Intel Examining 'Indoor GPS' Technologies

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The teleconference you're watching is droning on and on, and you need coffee. The problem is that the coffee machine is down the hall from your office. Is there a way to refill your mug without missing out on a minute of the presentation? Intel believes so.

The company recently presented its precision-location project as a possible solution to the shortcomings of a global positioning system in an indoor setting. Using wireless networks and fixed access points, a laptop computer can triangulate its own position in relation to other devices in the office.

So when you go to get your cup of coffee, and you carry your laptop or tablet PC with you, your portable recognizes that you're leaving the office and displays the teleconference on its screen. When you return to your desk, the laptop senses it, and the presentation moves back to the monitor on your desk. All you have to do is make sure you tote your portable along.

"It's making computing more intelligent and user-friendly," said Intel engineer Stuart Golden.

Network Boundaries More Secure

During a live presentation in the nation's capital, Golden demonstrated the precise boundaries of the wireless access points by walking out of the network's range. His movement out-of-bounds brought up an error message on the screen telling him that network access was blocked.

According to Golden, the technology could be used, for example, to alert you if your dog leaves the yard, to decide which printer on a network is most efficient for a pending print job, or to determine the shortest route to an emergency exit in a building.

"[This technology] ties physical location to a security aspect," Golden said.

Easier Organization for Digital Photos?

During its presentation, Intel also demonstrated some technologies that didn't involve Wi-Fi. Sometimes organizing information, not determining location, is the challenge. This can be especially true for photographers, as digital photos accumulate quickly thanks to larger memory cards, and normally end up on your PC with nondescript file names like "img00001.jpg."

A project called Diamond Snapfind uses color, texture, and/or shape-based samples entered by the user to compare and organize photos so that, as Intel research engineer Casey Helfrich said, "if you're good at throwing away hay, you can find the needle." Diamond is a joint research project between Intel Research Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.

Once you take one distinctive feature of a picture, such as the color of a person's shirt or the presence of a tree in the background, and define that feature to the software through a simple copy-and-paste action, Diamond Snapfind can eliminate many files that don't share similar features. So, if you're looking for a picture of yourself hooking a big catfish in the lake, and you choose to filter photos by a picture of the blue sky or the waves on the water, you won't come up with pictures of Junior's first steps in your results.

The technology is now being used at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to help examine pathology images; computers could help even more in the diagnosis of patients, comparing millions of medical images and noting any similarities to narrow down the possibilities.

"It can make medical research easier," Helfrich said.