Location Aware Personalized Services

Abstract

The last few years have witnessed a tremendous increase in the number of mobile devices. Consequently, the number of mobile applications has also increased manifolds. The early mobile applications mainly targeted email, calendar, contacts and information retrieval etc. In the recent years, however, mobile applications in various categories including games, banking services, location finders etc. and other GPS/internet based services are emerging at a rapid pace on a number of competing platforms/stores including Apple, Google, Microsoft, BlackBerry and Amazon. Inspired by the usefulness of mobile applications and the potential they promise, our study is aimed at developing a mobile application that facilitates user access to local businesses and services as a function of their geographical location. The targeted services considered in our work include restaurants, fuel stations and ATM machines. The application not only indicates the nearby locations of these services to the user but also provides useful information relevant to a particular service like deals at a restaurant, availability of fuel at a particular filling station and the availability of cash at an ATM. The application comprises three components, a central database, an interface for mobile users and a web based interface for service/business providers. The developed application is expected to be handy in assisting users on the move. The application can also be extended to include other services (theatres, shopping stores, reservations etc.