1.3. Data Formats & Map Response

Many Location Based Services are a sort of extended web map service for mobile devices. Thus maps and other data are delivered via the internet to the mobile LBS device.

The map response and thus the usability of a map, displayed on a mobile device, are largely dependent on the different technical options such as the used data format and the number of layers to display. But also the image transfer and rendering influence the response of operations such as panning and zooming. They can be improved by using tiling and caching. These technical details will be explained in the following units.

For more details about graphic formats etc. have a look at the Computer Graphics lesson.