Smart Location-based Services (Smart-LBS): Platform for Smart Space-Independent LBS

Location-based Services (LBS) are the type of services that utilize localization and proximity-detection technologies to deliver content or execute functionalities in smart spaces. Such services are triggered with respect to the user’s proximity from a certain point of interest or the user’s geographical location in a particular area (e.g., tourist destination). However, with the increase in the number of smart spaces and the need for more LBS, there is a set of challenges. In order to design LBS, the developers need to learn about the target smart spaces, the deployed technologies in such environment, the format of the location and proximity information collected, and the content to be delivered accordingly. The second challenge is that a mobile app for each LBS being installed on the user’s personal devices (e.g., smartphones) represents a storage requirement along with the challenge of keeping track of and learning to use such LBS for different smart spaces. In this paper, we propose Smart Location-based Services (Smart-LBS) - a platform that offers a run-time environment with a unified set of essential services and data streams for the operation, management, and communication of the different LBS, regardless of the target environment. The proposed platform aims to host lightweight smart-space independent LBS that can be configured to work in a wide range of smart spaces and be integrated to work with other LBS and users. The Smart-LBS platform enables the different LBS to cooperate by sharing the same available hardware infrastructure and software tools. The smart space users interact with the Smart-LBS platform through a single mobile application, where the content of such application is dynamically updated with respect to the user’s smart space and the available LBS. We present an overview of the proposed Smart-LBS and demonstrate some features through a proof-of-concept implementation for a smart museum as a use case.