LOCATION BASED SERVICES FOR MOBILE COMMERCE

APPLICATIONS

C. K. Georgiadis, G. Melas and P. Tzamtzis

Department of Applied Informatics, University of Macedonia, 156 Egnatia Str., 540 06 Thessaloniki, Greece

Keywords: Location services, mobile commerce, Java ME.

Abstract: Mobile setting considerations provide valuable issues regarding flexible mobile applications. In this paper,
we indicate the advantages of an m-commerce application capable to provide users with useful information
(e.g. historical buildings, shops, hotels) according to their location. First, the application creates a basic
profile of the current user (type of information the user is mainly interested in). Then, in addition with the
location awareness of the user’s position the application provides only useful information according to the
user’s whereabouts. When the user is alerted that he is in close proximity of one place that he is interested
in, he has the option to access more info about it (streaming video or photo and text). The application is
implemented using the Java Micro Edition (Java ME) platform and is mainly making use of the Location
API, which provides information about the device's present physical location and orientation. The
customized information is stored online and is accessed only when user needs it.

1 INTRODUCTION In m-commerce applications a beneficial subject

is to be able to track a user’s location. By knowing
In a more and more dynamic and competitive the user’s location and by using a simple profile of
business environment where innovation and quality his needs you can offer him a product or a service
servicing is crucial there has to be revolutionary that he probably won’t refuse (Ververidis et al.,
ways to serve customer needs tailored only to their 2006).
interests. The best way to attract the customer’s
attention is to personalize the services you provide
by offering a product or service that your customer 2 LOCATION BASED SERVICES
definitely wants. The evolution of mobile commerce
(m-commerce) nowadays has come to built on this The term Location Based Services (LBS) refers to
key strategy. M-commerce stands for electronic services that utilize geographical data. The goal is to
commerce made through mobile devices. It is deliver information and services on location. LBS
currently mainly used for the sale of mobile phone offer personalized services to users, who possess
ring-tones and games, while other services include mobile devices, tailored to their present location in
the sending of textual information (such as football the right time needed. LBS answer three questions:
scores, weather reports, emergency news, etc. via Where am I? What’s around me? How do I get
SMS. Additional examples of m-commerce there?
applications are information-on-demand systems At this point it is important to emphasize the
such as news services or stock tickers, banking and differentiation between LBS and Geographical
stock brokerage applications, using not only SMS, Information Systems (GIS). Certainly, there are
but also mobile Internet access services (WAP or many similarities between them due to the nature of
iMode). In addition, as 3G/UMTS services roll out it their functionality. Both of them manipulate data
is increasingly used to enable payment for location- with positional references and make use of spatial
based services such as image content (maps, photos, analysis functions. Whereas LBS were born quite
etc.), as well as video and audio content, including recently by the evolution of public mobile devices,
full length music tracks (Elliot et al., 2004). GIS have been developed during several decades on
the basis of professional geographic data

162 K. Georgiadis C., Melas G. and Tzamtzis P. (2007).

LOCATION BASED SERVICES FOR MOBILE COMMERCE APPLICATIONS.
In Proceedings of the Second International Conference on e-Business, pages 162-167
DOI: 10.5220/0002111901620167
Copyright c SciTePress
 LOCATION BASED SERVICES FOR MOBILE COMMERCE APPLICATIONS

applications. GIS can be seen as professional 2.2.2 Disadvantages

systems intended for experienced users, which
require extensive computing resources. In contrast, Location based applications can bring many benefits
LBS are developed as limited services for large non- to business processes. But poorly used or
professional user groups (LBSZone, 2006). In mismanaged, they can become a major area of
addition, LBS applications operate with the concern (Spinney, 2004). One major concern is the
restrictions of mobile computational power, small monitoring of users (without their consent) and the
displays or battery run time of the mobile device. invasion of their privacy. Other problems that could
appear from the misuse of LBS and the illegal
2.1 Mobile Commerce knowledge of the user’s whereabouts are the
following: embarrassment (one customer's
M-commerce is the buying and selling of goods and knowledge of another's location may lead to
services through wireless handheld devices such as embarrassing situations), harassment (location
cellular telephone and personal digital assistants information can be used to harass or attack a user),
(PDAs). Known as next-generation e-commerce, m- service denial (a health insurance firm might deny a
commerce enables transactions by accessing the claim if it learned that a user visited a high-risk area)
Internet without needing to find a place to plug in, and legal restrictions (some countries regulate the
via mobile phone networks. use of personal data).
Corporations are now using m-commerce to M-Commerce and, generally, the use of mobile
expand everything from services to marketing and devices for more sensitive operations is fairly new
advertisement. The benefits of M-Commerce among and in a “primitive” stage, especially the LBS. But
others include cost savings, and new business even with these drawbacks if the application and the
opportunities. As content delivery over wireless carrier in question are trustworthy the user doesn’t
devices becomes faster, more secure, and scalable, have to worry about privacy issues. For these and
there is wide speculation that m-commerce will other reasons, users must know when their location
surpass wireline e-commerce as the method of is given to an application (Giaglis, 2004).
choice for digital commerce transactions.
2.2.3 Requirements
2.2 Location Based Services in
Mobile computing environment has certain features
M-Commerce Applications that impose restrictions. The properties of mobile
networks are: (relatively) low bandwidth, strong
2.2.1 Advantages bandwidth variability, long latency, unpredictable
The geographic intelligence delivers a new disconnections and communication autonomy. The
dimension to wireless businesses through LBS. The properties of mobile terminals are: small and low-
resolution displays, limited input capabilities,
level of detail, accuracy and currency opens up a
broad scope of potential applications, enabling you limited computing power, limited power and small
memory size (Ververidis et al., 2006). The practical
to tailor your technology and services to the exact
conditions, when and where the mobile devices are
location of your customers. The insurgence of high-
bandwidth networks has significantly enhanced the used, brings also additional restrictions.
LBS are intended mainly for traveling people as
potential of LBS, generating a potentially significant
return on infrastructure investment with the delivery a tool providing support in making decisions about
of personalized data (Georgiadis et al., 2005). where to go. Therefore, wrong information may
mean wrong decisions, lost time and, as a result,
Possible use case scenarios for LBS in m-
commerce applications have a very wide target anger of the client in the best case and a court
group (Elliot et al., 2004). The following, are among examination in a worse case. A location based
service consists of roughly two phases, determining
the most promising: entertainment (searching and
advertising of entertainment centers, such as bars, the position of the customer and providing service or
clubs, etc. in close proximity of the user), contents based on the position. For the location
method at least the following requirements can be
information (the user can get information about
historical buildings/sites, museums or the weather listed (Nokia, 2002):
for his current position), services (information about • The method should provide good accuracy
hospitals, hotels, etc.) and shopping (inform the user subject to the requirements of the application and the
about special offers in nearby shops or guide the respective cost.
user to a specific store in a big mall).

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• The location method should not generate too devices that have only 128 to 512KB of memory
much signaling load within the mobile network. available for Java applications. Consequently, the
• The location method should have a minimum JVM that it provides is very limited and supports
impact on the mobile network in terms of only a small number of traditional Java classes
complexity and cost. (Tauber, 2001).
• Consumer privacy must be ensured, by, e.g.,
providing means for the consumer to turn off the 3.1 Location API Java Specification
locating feature of the terminal. Request (JSR 179)
We will briefly describe some major classes and
3 THE JAVA MICRO EDITON definitions, in order to facilitate the conception of
the logical construction of location based
(JAVA ME) PLATFORM applications using the Java Specification Request
(JSR) 179. This extract has been taken from the
Considering all of the aforementioned subjects we Location API JSR 179 (JCP, 2007).
believe it’s mandatory at this point to illustrate an
application implicating a scenario which makes use
of some of the benefits that LBS may offer to end
users and the market. We have thus effected an
application which makes use of Java Micro Edition
(Java ME) platform and the Location API (JSR 179).

Figure 2: A demonstrative profile settings form

(frmOptions).
The Location API for Java ME specification defines
an optional package, javax.microedition.location,
which enables developers to write wireless location-
based applications and services for resource-limited
Figure 1: Location API UML diagram. devices like mobile phones, and can be implemented
with any common location method. The compact
Java ME combines a resource-constrained Java and generic Java ME location APIs provide mobile
Virtual Machine (JVM) and a set of Java APIs for applications with information about the device's
developing applications for mobile devices. These present physical location and orientation (compass
APIs cannot run on a traditional JVM, due to the direction), and support the creation and use of
limited size of mobile devices in regards to memory databases of known landmarks, stored in the device.
and resource availability, so Java ME defines a JSR 179 requires the Connected Device
limited version of the JVM as well. Configuration (CDC) or version 1.1 of the CLDC.
Java ME can be divided into three parts: a CLDC 1.0 isn't adequate because it doesn't support
configuration, a profile, and optional packages. A floating-point numbers, which the API uses to
configuration contains the JVM (not the traditional represent coordinates and other measurements. The
JVM, but the cut-down version) and some class Location API doesn't depend on any particular
libraries; a profile builds on top of these base class profile; it can be used with MIDP or the Personal
libraries by providing a useful set of APIs; and Profile.
optional packages. The most popular profile and In the following lines we will give you a brief
configuration that Sun provides are the Mobile introduction to some classes and means of the
Information Device Profile (MIDP) and Connected location API. The javax.microedition.location
Limited Device Configuration (CLDC), package contains the basic classes needed to request
respectively. As the name suggests, CLDC is for and get a location result.
devices with limited configurations; for example,

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according to his location. For example if the user is

in the eastern side of Thessaloniki and he activates
the application he will get from the server info about
the places near him (e.g. Macedonia airport). The
grouping of the landmarks is used so that the mobile
phone won’t have big memory needs and it depends
on the administration of the application from the
server side.

Figure 3: Creating the necessary objects for LBS (code

detail).
4 CASE STUDY
The LocationProvider class is a module able of
determining the location of the device. The The application is implemented with the Java
implementation can make use of any possible Wireless Toolkit (version 2.3), a Java based
location methods. We can also combine the methods environment designed for mobile applications
in various ways to get the optimal result. development. Our application takes advantage
The application specifies criteria for selecting an mainly of the location API which is designed to
appropriate location provider and obtains a offer location based information. The purpose of our
LocationProvider instance that is able to fulfil these application is to highlight some of the
criteria as closely as possible. The LocationProvider aforementioned advantages that LBS have to offer to
creates the Location objects representing the end users who possess mobile devices.
location of the terminal at the time of the
measurement. The application can either request a
single Location object or can be updated with new
Location objects via another implementation of the
application the LocationListener.

Figure 5: Extended Information form about a point of

interest, e.g. The Mall (frmMoreInfo).

Figure 4: Showing the current Location of the user, the The application is composed by a client application
Places that are near him and some of the Places he and an online “database”. The two parts of our
recently passed by (frmLAPI). application communicate when it is needed to
exchange information. The main purpose of the
The location is represented by the Location client application is to alert the user about nearby
object that contains a QualifiedCoordinates object places of interest and if the user is interested in
representing the geographical coordinates (latitude, them, he can have access to extended info. The
longitude and altitude) and information about their client application also has to filter the appearing
accuracy, a timestamp and possibly information places according to the user’s profile.
about speed and course of the terminal. For some The server, to which the application connects to,
location methods, the Location object may also is used to store all the information that is provided
contain an AddressInfo object that includes textual through the client application on the mobile device.
address information, e.g. a street address. The server is the one that contains all the multimedia
This package also includes a device-based information (e.g. direction maps, commercial videos
database of landmarks. A landmark is a known and pictures) and contains all the information of the
physical location that is associated with a name landmarks that appear to the user. The server is also
representing that location for the end user. The user
gets landmark information directly from the server

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the one that streams the informative videos to the Multimedia info can excite the user’s interest
device. better than plain text. So the user after seeing how
many different things about this mall can offer and
the fact that it is next to his current location he
decides to pay it a visit. After being directed by the
map about the precise location and starting walking
glancing here and there, the predefined profile
settings of the user (cinema, restaurants, mall
centres) addresses the application to inform him that
he is outside a place of interest: cinema. By
choosing “more info” he has the advantage to see a
trailer of the current playing movies in a streaming
format video. On the other hand, if the user does not
wish to activate the LBS, he can simply browse all
the registered landmarks (fig. 7) of his location.
Figure 6: A direction map indicating the precise location
of the point of interest (frmMap).

The goal is to make feasible a scenario, where a

client should be informed about things that interest
him according to his geo location at any time
without having to ask for them. To manage this, a
user profile should be firstly created (fig. 2). By
creating a user profile the places that appear can
coincide with the exact interests of the user. This
way the application becomes more user-friendly and
less annoying.
After setting the profile, user can start using the Figure 7: The provided landmarks (list1).
application. When the “Location Informer” form is
opened, the application creates the proper objects By selecting any of them he can have access to
(Criteria, Location, LocationProvider) and the extended information. Below, in fig.8, the
LocationListener (fig. 3) so that the mobile phone application’s GUI and the connections between all
can start getting location information from a source. the forms we have described above are presented:
After all the necessary objects have been created and The server side of the application provides some
initiated, the LocationListener updates every 7 web-based tools to the system administrator for the
seconds the location of the user. If there are any landmark management. Through a specific web page
places of interest in close proximity the user is the administrator can add new or edit existing
alerted through the “Location Informer” form (fig. landmarks (fig. 9). When the landmarks on the
4). If user is interested in one of the Landmarks on server are updated the application users will be able
screen he can request for more information selecting to get the updated land marks the next time, they
them. connect to the server to get landmark info. In
The information sent to the user is intended to be addition, the administrator can also change the
in multimedia form such as a video in streaming settings of the streaming services which are also
format. An example scenario could be a man provided from the server, through a streaming
roaming with his car to an unknown city for him server.
where he is for business purposes. While he enjoys
the miscellaneous sightseeing’s his mobile device
informs him that in proximity of 30 meters a mall 5 CONCLUSION
centre exists. In this point as shown in picture the
user has the option to choose to see more info (fig. In a few years, most mobile phones will have
5) about the mall, with the use of a video stream location tracking methods. So, our goal is to take
held in a web streaming server. In addition to that he advantage of these future capabilities, to allow users
has the option to see a map (fig. 6) of the area and to make use of them in their day-to-day life.
the precise location of the mall.

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Figure 8: The GUI navigation chart of the application.

Our demonstrative application case study shows not notice it). LBS applications may facilitate the
how users can always be aware of their location and approach of people who are interested in a shop’s
also how can be informed about places of their products and also have the ability to go visit it (with
interest near their current location. When user is almost no waste of time).
alerted that is in close proximity of place that he
may be interested (according to his profile), he has
the ability to ask for more information about it. He REFERENCES
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