Location Based Services - An Overview
- 1. Location API and programming practices Introduction to programming using Location API Amrit Sanjeev Bangalore Android User Group
- 2. What’s on the agenda today ? Introduction Challenges Best to LBS practices Let go and find where our users are
- 3. Introduction to LBS Things to keep in mind before you create your world changing LBS
- 4. What is a location based service ? ―A location-based service (LBS) is an information or entertainment service, which is accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network and which uses information on the geographical position of the mobile device.‖
- 5. Is it the hot tech of today ?? • Not really !!! But there is a lot of potential • Gartner (2009) identifies the LBS will be the #2 mobile application for 2012 because of its perceived high user value and its influence on user loyalty.
- 6. Some interesting stats • people where 63% aware of LBS • report having 52% used LBS • 32% use it every month • 10% use it every day • thought it was 94% valuable • 18% tell others their location • Expose location without consent 84% • Identity theft 84% • expressed 52% concerns • Loss of privacy 84%
- 7. Why is LBS so important Need for services on the move . Better Availability data of networks hardware LBS popularity GPS Better hardware batteries in more devices
- 8. LBS Growth Factors Success of new Growth of mobile digital business advertising. models. Increasing Increased speeds and smartphone broader adoption. coverage of Growth mobile networks. of LBS
- 9. Challenges in deploying LBS Things that are slowing it down
- 10. LBS : Aspects to work on Control (Legal) Security Trust (Technolo gical) LBS (Social) Privacy (Ethical)
- 11. Obstacles in LBS adoption Privacy concerns. Security concerns Two-thirds of advertising companies aren’t using LBS (2011 data). General awareness is only around 30%. Device user experience
- 12. Technical Challenges • Maintaining battery performance • Varying accuracy • Multiple providers ( GPS , WIFI etc) • Continuous change • Responsiveness
- 13. Best Practices Things that you might wanna try in your application
- 14. Decide on your app location requirements upfront How often do you need updates? What happens when GPS and WIFI are disabled ? How accurate do u need to be ? What is the impact on battery life ? What happens when location jumps ?
- 15. Best practices • Specify a minimum update frequency. • Specify a minimum update distance. int freq = 10 * 60 * 1000 ; // 10 minutes int distance = 500 ; // 500 meters locationManager.requestLocationUpdates(provider, freq, distance, 1)
- 16. Best practices • Use criteria to select a location provider • Specify the criteria – Allowable power drain – Required accuracy – Need for additional parameters like altitude, bearing , speed etc • Find the best location provider based on your criteria • Relax requirement till you find a provider • Can limit to only active providers • Can use all matching providers
- 17. Best practices Criteria criteria = new Criteria() ; criteria.setAccuracy(Criteria.ACCURACY_FINE); criteria.setAltitudeRequired(false); criteria.setBearingRequired(false); criteria.setCostAllowed(true); criteria.setPowerRequirement(Criteria.POWER_LOW); String provider = locationManager.getBestProvider(criteria, true);
- 18. Some best practices • Reduce the latency for getting your first location fix by retrieving the last known location from the Location Manager each time the app is resumed. • If there is one or more locations available from within the allowed latency, return the most accurate one. If not, we simply return the most recent result.
- 19. Best practices • Implement a back off pattern – Use multiple location providers • Fine and course • High and low frequency /distance • Remove listeners as accuracy improves • Monitor battery and reduce functionality to save power . – Change frequency of updates – Disable location change receivers
- 20. Best practices • Network location provider — tend to return results faster than the more accurate options • Requesting location updates (particularly using the GPS) while your app isn’t in the foreground is poor practice, as it can significantly impact battery life. • Register Passive Location Changed Receiver that allows you to receive background updates even when the application has been killed by the system to free resources.
- 21. Q&A
Editor's Notes
- #2: .
- #9: It’s estimated that by 2015, 58% of mobile users will own smartphones. That’s a significant percentage of consumers who can potentially be reached by marketers via LBS.As consumers spend more time on their mobile phones—especially smartphone users—mobile advertisers are capitalizing. We’re a group that wants to be engaged and because most of us smartphone users are permanently glued to our phones, we’re a rather captive audience.More companies are gaining positive results from being active in the mobile space. The success surrounding digital business models is attracting other companies to the space.Basic supply and demand: With more and more mobile and smartphone users, broader mobile coverage is a necessity. The “Can you hear me now?” campaign is pretty close to being a thing of the past.
- #11: Control (Legal) – Commonly GPS and other LBS devices are used to control and offer various types of services to the user. Personally it controls one’s own direction of moving in guiding the right way. In case of child tracking, parents have exclusive right to look after their children, as it is not possible for the young ones to make their own decision. So it is their legal right to monitor their children thereby reflecting a sense of caring. In case of law enforcement, special laws provide legal rights to police or security departments to keep an eye on criminals or suspects.Trust (Social) – In social life trust is the most essential part in human relationship. However, the use of LBS is being practiced in low trust conditions. Monitoring someone with the help of tracking system really affects personal relationship but as far as tracking criminals by cops or tracking children by parents are concerned, it is for the welfare of the individual & society.Privacy (Ethical) – As a human being, everyone has the right to privacy or being free from intrusion or disturbances in one’s personal life. But in case of LBS or any other telecommunication technologies dealing with transformation of various kinds of information, it becomes essential to provide adequate security to these kinds of data for not being misused by any unauthorized person. Tracking and monitoring someone without his/her consent is purely unethical so needs high level of security. But again as in case of law and order where tracking devices are used to monitor criminals becomes essential for the sake of society as a whole. Here, social security is counted higher than Individual safety and security.Security (Technological) – Again for maintaining privacy, security system should be strong. Every technology has both positive and negative impact on human life and LBS also has shortcomings by locating accurate information data or even easily given access to unauthorized person. On one hand LBS enhances both national and personal security but create another problem for the privacy of individual by not providing a foolproof security system to that highly sensitive information stored in its database. For obtaining security, one needs to do a little compromise on his/her privacy but to what extent is a question.