Professor Joseph Ng Wins Innovative Wi-Fi Services and Applications Award

27 Aug 2009

Professor Joseph Ng of the Department of Computer Science and his research team have won the Innovative Wi-Fi Services and Applications Award for a Wi-Fi positioning platform that they developed. Professor Ng’s team is among the 12 winners of this award.

The award-winning platform enables users to connect to the Internet through a Wi-Fi communication device and obtain information relevant to their location. As the user moves from one location to another, the change of location is detected immediately and the user receives updated information corresponding to the new location. This ensures transmission of useful information to the user anytime and anywhere.

Professor Ng said: "This technology can achieve a high accuracy rate of three metres. What the user needs is a wireless communication device to get connected to the Internet. Then one’s location will be identified and information relevant to that specific location will be provided by the server. Take a museum tour as an example – a visitor could use a mobile phone with a Wi-Fi connection as a tour guide. When touring the museum, the visitor could obtain information on exhibits in different parts of the museum from the device. This technology can also be used to locate resources in a library or to obtain location-based infotainment wherever a Wi-Fi connection is available."

The award-winning platform was showcased at the Hong Kong Olympic Piazza organised by the Hong Kong Tourism Board last year. Visitors had the opportunity to make novel use of a communication device as they moved around the Piazza to read write-ups about the Olympics, to play Olympics-related games and also to find out about tourist attractions in Hong Kong.

The Innovative Wi-Fi Services and Applications Award is organised by the Hong Kong Wireless Technology Industry Association and the Hong Kong Wireless Development Centre and sponsored by the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The Award aims to encourage the development of Wi-Fi applications and further promote the popularity of wireless and information technology applications.