Location Information - Technology - Economics

Transparency On MERS Virus In Korea
Netizens in Korea are challenging the government’s refusal to publicize the list of hospitals that have patients confirmed, suspected or quarantined with the deadly Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) virus. Korea Times

Geotehnology Tackles Local Problems Issues In Costa Rica
GIS educators Anita and Roger Palmer train teachers and students worldwide on the community applications of geotechnologies. Through their work in Costa Rica, they found a place to seed a new idea: helping entire communities envision sustainable development. Directions Magazine

Brave Retailer Bets On Location-based Mobile Loyalty
Luxury department store retailer Harvey Nichols has bet on the future of the mobile loyalty scheme. It has launched its first loyalty program, which is only available as an Android or iOS app. RetailWeek

MIT Lab Uses LIDAR to Enable Robotic Cheetah to Jump
A group of MIT researchers embedded a LiDAR sensor into a robot cheetah. According to a statement by the team, they’ve developed “a three-part algorithm to map out the robot’s path, based on LIDAR data. Both the vision and path-planning system are onboard the robot, giving it complete autonomous control.” SparPointGroup

Context and Location Tracking API
Sam Liang, former lead architect for Google’s locations platform, is launching an API to give mobile app developers a way to more precisely track a users location. The location tracking runs in the background and goes beyond basic ISP and GPS data by taking into account user location, motion, Wi-Fi data, environment temperature, brightness, and air pressure to calculate exact location. Venture Beat

Chinese Internet Giant Baidu Rolls Out Indoor Navigation

Engineering & Technology News

SNCF Turns to Crowdsourcing for 3D Rail Solutions
The French rail company SNCF, is presenting a number of infrastructure problems to the public and asking for innovative solutions using all kinds of sensors and technologies. SparPointGroup

Drones: The Diversity and Hype Behind Market Forecast
Drone analyst, Colin Snow shares three secrets for better understanding forecasts, and spotting the hype and diversity of market reports. ExpoUAV

IOT and Smarter Supply Chains
Industry Week

Indoor Location Breaks $10 Billion in 2020
New ABI Research report, Indoor Location in Retail: Where is the Money? reveals that total indoor location revenues are forecast to reach US$10 billion in 2020, driven primarily by BLE Beacons and advertising. BusinessWire