Section 1.1. Location-Based Application Categories


1.1. Location-Based Application Categories

Fundamentally, location-based applications are applications that either know how to process location-based information or make use of their location for other processing. To that end, location-based applications can be categorized into two major categories: location-enabled applications and location-aware (or real-time) applications.

1.1.1. Location-Enabled Applications

Location-enabled applications understand location and know how to process it. For example, a conventional store locator is a location-enabled applicationsimply specify a location and provide a distance within which you want to find stores. Another example is a simple maps-and-directions application that can calculate driving directions using starting and ending addresses and display them on a map. These applications know how to interpret and process the location information.

1.1.2. Location-Aware Applications

Location-aware applications are similar to location-enabled applications except that they are aware of their own location, so they can use it for processing information. For example, a simple maps-and-directions application connected to a GPS device can provide you with up-to-date driving directions based on your current location, or it can even recalculate the driving directions if you leave your planned route! Another example is a store-locator application that knows where you are and automatically recommends nearby stores based on your current location. Location-aware applications are usually known as real-time location applications .

The intelligence of location awareness comes from the real-time location information obtained either by using an external hardware device, such as GPS, or by other means, such as mobile phone operator networks.




Programming MapPoint in  .NET
Programming MapPoint in .NET
ISBN: 0596009062
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 136
Authors: Chandu Thota

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