Future of Engineering

Some people peer into crystal balls to predict the future; Stephen Arnold peers into the vast database at the U.S. Patent Office to predict the future of Google. Focusing on one patent on transportation routing, he told a gathering at last week's AIIM conference in Boston that he sees not only a business opportunity for Google in transportation routing, but also the tip of a proverbial iceberg in the way the search engine colossus approaches much of its business.

"No one knows what these guys at Google are up to," said Arnold, who has written two books on Google, in an interview this week. "That's why their patents are so important."

Arnold, who takes an investigative approach to Google without help from the company, says the transportation routing patent is already embodied in Google's employee bus system in the Bay Area. Using Google's mapping technology, GPS location finding linked with Google employee cell phones, the buses and employees are connected efficiently in real time. Employees are informed wirelessly when their bus is approaching. Another iteration of the system appears to be in use at a Google facility in Korea, Arnold added.

More from here

Labels: Logistics-Transportation-Engineering