Wigglestick
"Wigglestick is a prototype software application for social navigation being developed by the Mobile Technologies Group, Georgia Institute of Technology. Slang for a divining rod used to find water or precious gems, Wigglestick enables users to drop media at specific spots, have their location visible to approved friends, and find their way to desired places."
From Visualization method for a social navigation system 'Wigglestick' as presented at 2007 Computer/Human Interaction conference (CHI2007).
Other than a sub-genre of sports-focused applications, the vast majority of personal navigation systems are designed to just to provide driving directions. This locks traps users, who may not even be driving, into a strict Point A to Point B mentality. Wigglestick is a brilliant alternative navigator for a number of reasons. First of all, it has been optimized for the walking/wandering experience. Whether it is an open-air market in Mexico or the Freedom Trail in Boston, driving directions won't get you very far.
Secondly, Wigglestick is a social application. Imagine you are in New York, you find an awesome restaurant on a side street. You have a friend who will be in NYC in a month, and you want to pass this little gem onto them. How would you do that? With Wigglestick you simply 'tag' the location by saving its position and naming it appropriately. If your friend is on your Wigglestick buddy list, the geo-tag is instantly made available to them. That's it- quicker and easier than forwarding a website. Also if any of your buddies are near you, their locations are shown on your display as well (provided they are allowing others to see their location).
You can also add additional information to the tag. In fact, just about any form of media your mobile device and record can be attached to a Wigglestick tag. You can leave a voice note with ordering recommendations, you can take a picture of what the front of the restaurant looks like, you can even shoot a video of the restaurant's lively owner describing his mouth-watering specials. Of course. you can add basic textual information as well. There are fields for the restaurant's website, e-mail, phone number, etc.
Another thing that makes Wigglestick so brilliant is that you can access your Wigglestick account without using your mobile phone. Imagine it is the week before your trip to New York and you are busy googling all the cool places you want to go? How do you keep track of all that research you are doing? Nothing screams tourist like walking around with a stack of maps and notes. With Wigglestick, you would simply log into our custom Google Maps application and fill out a simple form for each location you want in your Wigglestick navigator when you get to NYC. You can add places like your hotel, the conference center, restaurants, shops, friend's places, etc. all before you even start to pack your suitcase.
If you believe in Travel 2.0, Wigglestick is Travel 3.0.
My primary role in the project was developing Wigglestick's locative awareness. Utilizing original research and open-source solutions, Wigglestick had a custom built Bluetooth GPS core and NMEA parser. The navigation algorithms for the project were based on existing Great Circle navigational formulas most commonly used in aviation.
Wigglestick is being developed by the Mobile Technologies Group (MTG) at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The project was generously funded by Ant Farm Interactive. The J2ME version of the software is currently in a closed beta. If you would like current information on the project, please contact David Jimison; MTG Founder and Lead Researcher.