Spime Inc Offers the Industry’s First Java Location API JSR-293

PR Log (Press Release) – Feb 18, 2009 – Fremont, CA – Spime Inc, is a Silicon Valley California based company and leading provider of white labeled LBS solutions and location enabling technologies to the mobile world.  In addition to the company’s NorthStar™ Suite of LBS solutions - that include an LBS Widget Framework, turn-by-turn voice navigation, location tracking and advertising enabled widgets - the company provides location enabling technology components such as JSR-293.

Until the release of JSR-293 the industry was missing a standard API to access mapping, geocoding, reverse geocoding, navigation and POI content and services.  Spime’s implementation of JSR 293 is compliant with the Java Community Process (JCP), and provides standardized access to LBS services from Java ME applications that dramatically simplify the development of location-based mobile applications.  Spime JSR-293 extends JSR-179 Location API enabling it to work on JSR-179 supported phones that have sufficient memory and processing power.  The JSR-293 is targeted for MIDP 2.0 and CLDC 1.1 enabled devices with the availability of JSR -82 or JSR- 179 API.

Spime JSR-293 exposes LBS services from OpenLS and non-standards based LBS platforms and gives the developer a standardize approach to developing LBS services without regard to underlying code fragmentation.  “Spime JSR-293 enables developers with broad location functionality and provides interoperability among location based applications on Java devices.  This allows developers to broadly integrate location intelligence, thereby building a new class of compelling applications more quickly and easily, says Kris Kolodziej, Spime CTO.”

Spime’s JSR-293 enables a wide range of LBS functionality including:

1.   Location Service – Extended features of JSR-179 include the ability to import landmarks with Java™ applications that allow the sharing of landmarks and points of interest between devices.  Spime’s JSR-293 provides location information from Internal GPS receivers, external Bluetooth GPS receiver, Google KML files, POI Landmark Stores, and NMEA files.

2.   Landmark and POI Service – Includes landmark exchange in vCard Format, Local landmark storage, Landmark exchange in LMX format; and, adding, removing and searching at higher speeds. Content exchange becomes quicker and accommodates a broader range of content.

3.   Proximity Service - Proximity events are actioned when a device triggers an Area Boundary or GeoFence zone.  User defined geo boundaries are supported with alerts as a device moves in or out of the defined geo.

4.   Geocoding and Reverse-Geocoding Service – A location can be determined and displayed on a map.  Both structured and free form address formats are supported.

5.   Map Service – In addition to “On Map” show navigation, the use of maps in Java™ applications are enabled allowing applications to display maps, show landmarks and POIs.  Map service can be configured to fetch tile or static maps and for panning, zooming, transformation to WGS84 coordinates, and from WGS coordinate to pixel information.

6.   Routing Service – Provides driving directions from a routing engine (onboard or offboard). Supported features include route from source waypoint and destination; Route for car, truck, cycle and pedestrian; Route avoiding toll plaza, etc; Shortest, fastest route generation.

7.   Navigation Service - Enables the navigation to landmarks and POIs from Java applications. Applications become capable of accessing navigation features provided by 3rd party applications. Turn-by-turn voice guided simulation, voice guided real time navigation, and automated re-routing capabilities are enabled.
“Spime’s JSR-293 enables Java developers with only a few lines of code to bring Geocoding, Mapping, and Navigation capabilities to their apps, further accelerating the growth of location-aware apps ” adds Kolodziej.