iPhone Application: Location Aware Environment Information

Submitted by: Adam Charnock

Describe your idea. How does it work and who does it help?

My idea is designed to help raise environmental awareness in the public and to provide incentives for public-facing companies to improve their environmental status.

The application would use the Assisted-GPS capabilities of the new iPhone to provide the location of the user. From this it would then determine the nearest public-facing companies (e.g. shops/clubs/bars/restaurants/schools) using a service such as the Google Maps API or through government records (or a combination of the two).

The application would then cross reference this with government data, such as the following:

• Details of building design and construction. This could give an overall energy rating for the building.
• The products sold on the premises. If this were a pub, for example, it could be assumed that they may sell Guiness/Stella/London Pride etc. In which case the application could give the carbon footprint for each beer (may or may not be available), as well as saying where it was produced (how far did it have to travel)
• Local public transport details. What route home will result in the lowest carbon emissions? How long will it take?
• The information above could be aggregated to give you the lowest carbon service in your immediate vicinity (e.g. pub/restaurant)

Although some data may be difficult to acquire, but in these cases we could take advantage of user generated content (i.e. web 2.0 style thinking) and ask users to tell us their opinion of the establishment or provide more information about the products it sells. It may also be possible for the establishments themselves to login and update their details.

Note: My name is Adam Charnock and I am a freelance web developer and consultant who focuses on the environmental sector.

What information or services do you need?

• Maps - Probably simplest to pull from Google Maps due to existing infrastructure on the iPhone
• Building Details - Details of the building construction or results of recent environmental rating/assessment.
• Public Transport Details - Essentially this would just require an API for the TFL site. Would also need the (average) carbon footprint of buses, tube trains and trams

Comments

[Owen Williams on 21 July 2008 at 10:18 AM]

Platform agnostic please. Don't discriminate.