翻译《ELI7047 - 有关位置感知应用程序你要知道的七件事》

7 things you should know about...

Location-Aware Applications

有关位置感知应用程序你要知道的七件事

Scenario场景说明

Caitlin, a junior in archaeology, is doing fieldwork with her classmates at a site in Arizona slated for development. Part of the students’ work involves performing an archaeological survey of the 25-acre tract of land, looking for evidence that the site might have previously been home to a Native American settlement. Working in pairs, students carefully comb the property in search of artifacts and other clues. They photograph all intersecting points of the survey grid - as well as any tools they find and unusual landscape features - and tag all the pictures with longitude and latitude coordinates. The photos and location data are continually transmitted to a database on campus. As the students walk the site with their GPS-enabled mobile phones, a location-aware application at the university provides students with information from the database based on the students’ location on an ongoing basis. In this way, each pair of students sees an up-to-date digital map of where they are, where other students are, and which areas have already been surveyed, as well as the photos that have been collected. The geotagged photos preserve information about the provenance of every artifact for anyone standing in that location, and the survey produces a photographic record that alerts the development company that it need to examine further before construction can begin.

凯特琳，考古学新人，为了有所发展，正与同学一起在亚利桑那州某遗迹做野外考察。这些学生一部分工作需要考古调查超过十万平方米的土地，寻找美洲土著部落定居的证据。学生们结对工作，仔细梳理，寻找人造物品和其他线索。他们拍照调查网格的全部交叉点——也拍照他们找到的所有工具和不寻常的景色——并用经纬度标记这些照片。这些照片和位置数据不断传输到校园数据库。当学生带着含有GPS功能的移动电话行走在遗址上，学校一份位置感知程序，根据学生当前位置为学生提供位置信息。这样，每对学生都能看到他们所处位置的最新地图，以及其他学生的位置，和哪些地区已经调查过、哪些照片已经收集了。标记位置的照片为任何站在这块区域的人，提供所有人工制品的出处信息。调查产生的摄影记录表明了在工作开始之前，工作团队还需要做进一步的练习。

Caitlin and her fieldwork partner, Martina, are also assigned the delicate task of excavating a kiva floor with an elaborate pigment-painted design. As the floor pattern emerges during their work, they photograph it with a digital camera that embeds location data like latitude, longitude, and elevation. They use their laptops to add location-linked field notes about the tools and techniques they are using. This information is linked to a map back at their university for further study. After the season for fieldwork is over, the team will fill in the subterranean kiva with dirt to prevent erosion and looting. Researchers who enter the area later with a location-aware device will be offered the option to view the images Caitlin and Martina have uploaded.

凯特琳和他的伙伴，马丁娜，分到的任务是小心地挖掘用颜料精心绘制的大地穴地面。由于工作时出现地板图案，他们用带有经纬度和海拔的数码相机拍照。他们用笔电添加他们使用的工具和技术的位置说明。这些信息链接到学校的地图，以供后继研究。野外考察任务结束后，小组用泥土重新填充大地穴，以防腐蚀和盗窃。以后研究者带着位置感知设备进入该地区，就能够查看凯特琳和马丁娜上传的图片。

What is it?

它是什么？

Location-aware applications deliver online content to users based on their physical location. Various technologies employ GPS, cell phone infrastructure, or wireless access points to identify where electronic devices such as mobile phones or laptops are, and users can choose to share that information with location-aware applications. Those applications can then provide users with resources such as a “you are here” marker on a city map, reviews for restaurants in the area, a nap alarm that’s triggered by your specific stop on a commuter train, or notices about nearby bottlenecks in traffic. Applications might also report a user’s location to friends in a social network, prompting those nearby to meet for coffee or dinner. While such applications create a highly targeted marketing opportunity for retailers, they also provide increased social connectivity and enhanced environmental awareness, offering users a location-based filter for online information.

位置感知程序根据用户所处显示位置传递在线数据给用户。各种技术运用GPS、移动电话架构、无线接入点，确定移动电话或笔电等电子设备的位置，用户可以决定位置感知程序获得这些信息。这些程序可以为用户提供各种资源，诸如城市地图上的“你在这里”标记、当地餐馆评语、上下班火车抵达指定站点前触发提醒、接近交通堵塞时做出提醒等。应用程序也可以向社交网络中的朋友报告用户的位置，提醒附近即将到达的咖啡或晚餐地点。虽然这些应用程序为零售商创造了高度针对性的营销机会，但也增加了社会联系、增强了环保意识，为用户提供在线信息的位置感知过滤器。

Who’s doing it?

谁在用它？

A number of colleges and universities are using this functionality for applications ranging from on-campus find-a-friend services to locating resources in the library. Duke University has used Google Maps to add a layer of augmented reality to the Digital Durham project, which has turned the city of Durham, North Carolina, into a laboratory for the study of history. Mapping old tobacco ware-houses, textile mills, and churches, the project offers location-specific information that illuminates the lives of city residents from the 1870s through Prohibition. Concurrent student projects involve adding audio tracks collected with digital recorders and geotagging photographs of the mapped locations. Montclair State University has implemented a location-aware service that includes find-a-friend, shuttle tracking, and a security service. At MIT, the Scheller Teacher Education department has developed augmented reality games like Environmental Detective, in which participants can use location-aware devices to interview virtual characters and gather simulated scientific data to uncover the source of a hypothetical toxic spill.

许多高校利用在学校范围内寻找朋友服务的应用程序的这项功能，在图书馆寻找资源。杜克大学使用谷歌地图，为数码达拉谟项目添加一个增强现实图层，该项目把北卡罗莱纳州的达拉谟城搬进了历史研究实验室。该项目测绘老旧烟草厂房、纺织厂、教堂，提供具体位置的信息，描述从十九世纪七十年代禁酒令以来一成不变的城市生活。同时，学生成立项目，负责添加用数码录音及收集来的音轨、添加标有地理位置的相片。蒙特克莱尔州立大学应用的位置感知服务，包含有寻找朋友、接送跟踪以及安全服务。在麻省理工学院，谢乐教师教育部开发增强现实游戏如《环境侦探》，游戏者可以使用位置感知设备采访虚拟人物，收集模拟的科学数据，找到假设有毒污染的来源。

How does it work?

它是如何工作的？

Location tools can be browser plug-ins or installed onto devices like the iPhone or other web-enabled phones. Physical location can be determined using GPS satellites, cell towers, wireless access points, or a combination of these tools. In the case of cell towers and access points, location is determined based on connectivity to individual connection points, which are mapped and logged in databases that are continuously updated. Each method has trade-offs, and the most accurate and reliable services use more than one method.

位置工具可以是浏览器插件，也可以安装在iPhone等支持网络的手机等设备上。使用GPS卫星、移动电话基站、无线接入点，或者这些工具的组合，可以确定物理位置。在基站和接入点这两种情况下，是根据与单个连接点的连接，检测到位置的，单个接入点映射并记录在数据库中且不断更新。每种方法各有利弊，最准确最可靠的服务，是同时使用好几种办法。

When a user with a mobile device elects to use a location service, that information is sent to location-aware applications that attempt to provide resources based on where the user is at that moment. Alternatively, a location-aware application might forward a user’s position to other location-aware or social networking applications. Users can specify which applications receive the information and how detailed that information is, or they can override all other data by entering location coordinates manually.

使用移动设备的用户决定使用定位服务，该信息即发送到位置感知应用程序，程序尝试根据用户当前位置提供资源。另外，位置感知应用程序也会把用户位置转发给其他位置感知和社交应用程序。用户可以指定哪些应用程序可以接受这些信息，以及信息的详细程度。用户还可以用手工输入的位置坐标，取代原有的各种数据。

Why is it significant?

为什么重要？

These devices offer a convenient layer of content filtering with significant promise for education. Field research is boosted by geotagging - embedding location-specific metadata (coordinates or place names) in photos, videos, blogs, or websites - and location-aware applications can effectively connect geotagged resources to students when and where they need it. Geocaching, or coordinate-specific treasure hunting, can be customized in educational games that leverage location-aware mobile devices. These games might include augmented reality simulations that use clues and riddles to enable student problem solving and collaboration. Location-based information can allow students who opt-in to locate members of study groups on campus or check nearby computer labs to see which have unoccupied bays. Librarians could also point patrons to resources, based on a user’s described interests and borrowing habits, by indicating where important books and media on key topics can be found. Security officials can respond to student requests to monitor trips across campus to ensure safe arrival at a destination. Data collected from such security requests might be gathered to identify locations with greater security risks, prompting facilities improvements such as improved lighting.

这些设备为内容过滤大开方便之门，是教育成功的重大希望。通过地理标记——在相片、视频、网志和网站中嵌入具体位置的元数据（经纬度以及地名）——大大促进了野外研究，当学生处在需要位置信息的时间和地点，位置感知应用程序可以为学生有效地连接到做了地理标记的资源。地理藏宝游戏（Geocaching），即指定坐标的寻宝游戏，可以定制成使用位置感知移动设备的教育类游戏。这些游戏可以包含增强现实模拟，用线索和谜语帮助学生合作解决问题。位置信息使得学生能够在校园内寻找研究小组成员，可以寻找附近的机房，看看有没有空机位。图书管理员可以根据用户描述的爱好和借阅习惯，为顾客指出资源，指出在哪儿可以找到主要课题的重要书籍和媒体。安全官员可以应付学生提出的监视校园内的旅行、确保安全抵达目的地的要求。从没像安全请求收集到的数据，可以用来集中确认哪些地点具有更大的安全风险，促使改善设备，比如增加照明。

What are the downsides?

有什么不足？

By far the most common questions raised about location-aware applications concern privacy and security. It is important for campus systems that employ these applications to be opt-in services and allow anyone to disable them whenever they choose. To complicate this concern, increasing interconnectivity between social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr means that data posted on one could migrate to another without users being aware of how this happens. Standards are still emerging for these devices, as are etiquette and social protocol. Raising awareness about the implications of allowing online systems to know where users are should be a requisite part of student, teacher, and parent training.

目前位置感知应用程序最常见的问题都跟隐私和安全有关。这对学校系统很重要，部署这些应用服务，允许人们随时都可以禁用这些服务。Twitter 、Facebook 等社交网站和Flickr 的联系越多，意味着用户发布数据到某一服务器上，却不知不觉迁移到其他服务器上，这一问题就越复杂。正在为这些设备制定标准，相应礼仪和社会规定也正在形成。提高对这些影响的认识，允许在线系统掌握用户的位置，应当是学生、教师、家长培训中必不可少的部分。

Where is it going?

用在什么地方？

Location-aware content offers marketing tailored to the convenience of the user. With increasing frequency, we are able to locate physical services within walking distance as simply as we can find any service or product offered on the web. Mobile devices already reach a public focused heavily on information being delivered quickly and simply. As these tools offer greater amounts of data about the environment through which we move, location-aware systems will become increasingly effective at predicting what we would like to know about in the geographical space around us, offering a layer of knowledge superimposed on the physical world that can be accessed for information and convenience. Through applications like Graffitio, users can even add their own comments to that layer, “air posting” notes on the nearest handy geolocation wall. The geotagging of blogs and websites could become part of our expectation of the online experience, and it is possible that we might come to rely on embedded geolocation information in photos, e-mail, or Twitter posts for archival purposes in much the same way we now rely on date stamps.

位置感知内容为用户提供了方便的营销。随着日益频繁，我们能够找到很短距离的物理服务，我们可以很容易找到网上提供的任何服务或产品。移动设备已经触及公众高度关注的信息快速而简单传输领域。由于随着我们的移动，这些工具提供了更大量的环境数据，在预测我们想知道身边环境信息方面，位置感知系统会更加有效，在物理世界之上叠加了一层知识层，可以由此获取信息和便利。通过Graffitio 这类应用，用户甚至可以向这层知识层添加自己的评论，在最近的顺手地理定位墙上“无线张贴”便条。网志和网站的地理标签也会变成我们对在线体验的期待。我们有可能会越来越依赖相片、邮件、推讯中的嵌入式地理定位信息，就像现在我们非常依赖各种商品上的日期戳一样。

Technologists are also beginning to consider the possibilities for location-aware devices to inspire a new generation of “citizen environmentalists” who can use cell phones to report location-specific information about the environment around them. Like the rise of citizen journalism before it, citizen environmentalism relies on the unique contributions of informal data gatherers to help scientists paint a broad picture of environmental health and quality. In return, mobile phone users might be able to receive instant data about the air quality in their city or the weather forecast.

技术人员也开始考虑，用位置感知设备激励新一代的“平民环保”，他们可以用移动电话报告他们身边环境相关具体位置信息。就像之前平民新闻的崛起，平民环保依赖于对非正式数据收集者的独特贡献，他们帮助科学家绘制出环境健康与质量的广泛影像。作为回报，移动电话用户可以获得所在城市空气质量、天气预报的实时数据。

What are the implications for teaching and learning?

对教育学习有什么影响？

Applications that employ this technology offer an exceptional opportunity for location-based content and experiential learning. Narratives can emerge naturally from places of historical interest on campus and in nearby towns. Through location-aware browsers on mobile phones, nature walks can not only provide the names of plants but also offer community-generated photos of what a specific specimen looks like in bloom or heavy with fruit. Student researchers might employ the coordinates provided by a location-aware device to tag photos, research data, or other field notes on a map in Google Earth, providing an additional overlay of information. The availability in the public domain of geotagged photos, videos, and audio tracks will allow educators to create effective windows into other cultures for class, group, and individual study. Finally, this technology offers another venue for instructors to link their lessons to geographic locations, whether those lessons are clues in an augmented reality game, data to be collected from the field, or directions to the right section of the library.

使用该技术的应用，为基于定位的内容和学习体验提供了极好的机会。故事有可能自然而然发生在校园里和镇子附近的历史古迹里。通过移动电话中的位置感知浏览器，踏青的时候不仅能知道植物的名称，而且在看到繁盛的鲜花水果时，能得到社区成员拍摄的具体标本照片。学生研究者会使用位置感知设备提供的坐标，标记相片、研究数据，或者其他标记在谷歌地球的地图上的野地，提供额外的覆盖信息。开放给公共领域的地理标记相片、视频、音轨都允许教育者给班级、团队、个体的学习，建立通往其他文化的有效途径。最后，该技术为教育者提供了把课程与地理位置关联起来的另一场所，无论这些课程是联系到增强现实游戏、野外收集的数据，还是导向图书馆的正确位置。

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Location-Aware Applications

位置感知应用程序

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March 2009

二〇〇九年三月