Informative maps on PDA-phones

Abstract

It is a trend for people to travel on their own without joining the travel agents in recent years. Travelers would take a map and search for sites to visit. However, reading a paper map is inconvenient and difficult sometimes. With the technology of GIS and GPS, there have already been maps on the Internet. To meet the requirement of mobility of travel guides, maps have to be implemented on handheld devices. There have been some applications with GIS on PDA or pocket PCs. They mainly provide location based or map based query, however, there is a lack of location detection or tracking functionality. Even though some applications can support GPS and provide routing function, they are useful for drivers only. They are not suitable for ordinary visitors to travel in highly dense areas like Hong Kong. This project aims to implement informative maps on PDA-phones such that it can provide users’ positioning. SIM tracking mechanism provided by SUNDAY LBS is chosen to be used. The auto-detection of current location together with a destination input by the users, an optimal path could be calculated and displayed on a map to teach the users to go to the place. Moreover, audio and photo display functions would also be provided. The deliverable will be of web-based such that dynamic update of data can be available and no software deployment is required for clients. Throughout the project, technologies in location tracking will be examined. Also, technical problems on path finding, route instruction generation and web UI of PDA-phones will be justified and overcome. The project would be useful for the development of located based applications on handheld devices and could be acted as an extension to provide map information.