• 1. Foundations of LBS
  • 1.1. What are LBS?
  • 1.2. How is it useful?
  • 1.3. What’s special about it?
  • 1.4. How does it work?
  • 1.5. Summary
  • 1.6. Recommended Reading
  • 1.7. Glossary
  • 1.8. Bibliography
  • 1.9. Metadata

1.7. Glossary

adaption:

A system is adaptive if it is able to dynamically change its behaviour according to a user's needs and context

Communication Network:

These LBS component transfers the user data and service request from the mobile terminal to the service provider and then the requested information back to the user.

context:

Context is any information that can be used to characterize the situation of an entity. An entity is a person, place, or object that is considered relevant to the interaction between a user and an application, including the user and applications themselves. (Abowd et al. 1999)

context aware:

A system is context-aware if it uses context to provide relevant information and/or services to the user, where relevancy depends on the user’s task. (Abowd et al. 1999)

Data and Content Provider:

Service providers will usually not store and maintain all the information which can be requested by users. Therefore geographic base data and location information data will be usually requested from the maintaining authority (e.g. mapping agencies) or business and industry partners (e.g. yellow pages, traffic companies)

Information:

What is needed to answer a user question and how is it done? A model of information retrieval is needed to answer the user questions. Such an information process model contains a model of possible questions, defines Queries of geographic base data and location information data, and specifies possible answers (see animation below).

LBS Definition 1:

LBS's are information services accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network and utilizing the ability to make use of the location of the mobile device. (Virrantaus et al. 2001)

LBS Definition 2:

A wireless-IP service that uses geographic information to serve a mobile user. Any application service that exploits the position of a mobile terminal. (Open Geospatial Consortium 2005)

Mobile Activities:

What Questions and Problems have users? Such questions do emerge from the user actions: locating, navigating, searching, identifying, event check. A further question with respect to actions is the (spatial) scope of activities. According to (2004) we can distinguish three types of spatial scope:

1. Macro scale: Do I need an overview?
2. Meso scale: What is reachable for me?
3. Micro scale: Where am I?

Mobile Devices:

A tool for the user to request the needed information. The results can be given by speech, using pictures, text and so on. Possible devices are PDA's, Mobile Phones, Laptops, ... but the device can also be a navigation unit of car or a toll box for road pricing in a truck.

Mobile User:

Who or what is mobile? The mobile object can be a person or a device like a car navigation system. (see further How is it useful? and (2004))

Positioning Component:

For the request of LBS the user position has to be determined. Here one distinguishes between tracking (a network determines your position) and positioning (position self evaluation). Usually the user position is obtained either by using the mobile communication network or by using the Global Positioning System (GPS). Further possibilities to determine the position are local networks like Bluetooth or WLAN, active badges or radio beacons. The latter positioning methods can especially used for indoor navigation like in a museum. If the position is not determined automatically it can be also specified manually by the user.

Pull Service:

The user asks actively for information or assistance.

Push Service:

That the information is delivered without asking to the LBS user.

Search and Spatial Analysis:

Which methods and algorithms are suitable for real-time information query in the Internet and spatial data analysis? Further question are: ”How to integrate data and information of different scale, quality, data types, prices?" "How is the data availability and actuality?"

Service Accuracy:

The accuracy of the positioning method ...

Service and Application Provider:

The service provider offers a number of different services to the user and is responsible for the service request processing. Such services can be the calculation of the position in a more global context, to find a route, to search the yellow pages with respect to position, find information on a specific object of user interest (e.g. a bird in wild life park) and so forth.

Service Delivery:

The way how information from a LBS is retrieved or delivered to the user.

Service Environment:

The environment in which a LBS is usually used

Technology:

How are service requests and data transferred between user and service provider? Where are the data stored? Which services are provided? Which positioning technology is used? ...

User Interface:

Is a person using a PDA or mobile phone or something else? How can the user or (navigation) system formulate his needs and can make them more concrete after obtaining an overview?

Visualisation:

How is the information, returned from LBS, communicated to the user? Speech, text, pictures, pictograms, maps, lists,..

Update: 26.1.2012 (eLML) - Contact - Print (PDF) - © CartouCHe 2004-2007 (Creative Commons) - layout based on YAML