PARAMOUNT - Experiences and Results of a LBS Prototype for Mountaineers

E. Löhnert, H. Mundle, E. Wittmann, G. Heinrichs

Abstract:	The rapid development in the fields of mobile technologies - regarding hardware as well as the corresponding infrastructure - provides a strong basis for the establishment of new appropriate services aiming on the special needs of people on the move, in particular tourists visiting unfamiliar places. Those needs include for instance up-to-date information and further support concerning e.g. guidance or help in critical situations. This paper gives an overview on the EC funded project 'Public Safety & Commercial Info Mobility Applications & Services in the Mountains' (PARAMOUNT), in which such a location based service (LBS) prototype was developed, focusing especially on the needs of mountain tourists in the Alps and Pyrenees. A so-called electronic TourGuide - consisting of Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) and other hardware components - wirelessly connected to the PARAMOUNT service via Internet assists the mountaineer in the position, orientation and navigation task, delivers environmental and additional information and helps in an emergency situation or even prevents it. In order to provide the hiker with relevant information and to support him on his way e.g. to the mountaintop, three different core services have been developed within the project, namely INFOTOUR, SAFETOUR and DATATOUR. INFOTOUR provides valuable information. SAFETOUR aims to increase the safety of the user. Finally DATATOUR involves the users in updating and completion of the service database. Beside the presentation of the overall system architecture the paper will focus especially on the experiences and results obtained during the project's test and demonstration phase of the prototype service in a regional test area of the Bavarian Alps.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 16th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS/GNSS 2003) September 9 - 12, 2003 Oregon Convention Center Portland, OR
Pages:	1620 - 1627
Cite this article:	Löhnert, E., Mundle, H., Wittmann, E., Heinrichs, G., "PARAMOUNT - Experiences and Results of a LBS Prototype for Mountaineers," Proceedings of the 16th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS/GNSS 2003), Portland, OR, September 2003, pp. 1620-1627.
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