Enabling Routes as Context in Mobile Services

With the continuing advances in wireless communications, geo-positioning, and portable electronics, an infrastructure is emerging that enables the delivery of on-line, location-enabled services to very large numbers of mobile users. A typical usage situation for mobile services is one characterized by a small screen and no keyboard, and by the service being only a secondary focus of the user. It is therefore particularly important to deliver the "right" information and service at the right time, with as little user interaction as possible. This may be achieved by making services context aware.Mobile users frequently follow the same route to a destination as they did during previous trips to the destination, and the route and destination are important aspects of the context for a range of services. This paper presents key concepts underlying a software component that discovers the routes of a user along with their usage patterns and that makes the accumulated routes available to services. Experiences from using the component with real GPS logs are reported.