Music, Dancing, Museums & Location Sensing

I have a new dance step to share with you. It is called the Ekahau Dance…and it goes like this.

1. Set up at least 4 wireless access points.
2. Install the Ekahau Position Software on one laptop and a few mobile devices (laptops or pdas)
3. Mark a square grid out on the floor of the “room” you want to establish location sensing. Each point should be at least 5 feet from the other points.
4. Turn on the Ekahau Position Software on your primary laptop and begin the dance
• stand on grid point 1
• with primary laptop in your hands (Ekahau software in “sensing mode”)
• Do a smooth 360 degree turn while standing on grid point 1 in exactly 20 seconds
• move to grid point 2 and repeat until you’ve danced on all the grid points
5. You’ve just taught the Ekahau software what wireless access “smells” like at each grid point!
6. Now, grab a mobile device (with the Ekahau client software installed) and walk around the “room”
7. Abracadabra – your movements are shown on the primary Ekahau Laptop.

Notes to self for next Ekahau Dance Session: Wear cowboy boots (not sneakers or thongs) and bring iPod fully charged and loaded.

Why would I want to do the Ekahau Dance? Because I’m a handheld junkie? Noooooo, because I want to create a “smart environment” indoors. Imagine, being in a museum and having a handheld device that is sensitive to your location. Then the fun begins. I can’t wait to design this user interface, making sure that you are in control and that information is intuitively available to you, but never interrupts you.

The Ekahau Positioning Engine is my first 802.11b wireless location sensing experiment. I’m also exploring RFID, IrDA and Bluetooth. More on these adventures as they occur!