'ImaGeo' demonstrates new location-based application in Siena

28 October 2010

Partners in the ImaGeo project have shown how their innovation web-based and smart-phone-based application helps travellers get the most out of their city trips.

"This is a very flexible system that lets you plan a trip ahead of time, access maps and information about sites when you're already in a location, and share and exchange information with other users about where you've been and what you've seen," explains ImaGeo project scientific and technological manager George Ioannidis of IN2 search interfaces development Ltd.

"You can link your sites together to create 'trails' that show the way from one site to another," says Ioannidis. "You can make your trails public or you can keep them private or just show them to selected contacts. You can see other people's trails, see their photos and read their comments, descriptions and recommendations."

All of this can be done at home on at your PC, in a café on your notebook computer, or down in the streets with your satnav-enabled iPhone.

Better with EGNOS

ImaGeo uses GPS signals to locate users and then provide access to relevant location-based content, including nearby sites and other users' trails. Ioannidis says tests that took place in the city of Bremen in Germany, comparing ImaGeo using GPS alone versus GPS plus EGNOS have shown a very clear and significant improvement in accuracy with EGNOS. "ImaGeo works pretty well with GPS alone, but having access to the EGNOS augmentation signal is a great advantage."

On a walk through the medieval streets of Siena, Ioannidis points out, " We decided to demonstrate the system in a very challenging environment: in this beautiful Tuscan city, you have these rather high buildings and very narrow streets – the famous 'urban canyons' that we hear a lot about. If the reported position using GPS is off by just a few meters, you can find yourself very easily in the wrong street and looking at the wrong building. This is something we can largely avoid now, because in addition to the location we also use the visual similarity of photos captured. And the more accurate positioning that we expect once the Galileo system is operational would provide an even better experiences for the traveller."

Useful features

Standing in front of a particularly impressive building in the heart of old Siena, Ioannidis holds up his iPhone and takes a picture. Then, he taps the 'What's this?' button on his screen, reads the response and says, "Oh, so this is the Duomo, the cathedral of Siena." With another tap, he accesses the Wikipedia entry for the Duomo.

Dario Melpignano is CEO of ImaGeo project partner NEOS in Milan. He says, "We are essentially tying in to a wide and constantly updated network, giving you access to other users' experiences, letting you link in to Wikipedia for detailed information, and it's all superimposed over a Google map so you can see exactly where you are and how to get to your next point of interest."

Once your trip is over, says Melpignano, you can go back to the ImaGeo website, find your trails and edit them, adding comments or descriptions, uploading more pictures. Then you can share these with your friends and other users.

"The system becomes more powerful and more complete as more people log in and contribute," says Ioannidis. "Right now we are still in the demonstration phase, but we have already uploaded trails in a number of European cities, from the UK to Italy and many places in between. Both free and a premium versions of ImaGeo will be available soon and we expect to cover a large part of Europe."

Carmen Aguilera Rios, Project Officer at the GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA), which overseas the ImaGeo project, says this is a great example of how the EU Commission's Research Framework Programme (FP7) supports SMEs and entrepreneurs in the development of downstream satellite navigation applications. "SMEs play an important role in the innovation process by developing new visions and converting research results into business assets," she explains. "FP7 provides opportunities for SMEs to finance research and to establish strategic partnerships, facilitating their market entry and accelerating the adoption of the European GNSS systems."

More information:

FP7 GNSS research
ImaGeo project website