Location-based services (LBS)
Location-based services (LBS) are technological functions that utilize a device's physical location to deliver tailored services and information. Commonly found on smartphones, tablets, and laptops, LBS rely on global positioning system (GPS) satellites or proximity detection technologies to ascertain the device's location. This capability has led to a wide range of applications, including GPS navigation, which calculates routes from a user’s current location to their desired destination using map data.
In addition to navigation, LBS are increasingly leveraged in marketing, allowing retailers to send alerts or promotional notifications to users when they are near a store. This practice requires users to opt in to receive such notifications, helping to manage frequency and avoid potential annoyance. Social media platforms have also integrated LBS, enabling friends to receive alerts when others are nearby, fostering spontaneous social interactions.
Moreover, LBS can enhance productivity; for example, grocery list applications may prompt users with reminders when they are close to a store. Some LBS utilize proximity detection rather than GPS, triggering actions based on the closeness of devices, such as unlocking a computer when a paired smartphone is within a certain range. Overall, LBS represent a significant evolution in how technology interacts with users' locations, offering both convenience and personalized experiences.
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Location-based services (LBS)
Location-based services are technological functions performed by devices such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops based on the physical location of the device. The devices contain software and hardware that are able to determine the device’s physical location on Earth, using information obtained from the network of Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites orbiting Earth. Alternatively, some devices are designed to activate or deactivate based not on GPS location but on physical proximity to some other object or feature; for example, some smartphones can be configured to require users to enter a personal identification number (PIN) at all times except when the device is connected to a particular wireless network specified by the user. Because the specified wireless network only exists at a particular location, the deactivation of the PIN requirement can be classified as a location-based service. Location-based services have grown dramatically since the late 1990s and by the twenty-first century were embedded in many different types of devices. The market for location-based services was expected to reach more than $318 billion by 2030.
Brief History
The location-based service that most people are familiar with is GPS navigation. This allows a device to determine its location by communicating with GPS satellites and by reference to the physical location of nearby cellular telephone antenna towers. Once the device knows where it is, it can then use map data—either stored in the device or retrievable on the Internet—to calculate directions from the current location to a desired destination, using whatever means of transportation (e.g., walking, bicycling, driving, public transportation) the user specifies. At one time, GPS navigation devices were sold as separate products because they used a particular type of antenna to communicate with the GPS network. GPS navigation is now available in most smartphones, and it is also incorporated into many car models.
Since the advent of the global positioning system (GPS), many new applications have been found for user location data. Many of these services pertain to marketing and involve retailers who wish to be able to trigger alerts on potential customers’ mobile devices whenever customers are in the vicinity of one of the retailers’ stores. For example, if a customer has downloaded the smartphone application produced by a retail hardware chain and agreed to receive notifications, then when that customer drives by the hardware store on her way to complete some other errand, the hardware store application would realize that the user’s location was close to one of the hardware chain’s stores. This might cause the application to notify the user that there is a sale on house paint or that a coupon is available for a free home inspection.
Retailers have to be careful with location-based services such as these, however, because they have the potential to irritate customers if they occur too frequently and because they may cause customers to incur extra charges from their cell phone companies, depending on the customer’s data plan and how the messages are delivered. This is why customers must usually opt in to receiving such alerts instead of retailers just sending them to anyone and everyone.
Overview
One factor that has pushed the spread of location-based services is the popularity of social media. There are now location-based services that allow social media users to receive notifications when their social media friends are nearby. For this to work, all parties must first opt in to the location-based notifications on the social media platform. This means that they agree to receive notifications about nearby friends and that they agree to share their location data with friends that they specify. Assuming a group of friends has opted in, then if they all happen to be within several blocks of one another one day at lunchtime, their mobile applications will inform them that they are close to one another, possibly giving them the opportunity to set up an impromptu lunch gathering.
It is important that this type of location-based service have enough granularity to allow users to share location data only with certain friends or groups, rather than having to decide to share locations with everyone or no one. Most people have a number of acquaintances whom they would prefer not to run into, so being able to exclude people from receiving one’s location data is vital.
Other location-based services focus on productivity rather than social connections. An example of this is the location-based grocery list. This type of application usually runs on a user’s smartphone. The user creates a shopping list of groceries or other commodities, and then tells the application to send the user a reminder notification when the user is in the same vicinity as the grocery store. The purpose of this type of service is to help people avoid situations where they know they need to perform a certain errand at a certain place, but as they pass by that place, the thought slips their minds.
Some location-based services operate using proximity detection rather than GPS location. While computer scientists sometimes point out that these services do not fit precisely within the standard definition of location-based services because they do not use geographical location as an activation or deactivation key, they do have much in common with standard location-based services. Proximity detection causes an application to trigger when two devices are sufficiently near to or far apart from each other. The boundary or range of proximity-based location services is usually determined by the technology being used; if it is through Bluetooth, then the range will be a few feet, while if it is a wireless Internet connection, the range may be dozens of yards.
An example of a proximity-based location service is an arrangement where a user sets up a Bluetooth connection between her smartphone and her computer, so that the two devices connect to one another whenever they are physically close enough to do so. When the devices are connected, the computer unlocks itself so the user can access it; when the user moves more than a few feet away from the computer (presumably carrying the smartphone) then the connection between the devices terminates and the computer locks itself to prevent unauthorized access.
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