Map-Based LBSs for Hiking: A Review of Requirements, Existing Solutions, and Future Trends

Background

Location-Based Services (LBSs) represent a logical follow-up to several enabling information technologies, the cornerstones being the Internet, mobile communication technology, positioning technology, and geospatial information technology. Several attempts have been made to define an LBS. The Open Geospatial Consortium Inc. (2008) defines an LBS as “a wireless-IP service that uses geographic information to serve a mobile user or any application service that exploits the position of a mobile terminal” (p. 4). According to Brimicombe and Li (2009), LBSs can be defined as the “delivery of data and information services where the content of those services is customized to the current or some projected location and context of the user” (p. 2). Wikipedia (2011) defines an LBS as “an information or entertainment service, accessible with mobile devices through the mobile network and utilizing the ability to make use of the geographical position of the mobile device.” An LBS may be quite advanced (using complex information systems in the background) or relatively simple, but both would fit the definition of an LBS. Nevertheless, the ability to utilize the user’s position should always be a central building block for any LBS. When an LBS also delivers network-based maps to the users’ devices, it is called a map-based service (Sarjakoski & Sarjakoski 2007). In this chapter, we focus on map-based LBSs for hiking. In our approach, the role of a map is presumed to be an important part of the system, and the visual map is available for a user on a mobile device’s display.