All You Need Is Content — Create Sophisticated Mobile Location-Based Service Applications Without Programming

Programming of sophisticated location-based service applications (LBS apps) for smartphones and tablets still requires knowledge in computer science and a lot of practical experience in the application of existing programming tools for the different operating systems. This means that only a fraction of possible LBS applications has been realized until today. In particular, smaller companies and organizers of one-time events cannot afford to buy custom developed apps; especially if one takes dataquality and maintenance cost of varying app content into account. The presented AIONAV®-LBS app technology allows for creating offlinefocused (but also online-capable) LBS applications without any programming skills and to publish them immediately. This is accomplished by a strict separation of content and user interface on the mobile device. The graphical user interface contains all the functions needed for general LBS applications, i.e. search functions, different graphical content presentation, but also highly advanced algorithms which are required for indoor and outdoor positioning, navigation, image recognition, communication, etc. The multimedia content is stored within a database on the mobile device. This allows for an autonomous usage in case a connection to the web is not available. The creation of the database contents is done with the so-called LBS Manager PC-software, which provides the maps and allows for an arbitrary structuring of the data. Filling the database is simple by just using drag & drop, allowing everyone knowing how to use office software to create an own interest-specific, feature rich, offline-capable smartphone LBS app.