A Stroll Through the Ivy, With a Tour Guide That Beeps

Today's Circuit Section of the NY Times reports on CAMPUS AWARE at Cornell University:

"...comments were made by Cornell students and graduates on a recent campus tour. But they were not physically on the tour: instead, their words appeared on the screen of a Palm organizer. Like ghosts in midair, such remarks surfaced whenever the palmtop, equipped with a small Global Positioning System unit, was carried to any of the spots where they were written a year or two ago.

The tour is part of a research project that explores the next generation of "context aware" computers - devices that can orient themselves in the real world and provide information about what is around them.

Simpler versions are widely available commercially in hand-held organizers or car-dashboard devices that display maps, sometimes with voice directions, based on satellite navigation information from the Global Positioning System. Cornell's tour guide, called Campus Aware, supplements this technology with richer content - the history and lore of campus sites - and with notes left "at the scene" by previous visitors. This e-graffiti, as researchers call it, adds a serendipitous touch to the tour.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/21/technology/circuits/21gpss.html