Location-based services provisioning using WSN

Abstract

Ubiquitous computing has gained momentum over the last years with the expansion of mobile devices. One area of pervasive computing is context-aware systems which are applications designed to react to the constant changes in the environment. This paper presents a context aware platform that handles context acquiring, processing and service provisioning management. The platform alleviates the process of high level application development and sets a common ground for building context-aware applications and services. The context-based platform objective is to support mobile users with personalized services. It offers sophisticated mechanisms in matching the mobile user's preferences with services that are enabled at the visited location, and provides them in adaptive manner to the user. As a proof of concept, we present a case study on tourism where tourists are provided with services and information of interest based on their location and time. An application for e-tourism is deployed on top of the platform to assist tourists during their travels by providing them with context sensitive services. The user preferences, the current time, and the user current location are incorporated in the proactive formulation of suggestions on the tourist mobile devices about nearby points of interests (e.g. museums, restaurants….).