Parthenon Computing > Location Based Services

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Location-Based Mobile Technology

Location-based mobile technologies encompass a wide variety of systems that provide a customer or service provider with the positional information of a mobile device. This information can be the precise location of a device acquired through Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) technology or the general area in which the device is located based on the nearest cell tower. An alternative approach is to use Bluetooth technology, which enables mobile devices to automatically connect and communicate with other devices in the immediate vicinity.

GPS Systems integrated directly into mobile devices are becoming increasingly common, and the opportunities for high-precision location-based services are growing. For example, mobile phones can be used to access local tourist information, such as nearby landmarks and points of interest, or any promotional offers at local pubs and restaurants. You-Are-Here style mapping and route-finding services for navigation around unfamiliar cities are also a possibility.

Bluetooth technology, as an alternative to location based services, is based on the absolute position of a mobile device. It is widely-available and permits proximity based services. Bluetooth-enabled devices are able to communicate wirelessly with one another with little or no human interaction. As such, this technology could be used in social networking situations to automatically identify colleagues with complementary business interests, or in matchmaking situations for finding the partner of your dreams.

Bluetooth technology also provides a relatively cheap approach to the use of mobile devices for applications such as automotive diagnostics or the monitoring of heavy industrial machinery, allowing managers and technicians to make informed decisions in real-time without being tied down to a fixed workstation.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) allows individual items to be tagged with a unique ID, in a similar way to the barcodes found on virtually all products. However, RFID has the added advantage that an entire shopping trolley can be scanned instantly, as opposed to each item having to be scanned individually.

All this new technology produces huge amounts of raw data, which needs to be collected, stored and processed in a useful way. Parthenon Computing are experts in integrating these technologies, writing code for the mobile devices and developing the cutting edge databases which are needed to handle all the information.

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