How NAC Enhance Wireless LBS Applications

1. How NAC Enhance Wireless LBS Applications Xinhang Shen NAC Geographic Products Inc. www.nacgeo.com

2. CURRENT PROBLEMS

3. Specify Locations • Current location based services usually use street addresses to specify locations that has many problems: • Most locations do not have street addresses • It’s difficult to input addresses with foreign characters • It’s time-consuming to input street addresses • An address database is always outdated & incomplete

4. Specify Areas • Currently, location based services usually specify areas by names of political entities, postal codes, map sheet numbers, street addresses plus ranges or geographic coordinates. These methods are • Incomplete • Inefficient • Language dependent • Non-standard

5. Wireless LBS • Due to the lack of efficient, standard and complete methods to specify locations and areas, wireless LBS services are facing serious problems: • It’s extremely time consuming to input addresses on cellphones with telephone keypads • It requires many screens to specify locations or areas on a cellphone • It’s almost impossible to input foreign characters on cellphones

6. The Natural Area Coding System

7. Objective • The new system is to standardize, optimize and unify • Geodetic datums • Geographic coordinates • Geographic area codes • Map grids • Addresses • Postal codes

8. Approaches • To reach the objective, the new system: • Unifies the concepts of geographic areas and geographic locations because any point can be represented by a relative small area • Uses more characters (the 30 most popular characters in the world) instead of digits to compress the representation 0123456789BCDFGHJKLMNPQRSTVWXZ • Introduces a standard, highly efficient, flexible and unified representation for both an area and a location

9. Definition The Natural Area Coding System is defined by a series of grids called NAC Grids to divide the world: Level 1 Grid: divide the world into 30 divisions in both longitude and latitude directions. Level 2 Grid: divide each cell on Level 1 Grid into 30 divisions in both directions. Level n Grid: divide each cell on Level n-1 Grid into 30 divisions in both directions, where n = 2, 3, .... Each division is assigned a NAC character accordingly.

10. Representation – Simple NAC • A Natural Area Code (NAC) is written in a strict format that starts with: “NAC: ” followed by two character strings representing longitude and latitude respectively separated by a blank space, e.g. NAC: 8CNB Q7Z4 Where: 8 and Q represent Level 1 NAC Grid coordinates C and 7 represent Level 2 NAC Grid coordinates N and Z represent Level 3 NAC Grid coordinates B and 4 represent Level 4 NAC Grid coordinates

11. Representation – Complex NAC A series of neighboring NACs forming a rectangular area on a NAC Grid can be written as a complex NAC, e.g. NAC: 8CNB Q7Z4 8CNB Q7Z4 8CNC Q7Z4 + NAC: 8CNC Q7Z4 + NAC: 8CNB Q7Z5 8CNB Q7Z5 8CNC Q7Z5 + NAC: 8CNC Q7Z5 = NAC: 8CNB-C Q7Z4-5 8CNB-C Q7Z4-5 With complex NAC, any area can be specified by a NAC.

12. NAC Cell Sizes • Each simple NAC represents a NAC cell anywhere in the world with an area approximately equal to: • LEVEL Sample NAC AREA • 1 NAC: 8 Q 1000x700 km • 2 NAC: 8C Q8 33x23 km • 3 NAC: 8CN Q8Z 1.1x0.8 km • 4 NAC: 8CNB Q8Z4 35x25 m • 5 NAC: 8CNBD Q8Z4H 1.2x0.8 m

13. APPLICATIONS

14. Universal Address • An eight or ten character NAC representing an area about 25x35 meters or 0.8x1.2 meters anywhere in the world is called a Universal Address that can specify uniquely in the world: • Each building • Each house Our address • Each gate/door • Each parking meter 1608-45 Huntingdale Blvd. • Each fire hydrant Toronto, ON M1W 2N8 • Each sewage exit Canada • Each tree NAC: 8CNB Q8Z4 • Each street light • Each bus stop Our Universal Address

15. Universal Address (cont’d) Compared with traditional addresses, the Universal Address has many advantages: • Standard in the entire world • Language independent • Defined everywhere • Easy to display, read, remember and communicate • Fit small spaces of business cards, yellow pages, etc • Pinpointed on all maps with Universal Map Grids • Navigated with GPS receivers • Make emergency services faster and more reliable • As Global Postal Code to sort both domestic and international mail to final mailboxes automatically

16. Business Cards The Universal Address can perfectly fit the limited space of a business card as part of an address to help people to reach the location more efficiently: • Get direction and distance from street signs • Pinpoint the location on maps • Navigate to the location with GPS receivers • Specify the location on location based services quickly NAC Geographic Products Inc. http://www.nacgeo.com Xinhang Shen, Ph.D. President & CEO 1608-45 Hintingdale Blvd. Tel: (416) 496 6110 Toronto, ON M1W 2N8 Fax: (416) 496 9241 Canada NAC: 8CNB Q8Z4 xshen@nacgeo.com Universal Address

17. GPS Watch Displaying Universal Addresses instead of other geographic coordinates can eliminate the need of maps and make it: • Smaller • Lighter • Longer battery life • Less expensive • Easier to use Widely using GPS watches will start a new era for using digital spatial information

18. GPS Watch (cont’d)

19. GPS Cellphone • Manufacturers are reluctant to display geographic coordinates on a cellphone even if it has a GPS inside because they are useless to consumers. • This will be changed by Universal Address because they are directly related to addresses, postal codes, street signs, maps, yellow pages, etc. • Displaying Universal Addresses on cellphones will turn cellphones into powerful navigation tools.

20. Universal Map Grids • Street maps use locally defined grids because accurate geographic grids based on UTM or longitude/latitude will produce long coordinates that are difficult for consumers to use. • NAC Grids called Universal Map Grids can solve the problem. They can be applied on all kinds of maps and the resulted grid coordinates are highly efficient Natural Area Codes. • Universal Addresses can be directly pinpointed on all maps with NAC Grids. The location information on these maps are directly connected.

25. Phone Books • Universal Addresses can be easily listed with telephone numbers on telephone books so that people can: • Directly pinpoint the locations on all maps • Navigate to the locations with GPS receivers • Efficiently use all location based services • Conveniently use all other GIS applications

26. Driving Directions Services • Using Universal Addresses instead • of street addresses to specify • locations can • Reduce 80% of input keys • Avoid inputting foreign characters • Eliminate errors of address databases • Extend the services to all locations It can also make a multi-page interface for driving directions on a cellphone fit into a single page.

27. Retrieving Maps Using Natural Area Codes instead of longitude/latitude coordinates to retrieve maps on GIS and map servers can save 80% of input keys and also make the map codes much easier to remember and communicate. Bottom left corner longitude -79.6417 degrees Bottom left corner latitude 43.5167 degrees Top right corner longitude -79.1917 degrees Top right corner latitude 43.8167 degrees Get Map NAC: 8C Q8 Get Map

28. Location Based Search Using Natural Area Codes instead of street addresses to specify a searching area can save 90% of input keys and make the searching available on all areas no matter whether there are addresses or not. Type Restaurant Street 45 Huntingdale Blvd. City Toronto State Ontario ZIP M1W 2N8 Country Canada Range 1 KM Search Type Restaurant NAC: 8CB Q8Z Search

29. Global Postal Codes • Universal Addresses can be used as Global Postal Codes for all countries to sort both domestic and international mail to final mailboxes automatically with many advantages: • Defined at all addresses and locations in the world • Never used up • No need to be assigned and maintained • Self-error detection • Political neutral • Multiple uses

30. Global Postal Code on Mail Global Postal Code

31. Street Signs • Universal Addresses can be marked on all street signs and highway sections so that people can • Directly estimate the distance and direction from the current street sign to any destination by comparing the two Universal Addresses • Record accurate locations for accidents, events, parking locations, etc

32. Universal Property Identifier • Universal Address can be used as Universal Property Identifiers with many advantages such as: • Valid in the entire world • Never used up and always well aligned • Representing accurate location • Saving space in storing geographic coordinates • Efficient for communication

33. Emergency Services • Using Universal Addresses instead of street addresses in dispatching and communicating location informationcan significantly enhance emergency services and make them faster and more reliable because they can be: • directly pinpointed on all maps. • efficiently input and displayed on all GPS devices • easily remembered and communicated

34. CASE STUDY

35. Mobile Location Based Service Network • A five-star wireless LBS providing • Cross-nation turn-by-turn driving directions • Maps from detail street maps to world maps • Location based searching of restaurants, hotels, gas stations, parking places, amusement places, etc of 26 countries in eight language for all kinds of wireless devices.

36. Mobile Location Based Service Network Driving directions service

37. Mobile Location Based Service Network Map service

38. Mobile Location Based Service Network Location based business searching

39. SUMMARY

40. Accomplishments The Natural Area Coding System has unified geographic coordinates, geographic area codes, map grids, addresses, postal codes and property identifiers. It makes all location related products, services and technologies highly efficient and closely related. This is even more significant on small wireless devices which have very small screens and telephone keypads.

41. As Universal Property Identifiers to unify identifiers and coordinates As Global Postal Codes to sort all mail from world level to final mailboxes Listed on telephone books to enhance location information Marked on street signs to help travelers determine the distance and direction of any destination As part of an address perfectly fit a business card A Universal Address is a highly efficient and unified representation of an address, postal code, area code, map grid coordinates and geographic coordinates. To specify locations on any LBS to reduce 80% input keys, avoid inputting foreign characters, eliminate errors from address databases and extend services to all locations with and without addresses. Displayed instead of meaningless longitude and latitude on GPS watches and cellphones to turn them into time-spatial clocks and navigation tools They can be directly pinpointed on all kinds of maps in any scales and projections

42. Quotations from the Globe and Mail “The Holy Grail in terms of addresses is a simple system that will work in all countries.” – Tim Evangelatos, Strategic Technologies and Policy Advisor for GeoConnections at Natural Resources Canada “This is an elegant solution that seems to supply something that is becoming necessary as the world becomes more globalized,” – Matt Ball, Editor of GwoWorld magazine. “It’s only a matter of time before something like this will be implemented.”

43. Thank you!