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Location Based Services
| Applications | |
|---|---|
| Title | Location Based Services |
| Author(s) | GMV. |
| Level | Basic |
| Year of Publication | 2011 |
Location Based Services (LBS) include applications that depend on the user location to provide a service/information that is relevant to the user at that location.
LBS normally use mobile devices with positioning ability to provide the service or information to the user. LBS can be used for personal or professional purposes although most of the services covered here are for personal use since professional services will be covered in other sections[1].
Brief History of Location Based Services
Location based Services resulted from the convergence of 3 technologies in one device: mobile internet access, positioning and rich user interfaces. Until the late 1990's the available mobile devices mostly supported only voice and SMS and had few user interface capabilities. Although these technologies could teoretically already support very crude location based services (using SMS and GSM based localization), only after the introduction of WAP and internet access in mobile phones there is news of the first generally available location based services.
The 1999's Palm VII is considered the first LBS capable mobile device although the LBS applications it provided relied on zip code information to have the user positioning[1].
Also in 1999, WAP enabled phones start to appear on the market providing internet access and a richer user interface than what was previously available[2].
The service FriendZone is considered the first LBS service to be offered by a mobile phone operator in May 2001 after a preliminary trial that started in January 2001.
The improvements on user interfaces and the availability of mobile phones with high resolution touch-screens made posible applications with richer interfaces sometimes comparable to desktop computers.
Initially the location was provided by GSM localization techniques (Cell Id, TDOA, E-OTD). With the availability of cheap and small GNSS chipsets more and more mobile have satellite positioning embeded in the devices.
Current Status of Location Based Services
Currently, navigation technologies in consumer devices such as mobile phones are enabling a massive boom in location-based services, with new commercial opportunities based on the ability of users to identify their precise location relative to services, amenities and other people[3].
The GNSS penetration in mobile phones reached 15% in 2009 and the awareness of the consumer and developers constantly increasing. Examples of this awareness are that[4]:
- All major mobile phone operating system vendors provide API with location functions.
- In the UK, France and Germany 5 out of 10 best selling iPhone’s applications in 2009 are related to navigation or are location based applications.
- 30% of Android developer’s contest winners used location in their application.
- Nokia experienced 7 mln downloads of its map software in the 3 months
after offering free navigation
Location Based Services categorisation
There is a wide variety of services that can be considered location based services. The types of services and applications that can be considered part of LBS is very heterogenous.
For the purpose of this categorisation it were considered only services or applications that require a multimedia mobile interface, internet access and positioning. Some services or applications that can be considered as LBS are being described in different sections some of them because they don't necessarily include the three previously mentioned components (multimedia, internet and positioning) or can be best fitted in other application groups. For instance, navigation was included in the Road Applications.
Location based Information Streams
Location based Informations Streams consists on pushing information to the user depending on its location and on the assumption that this information will be usefull and welcomed by the user.
The information provided by these services can vary from information of nearest services or stores to alerts on traffic jams and location based advertising. In some cases the information is provided without user request while on other the information is provided on request.
Detailed information about Location based Information Streams can be found here
These services can run through an application that will either compare the user position with an internal database or with an online database through a content server. Normally these services can be configured to provide only information that the user finds useful.
Tourist Information
Tourist Information applications provide guidance and landmark information to tourists typically in urban environments.
Some of the most usual tourist information services could be fitted in the Location based Information Streams but since tourist applications can have been one the most dinamic areas of LBS and increasingly sophisticated applications are being deployed it makes sense for tourism applications to be a separate category.
Tourism Information applications can range from providing the user with the nearest restaurant or landmark to be a full blown city guide with multimedia information and guided audio tours.
Detailed information about Tourist Information Applications can be found here
Games
Carpooling and Transport in Demand
Notes