Wireless Location Based Services (Wi-LBS)

The needs and demands on location information have arisen rapidly. With the
advancement of mobile computing technologies, many researches and studies have been
conducted in providing reliable location information solution. Location based
information has become an important resource for mobile users especially in giving
direction or locating places. Wireless Location Based Services (Wi-LBS) highlight this
scenario by explaining the application and usage of the LBS in wireless environment.
Wi-LBS is introduced with respect to providing wireless method in locating places
within UTP campus instead of referring to static map. The objective of this research is to
integrate GIS with MMS technology as a system called Wireless Location Based
Services. It is mainly focused on applying GIS elements in providing location
information by utilizing the advancement of today's wireless handheld devices. Users
will request for location by sending short messages using their mobile phones to the WiLBS
system and the system will reply back sending the location information containing
pictures and direction. Rapid Application Development (RAD) is used as the
methodology in designing the system of Wi-LBS. This research also details the study on
Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) that covers the sending of picture messages from
Wi-LBS to mobile phones and system's function in responding to the users' requests.
Various references and studies have been done regarding the successful LBS
applications implemented in foreign country that leads to the interest of doing the
research on LBS implementation in this country. The result from the research will be the
proposed framework for Wi-LBS, the discussion on the GIS and MMS as well as the
system of Wi-LBS. This study proved that Wireless Location Based Services has great
potential to be commercially implemented with the growth of wireless application
nowadays as today's community is eager of getting more services from wireless system.