 |
|
 Iris
Junglas 
|
 |
|
A rapidly developing technology – WiFi – is intruding into serious computer users’ lives and popping up at more places than espresso stands. WiFi is a trademarked name for equipment that meets a certified wireless radio networking standard. Its proper name is 802.11b. It operates on free, unlicensed radio frequency bands originally set aside for industrial, scientific, and medical uses, also known as Wireless LANs (Local Area Networks). “Clearly, it’s the exciting, new, sexy technology for the mobility platform,” said Intel spokesman Dan Francisco. “Clearly, it’s
the exciting, new, sexy technology for the mobility platform,” Dr. Junglas describes two “U’s” that comprise u-commerce challenges and potentials: ubiquity and uniqueness. Ubiquity requires that a user is able to access the network as well as be reached via the network 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Uniqueness combines the abilities to identify and geographically localize a person, thereby providing the foundation for unequivocal profiles. For example, when the two Us are fully developed, a manager can know where each delivery driver is, which can enable realtime schedule changes. In addition, a store owner can know when a customer is in the vicinity and can perform one-to-one marketing by sending an ad on his/her Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). “If the user wants privacy of movement, he can simply turn off the PDA.” How is Dr. Junglas helping to make these applications a reality? She is conducting research using PDAs to track people. Subjects register to be part of the study and are given Hewlett Packard IPAQs. The “tracker” is an 802.11b server that uses an approach just like the cell phone system. The network notices if a registered PDA is connected, and where the connection is in relation to the nearest wireless access point. If the PDA moves the network will note the connection is broken and reestablished somewhere else. If the user wants privacy of movement, he can turn off the PDA. How would Dr. Junglas find you if you were a participant in her study? First you would have registered with the system by entering your name and your PDA name. Then, your name would appear on a screen with the other participants. To find your location, she’d click on your name and the system would report that “person X is located in room Y on the second floor.” This information is automatically updated as person X changes position. “All that is being tracked is a signal,” she emphasizes. “It’s not a body heat thing.” “ We have found that for time-restricted tasks, wireless technology can make a difference.”Dr. Junglas is creating her research lab by using the existing access points throughout Melcher Hall, home of Bauer College. The building serves as the zone within which she can carry out her location-based wireless project and additionally develop other branches of research, such as financial applications. “We have found that for time-restricted tasks, wireless technology can make a difference. Another stream of research would include dealing with all the privacy issues that inevitably arise with location-based services.” Dr. Junglas’ studies were written up in The New York Times last June. Her research began at the University of Georgia where she conducted her Ph.D. studies at the Department of Management Information Systems. Raised in Koblenz, Germany, Dr. Junglas received her Bachelor’s and Master’s in Computer Science with a specialization in Business Administration from the University of Koblenz-Landau. After graduation she worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers, Frankfurt, Germany, until she decided to pursue a Ph.D. in the United States. During her Ph.D. studies she served as a researcher for The Boston Consulting Group in Duesseldorf, Germany, and as a consultant for the Haarmann Hemmelrath Management Consultants in Hamburg, Germany. Visit her Web site at http://www.arches.uga.edu/~ijunglas/ RELATED LINKS |
|
