| 11th December 2003 - An innovative location-based service
has become commercially available, which promises to extend
people’s senses with a new geographical layer of
information. TagandScan gives mobile users a ‘sixth
sense’ of information about their environment through
their GPRS Java-enabled mobile phones. The service is
available on any of the UK’s major mobile networks:
Vodafone, Orange, O2 and T-Mobile.
Subscribers have access to public ‘grids’
of information visible to all TagandScan subscribers
or an unlimited number of private grids that only the
individual can see. Public grids enable users to see
history, explanations, events, reviews and opinions
of anything located in the physical world, which become
available to users when they ‘scan’ for tags
by proximity and keyword, then displaying the results
on a map.
To leave their own mark on the virtual world, users
‘tag’ a location with their mobile phone,
creating a digital record of the location, time, their
thoughts and opinions, and even a picture - effectively
leaving ‘digital Post-Its’ or ‘digital
graffiti’ in the world around you. TagandScan users
subsequently ‘scan’ to recall the information
left by themselves or others at the touch of a button.
Significant benefits of the service include:
• Improving spatial memory: Whilst many people
can forget how to get to a great bar, shop or restaurant
that they have been to, TagandScan users can tag it,
forget it and know they will always find it when they
want. Users can build up a complete picture of the
places they love best in the world around them
• Community development: Users can tag locations,
anything from bars and shops through to national monuments,
with a message, time and even a picture which they
can then leave behind for the community - effectively
creating the worlds first peer-to-peer guide book
• Public expression: Whilst graffiti is illegal,
‘digital graffiti’ is not - so users can
freely express their opinions about anything about
the world around them. And when words are not enough,
because TagandScan public grids are a visual medium,
they can become virtual art galleries filled with
images of users’ art and expressions
Inventor of TagandScan Ryan Janssen commented: “I
initially created this because I was always finding
interesting places around my city, then never finding
them again. I wanted some way of supplementing my own
spatial memory so I could interact a bit more intelligently
with my environment.”
TagandScan works over existing GPRS networks and users
can register for free at www.tagandscan.com. Pre-purchased
tags will sell at 25p each in £5 bundles or 20p
in £20 bundles.
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