percent increase in time savings since integrating

Field Mobility News Weekly – Week of November 23, 2014

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The Field Mobility News Weekly is an online newsletter made up of the most interesting news and articles related to field mobility that I run across each week.  I am specifically targeting information that reflects market data and trends. Also read Connected Globe News Weekly Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly Also read Mobile Cyber Security News Weekly Also read Mobile Health News Weekly Also read Mobility News Weekly Looking for an enterprise mobility solution?  Read the Mobile Solution Directory Here ! The use of commercial fleet management or telematics systems in North America is expected to increase at a 15.3 percent compound annual growth rate over the next four years, as tighter trucking regulations in the U.S. drive adoption of technology, according to Berg Insight. Read Original Content The global market for RFID technologies was valued at roughly $9.7 billion in 2013 and increased to nearly $11.1 billion in 2014. By 2019 this market should approach $24 billi

Location Based Services and RFID Help Hospitals Save Money

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The words location based services (LBS) immediately brings to mind mobile marketing apps and other location based sales and marketing services based upon GPS coordinates.  If we have an enterprise IT perspective we may think of fleet management, asset management and equipment tracking.  The technologies and strategies behind these technologies, however, are not limited to rugged outdoor, blue collar environments.  They have now also moved into sterile indoor environments.  Let's review a few of these use cases documented by Caleb Benedict , Research Analyst, GIS/IoT. The use of LBS (location based services) in the healthcare industry is growing rapidly. It is being used to save time, money, and reduce liabilities. Earlier this week an article was published by Pharmabiz.com that described how Tyco Security is providing Indian Hospitals with RFID services to track patients, medical equipment and pharmaceuticals ( http://bit.ly/PAIJvP ).  Along with knowing patient locations, thes

Real-Time GIS for Increased Visibility, Accountability and Productivity

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By Caleb Benedict , Research Analyst, GIS and IoT Companies are quickly finding new and innovative ways to recognize value by integrating real time mapping applications into their business processes. Real-time mapping is the GIS process of tracking changes on the earth’s surface and displaying that information on a computer screen. This process can include changes to company assets and resources (vehicles, cargo containers, people), and changes in physical terrain based on weather conditions, construction activity, etc.  Companies are increasingly using real-time GIS to improve workforce and project supervision, oversight and accountability. Examples can be seen in a variety of industries: When port security officials track the location of cargo containers, personnel, and ships as they travel through sea ports. When disaster relief officials track the movement of floodwaters  When insurance companies monitor impact areas from natural disasters allowing them to estimate mone

How The Healthcare Industry is Using GIS in 2014

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By Caleb Benedict , Research Analyst, GIS and IoT GIS technology is being used in the healthcare industry today for patient care and preventative medicine among other things. Hospitals and other organizations, with GIS and big data resources now have the ability to collect geographic information from their patients and study trends in illnesses based on where the patients live now and have lived in the past.  By displaying this information on a map it allows healthcare workers to visually see trends in illnesses and predict which communities will most likely to be impacted in the future.  In addition, understanding where patients have traveled over time enables healthcare officials to predict where ground zero for viruses might be located and how the diseases may have been spread. A recent GIS study conducted in China determined the next likely at-risk region for the H7N9 avian flu virus is located in a northern region of Vietnam. They were able to determine this information by

IoT Devices and Apps for both Industry and Consumers

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By Caleb Benedict , Research Analyst, GIS/IoT Recently Google acquired the home automation company Nest. Nest is a company that sells IoT (Internet of Things) enabled devices that allow homeowners to control the temperature of their homes through their smartphones, plus it sends notifications if it detects dangerous levels of smoke or carbon monoxide. This company is a great example of how IoT is expanding beyond its industrial roots. Why would Google get involved in home automation systems?  Because their real goal is to collect, analyze and utilize data to provide more personalized online and mobile experiences. Cognizant calls this strategy " Code Halos " strategies.  Nest will provide Google with a much deeper understanding of consumers' "patterns of life." In the next few years we will see widespread adoption of IoT technologies for consumers. This will include a range of applications such as smartphone controlled appliances, home irrigation sys

Increasing Productivity and Getting Strategic with Geospatial Information Systems

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By Caleb Benedict, Research Analyst, GIS/IoT Companies in many different industries are realizing applications of GIS (geospatial information systems) can provide competitive and strategic advantages, productivity increases and efficiencies in operations. GIS, when combined with mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, laptops and other handheld devices allow organizations to use GPS sensors, digital maps and editing software in order to view, document and analyze all kinds of things in new and innovative ways. Once you represent your environment, location and processes digitally, you can build all kinds of analytics, algorithms and processes to take advantage of this data. Even in simple scenarios interesting analytics and processes can be done. Knowing the location of a mobile asset at a date and time is helpful.  If it is moving, knowing how fast it is going and estimating the time of arrival is useful.  Knowing where a mobile worker is located and their skills, qualificat

Notes on the Location Based Services Market

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By Caleb Benedict , Research Analyst, GIS/IoT, Netcentric Strategies IBM has recently invested $1.1 billion USD into Location Based Services (LBS) and Application Programming Interface (APIs).  The investment was in the development of BlueMix, a cloud-based service, that when combined with Pitney Bowes' API programs, allow businesses to collect data on consumers based on their location and geography. GPS enabled smartphones are introducing a whole new precision to LBS.  No longer are companies needing to triangulate between cellular towers to get a general location, when GPS data can identify the exact business location.  This enables location, business type, company name and more to be added to time and date.   Patterns of life can start to be recognized and marketing and promotional campaigns created based upon these findings. In addition to smartphones, the IoT (Internet of Things) enables equipment, supplies, materials, vehicles, trailers etc., to all b

The Growing Importance of GIS to Organizations, Industries and Municipalities in 2014

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By Caleb Benedict, Research and GIS Analyst During the past decade GIS (Geospatial Information Systems) has grown from a term representing simple navigational devices and GPS handsets to something much more complex and useful. In the past ten years the GIS market has steadily grown in numbers of applications, use cases, industry adoption and users. Newly published forecasts for the GIS market predict that the GIS industry will grow at an estimated 8% CAGR through 2016. It is my analysis that GIS applications in both public and private sectors are growing faster than 8%. By researching job announcements on city employment pages, it is obvious there is an increasing demand for GIS analysts, specialists, and technicians. This growth is due to advancements in GIS technology and the realization that GIS applications are important tools for just about every municipal government, engineering firms, industry and organizations with remote and mobile job sites, projects, assets and workfor

GEOINT, Google Field Trip, GIS and the Digital World

I have been blessed with the opportunity to conduct digital and mobile strategy workshops and speak in many places around the world.  Because of the frequency of these trips, I often don't have time to research in advance the locations I will be visiting.  That can be both good and bad.  I am often pleasantly surprised to stumble upon a famous historical landmark with little or no knowledge that I was in its vicinity.  Surprises are fun.  The downside is stumbling upon a recognizable landmark or building, but having little knowledge as to why it is recognizable, and having no time to look it up.  There is now a useful app for that! Google Field Trip is a mobile app I downloaded recently that uses many different data sources, tied to GPS coordinates, to inform you about your location and environment.  Here in Boise, Idaho , it popped up messages about historic events that happened at locations near me.  I love it!  It informed me as to where the original trolley line was located,

Where the Physical Meets the Digital - GIS and Enterprise Mobility

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One of the mega-trends I write often about is the merging of the physical with the digital and the resulting impact on businesses.  A key element of this trend is the association of geospatial or location data with events, tasks, projects, processes, assets and resources.  I asked my civil engineering friend and hero of all ducks, J.D. Axford, to teach us a bit about graphical information systems (GIS).  Here it is for your reading pleasure. Three broad categories of information are combined in GIS.  As a point of reference, let's consider how a utility company would use these three: Landbase information typically comes from outside sources and depicts the natural (earth) and built (man-made) environment in which the utility operates – roads, rivers, and so on.  Grid information, defining the physical system (power lines, transformers, substations, power generation sites) the utility owns and operates, this information comes from their engineering, surveying, and maintenance

Satellites, GPS Tracking, Artificial Intelligence and Mobile Technologies

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My good friend J.D. Axford, a civil engineer and hero of all ducks for his wetlands work, sent me a very interesting (if you are into GPS tracking, GIS, mobile technology, artificial intelligence, accelerometers, etc.) article he wrote on how the physical is meeting the digital in the world of construction and engineering today.  I am including it here for your pleasure and education. Compaction, in heavy construction, is the application of energy to soil, crushed rock, or asphalt to increase density by driving out air, which enables the finished, compacted material to support buildings, roadways, and other structures. Compaction is specified as a percentage of the maximum dry density determined in the lab. During construction, compaction is most often measured using a nuclear densitometer. Other reliable methods include the use of sand cone (ASTM D-1556) and rubber balloon (ASTM D-2167) methodologies; less formal tests used in the field include soil probes (a pointed steel rod p