Design and implementation of a location-aware user tracking system

Abstract

Communication devices are establishing themselves as ubiquitous features of users' daily life. This advancement is linked to tremendous growth in the sophistication of mobile-aware applications. Such applications need access to information about the users' and other objects' physical locations, a requirement known as location-awareness. Existing location-aware applications and systems are typically restricted to a particular type of positioning technology, while modern location-aware services and applications use context and prediction methods to adapt to the needs of users and changes in the environment. The use of a single sensing technology alone provides a less accurate estimation of a user's current location. In this paper, we introduce an ontology-based location tracking system. It makes use of multiple sensing technologies and includes a prediction method for identifying a user's current location and predicted future location. Our system architecture better serves the client by using location and context information and is, therefore, an important step forward in predictive tracking.