Global positioning systems in the AFL : worthwhile or waste of time?

Global Positioning Systems (GPS) in the Australian Football League (AFL) are the big-ticket item that sees clubs trying to gain any competitive advantage over their opposition that they can. This paper explores whether the current application of GPS by clubs is worthwhile or a waste of time from three core perspectives: technical, organisational and personal. Issues include poor data storage and analysis, inaccurate units, lack of appropriate business processes in place, and resistance to use. Although many of these issues can be addressed through improved technology, resolving the organisational and personal issues will require a change in mindset to ensure the use of GPS in the AFL is a worthwhile endeavour. The paper concludes that the current use of GPS devices in the AFL is a waste of time.

Global positioning systems : altered representations of place

Global Positioning Systems: altered representations of place, presents an exegesis from the practice led research submitted for the degree of Master of Fine Art at the Victorian College of the Arts. The thesis proposes a particular understanding of altered states of consciousness that is relevant to my practice.  This is outlined by Charles Tart and supported by the Altered States of Consciousness Consortium and explores a psycho-aesthetic experiences and does not involved transcendental states or spiritual associations. These experiences are transformed by an exhaustive application of digital technologies, where mosaic-like complexity emerges that induces sustained disorientation and surrounds a viewer in an immersive space.

Global positioning systems: altered representations of place

Solo exhibition of Master of Fine Art practice

Global positioning systems: Middle Eastern & Australian landscapes

A solo exhibition held at the Australian Embassy Kuwait in 2009, explores the similarities and differences of interior and exterior landscapes of Kuwait, Oman, the UAE, Jordan and Australia. The work makes reference to the GPS coordinates of each location as a means of interrogating the position of the artist within each realm.

Describing patterns of physical activity in adolescents using global positioning systems and accelerometry

This study aimed to describe the location and intensity of free-living physical activity in New Zealand adolescents during weekdays and weekend days using Global Positioning Systems (GPS), accelerometry, and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Participants (n = 79) aged 12-17 years (M = 14.5, SD 1.6) recruited from two large metropolitan high schools each wore a GPS watch and an accelerometer for four consecutive days. GPS and accelerometer data were integrated with GIS software to map the main locations of each participant's episodes of moderate-vigorous physical activity. On average participants performed 74 (SD 36) minutes of moderate and 7.5 (SD 8) minutes of vigorous activity per day, which on weekdays was most likely to occur within a 1 km radius of their school or 150 meters of their home environment. On weekends physical activity patterns were more disparate and took place outside of the home environment. Example maps were generated to display the location of moderate to vigorous activity for weekdays and weekends.

Global positioning system: a new opportunity in physical activity measurement

Accurate measurement of physical activity is a pre-requisite to monitor population physical activity levels and design effective interventions. Global Positioning System (GPS) technology offers potential to improve the measurement of physical activity. This paper 1) reviews the extant literature on the application of GPS to monitor human movement, with a particular emphasis on free-living physical activity, 2) discusses issues associated with GPS use, and 3) provides recommendations for future research. Overall findings show that GPS is a useful tool to augment our understanding of physical activity by providing the context (location) of the activity and used together with Geographical Information Systems can provide some insight into how people interact with the environment. However, no studies have shown that GPS alone is a reliable and valid measure of physical activity.

Global positioning system data analysis: velocity ranges and a new definition of sprinting for field sport athletes

Global positioning system (GPS) technology has improved the speed, accuracy, and ease of time-motion analyses of field sport athletes. The large volume of numerical data generated by GPS technology is usually summarized by reporting the distance traveled and time spent in various locomotor categories (e.g., walking, jogging, and running). There are a variety of definitions used in the literature to represent these categories, which makes it nearly impossible to compare findings among studies.

The purpose of this work was to propose standard definitions (velocity ranges) that were determined by an objective analysis of time-motion data. In addition, we discuss the limitations of the existing definition of a sprint and present a new definition of sprinting for field sport athletes.

Twenty-five GPS data files collected from 5 different sports (men’s and women’s field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, and Australian Rules Football) were analyzed to identify the average velocity distribution. A curve fitting process was then used to determine the optimal placement of 4 Gaussian curves representing the typical locomotor categories. 

Heuristics-based Indoor positioning systems: a systematic literature review

Context: Many heuristics-based indoor positioning approaches havebeen developed to enhance positioning estimation. However, thereis no comprehensive survey of these heuristics information and methods. 

Geocaching : a worldwide treasure hunt enhancing the mathematics classroom

Geocaching is a global treasure hunt that invites people of all ages to discover actively the beauty of their environment through the assistance of a Global Positioning Systems (GPS), mathematical know-how, and a bit of foraging. If you are seeking a new way to engage your students in a motivating and exciting real-life task, then geocaching might be the answer. The purpose of this article is to describe the experience of our shcool-based geocaching project undertaken with children in Prep (5-6) and the senior primary Grades (ages 10-12). We will share the potential for mathematical learning and engagement. It is argued that geocaching provides the opportunity for rich engagement with key mathematical concepts that goes beyond what can be acheived during a typical lesson.

Hampered foraging and migratory performance in swans infected with low-pathogenic avian influenza A virus

It is increasingly acknowledged that migratory birds, notably waterfowl, play a critical role in the maintenance and spread of influenza A viruses. In order to elucidate the epidemiology of influenza A viruses in their natural hosts, a better understanding of the pathological effects in these hosts is required. Here we report on the feeding and migratory performance of wild migratory Bewick's swans (Cygnus columbianus bewickii Yarrell) naturally infected with low-pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) A viruses of subtypes H6N2 and H6N8. Using information on geolocation data collected from Global Positioning Systems fitted to neck-collars, we show that infected swans experienced delayed migration, leaving their wintering site more than a month after uninfected animals. This was correlated with infected birds travelling shorter distances and fuelling and feeding at reduced rates. The data suggest that LPAI virus infections in wild migratory birds may have higher clinical and ecological impacts than previously recognised.

Mobile location based services

Mobility has become a key factor around the world, as the use of ubiquitous devices, including laptops, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and mobile phones, are increasingly becoming part of daily life (Steinfield, 2004). Adding mobility to computing power, and with advanced personalization of technologies, new business applications are emerging in the area of mobile communications (Jagoe, 2003). The fastest growing segment among these applications is location-based services. This article offers a brief overview of services and their supporting technologies, and provides an outlook for their future.

Using community-based monitoring with GIS to create habitat maps for a marine protected area in Australia

In recent years there has been an increase in community-based monitoring programmes developed and implemented worldwide. This paper describes how the data collected from such a programme could be integrated into a Geographic Information System (GIS) to create temperate subtidal marine habitat maps. A differential Global Positioning System was utilized to accurately record the location of the trained community-based SCUBA diver data. These georeferenced data sets were then used to classify benthic habitats using an aerial photograph and digitizing techniques. This study demonstrated that trained community-based volunteers can collect data that can be utilized within a GIS to create reliable and cost-effective maps of shallow temperate subtidal rocky reef systems.

High accuracy context recovery using clustering mechanisms

This paper examines the recovery of user context in indoor environmnents with existing wireless infrastructures to enable assistive systems. We present a novel approach to the extraction of user context, casting the problem of context recovery as an unsupervised, clustering problem. A well known density-based clustering technique, DBSCAN, is adapted to recover user context that includes user motion state, and significant places the user visits from WiFi observations consisting of access point id and signal strength. Furthermore, user rhythms or sequences of places the user visits periodically are derived from the above low level contexts by employing state-of-the-art probabilistic clustering technique, the Latent Dirichiet Allocation (LDA), to enable a variety of application services. Experimental results with real data are presented to validate the proposed unsupervised learning approach and demonstrate its applicability.

Use of geographical information system and remote sensing techniques for planning culture-based fisheries in non-perennial reservoirs of Sri Lanka

 The presence of a wide areal extent of small-sized village reservoirs offers a considerable potential for the development of culture-based fisheries (CBFs) in Sri Lanka. To this end, this study uses geographical information systems (GISs) and remote sensing (RS) techniques to determine the morphometric and biological characteristics most useful for classifying non-perennial reservoirs for CBF development and for assessing the influence of catchment land-use patterns on potential CBF yields. The reservoir shorelines at full water supply level were mapped with a Global Positioning System to determine shoreline length and reservoir areal extent. The ratio of shoreline length to reservoir extent, which was reported to be a powerful predictor variable of CBF yields, could be reliably quantified using RS techniques. The areal extent of reservoirs, quantified with RS techniques (RS extent), was used to estimate the ratio of forest cover plus scrubland cover to RS extent and was found to be significantly related to the CBF yield (R2 = 0.400; P < 0.05). The results of this study indicated that morphometric characteristics and catchment land-use patterns, which might be viewed as indices of biological productivity, can be quantified using RS and GIS techniques. © 2014 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Rapid directional change degrades GPS distance measurement validity during intermittent intensity running

Use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) for quantifying athletic performance is common in many team sports. The effect of running velocity on measurement validity is well established, but the influence of rapid directional change is not well understood in team sport applications. This effect was systematically evaluated using multidirectional and curvilinear adaptations of a validated soccer simulation protocol that maintained identical velocity profiles. Team sport athletes completed 90 min trials of the Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle-running Test movement pattern on curvilinear, and multidirectional shuttle running tracks while wearing a 5 Hz (with interpolated 15 Hz output) GPS device. Reference total distance (13 200 m) was systematically over- and underestimated during curvilinear (2.61±0.80%) and shuttle (-3.17±2.46%) trials, respectively. Within-epoch measurement uncertainty dispersion was widest during the shuttle trial, particularly during the jog and run phases. Relative measurement reliability was excellent during both trials (Curvilinear r = 1.00, slope = 1.03, ICC = 1.00; Shuttle r = 0.99, slope = 0.97, ICC = 0.99). Absolute measurement reliability was superior during the curvilinear trial (Curvilinear SEM = 0 m, CV = 2.16%, LOA ± 223 m; Shuttle SEM = 119 m, CV = 2.44%, LOA ± 453 m). Rapid directional change degrades the accuracy and absolute reliability of GPS distance measurement, and caution is recommended when using GPS to quantify rapid multidirectional movement patterns.