Brimicombe A., Li C. Location-Based Services and Geo-Information Engineering

Wiley, 2009. — 395 p.
Location-based services (LBS) are the delivery of data and information services where the content of those services is tailored to the current or some projected location and context of a mobile user. This is a new and fast-growing technology sector incorporating Geographical Information Systems (GIS), wireless technologies, positioning systems and mobile human–computer interaction. Some view LBS as the ‘killer app’ that will propel GIS into the mainstream of quotidian use throughout society. Geo-Information (GI) Engineering is an extension of GIScience into the design of dependably engineered solutions to society’s use of geographical information and underpins applications such as LBS. Making all this possible is the tremendous technological convergence and growing systems interoperability that have taken place over the last decade or so. Most of us now own a mobile phone (if not two or three!) that has more computing power and functionality than a 1980s PC, a digital camera with more mega-pixels than could be dreamed possible in the 1990s, and a high resolution LCD screen and sufficient bandwidth to make it a Web browser, games console and TV all in one! That such mobile devices are a catalyst for LBS is not surprising.