It was about 5 years ago that we started a research thread to look at interacting with customer devices in a retail environment. This was the genesis point of my work on what I’ve come to call “Explicit Spatial Contexts.” This topic continues to be one of the most interesting I have worked on.

When I refer to a “context”, I am speaking of a context-aware computing context. In context aware computing, applications have the ability to determine context(additional information about the environment in which they are currently executing), and respond according to that context. Spatial contexts let an application identify a space such as “xyz grocery store”, “in the car”, “the living room of my house”…

Spatial contexts come in two flavors, implicit contexts which can be determined by a GPS sensor, then cross-referenced to determine the location based on some secondary lookup. But we can also “name” the space using radios which can interact with the radios available on the mobile device; such as the bluetooth or wifi radios. Using radio beacons that are setup to cover and therefore identify a space of interest, we create the spacial context “explicitly.” When a certain radio’s id observed by the radio on the device, we then know we are in that predetermined space. This yields an “Explicit Spatial Context.” These types of contexts have been discussed since 1999, and I first saw extensive information about this concept while in Denmark in 2000.

The biggest challenge in device location in retail environments has to do with the fact that you have this large industrialized space with someone moving around inside of it. For applications to determine their spatial context, they have to be able to access sensor inputs. The initial inclination is to try GPS(implicit spatial context), the problem there is the roof of a retail space is usually a steel truss roof(AKA the big faraday cage on top.)

There is also the problem of composing numerous fine grained locations as identifiable contexts. The answer is to take advantage of the multimodal nature of the device and use certain radios for location, and the other radios on a multimodal device for communication. Ideally this combo includes a bluetooth or near range radio, and a wifi radio. The bluetooth radio is used for location either passively(if discoverable) or actively(if the beacons are discoverable instead). The wifi radio is used for communication with the in-store/in-space network. This allows a space to be defined, and information about that space to be communicated back to the device regarding promotions, etc…

In 2005, technologies that allowed us to enable this thread were limited. The frontrunner was the Blackberry, but its limited UI features at that point were less than ideal. The device that we wanted to use(Nokia’s N770) was not GA yet, and it was a chance meeting in Copenhagen that allowed us to setup a meeting with the vendor that could provide this device. But with all of those challenges, whenever we asked about how we would map the RF space in a store, we kept being pointed at Boise’s Metageek (http://metageek.net.)

I met with Metageeks founder Ryan Woodings a little before Christmas this year and he talked about pushing that envelope even further. Ryan’s foresight on upcoming possibilities in this space are indicative of how impressive and useful Metageeks technologies are when it comes to next generation retail environments. I feel that as we look to smart-phones and ultimately to tablets, interacting with customers in retail environments will experience significant growth in 2010 and 2011. Metageek is one of those companies that is uniquely positioned to help make these advanced designs a reality.

Metageek is a world class Boise company that has a platform for mapping wifi coverage in any space. That was key to us because that meant Metageek could also enable Explicit Spatial Context development. With the explosive growth in the smartphone(and soon tablet) space, we have met with a number of companies at this point who have asked us about the fundamentals of “Explicit Spatial Contexts.”

When you consider the upcoming tablets being released this year, think of peoples shopping lists, peoples mall trip, engaging customers while in retail spaces. Then think of the potential provided by Explicit Spatial Contexts, and when you want to implement them remember Boise’s Metageek http://metageek.net.

Hope all is well,
Jason