Location-Based Services

Location-based services (LBSs) have emerged primarily due to the availability of, and the possibility of coupling, “location,” “mobility,” and “context” information. Of these, location and mobility play central roles, and context describes the environment for the process of decision making in LBSs. LBSs are different from conventional geographic information systems (GIS) in that they feature mobility and the possibility of position determination while mobile. In other words, spatial decision making in LBSs is based on mobility and position, which involves dynamic locations of people and objects. An example of LBS is a navigation system in which a user's location (“location”) is continuously (“mobility”) computed for the purpose of finding routes (“context”), among other things. LBSs, in general, could provide answers to questions such as the ...