Location-based Service - History

History

Today the question about LBS (Location Based Services) is not what they are inside of but rather what they are not an active part of and the answer is very little. They are a part of virtually all control and policy systems which work in computers today. They have evolved from simple synchronization based service models to authenticated and complex tools for implementing virtually any location based service model or facility.

Imagine the ability to open and close specific data objects based on the use of location and/or time as (controls and triggers) or as part of complex cryptographic key or hashing systems and the data they provide access to. This is what LBS is.Location based services today are a part of everything from control systems to smart weapons. They are actively used trillions of times a day and may be one of the most heavily used application-layer decision framework in computing today.

Research forerunners of today's location-based services are the infrared Active Badge system (1989–1993), The Ericsson-Europolitan GSM LBS trial ran during 1995 by Jörgen Johansson and the master thesis written by Nokia employee Timo Rantalainen, in 1994.

In 1990 International Teletrac Systems (later PacTel Teletrac), founded in Los Angeles CA, introduced the world's first dynamic real-time stolen vehicle recovery services. As an adjacency to this they began developing location based services that could transmit information about location-based goods and services to custom-programmed alphanumeric Motorola pagers. In 1996 Todd Glassey designed the first Digital Timestamp Server for Email and other content validation and created the first instances of "GeoSpatial Keying" a complex cryptographic process for using time and location data to access or 'unlock' certain key services. Glassey proceeded with his Digital Evidence System which was based on location and digital object control at the service and network layer interfaces. Later that same year (1996) the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC) issued rules requiring all US mobile operators to locate emergency callers. This rule was a compromise resulting from US mobile operators seeking the support of the emergency community in order to obtain the same protection from law suits relating to emergency calls as fixed-line operators already had.

In 1997 Christopher Kingdon, of Ericsson, handed in the Location Services (LCS) stage 1 description to the joint GSM group of the European Telecommunications Standard Institute(ETSI) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). As a result the LCS sub-working group was created under ANSI T1P1.5. This group went on to select positioning methods and standardize Location Services (LCS), later known as Location Based Services (LBS). Nodes defined include the Gateway Mobile Location Centre (GMLC), the Serving Mobile Location Centre (SMLC) and concepts such as Mobile Originating Location Request (MO-LR), Network Induced Location Request (NI-LR) and Mobile Terminating Location Request (MT-LR). These use models were not really functional at the application context layer and needed more user-interface controls to make them ubiquitous. Those control came from Glassey's evolving models which expanded these and provided a secondary, more robust and very simple system for controlling digital objects and decision processes based on location and time.

As a result of these efforts in 1999 the first Digital Location Based Service Patent was filed in the US and ultimately issued after nine (9) office actions in March 2002. The patent has controls which when applied to today's networking models provide key value in all systems.

In 2000, after approval from the worlds 12 largest telecom operators, Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia jointly formed and launched the Location Interoperability Forum Ltd (LIF). This forum first specified the Mobile Location Protocol (MLP), an interface between the telecom network and an LBS application running on a server in the Internet Domain. Then, much driven by the Vodafone group, LIF went on to specify the Location Enabling Server (LES), a "middleware", which simplifies the integration of multiple LBS with an operators infrastructure. In 2004 LIF was merged with the Open Mobile Association (OMA). An LBS work group was formed within the OMA.

The first consumer LBS-capable mobile web device was the Palm VII, released in 1999. Two of the in-the-box applications made use of the ZIP code-level positioning information and share the title for first consumer LBS application: the Weather.com app from The Weather Channel, and the TrafficTouch app from Sony-Etak / Metro Traffic.

The first LBS services were launched during 2001 by TeliaSonera in Sweden (FriendFinder, yellow pages, houseposition, emergency call location etc.) and by EMT in Estonia (emergency call location, friend finder, TV game). TeliaSonera and EMT based their services on the Ericsson Mobile Positioning System (MPS).

Other early LBS include friendzone, launched by swisscom in Switzerland in May 2001, using the technology of valis ltd. The service included friend finder, LBS dating and LBS games. The same service was launched later by Vodafone Germany, Orange Portugal and Pelephone in Israel. Microsoft's Wi-Fi-based indoor location system RADAR (2000), MIT's Cricket project using ultrasound location (2000) and Intel's Place Lab with wide-area location (2003).

The first commercial LBS service in Japan was launched by DoCoMo, based on triangulation for pre-GPS handsets in July 2001, and by KDDI for the first mobile phones equipped with GPS in December 2001. Mobile handset makers have tended to take "upstream initiative" to embed LBS in their mobile equipment. Originally, LBS was developed by mobile carriers in partnership with mobile content providers.

In May 2002, go2 and AT&T Mobility launched the first (US) mobile LBS local search application that used Automatic Location Identification (ALI) technologies mandated by the FCC. go2 users were able to use AT&T’s ALI to determine their location and search near that location to obtain a list of requested locations (stores, restaurants, etc.) ranked by proximity to the ALI provide by the AT&T wireless network. The ALI determined location was also used as a starting point for turn-by-turn directions.

The main advantage is that mobile users do not have to manually specify ZIP codes or other location identifiers to use LBS, when they roam into a different location. GPS tracking is a major enabling ingredient, utilizing access to mobile web.