Android application to locate and track mobile phones(aaltm) an implementation of location-based services

IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308
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Volume: 04 Issue: 05 | May-2015, Available @ http://www.ijret.org 387
ANDROID APPLICATION TO LOCATE AND TRACK MOBILE
PHONES(AALTM)- AN IMPLEMENTATION OF LOCATION-BASED
SERVICES
Lovely June Sanglyne1
1
MCA Student, Department of Computer Science & Engineering and Information Technology, School of Technology-
Assam Don Bosco University, Assam, India
Abstract
With the advancement of technology and modern science, people are expecting information about the location of any object for
tracking purposes. GPS is a system which has been implemented and is accessible without any restriction. Having the facility of
GPS, we need a GPS device to calculate the location from the information taken from GPS. This paper presents a study on
Location Based Services and is directed on locating and tracking of Android devices. In this implementation I am using Global
Positioning System (GPS) and Web Services, and android smart phone device since Android devices have a built-in feature of
GPS service. Some latest demanding tools and technology used for this implementation are Java, AVD, WAMP etc.
Keywords: Location Based Services; Global Positioning System (GPS); location; path
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1. INTRODUCTION
A Location-Based Service (LBS) provides information and
service of the geographical position of the mobile device
.This can be done through the mobile network and utilizing
the ability to make use of that information .In order to
determine the location of user's mobile device in a LBS
application , positioning technologies or a positioning
component such as satellite positioning, cellular network
positioning, WLAN stations or radio beacons is required.
Hence most of the current LBS services do not require users
to input location manually, such as providing street name or
zip code.
Service providers are also required since they offer different
kinds of LBS services to users and are responsible for
processing service requests and responds back by sending
request results. Servers can calculate locations or position,
search for a path or route travelled, or search specific
information regarding user‟s position. Usually all the
information requested by users are not store and maintain
by the Service providers, geographic data are collect and
stored by content provider. Informations such as Location-
based and other related data are also collect and store by the
content provider. Service servers will requests and process
these data and then returned to users.
Some examples of location based services [2] are:
 To determine the nearest business or service, such
as an Bank ,Restaurants, Hotels, etc
 Receiving alerts or notifications, such as
notification of Sale in Shopping Malls or news of
Traffic Jam in nearby area.
 Searching friends or tracking the location of the
stolen phone or lost phone.
Fig 1 LBS components and Service Process
2. ARCHITECTURE OF LOCATION BASED
SERVICES
The architecture of LBS can be generalized as shown below:
Fig 2 Architecture of the Location Based Services

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The architecture of LBS consists of five components:
1) LBS Application: This represents some application
such This consists of Smartphone component,
which has a number of sensors, and potentially a
server component that includes application-specific
data (such as location-tagged information).
2) LBS Middleware: The Core LBS Features such as
Location Tracking, GIS Provider and Location
Collection Services are accessible through a
consistent interface provided by the LBS
Middleware to the LBS applications.
3) Location Tracking: This component stores the
location trace of individual users and contains the
data that allows a user‟s route to be determined and
potentially predicted.
4) GIS (Geographic Information System) Provider:
This component provides geospatial functionality
for many LBSs such as map information, map
visualization and directory services. Google Maps
with its API can be considered a GIS provider.
5) For many LBSs ,the geospatial functionality such
as map information, map visualization and
directory services are being provided by the GIS
provider. Google Maps with its API can be
considered a GIS provider.
6) Location Collection Service: To get a latitude and
longitude for a specific user,the Location
Collection Service is use. The Location Collection
Service component is accessible via the LBS
Middleware (such as mobile network triangulation
via a service provider) or directly (e.g., via GPS
receiver in the Smartphone) depending on the
technology.
3. ELEMENTS OF LOCATION-BASED
SERVICES MENTS OF LOCATION-BASED
SERVICES
Location-based services is used to describe the different
technologies used to find a device current location. Android
provides access to the above components to facilitate the
implementation of LBS services through the help of the four
main LBS elements.
The different technologies used to find a device current
location can be described by using a Location-based
service(s). The four main LBS elements facilitates the
implementation of LBS services components (mentioned in
section A) which is accessible through Android .
This section explains the four main LBS elements:
1) Location Manager: This element provides access to
the location-based services. The following are some
of the application of the location Manager :
 Obtain the current Location
 Track movement .
 Detect movement into and out of a specified
area.
 Find available Location Providers.
2) Location Providers: These represent different
technology which are used to determine the
device‟s current location or location-finding and
provides periodic reports on the geographical
location. It also determines the physical location,
that is, handle GIS. , Location Provider component
of Android application facilitates the determination
of the available provider(s) and the selection of
appropriate one among these available provider(s).
The static variables defined in the Location
Manager class can be accessed directly by GPS
provider and Network provider.GPS and network
providers are two different ways to get Android
device location (latitude and longitude). Both have
their own advantages and we may have to use both
synchronous.
 GPS gives the exact location of where we are
standing .However in indoor situations GPS
may not provide the location quickly .
 Network location provider use mobile
connectivity provider and will give the nearest
tower location.
 If the GPS is not enabled passive provider
return coarse fixes.
3) Geocoding: Geocoding can be done in two
different ways. That is, reverse geocoding can
forward geocoding. Conversion of geographical
coordinates (longitude, latitude) into street address
can be done using reverse geocoding whereas
conversion of street address into geographical
coordinates can be done using reverse geocoding.
Reverse geocoding uses getLatitude() and
getLongitude () to get the geographical coordinates.
4) Google-Map: Android provides a number of
objects to handle maps in LBS system like
MapView which displays the map.
4. OBJECTIVES
The objective of the Real Time Location Tracking system is
to serve people a more effective location based tracking
facility.
In real life, this system is helpful in situations such as the
managing a group of people going for a trip or a tour
whereby the management is little tough because it is quite
impossible to restrict the movement of all participants. This
system can help the management team to track their
previous location and where they are now.
5. FUNCTIONS OF THE SYSYTEM
The Location-based tracking system using GPS and Web
services via Android devices consists of two sections:
5.1 Smartphone User Function
The client has the ability to acquired his/her location and
record his/her footprints on a website that is monitored by
the administrator on the server side.

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The following are the facilities for each user.
 Registration.
 Acquire his/her location.
His/her location will be automatically record on a website.
5.2 Administrator Function
The administrator function has the facility on his PC to “sit
and observe” the location of multiple users. The
administrator has the ability to track the location the user
had visited, and view the path displayed on the Google Map.
That is, monitoring the recorded footprints of each user
individually on a computer screen. The application provides
the administrator with the most recent location update.
Unnecessary records can also be removed by the
administrator.
The following are the facilities for an admin
 Login/Logout.
 Delete or remove user(s) records whenever
necessary.
 Can access the user(s) location.
 Can access the user travelling path.
6. REQUIREMENT ANALYSIS
Table 1: Software Requirements
Developer End Deployment End
Java Development
Kit(JDK)
IDE: Eclipse Android OS: Gingerbread &
Above
Android SDK 4.2.2 Virtual Android(Emulator)
MYSQL Database Google Play Service API
Table 2: Hardware Requirements
System Tablet
Processor: P IV or higher. Android based tablet/
Smartphone
RAM 512 MB free space.
Hard disk: 2.0 GB free hard
drive space.
Standard Keyboard
Monitor
7. SYSYTEM DESIGN
7.1 Modular Design
The whole system is divided into two parts, the user and the
admin section. The following are the modular designs for
these parts of the system .
Fig. 3.(a) Modular Design for user
Fig.3.(b) Modular Design for Admin
7.2 Use Case Diagram
There are two components that helps understand the use
case diagram. Those are,
 Actor: represents a user using the system. An actor
in the use case diagram specifies a role played by
a user or any other system that interacts with the
subject.
 Use-case: represents the set of acts that a user
might perform while using the system. They are
used to describe characteristic or properties of an
entity.
Fig.4.Symbol of Actor and use-case
Fig.5(a). Use case Diagram for a user.

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Fig.5(b). Use case Diagram for a Admin.
7.3 Data Flow Diagram
Fig.6(a). Level-0 Data Flow Diagram.
Fig.6(b). Level-1 Data Flow Diagram.
7.4 State Diagram Design
Fig.7. State Diagram
8. IMPLEMENTATION AND RESULTS
The application has been tested in different android devices.
The data is accessing and sending to the web server upon the
availability of Internet connection. This application works
even if the GPS setting is off, but internet connection should
be available. These are happening on background without
any notification to the user.
8.1 Snapshots for the Client (Smartphone User
Function)
Fig.8(a). User Registration.
Admin
include
include
Login
Delete Users
<- - - - >
Find User‟s
Path Get Path
<- - - - >
Get User‟s
locationFind User‟s
Location

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The client can register by providing a Username when the
application is run for the first time. The next time the user
wants to run the application, this interface(Figure 8(a)) will
not be visible anymore since it is running in the background.
Fig.8(b). Getting location by the user.
Figure 8(b) displays the current location of the user. It
includes the geographical locations (Latitude and
Longitude) and street address.
8.2 Snapshots for the Server (Administrative
Function)
Fig.9 (a). Login Page for the Administrator.
In Figure 9(a) we can see the login page or the home page
for the admin which is at the server side. The admin has the
authority to login and view or delete user(s) location‟s
details when required. The user(s) location stored in the
database will be displayed on the Google map.
Fig.9(b).Record of a user.
Figure 9(b) and 9(c) displays all records available in the
database. The information includes the serial number and
the current location of the user such as Latitude, Longitude.
Each record has a unique Id number. In Figure 9(b) only one
record of a user is being displayed since there is only user
being monitor by the admin. If there is more than one record
then all the records with unique ID will be displayed as
shown in Figure 9(c).
Fig.9(c).Records of multiple users .
One of the administrative function is to delete record(s).For
example,as shown in figure 9(d), there are five records of
users with unique UserID . The admin can delete the record
of a particular user by clicking on the „Delete‟ as shown in
the rightmost label. Figure 9(e) shows the remaining records
after deleting one record.

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Fig.9(d).Deleting record.
Fig.9(e.)After deleting one record.
Another administrative function is to access the location of
each user and their travelled path. The admin can click on
the provided link (see Figure 9(f))to view the user
location(s) on the map.As shown in figure 9(g),the location
visited by the user is shown in the map by a marker point,
for each location. The travelled path is shown by a line
joining the markers in the map. The exact location visited by
the user according to the date and time is shown in the table
below the map. This location will change and update
accordingly when the user changed the location or moved
from one place to another.
Fig.9(f). Clicking the „view on map‟ to access Location of a
user in a Google Map.
Fig.9(g).Accessing user locations and paths in a Google
Map .

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Fig.9(h). Displaying Location details for each user in a
Google Map .
REFERENCES
[1]. K.Virrantaus,J. Markkula, A.Garmash, V.Terziyan,
J.Veijalainen, A.Katanosov, and H.Tirri, Developing
gissupported location-based services. In Web Information
Systems Engineering (2001), IEEE,pp. 66_75.
[2]. http://developer.android.com/tools/devices/index.html
[3]. http://www8.garmin.com/aboutGPS/
[4]. http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/ibm/library/i-lbs

Android application to locate and track mobile phones(aaltm) an implementation of location-based services

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Android application to locate and track mobile phones(aaltm) an implementation of location-based services