LoBaRIS - Location-Based Room Information System

LoBaRIS - Location-Based Room Information System

LoBaRIS (Location-Based Room Information System) is a distributed system which enables Students and Lecturers to determine closest free room on the University campus with respect to their preferences. An indoor WLAN positioning system determines the current location of the user’s device [1,2]. Based on the location, the status of the closest rooms from the central systems of the University [3] is obtained and displayed as a map or a table. As described in [3], LoBaRIS is based on the IndoorWPS system, which is developed by the Hochschule für Technik in Rapperswil (Switzerland).

 

Figure 1: Coarse-grained architecture for determining room information (from [3])

The initial version of LoBaRIS (Figure 2) was a web application running directly in the user’s Browser. The underlying WLAN connection information was determined via a specific interface provided by Google Gears.

 

Figure 2: LoBaRIS Web-Application (from [1])

Recent work extends the location system so that it adapts itself automatically according to the user’s device (e.g. Laptop, mobile phone or smartphone) in order to optimize the quality of the offered service. Therefore, we developed a runtime configurable Java client which may take over different tasks of the server, such as position calculation (including fingerprint database) or calculation of the map including the actual position. Based on utility functions, the Java client is enabled to reconfigure itself based on context information. A simulation environment [4] supports the developer by selection appropriate utility functions or the most appropriate adaptivity algorithm.

Due to the increasing popilarity of SmartPhones and Tablets, the LoBaRIS Java client was migrated into an Android App [5]. Figure 3 depicts a screenshot of the LoBaRIS Android App. Measurements show that a good configuration can help saving up to 5% energy.

Figure 3: LoBaRIS Android-App (from [5])

 

References

[1] J. Freitag, Positionsbestimmung als Webservice zur Realisierung eines webbasierten, kontextsensitven Rauminformationssystems, BSc-Abschlussarbeit, Universität Hildesheim, 2008
[2] C. Gewalt, Serviceorientierte Architekturen mit Webservices – Realisierung eines Webservices zur Abfrage von Raumbelegungen, BSc-Abschlussarbeit, Universität Hildesheim, 2008
[3] A. Schmidt, Evaluierung und Weiterentwicklung von WLAN-Ortungssystemen für den Einsatz in Gebäuden, MSc-Abschussarbeit, Universität Hildesheim, 2009
[4] F. Gelpke, Adaptivitätsmanager für LoBaRIS, MSc-Abschlussarbeit, Universität Hildesheim, 2011
[5] J. Töpfer, Migration und Optimierung einer adaptiven Desktop-Anwendung für die Android-Plattform, BSc-Abschlussarbeit, Universität Hildsheim, 2011

 

Contact: Dr. Holger Eichelberger