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This year's Galileo Hackathon in Gdynia, Poland, brought together students, graduates, entrepreneurs and a handful of helpful high-level GNSS experts to develop innovative LBS applications exploiting the new level of accuracy made possible by Galileo.

As part of its effort to achieve the highest return on European GNSS investment, in terms of benefits to users and economic growth and competitiveness, the GSA has worked very hard to get Galileo into smartphones.

It's an effort that has paid off.

The first European smartphones incorporating Galileo were launched in 2016, starting with the BQ Aquaris x5 and followed by the Huawei Mate 9. Three more, the Huawei P10, Sony Xperia XZ premium and Samsung S8, joined the ranks of the Galileo-ready this year.

Also read: European GNSS highlighted at global tech shows

"We have the consumer devices, now it is time to take the next step and enable actual applications,” said GSA Market Development Officer Justyna Redelkievicz, speaking at the 2017 Galileo Hackathon in Gdynia, Poland. “That is why we are here at the second Galileo Hackathon, to work with developers to create applications that bring real benefits to European users."

Students, graduates, entrepreneurs and GNSS experts at the Galileo Hackathon, ready to develop innovative applications using Galileo services.

Ready, set, hack!

Participants had approximately 22 hours to come up with innovative applications using Galileo services that brought added commercial or societal value. Thanks to Hackathon technology partner Samsung, each team was provided with a Galileo-enabled Samsung S8+ Android smartphone to use during the contest. The phones feature Android 7.0 (i.e. Nougat), which gives application developers access to raw GNSS measurements directly from the Samsung phone, and hence higher accuracy.

Although these measurements are beneficial, the average application developer doesn’t necessarily know how to use them. “They might not know what a pseudorange is because they simply have not been trained in this area, not in the way, for example, that today's surveyors are trained,” said Redelkievicz.

Read this: GNSS mobile apps – using Nougat to access raw GNSS measurements

To help make life easier for the Hackathoners, teams also had access to a plug-and-play stack, provided courtesy of Hackathon partner HyperTrack. “Hypertrack is a location stack that enables developers to add live location features into their app in a short period of time," explained HyperTrack Community Manager Jeremy Meiss. “With just a few lines of code, developers can completely avoid the pain of having to build their own location services with the back end, the front end and the GPS logic.”

In addition to this support, throughout the event, support staff, experts and organisers circulated among the hacking teams, providing advice, technical support and moral encouragement – not to mention vital food and drink. "At the very beginning, people were a little bit lost, but after having spoken with them and been given some guidelines, I think we ended up having some really nice ideas,” said Navarro-Gallardo. “It's just 24 hours, but we have ideas, maybe one of which will lead to something important in the future."

And the winners are…

Following the final presentations and after some tough deliberation among the jury, three winning teams – 'ENAC Team', 'CDV' and 'Midnight Coders' – were chosen to receive EUR 1,000 cash prizes and a chance to shine at a special awards ceremony on the InfoShare 2017 mainstage.

“There were a lot of terrific concepts and it was great to be a part of what the GSA is doing as they enable Galileo access for developers,” said Meiss.

"Coming from tech side, where the focus is on developing satellites, it's very exciting and very rewarding for me to also see what the application developers can do with the Galileo signal," added Sirikan.

Building awareness

With the second Galileo Hackathon now officially in the books, it’s safe to say the event succeeded at what it set out to do: expand the Galileo user community. After all, the more apps utilising the full power of Galileo there are, the more people buying new phones will realise and understand the importance of precise location.

"We hope that one day people will know what it means to choose a phone that uses two or four GNSS constellations versus just one,” added Redelkievicz. “Instead of just looking at the size of the screen, the brand name and the camera quality, they will also have an awareness of the location quality. Getting to this point, however, requires education – which is exactly what we are doing here at the Galileo Hackathon."

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

This year's Galileo Hackathon in Gdynia, Poland, brought together students, graduates, entrepreneurs and a handful of helpful high-level GNSS experts to develop innovative LBS applications exploiting the new level of accuracy made possible by Galileo.

As part of its effort to achieve the highest return on European GNSS investment, in terms of benefits to users and economic growth and competitiveness, the GSA has worked very hard to get Galileo into smartphones.

It's an effort that has paid off.

The first European smartphones incorporating Galileo were launched in 2016, starting with the BQ Aquaris x5 and followed by the Huawei Mate 9. Three more, the Huawei P10, Sony Xperia XZ premium and Samsung S8, joined the ranks of the Galileo-ready this year.

Also read: European GNSS highlighted at global tech shows

"We have the consumer devices, now it is time to take the next step and enable actual applications,” said GSA Market Development Officer Justyna Redelkievicz, speaking at the 2017 Galileo Hackathon in Gdynia, Poland. “That is why we are here at the second Galileo Hackathon, to work with developers to create applications that bring real benefits to European users."

Ready, set, hack!

Participants had approximately 22 hours to come up with innovative applications using Galileo services that brought added commercial or societal value. Thanks to Hackathon technology partner Samsung, each team was provided with a Galileo-enabled Samsung S8+ Android smartphone to use during the contest. The phones feature Android 7.0 (i.e. Nougat), which gives application developers access to raw GNSS measurements directly from the Samsung phone, and hence higher accuracy.

Although these measurements are beneficial, the average application developer doesn’t necessarily know how to use them. “They might not know what a pseudorange is because they simply have not been trained in this area, not in the way, for example, that today's surveyors are trained,” said Redelkievicz.

Read this: GNSS mobile apps – using Nougat to access raw GNSS measurements

To help make life easier for the Hackathoners, teams also had access to a plug-and-play stack, provided courtesy of Hackathon partner HyperTrack. “Hypertrack is a location stack that enables developers to add live location features into their app in a short period of time," explained HyperTrack Community Manager Jeremy Meiss. “With just a few lines of code, developers can completely avoid the pain of having to build their own location services with the back end, the front end and the GPS logic.”

In addition to this support, throughout the event, support staff, experts and organisers circulated among the hacking teams, providing advice, technical support and moral encouragement – not to mention vital food and drink. "At the very beginning, people were a little bit lost, but after having spoken with them and been given some guidelines, I think we ended up having some really nice ideas,” said Navarro-Gallardo. “It's just 24 hours, but we have ideas, maybe one of which will lead to something important in the future."

And the winners are…

Following the final presentations and after some tough deliberation among the jury, three winning teams – 'ENAC Team', 'CDV' and 'Midnight Coders' – were chosen to receive EUR 1,000 cash prizes and a chance to shine at a special awards ceremony on the InfoShare 2017 mainstage.

“There were a lot of terrific concepts and it was great to be a part of what the GSA is doing as they enable Galileo access for developers,” said Meiss.

"Coming from tech side, where the focus is on developing satellites, it's very exciting and very rewarding for me to also see what the application developers can do with the Galileo signal," added Sirikan.

Building awareness

With the second Galileo Hackathon now officially in the books, it’s safe to say the event succeeded at what it set out to do: expand the Galileo user community. After all, the more apps utilising the full power of Galileo there are, the more people buying new phones will realise and understand the importance of precise location.

"We hope that one day people will know what it means to choose a phone that uses two or four GNSS constellations versus just one,” added Redelkievicz. “Instead of just looking at the size of the screen, the brand name and the camera quality, they will also have an awareness of the location quality. Getting to this point, however, requires education – which is exactly what we are doing here at the Galileo Hackathon."

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

Thanks to the market insight and funding provided by the European GNSS Agency (GSA), G-MOTIT, an electric scooter sharing service, is rapidly expanding its market share in both Barcelona and Europe – with its eyes set on Latin America.

Traffic jams and, more specifically, the pollution, noise and congestion they cause, are one of the greatest mobility challenges that today’s cities face. To overcome this problem, cities across the world are looking at innovative and environmentally sustainable urban mobility solutions that lower CO2 emissions and ease traffic congestion. 

In Barcelona, this challenge is being answered in part by MOTIT – a unique, electric scooter sharing service that lets users pick up and drop off vehicles wherever and whenever they want. After reserving a scooter via their smartphone, the user receives a notification showing the location of the assigned vehicle.

Also read: I want to ride my (GNSS-enabled) bicycle

Although this feature of being able to drop off the scooter wherever you want (as opposed to using a fixed docking station) is popular, it also creates new problems – namely, finding the reserved scooter. This is because the scooter’s embedded GPS receiver lacks the robust positioning performance required to fully function in the narrow streets and dense urban canyons of Barcelona. As a result, scooters are shown to be available when they are not and MOTIT users looking to pick up their ride are sent in the wrong direction.

As MOTIT was planning to expand their service to other cities in both Europe and Latin America, they knew they needed to come up with a solution to their positioning problem.

This is where the GSA came in as part of their mission.

Positioning European companies to succeed

G-MOTIT received grant through Horizon 2020 framework programme for research and innovation. The project’s objective is to design and develop a Galileo-enabled device that significantly improves vehicle positioning, availability and reliability for such vehicle sharing initiatives as MOTIT.

As is made clear in the recently published GSA GNSS Market Report, the business opportunities within the GNSS market are huge and growing. To ensure European companies are well-positioned to take full advantage of these opportunities, the GSA is committed to providing support through different tools: e.g. Horizon 2020, Fundamental Elements, Aviation Grants.

Use Galileo: Find a Galileo-enabled device to use today

“Galileo, when used in combination with GPS and other GNSS systems, provides increased availability of satellites and new signals,” says G-MOTIT Project Coordinator Martí Jofre. “All in all, its use has resulted in improved availability, accuracy and reliability and has given us the precise positioning we need to take MOTIT to the next level.”

Growing potential

The G-MOTIT project also aims to support the commercialisation and expansion of the service. Along with the market insight and support of the GSA, the project has equipped 20 scooters with its Galileo-enabled receiver, providing users the improved positioning they need to quickly and accurately reserve and find their scooter.

Currently, the G-MOTIT technology is being tested with other mobility services, including electric bike and vehicle sharing initiatives.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).