So I heard some interesting news from my friend who is an undergrad in the Computer Science department (he's doing research as an assistant) and this professor has this project that he needs help on so he was asking if anyone was interested.

Basically they'd be using the n810's GPS to track students. The n810 would have information about the student like their UID (university ID), blood type, etc..

That way in the case of any emergencies (College Park is high on the crime list after all) responders would have easy access to info as well as the location of where you are. There was also talk about using the camera to see the person's condition and so on.

Rather interesting if it weren't for the possible abuse of privacy information. My friend was shocked that nobody (besides him) raised a question like "what if someone hacks into the system".

Though there were things the professor said that had me interest..

1) apparantly it'd be a custom OS (I think what they may be trying if the project is successful is to roll out n810s with whatever OS they're using)

2) there is apparantly some kind of disabled cell phone related transmitter/receiver? on it (anyone from Nokia wanna comment on if this even exists?)

Though I found it rather interesting cause I haven't seen anyone with an internet tablet at Maryland besides me (I have an n800). Apparantly some computer science professors have n810s..

Well anyway, I'd regard this as pure rumor (though my friend isn't one to lie or exagerate things). Though Maryland does have a way of wasting money on projects without thinking things through. Like working to have one of three WIMAX research centers at Maryland (though really, do people not read the news about that wireless auction? WIMAX looks like it's going be out before it even gets implemented). But I'll keep my ears open for more information.

What, have them wave it over their gunshot wound to see how bad it is? <_<

Hackers, pfft, what about the people who have been granted access to the information?

Good luck with that. :\ bme/dsme are closed, so there will be zero power management.

I call ********. There are chips in there that are also in Nokia phones (retu/tavho, OMAP2420 :P), but they are not cellular radios.

The really obvious issue is battery life—there's no way it would be able to get through a day (let alone 8 hours) broadcasting its GPS location over a tethered phone/campus wifi—but the device simply isn't well suited for the task anyway. It nicely combines a lot of overkill with a total lack of performance in the areas that matter most for something like this.

Really, they'd be much better off writing up a Java or S60 application that would run on most anybody's GPS/cellular tower geolocation equipped phone.

What is the professor's name?

No clue fms, I'll have to ask my friend for it. And true GeneralAntilles, people having the information may be worse then someone hacking into the system.

Interesting concept but I doubt many non techies would be happy carrying an n810 when they go out. I assume that most of the crime risk is in the evening (the same as it is in Southampton).

sigh, once more: bme is not related to power management, only battery charging, but you could probably use something else to charge the battery.
Even a resistor in series with a voltage generator would somehow do the job.

dsme is mostly providing screen blanking.

there was a nice security breach where dsme code ended up in the google cache (don't know about bme but wouldn't be surprised if it got out as well) - you can probably find somebody who has mirrored it and satisfy your curiosity. But be prepared for a big delusion.

All the power management is in the kernel and is open. There is just _a_lot_ of effort put in it.


true - ther is some very low level sim handling (not even connected to anything) and nothing more.

That might actually be possible, if the required precision is low enough and we assume that the movement happens only by walking.

Ok the professor's name is Agrawala. It doesn't list this as a project, but that's probably because it's in its beginning stage. But the mindlab has interesting projects that sound like it could be used on the n810.

http://mindlab.umd.edu/projects.php

As always, I'll keep my eyes and ears open for my information.

And peterjb31, I agree. My friend and I were talking at TerpZone about possible problems a project like this would have. And yeah, most of the crime is done around 1-3 AM (*cough* when all the bars close).

Here's an update (Diamondback article. Diamondback is like our school newspaper.. except it's "independent").

http://media.www.diamondbackonline.c...-3294641.shtml

http://media.www.diamondbackonline.c...-3368371.shtml

Apparantly the University is at the forefront for WiMax research?

with such a high crime rate, the students would have the devices stolen from them before they are put to any use.