Mobility, distributiveness, and egocentric awareness are the main concerns when moving from GIS to LBS. Unlike egocentric awareness, mobility and distributiveness are tasks that can be achieved by adapting the existing infrastructure to the new configuration. Egocentric awareness, however, requires sophisticated methods and techniques. It includes not only determination of the user’s current position, but also the personalization of the information to be displayed (Egenhofer and Kuhn 1998). The proposed system uses sensors to gather information about location and orientation. This information, in combination with a user profile defines the framework for our intelligent mobile GIS. The adaptation of the map display frees users from tasks such as panning, zooming, and rotating the map. In addition, the automated selection enables an interaction with the environment rather than the GIS.

Reprinted with Permission from Intelligent Spatial Technologies, Inc.