Issue #215 | Nov. 19, 2009 | by Andy Kowl

During a coffee break after listening to a speaker gush about the future of Telematics, which was impressive indeed, I asked some fellow audience members if they could tell me what Telematics was. None of them could.

Are you hip to Telematics? According to one source, $6 billion (US) was spent on it in 2007. And apparently last June, Telematics Detroit 2009 was the 9th annual such event.

Here is a clue for both of us: it seems a big chunk of those dollars is accounted for in sales of OnStar, the system in some cars that call for help when you need it, as well as other systems you and I might think of as GPS.

To describe the live demo I saw at the Taiwan Business Alliance Conference last month, imagine your GPS mapping device crossed with a video game. Think of having a Sims City version of your life available on your dashboard, in your pocket or across a monster flat screen on the boulevard.

You can navigate like a Mario Brother through a 3-D, 360-degree, animated virtual world —rather than getting lost on the mean streets. This is headed your way.

Wikipedia says the words are derived from "telecommunications" and "informatics." (Informatics? Please.) WhatIs.com defines it best, "Telematics is the blending of computers and wireless telecommunications technologies, ostensibly with the goal of efficiently conveying information over vast networks to improve a host of business functions or government-related public services." They go on to say the internet, itself, is a form of Telematics.

Internet of Things, anyone?
There is still not all that much on Telematics you will find in your web searching; what information is available looks awfully reminiscent of many of the RFID implementations we have written about.

Start with vehicle tracking and fleet management. Many of the Telematic claims I have seen promise not just location tracking, but robust data collection and control functions: to reduce fuel consumption and extend battery life; to track vehicle speed, idle time and use of lift-gates; and to confirm driver ID while monitoring behavior such as heavy braking or severe swerving.

To paraphrase the OnStar commercial, do we have RFID on board? Let's break it down.

Unique ID's? Without their use there would be no way to track or control many of the elements this technology touches. RF? You bet. This multi-bandwidth technology uses GPS and Bluetooth, occasionally Wi-Fi and also DSRC, dedicated short range communication, an automotive protocol running on a small spectrum within the 5.9 GHz bandwidth.

Animating real world issues
Dr. Chia-Hsiang Chang introduced me to Telematics. He communicates a passion for this field which is infectious, with a visionary glint in his eye. He sees this all as a subset for a word I believe he coined, Ubimatics, as in "nomadic telematics systems" tied together over a ubiquitous (sensor) network (USN). Dr. Chang is Vice President and General Director of Taiwan's Institute for Information Industry.

He looks toward 2030, when Chang says, "Seventy-five percent of the people in developing countries will live in urban areas." For such a concentration of people to move quickly through public transportations systems "you have to have more confidence in where you are going." He says laser street view scanners will construct 3-D models, and cameras will patch images in, to work within the 3-D.

Chang says, "Current technology cannot support the mlti-modal structure we need. Adding such things as DSRC (dedicated short range communication; 5.8 GHz) and V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle) can improve this by 75%." In Taiwan, at least, he said review committees will make sure tourist information is accurate. "The clout is very powerful, but information is often very bad. We have to correct that."

As for automotive transportation, Chang sees Ubimatics as "adding a communication gateway to driving. Local behavior (on the streets) will be communicated to the vehicles, avoiding collisions and traffic. A handicapped person crossing the street will communicate with the traffic.

"Where is the restroom? Where is the exit? Is something on the left or right side of the road?" Chang lists some of the everyday problems to be addressed. He said field trials must happen in order to take this solution to the next level.

Defining moments and the Dark Star
The Telematics moniker has been adopted by the transportation industry, automotive in particular, but "the telematics industry is not limited to automotive applications. Other applications are being studied or developed for monitoring water and air pollution, for medical informatics and health care," WhatIs.com clarifies.

With the industries targeted, Telematics will undoubtedly find itself integrated into RFID, or competing with RFID, or everyone will realize they are two sides of the same coin in this growing USN that all these next-technologies are plugging into.

Navigating the streets of D.C. with my pal David, on the way to see Dark Star Orchestra Saturday night, there were confusing moments as we tried to match streets on my iPhone screen when we found no confirming street signs. With a Telematics Sim-ulation in my phone instead, I would've been able to look up and match the actual storefronts or apartment buildings, from any angle, with those in the parallel, animated dimension held in my hand.

Originaly Machine to Machine or M2M also enables an internet of things to communicate. It was more focused on bigger transporation vehicles, tractors, and trailers for example. There were applications for the vending machines to communicate their inventories back to their homeoffice so a vendor refill could be scheduled.

M2M can be "mashed" for example with Google earth, and there are many applications already available that you can integrate to create a greater user experience. Location based services is one that comes to the front of the line. Oh, and if use an iPhone there are dozens of location based applications to choose from, and also some bar code reading applications so you find the "best" value for a purchase.

With automobiles getting more and more computing power built in, and communication packages getting cheaper, not sure it matters what you call this enabling capability.