Location Based Service Using Android Mobile Operating System

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
Mobile phones and the Internet have revolutionized the communication and with it the lifestyle of people. An increasing number of mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) allow people to access the Internet where ever they are and whenever they want. From the Internet they can obtain on one hand information on events (cinema, concerts, parties) and on the other hand information on places (city maps, restaurants, museums, hospitals).

Let us consider the example that somebody wants to take a dinner in a restaurant and is therefore searching a restaurant in the Internet. A useful approach to prevent that one gets as search result every restaurant web-page on the world one could restrict the search by adding further search criteria. A good choice is the city where the mobile user is (position), the actual time (evening) or a special type of restaurant (Chinese or Greek).

Such kind of restaurant search with respect to position and time can be done by use of a Location BasedService (LBS).

1.1 Over-view of location based Services:

The appearance of different technologies such as wireless networks, Internet, Geographical information systems (GIS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS), have

introduced a new type of information technology called Location Based Service (LBS).

Location Based Services is defined as the ability to locate a mobile user geographically and deliver services to the user based on his location.

The aim of this paper is to understand location based services (LBS) and identify its key components behind service providing then shed some light on the limitation preventing the technology advancement. LBS: LBSs 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.

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Location Based Service Using Android Mobile Operating System A LBS services can be used in a variety of contexts, such as health, work, personal life, etc. LBS include services to identify the location of a person or object, such as discovering the nearest banking cash machine or the where about of a friend or employee. LBS services include parcel tracking and vehicle tracking services.

LBS give the possibility of a two way communication and interaction. Therefore the user tells he service provider his actual context like the kind of information he needs, his preferences and his position. This helps the provider of such location services to deliver information tailored to the user needs.

LBS have two major actions, that is: 1. Obtaining the location of user 2. Utilizing this information to provide a service.

These 2 actions are used to answer these 4 questions (below) for a mobile user in a new, fast, and more accurate way, to form the basis for LBS: Where am I? Where is the nearest ...?. Where is my ...?, How do l get there?

LBS services can be categorized as triggered LBS services (push services) and user-requested LBS services (pull services). In a triggered (push) LBS service, the location of user's mobile device is retrieved when a condition set in advance is fulfilled. For example, a call to emergency center can automatically trigger a location request. Advertisement

messages can be delivered to users who enter a specific area in a shopping mall, and warning messages can be delivered to users who are in the area where weather conditions will change (e.g. hurricane, rain). In a user-requested (pull) LBS service, the user decides whether and when to retrieve the location of his/her mobile device and use it in the service. Userrequested LBS service can involve personal location (i.e. finding the current location of the user) or services location (i.e. finding the location of the nearest restaurant or bank). Navigation and direction system is an example of pull LBS services.

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Location Based Service Using Android Mobile Operating System

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE SURVEY
LBS (Location Based Services) is not what they are inside of but rather what they are not an active part of and the answer is very little. They are a part of virtually all control and policy systems which work in computers today. They have evolved from simple synchronization based service models to authenticated and complex tools for implementing virtually any location based service model or facility.

2.1 Foundation of Location Based Services

Stefan Steiniger, Moritz Neun & Alistair Edwardes [1]. Location Based Services (LBS) are developing rapidly in the mobile and information technologies (IT) fields.

Increase demand to modern technologies and interest in utilizing geospatial information servers to provide useful information and services to mobile users though wireless networks plays a very important factor to LBS advancement.

Location based service (LBS) is emerging as a killer application in mobile data services thanks to the rapid development in wireless communication and location positioning technologies. Users with location-aware wireless devices can query about their surroundings (e.g., finding the nearest restaurant or all shopping malls within 5 miles) at any place, anytime. While this ubiquitous computing paradigm brings great convenience for information access, the constraints of mobile environments, the spatial property of location-dependent data, and the mobility of mobile users pose a great challenge for the provision of locationbased services to mobile users.

2.2 Perceived Effectiveness of Push vs. Pull Mobile Location Based Advertising
Ramaprasad Unni, Robert Harmon [2] , Push services imply that the user receives information as a result of his or her where about without having to actively request it. The information may be sent to the user with prior consent (e.g, a subscription based terror attack alert system) or without prior consent (e.g., an advertising welcome message sent to the user upon entering a new town)

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Location Based Service Using Android Mobile Operating System Pull services, in contrast, mean that a user actively uses an application and, in this context, pulls information from the network. This information may be location-enhanced (e.g., where to find the nearest cinema).

2.3 Location Based Services

Thamer Abulleif & Abdulwahab Al-Dossary [3], GPS is the worldwide satellite-

based radio navigation system, consisting of 24 satellites, equally spaced in six orbital planes 20,200 kilometres above the Earth, that transmit two specially coded carrier signals, one for civilian use and one for military and government use. The systems satellites transmit navigation messages, which a GPS receiver uses to determine its position. GPS receivers process the signals to compute position in 3D latitude, longitude, and altitude with an accuracy of 10 meters or less. The main advantage of this technique is that the GPS system is already in use for many years.

GPS uses these satellites to calculate positions accurately to a matter of meters. The positions are measured using the receivers themselves or processed on the network then the actual position is sent to the user.

2.4 Implementing Location Based Service in Android using GPS & Web Services
Manav Singhal1, Anupam Shukla[4], Location based Services offer many advantages to the mobile users to retrieve the information about their current location and process that data to get more useful information near to their location. With the help of GPS in phones using GPRS, Location based Services can be implemented on Android based smart phones to provide these value-added services: advising clients of current traffic conditions, providing routing information, helping them find nearby hotels.

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Location Based Service Using Android Mobile Operating System

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY
3.1 LBS Components
If the user wants to use a location based service different infrastructure elements are necessary

3.1.1 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,etc but the device can also be a navigation unit of car or a toll box for road pricing in a truck.

3.1.2 Communication Network The second component is the mobile network which transfers the user data and service request from the mobile terminal to the service provider and then the requested information back to the user.

3.1.3 Positioning Component For the processing of a service usually the user position has to be determined. The user position can be obtained either by using the mobile communication network or by using the Global Positioning System (GPS). Further possibilities to determine the position are WLAN stations, 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.

3.1.4 Service Provider The service provider offers a number of different services to the user and is responsible for the service request processing. Such services offer the calculation of the position, finding a route, searching yellow pages with respect to position or searching specific information on objects of user interest (e.g. a bird in wild life park) and so forth.

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Location Based Service Using Android Mobile Operating System 3.1.5 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 infor mation data will be usually requested from the maintaining authority (e.g. mapping agencies) or business and industry partners (e.g. yellow pages, traffic companies).

Fig 3.1 :- LBS Components

3.2 ARCHITECTURE:
LBSs contain a number of components including maps and Geographic Information System (GIS) information, location collection services, and LBS applicationspecific subcomponents. The architecture of LBS can be generalized as shown in Figure.

Fig 3.2 :- Architecture of LBS

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Location Based Service Using Android Mobile Operating System 3.2.1 LBS Application This represents a specific application such as a find my friends application. This consists of a Smartphone component, which has a number of sensors, and potentially a server component that includes application-specific data (such as locationtagged information).

3.2.2 LBS Middleware This wraps access to Core LBS Features (Location Tracking, GIS Provider and Location Collection Services) to provide a consistent interface to LBS applications.

3.2.3 Location Tracking This component stores the location trace of individual users. This represents a fundamental component in next-generation LBS as it contains the data that allows a users route to be determined and potentially predicted. In particular, this component would typically support the following functionality: - Keep records on users current and past locations. - Notify other components when a specific user has moved, or when they move in or out of an area. This supports location-based notifications being sent to users. - Determine which users are within a defined location this supports geocasting features. - Queries of location trace to generate user movement models

3.2.4 GIS Provider This component provides geospatial functionality for many LBSs including map information, map visualization and directory services. Google Maps with its API can be considered a GIS provider.

3.2.5 Location Collection Service This component performs location collection to get a latitude and longitude for a specific user. Depending on the technology, this component may be accessed via the LBS Middleware (e.g., mobile network triangulation via a service provider) or directly (e.g., via GPS receiver in the Smartphone).

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Location Based Service Using Android Mobile Operating System

3.3 LBS Service Classes in Android

Android provides access to the above components to facilitate the implementation of LBS services through the help of following classes: - Location Manager - Location Provider - Geocoding - Google-Map

Location Manager Location Manager Class of android is present to manage all other components needed to establish a LBS system.

Location provider Location provider represents the technology to determine the physical location i.e. To handle GIS. Location Provider component of Android application is a present to facilitate the determination of available provider and selection of suitable one. To get a list of names for all the providers available on the device,call getProviders , using a Boolean to indicate if you want all, or only the enabled, providers to be returned: List providers = locationManager.getProviders(true);

In addition to this GPS provider and Network provider can be accessed directly by using the static variables defined in the LocationManager class:

LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER LocationManager.NETWORK_PROVIDER

Furthermore for finding the provider on the basis of some criteria we can use the criteria class and then can find the best provider for defined criteria using the Best Provider Method as shown is the following code snaps:

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Location Based Service Using Android Mobile Operating System Criteria criteria = new Criteria(); Criteria.setAccuracy(Criteria.ACCURACY_COARSE); criteria.setPowerRequirement(Criteria.POWER_LOW); String bestProvider = locationManager.getBestProvider(criteria, true); If more than one provider is available fulfilling the given criteria then the one with best performance is returned. On the other hand if no provider is found for the defined criteria then criteria are loosened in order Power use, Accuracy, Ability to return bearing, speed, and altitude.

Geocoding Reverse geocoding: provides a way to convert geographical coordinates

(longitude, latitude) into street address. Forward geocoding provides a mean to get geographical coordinated from street address.

For forward geocoding we use getLatitude() and getLongitude() method as shown double latitude = location.getLatitude(); double longitude = location.getLongitude();

For reverse geocoding we use getFromLocation method with geocoder variable as shown //geocod is geocoder variable addresses = geocod.getFromLocation(latitude, longitude, 10);

Google Map in Android Android provides a number of objects to handle maps in LBS system like MapView which displays the map. To handle this a MapActivity class is there. To annotate map it provides the overlays class. Even it provides canvas by which one can easily create and display multiple layers over the map. Moreover, sufficient provisions are there to zoom the map, localize the map by means of MapController.

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Location Based Service Using Android Mobile Operating System

3.4 Push and Pull Services

In general one can distinguish two different kinds of location services considering if information is delivered on user interaction or not:

Pull services deliver information directly requested from the user. This is similar to call a website in the Internet by fill in its address in the web browser-address field. For pull services a further separation can be done into functional services, like ordering a taxi or an ambulance by just pressing a button on the device, or information services, like the search for a close Chinese restaurant.

Push services deliver information which are either not or indirectly requested from the user. Such push services are activated by an event, which could be triggered if a specific area is entered or triggered by a timer. An example for an indirectly requested service is a news service subscription which contains event information with respect to the actual city. A not requested service could be advertisement messages if a specific area in a shopping mall is entered or warning messages if weather conditions change (e.g. hurricane warnings). Since push services are not bound on previous user interaction with the service, they are more complex to establish. Here, the background information like user needs and preferences have to be sensed by the push system.

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Location Based Service Using Android Mobile Operating System

3.5 Service Process

1) First, user sends a service request using the application running on mobile device. 2) The service request, with user's current location information obtained from the positioning component (in this example, GPS data), is sent to service server via the mobile communication network. 3) The service server requests geographic database and other related database to get required information. 4) The request information is send back to the service server from the geographic database and other related database. 5) At last, the requested information is sent back to user's mobile phone via mobile communication network.

Fig 3.5 :- Service Process

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Location Based Services Using Android Mobile Operating System

CHAPTER 4

CASE STUDY & APPLICATIONS

4.1 Case Study on Location Based Advertising
Location Based Advertising (also known as hyper-local advertising) is a type of advertising which takes advantage of a consumers real world position. Using this real world position, Location Based Advertising is able to deliver relevant ads for products and services that are in close proximity to that consumers current location. Location-based advertising (LBA) is a new form of advertising that integrates mobile advertising with Location Based Services. The technology is used to pinpoint consumers location and provide location-specific advertisements on their mobile devices. There are two types of location-based services in general. - Push Service - Pull Service The push approach is a more versatile approach and is divided into two types. A not requested service (opt-out) is the more common approach amongst the two approaches as this allows advertisers to target users until the users do not want the ads to be sent to them. But the opt-in approach refers to a contrasting paradigm. In this the users can determine what type of advertisements or promotional material they can receive from the advertisers. The advertisers have to abide by certain legal regulations set in place and respect users choices. In contrast, the LBA pull approach, users can directly search for information by entering certain key words. The users look for specific information and not the other way around. For example, a traveler visiting New York could use a local search application such as WHERE on her device to find the nearest local Chinese restaurant in Manhattan. After she selects one of the restaurants, a map is provided as well as an offer of a free appetizer good for the next hour.

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Location Based Services Using Android Mobile Operating System Well, lets say that someone is on their smartphone and standing in front of a coffee shop. If this person is using a mobile app that incorporates Location Based Advertising, it becomes possible for an advertiser to know that this person is actually standing in front of a coffee shop, and send them an relevant ad (or coupon, or whatever) instantly. This ad can be from the coffee shop they are standing in front of, or it can even be for the competition down the street and around the corner. Perhaps this ad from the competition is so compelling it entices the consumer to travel a bit farther up the street, and reap the discount from the ad they just got.

This actually happens on a regular basis with Location Based Advertising, as this form of advertising has been shown to be quite effective. It is a powerful thing for a business to know a consumer is in close proximity to their store and offer them an incentive to make them take those final steps to enter the store.

This is exactly what Location Based Advertising does. It knows where the consumer is positioned in the real world and delivers an ad for a product/service that is close by the current location of the consumer.

To know the current location of the user in Location Based Advertising to send a Ad
Most of todays high end smartphones (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Nokia) have what is known as a GPS chip. A GPS chip is a little microchip that interprets signals from GPS satellites in space and figures out your current position based on those signals. These chips can also figure out your position by using cell tower triangulation to jump start the process of getting your GPS position. This jump start makes the process of getting your current location much faster. By using cell phone tower triangulation, it means getting a consumers location can now happen within seconds, and not minutes as is the case when using GPS radio signals alone. Most of the same modern smartphones that have a GPS chip also have the ability to use cellphone triangulation.

The Location Based Ad served to you as soon as you cross a Geofence. A Geofence is nothing more than an predefined area on a map. In Location Based Advertising, the place of
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Location Based Services Using Android Mobile Operating System business doing the advertising is usually in the middle of the area defined by the Geofence. Traditionally, the defined area (Geofence) is nothing more than a simple circle drawn around the place of business. (or a square or a polygon). How far out this geofence is drawn, (a few blocks, a few miles, etc) all depends on the ad campaign and the goals of the advertiser. Once a consumer is inside the area of the geofence, they are served up a Location Based Ad. Outside the Geofence, no ad, inside the geofence, you get served an ad.

Fig 4.1 :- Blue area denotes Geofence with coffee shop in the middle. Green marker is outside the geofence. Red marker is inside the geofence.

4.2 APPLICATIONS
Location-based services or LBS refer to a set of applications that exploit the knowledge of the geographical position of a mobile device in order to provide services based on that information. They can be classified in three categories:

4.2.1 Public safety or emergency services

Since the location of the subscriber can be provided by the carrier, the mobile phone is a valuable access point in the times of emergency. In the US, Europe and Japan, it is mandatory by law for carriers to be able to provide such information.
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Location Based Services Using Android Mobile Operating System One of the most evident applications of LBS is the ability to locate an individual who is either unaware of his/her exact location or is not able to reveal it because of an emergency situation (injury, criminal attack, and so on). E.g. motorists are often unaware of their exact location when their vehicle breaks down. With the exact location automatically transferred to the emergency services the assistance can be provided quickly and efficiently. This category includes public and private emergency services for both pedestrians and drivers. While public emergency services for calling out fire-fighters, medical teams, etc., are currently being mostly regulated by public organisations the emergency roadside assistance for drivers appears to be one of the most promising of the assistance services in terms of operator revenue.

Fig 4.2.1 :- Emergency services

4.2.2 Consumer services

Navigation users get route maps to a particular destination, real time traffic routing that takes into account actual congestion patterns etc.

Navigation services are based on mobile users. Needs for directions within their current geographical location. The ability of a mobile network to locate the exact position of a mobile user can be manifested in a series of navigation-based services.

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Location Based Services Using Android Mobile Operating System Example - Navigation service: By positioning a mobile phone, an operator can let the user know exactly where they are as well as give him/her detailed directions about how to get to a desired destination. In most of the current car navigation systems, other information than routing functionalities and the road databases are not in the mobile device. The user gets the precalculated route via the mobile network connection.

Fig 4.2.2: Car navigation Location based advertising advertisements of discounts or offers from a store as the user comes within the vicinity. Location based reminders users can enter in to-do lists, whose location information is activated when the user passes by, for instance, pick up shopping or laundry etc. Family and friend finder allows users to keep track of the location of their children, relatives or friends, with the informed consent of these subscribers. Location based search allows users to access local services, or find even more detailed information such as listings and ratings of movies playing in theaters nearby etc.

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Location Based Services Using Android Mobile Operating System

4.3 Advantage & Disadvantages

Advantages of an Android are listed as: Android is Open Source Multitasking Android scales to every device.
Its supported by some hardware manufacturers and more to come in the future.

Third party development is encouraged. In contrast to advantages Android has following disadvantages: Does not support some applications like Firefox Wasteful Battery Many applications contain virus

4.4 Features of LBS

Users with location-aware wireless devices can query about their surroundings (e.g., finding the nearest restaurant or all shopping malls within 5 miles) at any place, anytime. A location-based service (LBS) is a mobile application that is dependent on the location of a mobile device, like mobile phone. A Location Based Service (LBS) is an information and entertainment service, accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network and utilizing the ability to make use of geographical position of the mobile device. A LBS services can be used in a variety of contexts, such as health, work, personal life, etc. LBS include services to identify the location of a person or object, such as discovering the nearest banking cash machine or the where about of a friend or employee.

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Location Based Services Using Android Mobile Operating System

CHAPTER 5

RESULT ANALYSIS
Android and iPhone form a large portion of the current operating systems on which LBS applications run. It is important to understand that users of Android and iPhone have distinct tastes and this is reflected in their usage of LBS applications as well. Any LBS application developer will have to take into account this difference before he designs an LBS application.

Fig 5 :- Android vs iPhone

Even in terms of paid versus free application, the Android and iPhone platforms differ significantly. Around 80% of the applications in the Android platform are free and the rest 20% are paid. Quite the opposite is seen in the case of iPhone. Here 75% of the applications are paid applications while only 25% are free LBS applications.

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Location Based Services Using Android Mobile Operating System

Real Time Data

In earlier times, the user was not getting the real time data. For eg:- The FM station provides a information about the traffic but it has delay in reaching its audience . With LBS, it is possible for the users to get this type of information without time delay and have further information like GPS & alternative routes at real time. own

Learning Consumer Preference

Prior to the era of smart phones, learning consumer preferences was tedious task, involving various personnel & surveying at city centers and shopping malls. With the introduction of smart phones & LBS, the consumers preference can be derived through various data mining algorithms and methods from consumers daily interaction with application

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