Mobile Guide - Location-Aware Applications from the Lab to the Market

Location-Aware applications for supporting the mobile user have proven significant relevance for future telecommunication and computing. The paper evaluates the outcome of the labs and the requirements of commercial usage. Based on the state-of-the-art analysis and the business view, a system architecture is proposed from the technical perspective. The required support of heterogeneous resources leads to the necessity of an adequate middleware platform. Merging data from different sources and constraints in the transmission and presentation capabilities of the mobile side require sophisticated media scaling and conversion capabilities. The envisaged service architecture leads finally to the discussion of the prototype developed on our Mobile Guide test-bed.