1. 6 th IT Excellence Awards (Post Secondary) Mobile Application Generator for Route-based Location Sensitive Tourist Companion using Change of GSM Cell ID Event Lee Kwok Chau, Tommy (leekc1@cse.cuhk.edu.hk) Video over InternEt and Wireless Technologies Lab., CUHK 2004/06/09

2. Agenda Traditional Mobile Tourist Directory Solutions Location Estimation Using GSM Cell ID Tools for Fast Generation of Tourist Companion Software Sample Applications: MTR Travaller, CU Campus Bus

3. Traditional Mobile Tourist Directory Solutions

4. Location-Based Services (LBS) Services are provided based on user’s current location. Applicable on different fields: Navigation (e.g. Driving) Shopping / Tourist Guides Games / Entertainment, …… Location estimation acts as a mobile tourist directory solution where information and interaction are triggered by tourists’ current locations.

5. Current Technologies on LBS 1) Global Positioning System (GPS) Good Accuracy: 30-100m Poor indoor and urban-area capabilities Generally high power consumption Expensive hardware at end users 2) 3rd Generation GSM (3G) 2G-compatible network – the majority Extra investment in addition to existing 3G network 3) Modified SIM Card Require telco support 4) Existing GSM Network Fairly advanced Expensive and require run-time support from telco

6. GSM Positioning Methods TOA (200m - 10km) E-OTD (50m - 100m) AOA (>>150m) A-GPS (10m - 50m)

7. Motivation Current positioning methods require: extra cost to existing network / synchronization between base stations special hardware to end users telco-dependent Tourist companion software does not require very accurate location information GSM cell information (e.g. cell ID) is available in ordinary GSM handset Symbian phone offers programming capability for general developers Location estimation by GSM cell ID is adopted in our project

8. Location Estimation Using GSM Cell ID

9. Overview of GSM Cell ID Location Estimation Each base station has unique location ID and cell ID pair Main idea: each base station can somehow provide certain ‘information’ about a particular location Location ID: [50] Cell ID: [1] Location ID: [50] Cell ID: [2] Location ID: [50] Cell ID: [3] Location ID: [50] Cell ID: [4]

10. Overview of GSM Cell ID Location Estimation Advantages: Simple implementation – passively obtaining current registered cell ID Applicable on ordinary GSM phones Without any support from telco

11. Experimental Results For Peoples

12. Experimental Results

13. For SmarTone

14. Experimental Results

15. Conclusion of the Experiment Potential difficulties/inaccuracies in 2D Space Cell sizes are varying Extent of cell overlapping is quite large Reliability greatly depends on the deployment and configuration of cells by network operators A more robust approach is required Making use of GSM cell change events Applying on 1D path (for route-based LBS)

16. GSM Cell Change Event Received signal strength from current registered cell is weaker than another, so cell change occurs Consequences: More information provided More reliable in detecting boundary

17. Using GSM Cell IDs in 1D Space Location: [50] Cell ID: [1] Location: [50] Cell ID: [2] Location: [50] Cell ID: [3] Location: [50] Cell ID: [4] Cell ID: [1->2]Cell ID: [2->3] A set of multiple cell change events can indicate a path

18. MTR Cell ID Data Peoples

19. MTR Cell ID Data SmarTone

20. MTR Cell ID Data Sunday

21. KCR Cell ID Data Peoples

22. KCR Cell ID Data SmarTone

23. Advantages of New Approach Allow to keep track of entering and leaving a region Become more reliable than purely mapping cell ID to location Get rid of the problem of inconsistent cell sizes and high extent of cell overlapping 30-300m accuracy, enough for route-based mobile tourist companion software

24. Evolution of Our Positioning Methods Pure GSM Cell Information Location Estimation (Region Based) GSM Cell Change Method (Boundary / Line Based) GSM Cell Change Method in 1D Path (Point Based) Detect registered cell change occurred at cell boundary Concentrate on specific cell changes (intersections between the path and the boundary)

25. Tools for Fast Generation of Tourist Companion Software

26. Application Development Using GSM Cell ID

27. Desire of Fast Tourist LBS Application Generation Current issues/overhead in development: Developers are required to put a great effort in the whole development process Tourist information is usually the main focus Maintaining the software/information update is difficult also There is a great desire to have a series of software tools to generate route-based tourist companion software.

28. Definition – Reference Point Reference point: Place taken as a reference on target path in the cell data collection process (e.g. bus stop, railway stations)

29. Definition – Point of Interest Point of Interest (POI): Location that is interested in the application level (e.g. building, tourist spot)

30. Software Development Kit It consists of software tools for: reducing time spent on tourist LBS application development providing developers with maximum convenience Components include: Cell Snap – cell data collection Cell Analyzer – cell data processing Distance Mapper – nearest cell searching AppGen – tourist LBS application generation

31. Architecture of Software Tool Set

32. Cell Data Collection and Processing Data collection has to be done manually Multiple network operators and routes are involved Cell data has to be processed and optimized before use Cell Snap and Cell Analyzer are introduced

33. Cell Snap Collection of cell data was done manually in the past Cell Snap - a tool for automated cell data collection Different reference points can also be captured by phone camera

34. Need of Data Processing Photos and data output are separated, so developers have to map cell data and reference point on their own Better presentation of cell data to developers Cell data from multiple telcos have to be combined together A convenient way to merge data for the same route Cell Snap data is just raw data Data editing tool and automated data analysis

35. Cell Analyzer Cell Analyzer provides developers with a user-friendly environment to edit, process and aggregate cell data into single master data for further use

36. Features of Cell Analyzer It has the following features: Data processing: Data format transform Better cell data presentation to developers Manual cell data editing Data combination for multiple operators Automated data optimization: Cell duplicate removal Clear classification between reference points

37. Cell Data in Tree Representation

38. Cell Analyzer in Action

39. Location-to-cell Mapping Up to now, pure cell data are not mapped to geometrical locations It is quite impressive to have “nearest target” searching functions inside tourist companion mobile application, such as: Restaurant Toilet ATM Hospital / Police Station ……

40. Distance Mapper Distance Mapper lets developers to map those POIs onto a real map The tourist application is then allowed to search the nearest target from current location It reads in the file generated by Cell Analyzer

41. Application Generation The previous tools mentioned enable developers to have a nice tourist LBS application development environment LBS application often focuses also on content and service, including actions upon cell changes and information provided Points of interest (e.g. tourist spots) should also be considered instead of just reference points (e.g. bus stops)

42. AppGen AppGen is specifically designed for content builders by generating source code for a tourist LBS application General developers may also use source code as a starting point to build their own applications

43. Options Provided in AppGen General Map displayed Icon Message format Reference Point Location on the map Point of Interest Name Description Image Path to POI from a reference point

44. Generated Tourist LBS Applications

45. Generated Mobile Tourist Companion Software The mobile tourist application generated would be able to: keep track of interested cell changes and report to user (e.g. entering a new MTR station) let user specify a POI (e.g. Engineering Building in CUHK) and acknowledge user when he/she arrives a reference point containing that POI (e.g. bus stop)

46. Application in Action (1) Reference Points Points of Interest

47. Application in Action (2) 1. User selects a destination

48. Application in Action (3) 2. User is at the starting point of a route

49. Application in Action (4) 3. The application keeps track of the location of the user in the path at each reference point

50. Application in Action (5) 4. Display the information about the point of interest when the user arrives the destination reference point

51. MTR Traveller and CU Campus Bus Make use of GSM cell ID location estimation and AppGen in different traffic routes

52. Flow of Tourist Companion LBS Application Development

53. Summary of Software Tools Cell Snap - cell data collection Cell Analyzer – cell data processing Distance Mapper – nearest cell searching and location-to-cell mapping AppGen – tourist LBS application generation

54. Advantages of Using LBS Software Tools AppGenDistance Mapper Cell Snap & Cell Analyzer LBS Application Development Interface (API) GSM Modem and Network Access cell information Work with low- level APIs Generate tourist LBS application Ease location assignment to cell for searching nearest cell Complexity Convenience Facilitate cell data handling

55. Contribution Location estimation can be done by passively using GSM cell information: Applicable on ordinary GSM phones (neither extra hardware or special SIM card on user side) Telco-independent, stand-alone in any phones More robust approach (i.e. cell change event on 1D path) gives reliable location estimation It should be the first complete solution

56. Contribution Fast application generation of a route-based location sensitive tourist companion software Easy to use (hide the concept of GSM cell ID location estimation from developers) Convenient tools for cell data collection User-friendly tools for aggregating cell data Multiple network operators (inherited) Allow nearest location searching Easy content building (nice for tourist apps)

57. Commercialization Tourist companion software (with reliable LBS available) is highly desired: University, large company with numerous retail shops, public transport (MTR, KCR, tram) Nearly everyone are using GSM cell phones Smart phones which allow interactive applications would become a major trend Fast application generation facilitates both content providers and software developers

58. Thank you! Q & A session