GeoPointing: evaluating the performance of orientation-aware location-based interaction under real-world conditions

Abstract

The growing trend towards mobile phones with integrated GPS clearly suggests that navigation and location-based services (LBS) will be key applications for future mobile devices. New hardware features that are currently finding their way into state-of-the-art phones - such as digital compasses and tilt sensors - promise to drive the adoption of mobile geospatial services, and to change the way people navigate, explore and interact with their physical environment: location-based applications that exploit attitude information to realise orientation-aware interaction have been discussed in research for several years. Yet, few actual results on the achievable real-world performance of such systems exist in literature. In this article, we report on a series of function trials carried out with a prototype Geo-Wand - a portable system that allows users to access geo-referenced information by physically pointing towards objects in the real world. The application was realised with a mass market mobile phone connected to a Bluetooth GPS and a custom-built orientation sensor module. We present test results for multiple types of urban terrain and discuss the possibilities and limitations of this next-generation mobile LBS technology.

Thomas Grechenig

Ao.Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn.

• Mail: thomas.grechenig@tuwien.ac.at
• Phone: +43 1 58801 183400